Nick's 2010 MLB Postseason Awards

With the baseball season now over (sadly it was over in June for my beloved Cubs) I will now give my choices for the 2010 MLB postseason awards. This year was very difficult in a couple of races.

NL MVP – Joey Votto Reds – Personally I hate the guy but I cannot argue the numbers. He had a line of .324-37-113. He slugged at a .600 clip with an ops of 1.024. Albert Pujols and Carlos Gonzalez of the Rockies are his main competition but, in the end Votto just had a tad better season.

NL Cy Young – Roy Halladay Phillies – From April to September there was no more consistent pitcher then Halladay. You knew coming over from Toronto the potential was there for big Roy to have a monster season and he did not disappoint. 21 wins, an era of 2.44 with 9 complete games and 250 innings pitched, plus a perfect game in June. Wainwright in St. Louis and Josh Johnson before he got hurt also had good years.

NL Rookie of the Year –Buster Posey, Giants – The NL had some really good rookies this season. Heyward in Atlanta, Jamie Garcia of the Cardinals, Starlin Castro and Tyler Colvin of the Cubs all had good freshman seasons. But, Posey wins this award and in my mind there should be no debate. The numbers are there with a .305-18-67 line but he also got inserted in the 4 spot in the lineup when he got called up and then was asked to handle one of the best pitching staffs in baseball. He went in and guided them to a division championship.

NL Manager of the Year – Bud Black, Padres – I know people are going to focus on San Diego’s collapse but that team had no business being in first for as long as they were. How they won 90 games is beyond me. He massaged that team’s meager talent and in my mind did a better job than any other guy in the league. Bobby Cox also did a nice job this year.

AL MVP – Miguel Cabrera, Tigers – This is a 2 man race between Cabrera and Josh Hamilton of Texas. And many will make the case that since Hamilton led the Rangers to the post season he should get the award. To that I say bullshit. Since when does an individual award get tied to a team’s success? Their lines are similar. Hamilton is at .359-32-100 he slugged .633 with an ops of 1.044. Migey ripped off a .328-30-126 slugging .622 with an ops of 1.042. But there are three factors that swing it to Cabrera. He hits in a much tougher park in Comerica as compared to the band box that is in Texas. He had no protection what so ever in the lineup while Hamilton had a number of good hitters surrounding him, and lastly he played in 17 more games than Hamilton. They both had monster years and the press will probably give it to Josh but Cabrera gets my vote.

AL Cy Young, Felix Hernandez, Mariners – This is going to be the most interesting vote of them all. This appears to be a 3 man race between King Felix, David Price and C.C. Sabathia. In every category other then wins Felix has got them. Felix had a whip of 1.06, an ERA of 2.27 a batting average against of .212 and 232 K’s. All of those numbers are better than that of Sabathia or Price. He only won 13 games and lost 12 playing for a hot garbage of a team. But in 7 of those losses the Mariners scored 1 or 0 runs. Sorry that is not his fault and I can’t screw him out of the award based on the rest of his team’s ineptitude.

AL Rookie of the Year, Neftali Feliz, Rangers – While the NL has a number of candidates, really the AL race should be a runaway. Feliz saved 40 of 43 games for Texas posting an era of 2.73 in the process. He struck out better then a batter per inning and had an incredible whip of .088. Austin Jackson of the Tigers had a nice year as well, but in my mind this should be unanimous.

AL Manager of the Year – Ron Gardenhire, Twins – Maybe this is the year Gardie gets some love but more then likely Ron Washington of Texas will win it. However, the Twins lost arguably the best closer in baseball, Joe Nathan in March and a former MVP in Justin Morneau in July and they did not miss a beat. Year in year out no manager gets more out of his talent then Gardenhire and again this year he maximized what was given to him.