The end of the season is fast upon us and the playoffs are a week away. So who gets your vote for the following awards:

AL MVP
NL MVP
AL Cy Young
NL Cy Young
AL Manager of the Year
NL Manager of the Year
AL Rookie of the Year
NL Rookie of the Year

And lets do some of our own like the following perhaps:

Bust Player of the Year
Bust Team of the Year
Surprise Player of the Year
Surprise Team of the Year
Best Moment
Worst Moment

Or make up some of your own. Lets have some fun.

Let's see who we've got here....

AL MVP--Alex Rodriguez
NL MVP--Barry Bonds
AL Cy Young--Barry Zito
NL Cy Young--Curt Schilling
AL Manager of the Year--Ron Gardenhire-MIN
NL Manager of the Year--Frank Robinson-MTL

Bust Player of the Year--Ken Griffey Jr.
Bust Team of the Year--Mets
Surprise Player of the Year--Lance Berkman
Surprise Team of the Year--Twins
Best Moment--Strike talks end
Worst Moment--Strike talks

AL MVP: Raul Ibanez
NL MVP: Darren Bragg

I'm all about Zito for AL Cy Young. I'm a moderate on these other issues.

Thank goodness the strike was averted....just think of all the upcoming postseason excitement we would have missed out on....as for my award recipients:

AL MVP: MIGUEL TEJADA, OAK. SS (.315, 34 HR, 126 RBI)....although Alex Rodriguez has superior offensive numbers (admittedly virtually unparalleled for a shortstop) taking into consideration where the Athletics would be without Tejada outweighs A-Rod's impact on a last place team -- again....the Rangers would still have finished in the basement without Alex while there is little doubt that Oakland would not even be in the running for a postseason berth were it not for Tejada's brilliant season.

NL MVP: VLADIMIR GUERRERO, MTL. OF (.336, 38 HR, 107 RBI, 40 SB'S, leads MLB in outfield assists)....while I admit Vladimir is unlikely to receive the award (Pujols would be #2 on my list with his .315, 34 HR, 126 RBI sophomore season) were he playing in a larger media market, Guerrero would clearly be one of the game's superstars....not only is he an offensive machine (with limited support batting behind him until recently) but he possesses the best arm in all of baseball (Ichiro being the only other player who can come close to matching his arm) and despite the fact that few players dare run on him he still leads the league in outfield assists and if he hits two more HR's by Sunday Vladimir will become only the third player to ever reach 40/40 in the same season.

AL CY YOUNG: DEREK LOWE, BOS (21-7, 2.45 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 122 K's, 46 BB's in 212 IP) by a nose over Barry Zito (22-5, 2.74 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, 176 K's, 74 BB's, 217 IP).

NL CY YOUNG: with all due respect to Randy Johnson the award should unquestionably go to CURT SCHILLING (23-6, 3.02 ERA, 0.96 ERA, 303 K's, 32 BB's in 250 1/3 IP).....although Curt has faltered slightly down the stretch his season has been statistically remarkable with a nearly 10 TO 1 strikeout to walk ratio and FEWER WALKS THAN GAMES STARTED.

AL MANAGER OF THE YEAR: RON GARDENHIRE, MINN. -- contract this, Bud!

NL MANAGER OF THE YEAR: FRANK ROBINSON, MTL. -- no one else even wanted the job and Robinson, who has long been one of the most underrated managers in the game who has consistently gotten the most with lesser talent would be one of the few managers to win the award in both leagues (he was AL Manager of the Year in Baltimore in 1989 after taking a 100+ loss team the previous season to within two games of the division title).

AL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: ERIC HINSKE, TOR. 3B-- .278, 23 HR, 82 RBI, 13 SB's....Hinske, who the Jays received from Oakland in the Billy Koch deal, should be their cornerstone third baseman for the next decade (or longer).

NL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: while I normally don't favor pitchers for this award, I would give it to JASON JENNINGS, COL. PITCHER (16-8, 4.62 ERA, 1.47 WHIP, 124 K's, 68 BB's in 179 IP)....although his ERA and BB's are modest, any starting pitcher (let alone a rookie) who can win 16 games playing half his games at Coors Field deserves consideration....the top position players in this category would be AUSTIN KEARNS, CIN. OF (.315, 13 HR, 56 RBI in only 372 AB's) and BRAD WILKERSON, MTL. OF (.263, 19 HR, 55 RBI in 487 AB's -- who says Florida State only produces football players?).

BUST PLAYER: CARL EVERETT/JUAN GONZALEZ, BOTH TEX. OF (and I'm not even mentioning the Rangers off season pitching acquition busts of Chan Ho Park, Ismael Valdes, and Todd Van Poppel).

BUST TEAM: NEW YORK METS (and you thought those green plants in the bullpen at Shea Stadium were tomato plants left over from the days of Joe Pignatano and Rube Walker from the 70s?)

SURPRISE PLAYER: ALFONSO SORIANO (did anyone really believe he would put up these type of numbers?) / DEREK LOWE (the Red Sox nation was booing Lowe out of Fenway last season with all of his blown saves until he was demoted to "mop-up" duty and now he's one of the best starters in the league a year later?)

SURPRISE TEAM: MINNESOTA TWINS (who says a small market, low payroll team can't compete?....take that George Steinbrenner).

BEST MOMENT: The strike being averted and Donald Fehr actually doing what was best for the game for a change (and receiving harsh criticism from his predecessor, Marvin Miller, for doing so).

WORST MOMENT: (Tie) The confirmation of rampant steroid use among many of the game's stars and the idiot Legui father/son tandem attacking KC Royals coach Tom Gamboa at Comiskey -- btw, they both should have been beaten more harshly at the bottom of that pile by the KC Royals players.

Here's hoping for an incredible postseason leading up to the announcement of these awards in November.

[ September 24, 2002: Message edited by: gamecock ]

AL MVP - Alfonso Soriano (NYY)
NL MVP - Barry Bonds (SF)
AL Cy Young - Barry Zito (OAK)
NL Cy Young - Curt Schilling (ARI)
AL Rookie of the Year - Eric Hinske (TOR)
NL Rookie of the Year -

AL MVP: A-Rod
NL MVP: Bonds

AL Cy Young: Zito (his team winning the AL West is the tiebreaker over Pedro, IMO)
NL Cy Young: Randy Johnson

AL Manager of the Year: Ron Gardenhire - Minnesota
NL Manager of the Year: Tony LaRussa - St Louis

Bust Team of the Year: Texas
Surprise Team of the Year: Minnesota
Best Moment: Cardinals clinching
Worst Moment: father/son idiots attacking KC 1st base coach Gamboa (I'm still shaking my head on that one).

Surprise "Babe" of the Year: Eli Marrero - St Louis

AL MVP - Tejada
NL MVP - Bonds
AL Cy Young - Zito
NL Cy Young - Schilling
AL Manager of the Year - Gardenhire MIN
NL Manager of the Year - Robinson MTL

Bust Player of the Year - Griffey. Hurt. Again.

Bust Team of the Year - Mets

Surprise Player of the Year - Lowe. Who knew? I wish the Mariners knew when they had him.

Surprise Team of the Year - Anaheim (because they are not choking...yet) or Minnesota

Best Moment - A's & Twins making playoffs with low payroll

Worst Moment - Beavis & Butthead attacking the ump at the KC/Chisox game.

AL MVP: the debate of whether this award means "best player" or "most valuable to his team" is one that will never be resolved. I'm in the "best player" camp, and for us happy campers the choice is clear -- A-Rod.
NL MVP: for either camp, I think the choice is obvious, Barry Bonds. He is both the best player in the League, and he is probably the most significant factor in the Giants' 2-game lead in the Wild Card.
AL Cy Young: As much as I love the other two contenders, I have to give this one to Barry Zito.
NL Cy Young: If you look at just the numbers, Randy Johnson actually has the slight edge over his teammate.

Bust Player of the Year: At ~$8 million and a .163 batting average, Greg Vaughn, who must rank up there with the most overpaid players of all time. Mo Vaughn gets an honorable mention.
Bust Team of the Year: Out of personal spite, I'm tempted to say the Red Sox, but the team will end up with 94-95 wins. The choice is clear: a $90+ million payroll and a sub-.500 record (yikes!), the New York Mets.
Surprise Player of the Year: Gotta give it to Derek Lowe. From a failed closer last season to a Cy Young contender this year. The guy's gotta be pinching himself.
Surprise Team of the Year: Anaheim Angels, after their 6-14 start, I didn't expect much of them. Now they'll end up with close to 100 wins and a WC berth.
Best Moment: Derek Lowe's no-hitter
Worst Moment: Eric Gagne's ejection

AL MVP - Miguel Tejada
NL MVP - Barry Bonds
AL Cy Young - Barry Zito
NL Cy Young - Curt Schilling
AL Manager of the Year - Art Howe (with apologies to Ron Gardenhire)
NL Manager of the Year - Tony Larussa
AL Rookie of the Year - Eric Hinske
NL Rookie of the Year - Austin Kearns

Bust Player of the Year - Jeromy Burnitz
Bust Pitcher of the Year - Chan Ho Park
Bust Team of the Year - Mets
Surprise Player of the Year - Alfonso Soriano
Surprise Pitcher of the Year - Odalis Perez
Surprise Team of the Year - Twins
Best Moment - Strike settlement
Worst Moment - Death of Darryl Kile

AL MVP - Alex Rodriguez
NL MVP - Barry Bonds
AL Cy Young - Barry Zito
NL Cy Young - Randy Johnson
AL Manager of the Year - Art Howe
NL Manager of the Year - Frank Robinson

Bust Player of the Year - A few Mets players neck and neck
Bust Team of the Year - Mets
Surprise Player of the Year - Alfonso Soriano
Surprise Pitcher of the Year - Derek Lowe
Surprise Team of the Year - Twins
Best Moment - Strike settlement
Worst Moment - Impending strike

AL MVP - Alfonso Soriano
NL MVP - Albert Pujols
AL Cy Young - Barry Zito
NL Cy Young - Randy Johnson & Curt Schilling
AL Manager of the Year - Ron Gardenhire
NL Manager of the Year - Tony LaRussa
AL Rookie of the Year - Rodrigo Lopez
NL Rookie of the Year - Austin Kearns

Bust Player of the Year - Ken Griffey Jr.
Bust Team of the Year - NY Mets
Surprise Player of the Year - Derek Lowe
Surprise Team of the Year - Minnesota Twins
Best Moment - The day the strike was averted
Worst Moment - Darryl Kile's death; wacko White Sox fans attacking Tom Gamboa of KC

AL MVP: A-Rod
NL MVP: B Bonds
AL CY YOUNG: B Zito
NL CY YOUNG: R Johnson
AL MANAGER: M Scioscia (my west coast bias)
NL MANAGER: T LaRussa
AL ROOKIE: E Hinske
NL ROOKIE: J Jennings
BUST TEAM: Mets
SURPRISE TEAM: Twins (if they win the Series, I hope one of them weats the "contract this" t-shirt when Bud presents the trophy--but think they are all too classy to do so) OR Cardinals--with all they endured (retirement of Big Mac & tragic death of Kile) they could have collapsed, but they perservered.

~Adam

D'oh! I started the thread and just now realized I never gave my picks! Oh, well!

AL MVP
1. Miguel Tejada-A's
2. Alfonso Soriano-Yankees
3. Garrett Anderson-Angels

NL MVP
1. Barry Bonds-Giants
2. Albert Pujols-Cardinals
3. Vladimir Guerrero-Expos

AL Cy Young
1. Barry Zito-A's
2. Derek Lowe-Red Sox
3. Pedro Martinez-Red Sox

NL Cy Young
1. Randy Johnson-Diamondbacks
2. Curt Schilling-Diamondbacks
3. Roy Oswalt-Astros

AL Manager of the Year
1. Mike Sciosca-Angels
2. Art Howe-A's
3. Ron Gardenhire-Twins

NL Manager of the Year
1. Tony LaRussa-Cardinals
2. Frank Robinson-Expos
3. Dusty Baker-Giants

AL Rookie of the Year:
Eric Hinske-Blue Jays

NL Rookie of the Year:
Jason Jennings-Rockies


Bust Player of the Year:
Ken Griffey, Jr.- Reds

AL Bust Team of the Year:
White Sox

NL Bust Team of the Year:
Mets

Surprise Player of the Year:
Derek Lowe-Red Sox

Surprise Team of the Year:
Angels

Best Moment
1. No strike
2. Twins avoid contraction and win division
3. Expos in first place early in season

Worst Moment
1. Death of Darryl Kile
2. Attack on Gamboa
3. All Star game ends ina tie!

AL MVP: Miguel Tejada, Oakland-- Consistently hits in the clutch for a division winner. Texas would still be cellar dwellers without A-Rod, Oakland would be nowhere without Tejada.

NL MVP: Barry Bonds, San Francisco-- Hate the man's personality and attitude if you will, and I do, but concede that he's an awesome ballplayer, and the Giants are in 4th place without him. Albert Pujols as a close second for the Cards.

AL Cy Young: Barry Zito, Oakland-- His numbers speak for themselves. Plus, he's cute as hell, which adds another vote to his tally.

NL Cy Young: Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling, Arizona-- If there was ever a year for a tie in the Cy Young voting, this is the year.

AL Manager of the Year: Mike Scioscia, Anaheim, Art Howe, Oakland-- Scioscia helped guide the Angels to the playoffs despite an awful start. Why didn't the Cubs pick this guy up? And Art Howe just seems to do everything right. Ron Gardenhire for a *very* honorable mention.

NL Manager of the Year: Frank Robinson, Washington, I mean, Montreal-- Took this bunch that was left for dead in that tomb they call a stadium in Quebec, and made them respectable, and for a time, contenders. How can you not give it to this guy?

AL Rookie of the Year: Eric Hinske, Toronto-- Is there really any competition?

NL Rookie of the Year: Jason Jennings, Colorado-- Not only does he deserve NL ROY, he should get a medal for pitching and winning 16 games at that launching pad.

Bust Player of the Year: Moises Alou, Chicago-- Great expectations for Alou weren't met, yet I've never seen a more contrite .270 hitter. Honorable mention to the Mets, but anyone who signs an over-the-hill hasbeen like Mo Vaughn is asking for trouble.

Bust Team of the Year: The Chicago Cubs-- Someone hold me. Please. I didn't deserve this.

Surprise Player of the Year: Eric Gagne, Los Angeles-- Came out of nowhere to take the closer's job and racked up 52 saves. I certainly didn't see it.

Surprise Team of the Year: The Anaheim Angels-- Be honest. You had them third or lower in the West on Opening Day, didn't you?

Best Moment: "We have reached a settlement," and "We will *NOT* contract."

Worst Moment: "Hey, son! Let's go out there and beat up that 60 year old man!" and "We ran out of pitchers."

[ September 28, 2002: Message edited by: cubsfan1982 ]

Posted by cubsfan1982: [quote] Bust Team of the Year: The Chicago Cubs-- Someone hold me. Please. I didn't deserve this.

---

Consider yourself held! My roommate, who I've been friends with for 12 years, is from Chicago and is a Cubs fan. I've had to help him through many a tough season, but this one wa particularly dreadful. I really thought the Cubbies were a Wild Card contender this year.

AL MVP - Miguel Tejada (to quote Sandra Bernhard: without you I'm nothing)
NL MVP - Barry Bonds (much as I loathe his attitude)
AL Cy Young - Derek Lowe (consolation prize for having to play for the Dead Sox)
NL Cy Young - Randy Schilling or Curt Johnson
AL Manager of the Year - Mike Scosia )did an amazing job; he'll be fired by the All-Star break next year)
NL Manager of the Year - Tony LaRussa (Cards could've folded after that terrible 10-day period this summer; he kept them focused).
AL Rookie of the Year - Eric Hinske
NL Rookie of the Year - Who Cares, it's the National (yawn!) League...

Bust Team of the Year - Dead Sox (7 All-Stars and again no post-season play. The Mets would've won this category except that I saw it coming from a mile away when the signed Vaughn and Alomar while letting Zeile and Ventura go).
Surprise Player of the Year - John Smoltz (has very quietly had an amazing year as the Braves closer, yet he still wants to return to the starting rotation).
Surprise Team of the Year - Angels (I kept waiting for their June swoon, but it never really happened).
Best Moment - shirtless Jason Giambi fiddles with his nipples during a postgame interview on YES (sa-woon!)
Worst Moment - any photo op that includes Bud Selig (who looks like he hasn't had a bowel movement since the Johnson Administration).

How about best looking? Alex Rodriguez is hot! A nominee for the Swimsuite issue for sure- I love his smooth skin and dark hair.

Josh

[quote]Originally posted by George_vikingfan:
The end of the season is fast upon us and the playoffs are a week away. So who gets your vote for the following awards:

AL MVP
NL MVP
AL Cy Young
NL Cy Young
AL Manager of the Year
NL Manager of the Year
AL Rookie of the Year
NL Rookie of the Year

And lets do some of our own like the following perhaps:

Bust Player of the Year
Bust Team of the Year
Surprise Player of the Year
Surprise Team of the Year
Best Moment
Worst Moment

Or make up some of your own. Lets have some fun.

---

Teh official awards have started to be handed out. The AL Rookie of the Year is Eric Hinske of the Toronton Blue Jays. And in the NL, it is Jason Jennings of Colorado.

The NL Cy Young was announced today. No surprise that the winner is Randy Johnson. The surprise is that is was unanimous! The Big Unit snared all 32 first place votes, while Schilling captured 29 second place and 3 third place votes. John Smoltz was third, followed by Eric Gagne, Roy Oswalt and Bartolo Colon.

AL MVP - A-Rod
NL MVP - Bonds
AL Cy Young - Derek Lowe (by a hair over Zito)
NL Cy Young - Randy Johnson (I can't remotely see how anyone can argue Schilling was better)
AL Manager of the Year - Mike Scioscia
NL Manager of the Year - Bobby Cox
AL Rookie of the Year - Eric Hinske
NL Rookie of the Year - Damian Moss


Best Moment - booing at end of All-Star Game
Worst Moment - MasterCard Short-Term Memory Moments
Worst Recurring Moment - "God Bless America"

(I think of the Gamboa attack as an isolated crime, divorced from baseball itself)

Mike Scoscia and Tony LaRussa are the Managers of the Year. Scoscia is an obvious choice but I thought the NL nod should have gone to Dusty Baker. Though I'm sure whoever is going to hire him now that he's officially left the Giants will be glad to have saved the money that a MoTY award would have cost them.

Barry Zito was awarded the AL Cy Young today, with Pedro Martinez and Derek Lowe in second and third. Just like the rest of the season, close but no cygar.

The Globe noted this morning that Red Sox ownership has hired statistician Bill James, whom they referred to as "the godfather of modern statistical analysis in baseball". No doubt he'll develop a groupie following of face-painting statistics fans across the river at MIT.

A's Tejada Wins AL MVP

Wasn't as close as all the pundits thought it would be. Tejada got 21 1st place votes, ARod got only 5 and Soriano the other 2. Rodriguez placed in the top 3 on only 23 of the 28 ballots (very surprising, IMO) and was outpointed by Tejada 356-254.

I wonder if some of the writers voted against A-Rod because of his contract & his (disliked) agent, Scott Boras. I know they're not supposed to be biased, but they are only human, after all..
Tejada winning isn't all that surprising (though I would have voted for AR) but the margin of victory indicates something more was going on with the voters than just what they saw on the field.


~Adam

A-Rod was robbed, plain and simple. This was highway robbery, I tell you. He set records for a shortstop and the Rangers would not have even won 75 games, if it wasn't for A-Rod. Just think how many more games they would have lost!! It would have been scary.

It all seems to follow fashion -- OK to select a last-place star like Andre dawson in the '80s, now it's verboten to pick the player who's *clearly* the best in the AL.

Aside from A-Rod not winning, I think the NL voters should've had Brian Giles much higher on their ballots ... to place him lower than closers like Smoltz and Gagne is ludicrous.