Category Archives: Awards

November 14, 2025

Stenson Award

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The Arizona Fall League confers the Dernell Stenson Sportsmanship Award every year in memory of the murdered player. This season, Charlie Condon of the Rockies organization took home prize:

“He’s a pro’s pro,” Rafters manager Eric Patterson said. “He’s signing autographs for kids. He’s great with the fans, great with his teammates. You notice a lot of his teammates kind of gravitate towards him. The humility, the way he’s there to kind of give advice, the way he listens and he learns from his teammates and his staff — just can’t say enough good things about him. He’s a pro’s pro for sure.”

MLB.com

Condon was an on-base machine in the AFL, and did a pretty good job getting on base in the minors as he played at three levels in 2025.

Baseball Musings has a history of the murder and investigation here.

November 13, 2025

Repeat Offender

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Aaron Judge won the AL MPV over Cal Raleigh. The two split all the first and second place votes, Judge pulling in 17 to Raleigh’s 13. In the end, the higher WAR won out over the amazing home run performance by a catcher. FanGraphs put Judge ahead 10.1 to 9.1 fWAR. Baseball Reference showed an even wider gap, with Judge at 9.7 rWAR, Raleigh 7.4

Judge’s second consecutive victory is also his third overall. He is the 13th player to be named MVP at least three times. Barry Bonds is the all-time record-holder with seven MVP Awards, all in the NL (1990, 1992-93, 2001-04). Shohei Ohtani, the 2025 MVP in the National League, has won four times, including last year in the NL and in 2021 and 2023 in the AL.

BBWAA.com

That did not hold for third and fourth place, as Jose Ramirez finished ahead of Bobby Witt Jr. It seems making the playoffs still counts for something.

Pitchers did a bit better in the AL than the NL, with Tarik Skubal taking fifth place and Garrett Crochet eighth place. Aroldis Chapman received a tenth place vote.

With Judge winning back-to-back MVPs, we saw five repeats of the six repeatable awards. Maybe the writers are in a rut!

November 13, 2025

Mr. Unanimous

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Shohei Ohtani won his second straight NL MVP Award, his third MVP in three years, and becomes only the second player to win at least four MVP Awards:

All four of Ohtani’s victories have been by a unanimous vote. He is the only player to have won the award unanimously more than once. This is the 10th time the NL winner has been unanimous. The others: Orlando Cepeda (1967), Mike Schmidt (1980), Jeff Bagwell (1994), Ken Caminiti (1996), Bonds (2002), Albert Pujols (2009), Bryce Harper (2015) and Ronald Acuna Jr. (2023). There have been 13 unanimous winners in the AL, including Ohtani himself twice.

BBWAA.com

His 2024 award might be his most impressive since he did that without pitching. Ohtani brings an exquisite talent to the field, and the writers honor him on that talent.

Kyle Schwarber took second place with 23 second place votes, although he was ranked as low as fifth. A total of 23 players received at least one vote. Paul Skenes finished sixth, the highest for a pitcher this season. The voters were split on him with with eleven votes in the four to six range and eight votes in the eight to ten range. Cristopher Sanchez was the only other pitcher to get any MVP votes. I find that odd that in a off year for offense, pitchers didn’t do better.

November 13, 2025

Wins Lost?

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From Tom Tango:

I’m not 100% sure wins are dead in the eyes of the voters, or if we just haven’t seen an outstanding win total in a while. We need to have a season where a pitcher goes 22-5 with a 3.00 ERA and another goes 11-10 with a 2.10 ERA in about the same number of innings. I’m guessing that vote would be a lot closer than the NL in 2025.

While we like to think that writers are more statistically aware than in the past, strategy killed the starter win:

Decade% Wins by Starters
192081.4
193079.3
194078.8
195073.9
196072.9
197074.3
198071.5
199070.1
200070.3
201066.7
202058.2

Only two decades in this eleven decade span saw upticks in starters getting wins. The 1970s saw the adoption of the five man rotation, which might have allowed starters to go deeper in games. The 2000s saw the end of the steroid era, so maybe fewer starters got pummeled early.

A big drop happened in the 1950s, and things were generally declining until the 2010s. We then see two big drops. Teams started using openers in the 2010s, and the 2020s brought about the strategy of not letting a starter pitcher to batters once he went through the order twice.

Strategy spent 15 years taking away starter wins, and the voters responded accordingly.

Update: Here is Tango’s post on possibly updating the Cy Young predictor.

November 12, 2025

NL Cy Young

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Paul Skenes wins the 2025 National League Cy Young Award unanimously. Cristopher Sanchez collects all the second place votes, so the voters were in perfect agreement on the top two. Nine players received at least one vote, and there was some disagreement on third place, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Logan Webb, and Freddy Peralta each receiving votes at that level.

Now we wait to see how many Cy Youngs Skenes can win in his career.

November 12, 2025

AL Cy Young

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Tarik Skubal wins the 2025 AL Cy Young Award for the second year in a row. He and Garrett Crochet split the first and second place votes, Skubal receiving 26 firsts, and Crochet getting 26 seconds. Hunter Brown received 24 third place votes, so the there was very strong agreement on the top three pitchers in the league.

Ten pitchers received at least one vote. Max Fried took the other six third place votes.

November 11, 2025

NL Manager

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Pat Murphy of the Brewers wins the NL Manager of the Year Award for 2025. He is the third manager to win the award in consecutive years. Murphy won by a large margin, bringing in 27 first place votes and two second place votes. One voter left him off the ballot. Terry Francona finished second, getting more third place votes than first and second place votes combined, but no other manager made it onto as many ballots. Seven different managers gained votes.

November 10, 2025

NL Rookie

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Drake Baldwin of the Braves won the NL Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Award for 2025. Baldwin, a catcher hit .274/.341/.469, with 39 of his 111 hits going for extra bases. This was an offensive award for Baldwin, as his defense at catcher affected his WAR negatively.

Baldwin received 21 of 30 first place votes, with the other nine going to pitcher Cade Horton of Cubs, who finished second. All told thirteen players received at least one vote.

The Brewers, already a very good team, landed three players in the top seven, and Jacob Misiorowski received one vote as well.

November 10, 2025

AL Rookie

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Nick Kurtz won the American League Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Award for 2025. He recorded 30 of 30 first place votes. He reached base at a .383 clip and slugged .619, collecting 64 extra base hits. His teammate, Jacob Wilson picked up 23 second place votes to finish second, and those two should be the center of a very nice offensive core for the Athletics going forward. Fifteen players in total received at least one vote.

November 3, 2025

No More Finalists

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The top three vote getters for the four majors Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) awards came out Monday.

I do not like this format. We sit and wait a week while everyone talks about the top three, then spend two half hours listening to the analysts talk about the top three, then someone comes out and reads a name, when we all pretty much know most of the time who will get the prize.

What I would like to see is a count down show. The top ten MVPS revealed 10 to 1, then all the Cy Young and Rookie votes, since there are usually less than ten candidates. With each reveal, a short discussion of why they might be in that spot, with an eye on the distribution of votes. “Why did someone vote for the seventh ranked MVP second?” “I’m surprised no one ranked him higher than fourth.”

Since the ballots are public, have a sportswriter or two on to explain their outlier vote. That should would involve more fans, because someone’s favorite player might be on the list. This is the reveal show I’d to see.

November 3, 2025

Gold Gloves

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Rawlings announced the Gold Glove winners on Sunday.

Established in 1957, the Gold Glove Award honors the best defensive player at each position in each league. The voting process is made up of MLB managers and coaches (75%) and the sabermetrics community (25%). Managers and coaches vote only within their own league and cannot vote for players on their own teams.

MLB.com

Including some statistical analysis prevented the constant repeat winners, even when their age indicated they may no longer be the best. There were nine first timers out of the 20 positions awarded.

Defense keeps getting better. Pitching and hitting are in a constant battle, so they tend to even things out over time. There is nothing standing in the way of great defense. All season I found myself astounded by outfielders; they covered tons of ground, and made acrobatic catches when needed. While there were always a few players like that, the ability today seems much more widespread.

October 27, 2025 October 18, 2025

Best Batter Today

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The Friday night games brought no change to the top five of the Baseball Musings Batter Rankings, but we did see one of the great batting performances in post season history. Cal Raleigh of the Mariners, in second place, widen the gap over third place George Springer of the Blue Jays. Springer went one for three, his hit going for a double, his fifth of the post season. He left the game after getting hit in the knee with a pitch, giving him a .500 OBP on the evening. Raleigh went two for four with a double and a home run in the 6-2 Mariners win, and is slugging .692 in the post season.

Aaron Judge of the Yankees, Michael Busch of the Cubs, and Juan Soto of the Mets remain one, four, and five respectively.

Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers moved up to twelfth on the list with the highest game score of the day, a 92. He hit three home runs and drew a walk in a 5-1 Dodgers win, Los Angeles sweeping the best of seven series from the Brewers. Ohtani also pitched in the game, gave up two hits and three walks in six shutout innings, and struck out ten. Probably the greatest single game performance ever.

It was the fifteenth post-season game since 1920 with a game score of at least 90. Ohtani’s ranks 12th. Albert Pujols owns the only 100, on 10/22/2011. Hideki Matsui owns the Japanese born record with a 96 on 10/16/2004. Three Dodgers and two Angels made the list, making the great Los Angeles area a hot bed of high post-season game scores.

Ohtani also won the series MVP Award.

September 1, 2025

Players of the Month

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August produced a number of candidates for player of the month. Nick Kurtz* of the Athletics led the majors in OBP with a high BA and slugging percentage. Jakob Marsee of the Marlins posted a .352 BA, second in the majors, while slugging .629. Kyle Schwarber and Junior Caminero hit twelve home runs, but did little else. Juan Soto hit ten home runs and stole eleven bases without getting caught.

*I am told he is no relation to Richard Hertz.

Brice Turang of the Brewers put everything together in the month, however. He topped the league in slugging percentage with a .343/.398/.694 slash line. Seventeen of his 37 hits went for extra bases, and he went 3 for 3 stealing. He did this mostly out of the leadoff slot. Brice Turang wins the Baseball Musings Offensive Player of the Month Award for August 2025.

On the pitching side, Freddy Peralta of the Brewers posted a 0.32 ERA in 28 innings covering five starts. The only run he allowed came on the only home run against him in the month, one of 11 hits he allowed. He did walk 12 batters while striking out 34.

A number of pitchers posted ERAs in the low ones, but Trevor Rogers stands out at 1.29. He made six starts for Baltimore and pitched 42 innings, leading the majors. He also allowed just one home run and walked just ten batters.

Once again, the pitchers with the highest strikeout rates posted rather poor ERAs. Only two of the top ten produced low ERAs, Peralta at number 10 and Bryan Woo at number seven.

Cristopher Sanchez did not allow a home run in 38 2/3 innings, but walked away with a 3.03 ERA despite his excellent three true outcomes. Too many balls in play fell for hits.

The 42 innings mean a lot. Rogers got to face batters three times and succeeded. For that, Trevor Rogers wins the Baseball Musings Pitcher of the Month Award for August 2025.

August 8, 2025

How Much is Enough

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The AL Cy Young Award is quite tight, with Tarik Skubal of the Tigers and Garrett Crochet of the Red Sox neck and neck. Here are the MLB leaders in ERA. You can see that Skubal leads by 0.06 runs in ERA, and he’s done slightly better in three true outcomes. Tom Tango Enhanced Cy Young Points, which take into account Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP), puts Skubal slightly ahead of Crochet as well.

Lurking just behind them sits Nathan Eovaldi, who is about 0.80 runs better than either of the top two. After pitching a brilliant eight one-hit innings against the Yankees on August 5th, his ERA stands at 1.38, with extremely good three-true outcomes. At the moment, he is five inning short of qualifying for the ERA title.

If this keeps up, voters will need to make a calculation. Does a much better ERA make up for 30 fewer innings. The smaller the sample size, the easier it is to post a low ERA. Or will an historically low number push the vote his way. This one may go down to the wire.

Note that Cristopher Sanchez, who pitches for the Phillies Friday night, moved ahead of his teammate Zack Wheeler. That could prove to be a fun intramural competition to see if either of them can catch Paul Skenes.

August 1, 2025

Players of the Month

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July proved to be an easy month for picking a batter. Nick Kurtz of the Athletics posted a .395/.480/.953 slash line, each of those elements the highest in the majors. He collected 25 extra-base hits, leading the majors in doubles with 13 and coming in second with 11 home runs. He even added a triple for good measure.

The only batter who came close was Kyle Stowers of the Marlins with a .364/.451/.818 slash line and 15 extra base hits. Congratulations to Nick Kurtz, the Baseball Musings Offensive Player of the Month for July 2025.

On the pitching side, it’s very tough choice between two pitchers, Nathan Eovaldi of the Rangers and Paul Skenes of the Pirates. Eovaldi owns the slightly better ERA 0.59 to 0.67. Eovaldi did allow a third run that was unearned, while opponents only scored twice against Skenes. Eovaldi pitched 3 2 /3 more innings, while Skenes buried Eovaldi in strikeouts and walks. (Skenes did hit four batters, so the free passes are actually much closer.) Each allowed one home run.

For traditionalist, Eovaldi won all five of his starts, while Skenes went just 2-1. In the end, the 3.2 K per nine advantage works for Skenes. He doesn’t leave it up to his defense, he gets the job done himself. Congratulations to Paul Skenes, the Baseball Musings Pitcher of the Month for July 2025.

July 1, 2025

Players of the Month

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Ronald Acuna Jr. made a triumphant return to the majors after returning from his long injury layoff. He posted a .491 OBP in June, the highest in the majors. He collected 32 hits and 23 walks, while slugging .596. He scored the most runs in the month, 26.

Hunter Goodman slugged .734, with 15 of his 27 hits going for extra bases. He only recorded 83 PA, however. Joe Adell, Cal Raleigh, Eugenio Suarez, and Juan Soto all swatted eleven home runs, Soto with the best slash line overall in the group, .322/.474/.722. Raleigh and Suarez tied for the lead in RBI with 27.

Because I love triples, a special shout out to Zach McKinstry and Jung Hoo Lee, who led the majors with five and four triples respectively in June. McKinstry collected eight extra base hits total. Lee hit .143/.277/.274 for the month, one third of his hits resulting in triples.

Soto, despite not leading in any of the categories, did everything well. He wins the Baseball Musings Offensive Player of the Month for June 2025.

On the pitching side, it was a very good month for the Phillies, as Zack Wheeler (1st), Ranger Suarez (4th), and Cristopher Sanchez (8th) finished in the top ten in ERA. Wheeler’s numbers blow everyone else away. His 0.58 ERA stands 0.6 runs better than second place Hunter Brown. He struck out batters at a rate of 12.2 per 9 IP, with walk and home run rates per 9 IP of 2.03 and 0.29 respectively. Suarez, however, produced a 1.30 ERA, made six starts instead of five, and pitched ten more innings.

Tarik Skubal did win all five starts, the only pitcher in the month to win five games. He did that posting a 1.89 ERA in 33 1/3 innings, with excellent three true outcomes. Wheeler and Skubal rank 1-2 in the Bill James Starting Pitcher Rankings.

It’s a tough choice due to Wheeler’s low innings, but everything about his June was excellent, so Zack Wheeler wins the Baseball Musings Pitcher of the Month Award for June 2025.

June 1, 2025

Players of the Month

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May proved to be a great month for catchers. Will Smith of the Dodgers posted the highest OBP in the majors, .484. Alejandro Kirk of the Blue Jays ended May with a .365/.430/.419 slash line, and Cal Raleigh of the Mariners finished tied with Kirk in OBP at .304/.430/.739, sixteen of his 28 hits going for extra bases. Of the three, Raleigh comes out as the best candidate for offensive player of the month as he batted more and added power to go with the OBP.

Raleigh finished third in slugging behind Aaron Judge of the Yankees and Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers. Judge wins the category .798 to .782, while Ohtani wins isolated power .473 to .434. Judge does beat Ohanti by over 50 points in both BA and OBP, Judge hitting .364 for the month with a .453 OBP.

Freddie Freeman of the Dodgers finished first in batting average at .410. I don’t weigh BA very heavily, but hitting .400 in a month is a tremendous feat, and he gives the Dodgers the NL lead in all three average category by three different players.

Rafael Devers of the Red Sox posted an outstanding month and led the majors in RBI with 33. Note that the two batters behind him in the category, Pete Crow-Armstrong of the Cubs and Taylor Ward of the Angels generated RBI with power, but used up a lot of outs getting there. It’s a big reason RBI might be a tipping point in deciding an award, but not the main driver.

Ohtani led the majors in both home runs and runs scored. Chandler Simpson of the Rays did little offensively, but stole sixteen bases in eighteen attempts.

It’s a tough choice this month. Freeman, Ohtani, and Judge all delivered outstanding performances at the plate. It comes down to Ohtani and Judge, with Judge having a big lead in OBP and topping Ohtani in slugging. In a lot of months, Freeman and Devers would be easy winners. Just to see if the ballparks made a difference, Judge hit .444/.523/.981 on the road in the month, Ohtani was more even home and road.

Congratulations to Aaron Judge, the Baseball Musings Offensive Player of the Month for May 2025.

On the pitching side, Andrew Abbott of the Reds, Kris Bubic of the Royals, Nathan Eovaldi of the Rangers, and Bailey Falter of Pirates all posted ERAs under 1.00. Falter, with a 0.76 ERA is the outlier as he accomplished this with a poor strikeout rate and a higher walk rate. Like the other three, he allowed just one home run, however, and pitched the most innings of the four, 35 2/3 innings in six starts. Abbott beats out Bubic in ERA 0.55 to 0.56, due to Abbott pitching an extra 1/3 on an inning. Bubic posted slightly better strikeout and walk rates, while allowing two fewer hits, and only made five starts, so he went deeper in games.

We also need to consider the case of Robbie Ray of the Giants. Ray pitched 39 innings in six starts, fourth most in the majors, and did not allow a home run. He struck out 10.38 batters per nine and walked 2.54 batters per nine for a 1.38 ERA. There is also Tarik Skubal of the Tigers, second on the list in innings with 41 (one behind Framber Valdez of the Astros). Skubal walked just two batters and struck out 59 for a 2.20 ERA.

Note that once again, a high strikeout rate does not mean a low ERA.

Again, a tough choice but Bubic’s low ERA and his ability to go deep in games puts him over the edge. Congratulations to Kris Bubic, the Baseball Musings Pitcher of the Month for May 2025.

May 18, 2025

Racing for the Cy

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The 2025 season stands a bit past the quarter pole. That provides a base to look at the pitchers in contention for the Cy Young Award this season. The Day by Day Database provides four measures of this. Note that these are not necessarily ranking the overall quality of the pitchers. They are more a measure of how writers will vote.

The original Tom Tango Cy Young Point measure puts Max Fried of the Yankees one half point ahead of Hunter Brown of the Astros in the AL, and Logan Webb of the Giants 0.6 points ahead of Zack Wheeler of the Phillies in the NL. Note that six AL pitchers are ahead of Webb.

An enhanced version of the Tango point system builds in FIP, since writers are more stat savvy today. That puts Brown on top with Nathan Eovaldi of the Rangers second in the AL, 2.3 points separating the pair. Fried drops to third. Webb ranks third overall while leading the NL, but now Wheeler is tied with his teammate Jesus Luzardo for second place, both six points behind Webb.

Bill James also invented a Cy Young predictor, which gives relievers a shot at the award. Fried tops that list, with closer Andres Munoz of the Mariners second, 10.3 points back. Yoshinobu Yamamoto tops the NL, with Kodai Senga of the Mets second, 3.1 points back.

Finally, the Bill James season score turns out to be a decent predictor as well, Fried, Brown, and Munoz rank 1-2-3 in the AL and the Majors, while Wheeler, Robbie Ray of the Giants, Luzardo, and Webb go 1-2-3-4.

So the consensus puts Fried at the top of the AL, with Brown and Munoz the runners up. There is less of a consensus in NL, but Webb and Wheeler look like they would finish one and two, Webb likely coming out on top.

May 1, 2025

Players of the Month

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When looking for great batters, seeing a .300/.400/.500 slash line works as a good rule of thumb. In April 2025, Aaron Judge posted a .400/.500/.600 line, coming in at .415/.508/.651. Both his BA and OBP led the majors. Hitting .400, even for a month, is an impressive feat.

Pete Alonso, who finished second in both those categories, led the majors in slugging percentage. The difference between Judge and Alonso came from doubles, as the Mets first baseman knocked out eleven, tied with Alex Bregman and Bobby Witt Jr. for the MLB lead. That’s about 1/6th of the MLB record for a season, so maybe this is the year someone makes a run at 67 doubles.

Corbin Carroll, Cal Raleigh, and Mike Trout each hit nine home runs in the month. Trout collected few hits, but 11 of his 18 went for extra bases. His knee flared up last night, but at this point it does not look serious.

Among all those good Aprils, Judge’s stands out as the best. It’s tough to beat getting on base in over half of your plate appearances. Aaron Judge wins the Baseball Musings Offensive Player of the Month for April 2025.

Three pitchers posted ERAs under 1.00 in April, Max Fried at 0.82, Hunter Brown at 0.87, and Tyler Mahle at 0.90. Of those three, Brown by far owns the best three-true outcomes with 33 K, 4 BB and no home runs allowed. His 31 innings without a home run were the second most in the month.

High strikeout rates did not work well in April. The top five pitchers in K per 9 IP all had ERAs well above 3.00, most being hurt by home runs. Tarik Skubal, with an 11.53 K per 9 and an ERA1.52 was the first high K pitcher with a great ERA.

In the end, Brown’s combination of low ERA and great TTOs impresses the most. Hunter Brown wins the Baseball Musings Pitcher of the Month for April 2025.

November 21, 2024

Ohtani Matches Robinson

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Shohei Ohtani wins the 2024 NL MVP Award, and like Aaron Judge in the AL, he wins it unanimously. It’s his third MVP and his third unanimous win. He also joins Frank Robinson as the only players to win the MVP in both leagues.

Ohtani, who earned MVP honors in the American League in 2021 and 2023 with the Los Angeles Angels, becomes the second player in history to win the award in both leagues. The first was Frank Robinson, the National League MVP in 1961 with the Cincinnati Reds and the AL MVP in 1966 with the Baltimore Orioles. Ohtani is the only designated hitter to be named MVP. The DH rule was created by the AL in 1973 and adopted by the NL in 2022.

BBWAA.com

As I wrote earlier today, I thought someone would dissent and not vote a pure DH the award.

Francisco Lindor took second place easily, with 23 of the 30 second place votes. Ketel Marte received 5, Marcell Ozuna one, and Chris Sale one. Sale finished seventh, which seems to be the slot for the Cy Young winner this season. William Contreras of the Brewers made a nice showing, finishing fifth.

November 21, 2024

Unanimous Jury for Judge

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Aaron Judge won the AL MVP fir 2024 award unanimously. For the first time in the AL and the second time in MVP voting, second place was also unanimous, going to Bobby Witt Jr.

Judge, Witt, the Yankees’ Juan Soto, the Baltimore Orioles’ Gunnar Henderson and the Cleveland Guardians’ José Ramírez were named on every ballot.

BBWAA.com

Tarik Skubal, who won the Cy Young Award, finished seventh, the highest ranking pitcher on the list.

I’m somewhat surprised at the unanimity. I would have thought a couple of voters would have gone for the shortstop with the big offensive numbers. I’m starting to think the writers think alike a little too much.

November 21, 2024

Value Day

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The BBWAA presents the AL and NL MVP Awards for 2024 Thursday evening. Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani each produced the highest fWAR and rWAR in the their respective leagues, making them the favorites.

What I’m curious to see is how much defense plays a role in the vote. Bobby Witt Jr. trailed Judge by 0.8 WAR. Note that Witt’s offensive numbers were not just good for a shortstop, they were good by any measure. He also played excellent defense, where Judge did not. If I’m a Kansas City writer, I have no problem voting Witt first, and I’m not sure Witt shouldn’t be first. WAR in all it’s forms is an approximation (just as runs created in an approximation). I think it’s close enough that Judge will not win unanimously.

Ohtani has the same question writ larger. Francisco Lindor competes with Ohtani for the award based on his defense. Ketel Marte posted extremely good numbers, and like Witt, they were good numbers for anyone, not just a second baseman. Writer have been loathe to give designated hitters, as a strict DH has never won the award. (Don Baylor earned more PA as a fielder than as a DH in 1979.)

On the other hand, it seems as if MLB declared this the year of Ohatni. It’s understandable. He is a unique talent, a two-way player who brings in a large international audience. In terms of money, to himself and the league, he is the most valuable player. MLB did a poor job for many years of promoting their stars; that is not the case with Ohtani. The press picked up on this, especially as he chased a rather meaningless HR/SB record.

Will he be unanimous? The full time DH role may play a factor here. If I’m writing in New York or Arizona, I would have no problem putting my middle infielder on the ballot.

Judge and Ohtani are going to win, but I’m wondering how close it will be.

November 20, 2024

Easy Cys

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Chris Sale of the Braves and Tarik Skubal of the Tigers each easily won their league Cy Young Award for 2024. Sale took 26 of 30 first place votes to finish ahead of Zack Wheeler with 198 points to 130 for Wheeler. Paul Skenes appeared on 20 ballots, but collected 13 third place votes to show in the results.

In the AL, Skubal won unanimously, the third consecutive year with a unanimous vote. There was much more varied decisions down ballot. Seth Lugo finished second, appearing on all 30 ballots, the only other AL pitcher to do so. His 14 second place votes led that choice, but he received multiple votes in all four slots. The Royals did well, as Cole Ragans finished fourth.

November 20, 2024

Young at Heart

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The BBWAA presents the Cy Young Awards Wednesday evening, and I don’t believe there will be much of a surprise in the results. In the NL Chris Sale of the Braves posted a superlative season. He pitched 177 2/3 innings with remarkable three true outcomes, leading the NL with a 2.38 ERA. Paul Skenes owns the lowest ERA, 1.96, at the 130 inning mark and is in the mix for the award. The two are close in strikeout rate, but Sale is better in walks and home runs with 44 more innings on the mound. He is also ahead of Wheeler in all those categories.

In the AL Tarik Skubal finished best in ERA by 0.4 runs, while posting an 18-4 record. Like Sale, all of his three-true outcomes were excellent. I’m happy to see Seth Lugo make it into the top three as he was one of three MLB pitchers to hit the 200 inning mark. Emmanuel Clase is also in the mix. He allowed a very low BABIP, which made up for a below career average K per 9 for him. I don’t think that will make up for Skubal’s great season, although he might finish second.

I suspect Sale and Skubal will win the awards easily.

November 19, 2024

Murph a First

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Pat Murphy of the Brewers wins the NL Manager of the Year Award for 2024:

Pat Murphy is the first Milwaukee Brewers manager to win the Manager of the Year Award in BBWAA voting dating to 1983.

In previous elections, Brewers managers placed second seven times. Murphy’s predecessor, Craig Counsell, was the National League runner-up four times (2018-19, 2021, 2023) before moving on to helm the Chicago Cubs this year. Ron Roenicke finished second in the 2011 NL voting. Prior to 1998, the Brewers were in the American League and had two other runners-up, Phil Garner in 1992 and Tom Trebelhorn in 1987.

BBWAA.com

Murphy was the only manager listed on all 30 ballots. The vote was not close as Murphy took 27 of the first place votes and three second place votes.

David Roberts, whose Dodgers posted the best record in the NL despite a spate of pitching injuries and the loss of Mookie Betts for a good part of the season managed just three third place votes. Rob Thomson of the Phillies received just one vote, but for first place.

November 19, 2024 November 19, 2024

Manager Day

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The BBWAA announces the Manager of the Year Awards Tuesday evening. Three AL Central managers compete for the prize; A.J. Hinch of the Tigers, Matt Quatraro of the Royals, and Stephen Vogt of the Guardians.

Often the award goes to the manager of a team that exceeded expectations. All three of these teams fit that bill. It’s a tough call as well. The Royals made the playoffs after losing 106 games in 2023. Both the Guardians and Tigers finished a bit under .500, the Tigers in second place. Hinch owns a strong track record, and got the Tigers over the finish line despite the team being sellers at the trade deadline. Quatraro took a maturing team to the next level. Vogt actually won the division.

I think Vogt will get the award, as he came into the job with a plan. He wanted the team to be more aggressive at the plate, and the plan worked. It’s a very clear managerial effect that the others don’t show. My guess is that the order will be Vogt, Hinch, Quatraro.

The NL presents a tougher call. Carlos Mendoza of the Mets, Pat Murphy of the Brewers, and Mike Shildt of the Padres finished in the top three. Murphy likely has the inside track as a first-year manager who took over a team in flux. The manager, general manager, and pitcher Corbin Burnes were gone, all considered superlative at their jobs. The Brewers won the division easily. He stuck with Jackson Chourio through his early struggles, and the rookie paid off.

Both the Mets and Padres were expected to do well coming into the season, but got off to slow starts. The Padres were not so bad, 31-29 at the end of May, but the Mets were down at 24-33. The Mets went 65-40 the rest of the way, the best record in the majors, and the Padres matched them in the loss column at 62-40. The Mets had the better comeback.

We’ll see how the voters worked this out, but my guess the order will be Murphy, Mendoza, Shildt. I’m a bit surprised Dave Roberts didn’t do better, as he led the Dodgers to the best record in the league despite a dodgy pitching staff.

November 18, 2024

Gil Edges Cowser

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Luis Gil wins the AL Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Award for 2024. He beat Colton Cowser of the Orioles by a very slim five points. This looked like a toss up, but neither appeared on every ballot.

Colton Cowser of the Baltimore Orioles was listed on one more ballot than Gil, who had two more first-place votes. No player was named to every ballot.

BBWAA.com

Mason Miller and Cade Smith received the other two first place votes. Every player on the ballot received at least one second place and one third place vote.

November 18, 2024

Skenes Wins Rookie Vote

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Paul Skenes and Jackson Merrill took all of the first and second place votes, but Skenes won the NL Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Award for 2024. Skenes took 23 first place votes and seven second place votes, with Merrill getting the same split in the opposite direction.

Jackson Churio took 26 of the third place votes, with the others going to Shota Imagana.

Only four players received votes, the fewest in National League Rookie of the Year voting since the BBWAA went to a three-player ballot in 1980.

BBWAA.com