House That Hank Built
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Atlanta Braves Hank Aaron Award : Who Cares?

By Fred Owens

Oct 31, 2015; New York City, NY, USA; Toronto Blue Jays infielder Josh Donaldson (left) , MLB commissioner Rob Manfred (middle) and Hank Aaron (right) at the Hank Aaron award press conference before game four of the World Series between the Kansas City Royals and the New York Mets at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 31, 2015; New York City, NY, USA; Toronto Blue Jays infielder Josh Donaldson (left) , MLB commissioner Rob Manfred (middle) and Hank Aaron (right) at the Hank Aaron award press conference before game four of the World Series between the Kansas City Royals and the New York Mets at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports /
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Kris Bryant is likely to win this year's Aaron Award
Oct 22, 2016; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant (17) hits an RBI single against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the first inning of game six of the 2016 NLCS playoff baseball series at Wrigley Field. Mandatory Credit: Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports /

This Year?

I’m less than optimistic about getting the a completely accurate result. Why? MLB and MLB.com changed the rules again making it even more of a popularity contest by including Twitter votes.

"For the first time in the award’s history, fans can also cast their votes on Twitter by using a unique hashtag for each finalist."

So the winner comes down to how many times you tweet your player’s hashtag. Yea that will work. . .Whoopee

The AL winner this year is clear but once again won’t win.

Player H HR RBI BA WRC+ wOBA FG OFF Tavg OWAR
Mike Trout 173 29 100 .315 171 .418 67.7 .355 9.9
Mark Trumbo 157 47 108 .256 123 .358 16.7 .276 2.8
David Ortiz 169 38 127 .315 163 .419 37.1 .317 5.0
Jose Abreu  183 25 100 .293 118 .349 9.4 .283 3.3
Jose Ramirez 176 11 76 .312 122 .355 24.9 .274 4.0
Miguel Cabrera 188 38 108 .316 152 .366 32.8 .306 5.5
Jose Altuve 216 24 96 .338 150 .396 43.3 .321 7.8
Eric Hosmer 161 25 104 .266 101 .326 -4.5 .261 1.7
Brian Dozier  165 42 99 .268 132 .370 31.9 .291 6.2
Didi Gregorius 155 20 70 .276 98 .319 2.0 .257 3.1
Khris Davis  137 42 102 .247 123 .349 14.0 .287 2.9
Nelson Cruz  169 43 105 .287 147 .383 34.0 .319 5.0
Evan Longoria  173 36 98 .273 123 .350 18.8 .292 4.8
Adrian Beltre 175 32 104 .300 130 .371 22.6 .297 4.9
Josh Donaldson 164 37 99 .284 155 .403 46.3 .315 7.2

Unless you’ve been living under a rock all year you’ll know this is David Ortiz’ last year. All season long every show gushed over Papi and rightly so. A 40-year-old having a year like he had and retiring is special.  So Big Papi will win the award but Mike Trout was the better hitter.

The NL numbers show a close race.

Player H HR RBI BA WRC+ wOBA FG OFF Tavg OWAR
Kris Bryant 176 39 102 .292 149 .396 49.1 .350 6.6
Joey Votto 181 29 97 .326 158 .413 45.7 .341 5.4
Freddie Freeman 178 34 91 .302 152 .402 45.5 .350 5.5
Daniel Murphy 184 25 104 .347 156 .408 43.3 .352 5.7
Corey Seager 193 26 105 .308 137 .317 33.9 .320 6.1
Christian Yelich 172 21 98 .298 130 .367 27.0 .318 4.6
Yoenis Cespedes 134 31 86 .280 134 .369 22.8 .326 3.2
Ryan Braun 156 30 91 .305 133 .378 22.5 .316 3.8
Wil Myers 155 28 94 .259 115 .341 20.4 .290 2.5
Nolan Arenado 182 41 133 .294 124 .386 19.8 .304 4.4
Jake Lamb 130 29 91 .249 114 .332 14.7 .287 3.4
Odubel Herrera 167 15 49 .286 110 .338 10.6 .293 3.7
Stephen Piscotty 159 22 85 .273 115 .345 8.9 .291 2.6
Brandon Crawford 152 12 84 .275 107 .327 8.4 .280 2.5
Gregory Polanco 136 22 86 .276 108 .331 6.0 .276 1.4

While there’s a good case for Murphy and a better one for Votto whom I personally prefer, Bryant’s going to take this award and be league MVP like Donaldson last year.

Unlike Donaldson’s win Bryant has a clear argument for his win while Josh won because he was the “bringer of rain.”  That makes him MVP, not the best hitter.

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