Our season-long projections continue today with our guesses for the major individual awards for 2017.
The other day, we presented our guesses for the outcome of the major league season. Today it’s the awards part of the program… and we do feel like the Atlanta Braves have a good shot at taking part.
Rookies of the Year
These results are going to shock no one. And for that matter, they match up with what the majority of national baseball watchers seem to be picking as well.
- NL: Dansby Swanson, who was named on 92% of our ballots. Somebody had a brain fart and put Corey Seager down for their vote, which is cool, except that he already has one of these trophies.
- AL: Andrew Benintendi was named on 66% of the votes we tallied from the staff. Aaron Judge was picked for the honors on 3 ballots.
Some outlier editor (me) offered up Yoan Moncada. In my defense, I have those other two guys – Benintendi and Judge – are runners-up in that order.
Some names offered to challenge Swanson for the hardware include Manuel Margot (Padres OF; Kimbrel trade w/Boston) and Tyler Glasnow of the Pirates.
Cy Young Awards
Sirius/XM radio’s MLB Network channel conducted a survey of this award among call-in listeners yesterday afternoon, and the spread of votes was interesting… especially in the National League. Chris Sale got their nod in the AL, but it was hardly a landslide vote tally.
With our staff, the voting went like this:
National League:
- Clayton Kershaw – 7 votes
- Jon Lester – 1
- Julio Teheran – 1
- Madison Bumgarner – 1
- Noah Syndergaard – 2
American League
- Chris Sale – 6
- Aaron Sanchez – 1
- Justin Verlander – 1
- Felix Hernandez – 1
- Corey Kluber – 2
- Aaron Sanchez – 1
I admit being surprised not seeing more votes for one of the Mets’ front line… but if Kershaw is healthy all year, he will be tough to beat.
On the AL side, it’s really hard to argue against Sale. He’ll have run-support and with David Price nursing his arm, he will be the unquestioned staff leader (Rick Porcello‘s oddly-acquired trophy notwithstanding).
Most Valuable Players
National League
- Freddie Freeman – 4 votes
- Corey Seager – 3
- Kris Bryant – 2
- Paul Goldschmidt – 1
- Bryce Harper – 1
- Yoenis Cespedes – 1
- (An honorable mention for Giancarlo Stanton was thrown in)
American League
- Mike Trout – 7 votes
- Robinson Cano – 2
- Machado, Betts, Correa – 1 apiece
Trout is the safe pick, for sure: even if he doesn’t win the award, he’ll probably be in the Top 3 of the balloting at season’s end.
But several of our staff believe there’s still room to grow for Freeman – even after his monster second half. If that actually happens… this could be a special season for a lot of reasons.
That’s how we stack them up… but let’s hear your takes below!