Baseball Week 1: Time to Look at the Award Races!

I am probably as excited as anybody about the beginning of baseball season, partially because PRP was just launched so I can write all the baseball articles I want without bogging down my personal page. My favorite thing about baseball is the excess of statistical data around it, it is a game of numbers and I am a mathematics student, we play nice.  The obvious benefit of so much data is that it is fairly easy to use the numbers to make your arguments on who is best, especially for the use in deciding awards, so since small sample size is no problem for me here are my early looks at the major end of the season awards.

Ahh!  Its a major award!

AL MVP

Lets look at reigning MVP Justin Verlander first, a judgement of his person would quickly lead most people to conclude "Fuck him he's a pitcher..." but an in depth look at his current stats on the season (0-1, 2.20 ERA, 0.55 WHIP, 14K) instantly changes that conclusion to "Fuck him he's a pitcher with a losing record."  Now that we have Verlander and all other pitchers out of the equation (yeah, we are just going to ignore them), we can look at the important people who hit things with wood.  Miguel Cabrera certainly looks like the early favorite as he is hitting .381 thus far and is on pace for 81 HR and 243 RBI.  I checked, both of those would be single season records.  But before you get too excited about these "perennial candidates" let me direct your attention toward Josh Willingham of the Twins who may be having an even better year.  As of now he is on pace to not only be on a wild home run chase with Cabrera as he is on pace to slug 108 homers, but he is also on pace to be the first person to hit .400 since Ted Williams in 1941!  Even though Cabrera may have a temporary lead on him in RBI, Willingham is on pace for a truly historic season so needs to be the clear favorite in the AL MVP race despite being on a 2-4 Twins team.

He is also a fantastic defender!

NL MVP
Since all of Braun's numbers are down from last year we can safely write off the drop in numbers to his drop in testosterone and write him off our ballots.  Last year's playoff hero David Freese apparently agrees with me that small sample size is an excuse made only by turbo-geeks and people who need excuses for not playing like a champion.  He is off to a hot start hitting .429 with 3 HR and 10 RBI, I can only let you think about how awesome those numbers are going to look by the end of the season, but I get the feeling this guy is only going to get better.  But Freese only has a measly .750 slugging percentage which pales in comparison to some absolute BEASTS in the NL, those BEASTS are Corey Hart, Omar Infante and Chris Young who have slugging percentages of .941 .920 and .909 respectively.  While all of those look weak compared to Josh Willingham, they knock Freese out of the race even with his RBI prowess.  So we have a three man race for the NL MVP right now, but I'm putting my money on Infante since he is a 2B and the Marlins are on national TV every other day.

The only way to slow down this BEAST is to punch him in the balls!

AL Cy Young

We already established that Verlander is a loser this year so he is so far down the list I don't even want to speak his name again for the rest of my life.  Lets find some winners, like Minnesota's Jeff Gray!  This dude has 2 wins in 1.2 innings, talk about effeciency!  He has also already pitched in 4 games so he would have 4 wins already if some Twins hitters not named Willingham could hit.  We also have Rookie of the Year Jeremy Hellickson who pitched 8.2 scoreless innings in his debut for the win.  He did get hit in the head with a line drive during batting practice yesterday, but i'm sure that won't slow him down.  So the question is do you prefer to rate pitchers on wins or being a total workhorse?  I love workhorses, so I'll take Hellboy and his potential for a 32-0 record with 277.1 scoreless innings this year.  

Also quite intimidating on the mound.

NL Cy Young

Clayton Kershaw can pitch as well has he wants this year (and he has been pitching rather well), but there is only one headline among all of the pitchers in the NL, the return of Barry Zito!  The 2002 AL Cy Young winner is here to prove us that the only way to do things is to only try every 10 years and reap the benefits.  Now that Zito is actually trying again, he is going to go out there and throw at least 27 complete game shutouts this year and collectively tell hitters "Fuck you, I'm Barry Fucking Zito, look at my 12-6 curve!"  Nobody else is even approaching his level so I won't even bother giving them hope.  

And hes a hunk!

AL Manager of the Year

There are no numbers for managers at all so I'm only left to believe the voting is based entirely on how adequately an old guy can remind us of this Spongebob scene.  My vote is Joe Maddon, he seems to get it every year anyways.

He even has technology!

NL Manager of the Year
Looking for radical old folk?  Look no further than Ozzie Guillen.  He gets bonus points for being controversial, as he is currently suspended 5 games for talking about some Fidel Castro guy, I think he's one of their top minor league prospects or something.  I don't pay much attention to that stuff but, as I already pointed out, the Marlins are on national TV every other day.

Bad fans are also bad at 1st grade!

All joking aside here are my real predictions for the end of the year.
AL MVP: Miguel Cabrera (He will be considered the best player in baseball this time next year)
NL MVP: Troy Tulowitzki (He's due and the NL West is winnable)
AL Cy Young: Justin Verlander (I know its a popular pick but he is a great pitcher in a weak hitting division)
NL Cy Young: Adam Wainwright (I needed a risky pick, and I love this guy)
AL Manager: Joe Maddon (The man does good work)
NL Manager: Mike Matheny (They love new guys on winning teams)