2007 EC MLB AWARDS

by Jacob, Vegas Watch

Awhile back, we did some midseason MLB awards voting on this site. This was fun, so we did it again. Here we go.


I would think A-Guez will win unanimously in the BBWAA voting as well. Nobody except me voted for him (3rd), but David Ortiz had another great year- .445 OBP, 52 doubles, 35 homers. Didn't hit five walk-offs though, so nobody cared.


We did all of the voting after the Rockies-Padres game on Monday, but as I understand it the same is not true for the writers. Apparently their ballots were due on Monday, so that could have a large effect on the voting. If they took Monday's game into account I think Holliday would win; if not, it's probably Rollins.

It would be interesting to know what everybody's ballots looked like with two weeks to go in the season- I suspect David Wright would have won fairly easily. That didn't really work out for anyone involved. Although I do think it is relevant that Wright hit .352 in September, with a .432 OBP, nine doubles, and six homers. Partially for this reason (and mostly for others), he was first on my ballot. Oh well.


Oh boy. I just don't see how one puts Beckett first on their ballot. I've tried to, but I can't.

If you go by the traditional stats (which the writers certainly will, and most in this voting likely did), the lines look like this:


I don't understand how you look at this information and decide Josh Beckett was the best pitcher in the American League this year. He is fourth out of four in the two most important numbers here, IP and ERA. Does the fact the Red Sox scored 6.59 runs per game than him, allowing him to win twenty games (and ONE more than the other three), really make him a better pitcher? Sabathia pitched FORTY more innings, managed to walk fewer guys despite that, and had a lower ERA. They both pitched for division winners, so if you want to factor team success in Beckett doesn't have an edge there either. I don't get the argument here. I'd love to know.

If you're like me, and look at BP's VORP leaders, you find Beckett fourth in the AL. Moving on.


Same as the AL MVP race, although at least second place wasn't unanimous in this one. I really don't have much to say about this- Peavy had an amazing year, even after considering the park he pitches in. I do find it interesting that he didn't pitch more than seven innings all year.


I've already spent way too much time on the Tulo-Braun debate. I voted for Tulowitzki, myself. Braun had a psychotic year (.634 SLG) at the plate, but he is really, really bad at third. He also only played for four months. None of makes him particularly good when compared to Tulo, who is a great fielder, and played the entire season. I'll be very interested to see who takes this one in the BBWAA voting- a couple weeks ago I was sure it would be Braun, but now I'm not so convinced.

I would suspect Pedroia will win the actual hardware as well. I was the only one who voted for Jeremy Guthrie (2nd), and I know he was terrible in the second half (5.03 ERA), but we are looking at the whole year here, and a 3.70 ERA over 175.1 innings is pretty impressive for a rookie, as is a 123:43 K:BB ratio.

Photo: NNDB.