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Hello. It's November 6th and Major League Baseball is about to kick off its annual awards week extravaganza! (This extravaganza is actually 11 days long and isn't really much of an extravaganza.) Tomorrow, the BBWAA awards finalists will be announced on MLB Network at 3 pm PST. Over the course of the next several days, many players will be fortunate enough to receive shiny metallic trophies that are shaped like gloves or bats or balls or other baseball paraphernalia. It's a good time.
Here at Lookout Landing (where we have recently formed our very own super serious LLWAA, which is definitely not made up), we wanted to release the recipients of our end of the year awards before the BBWAA finalists are announced tomorrow. Many of the fine writers for this blog sat down and dedicated entire minutes to determine who they believed was most deserving of the MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year, and Manager of the Year awards in each league.
The scoring used by the LLWAA is VERY OFFICIAL; we used the same system that is employed by the stodgy ol' folks down at the BBWAA. For all awards, there is a point system that is determined by a player's rank on a ballot. For the MVP award, the top-10 players are selected in each league; a first-place vote is worth 14 points and the second through 10th spots on a ballot are worth 9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 points, respectively. For the Cy Young award, five players are selected in each league, and the point values are 7-4-3-2-1. Finally, for the Rookie of the Year and Manager of the Year awards, three people are selected; the points are worth 5-3-1. (This explanation is awful and makes everything sound approximately 17 times as complicated as it actually is. Oh well.)
To the results!
| 2016 AL MVP | ||||||
| Rank | Name | Vote Points | 1st Place Votes |
Share | fWAR | rWAR |
| 1 | Mike Trout | 126 | 9 | 100.0% | 9.4 | 10.6 |
| 2 | Mookie Betts | 78 | 0 | 61.9% | 7.8 | 9.6 |
| T-3 | Josh Donaldson | 64 | 0 | 50.8% | 7.6 | 7.4 |
| T-3 | Jose Altuve | 64 | 0 | 50.8% | 6.7 | 7.7 |
| 5 | Robinson Cano | 47 | 0 | 37.3% | 6.0 | 7.3 |
| 6 | Manny Machado | 39 | 0 | 31.0% | 6.5 | 6.7 |
| 7 | Francisco Lindor | 36 | 0 | 28.6% | 6.3 | 5.7 |
| 8 | Adrian Beltre | 29 | 0 | 23.0% | 6.1 | 6.4 |
| 9 | Brian Dozier | 20 | 0 | 15.9% | 5.9 | 6.5 |
| 10 | Kyle Seager | 9 | 0 | 7.1% | 5.5 | 6.9 |
| 11 | Justin Verlander | 6 | 0 | 4.8% | 5.2 | 6.6 |
| 12 | Miguel Cabrera | 5 | 0 | 4.0% | 4.9 | 4.6 |
| 13 | Ian Kinsler | 3 | 0 | 2.4% | 5.8 | 6.1 |
| T-14 | David Ortiz | 2 | 0 | 1.6% | 4.4 | 5.1 |
| T-14 | Adam Eaton | 2 | 0 | 1.6% | 6.0 | 6.2 |
| 16 | Jose Ramirez | 1 | 0 | 0.8% | 4.8 | 3.9 |
No controversy here. Mike Trout is clearly the best player in the AL (and in all of baseball) and should be rewarded for his excellent performance... even if he does suit up for Los Anaheimgeles. There's also a healthy dose of Mariners love with Kyle and Robbie receiving an ample amount of support (as it should be).
| 2016 NL MVP | ||||||
| Rank | Name | Vote Points | 1st Place | Share | fWAR | rWAR |
| 1 | Kris Bryant | 115 | 7 | 91.3% | 8.4 | 7.7 |
| 2 | Corey Seager | 83 | 1 | 65.9% | 7.5 | 6.1 |
| 3 | Freddie Freeman | 60 | 0 | 47.6% | 6.1 | 6.5 |
| 4 | Nolan Arenado | 43 | 0 | 34.1% | 5.2 | 6.5 |
| 5 | Daniel Murphy | 40 | 0 | 31.7% | 5.5 | 4.6 |
| 6 | Jose Fernandez | 32 | 1 | 25.4% | 6.2 | 4.2 |
| 7 | Anthony Rizzo | 30 | 0 | 23.8% | 5.2 | 5.7 |
| 8 | Noah Syndergaard | 18 | 0 | 14.3% | 6.5 | 5.3 |
| 9 | Justin Turner | 16 | 0 | 12.7% | 5.6 | 4.9 |
| 10 | Joey Votto | 15 | 0 | 11.9% | 5.0 | 4.0 |
| 11 | Bradon Crawford | 12 | 0 | 9.5% | 5.8 | 4.5 |
| 12 | Paul Goldschmidt | 11 | 0 | 8.7% | 4.8 | 4.8 |
| 13 | Max Scherzer | 7 | 0 | 5.6% | 5.6 | 6.2 |
| T-14 | Charlie Blackmon | 2 | 0 | 1.6% | 3.9 | 4.4 |
| T-14 | Clayton Kershaw | 2 | 0 | 1.6% | 6.5 | 5.5 |
| T-16 | Christian Yelich | 1 | 0 | 0.8% | 4.4 | 5.3 |
| T-16 | Jean Segura | 1 | 0 | 0.8% | 5.0 | 5.7 |
There's a bit more disagreement in the NL, but Kris Bryant is still the strong favorite. Also, please note that Jean Segura received one 10th place vote while the Most Amazing Player in All of Baseball™ (i.e., Bryce Harper) was absent from every LLWAA ballot. Weird.
| 2016 AL Cy Young | ||||||
| Rank | Name | Vote Points | 1st Place Votes |
Share | fWAR | rWAR |
| 1 | Chris Sale | 40 | 3 | 63.5% | 5.2 | 4.9 |
| 2 | Corey Kluber | 39 | 3 | 61.9% | 5.1 | 6.4 |
| 3 | Justin Verlander | 36 | 3 | 57.1% | 5.2 | 6.6 |
| 4 | Rick Porcello | 24 | 0 | 38.1% | 5.2 | 5.0 |
| 5 | Zach Britton | 6 | 0 | 9.5% | 2.5 | 4.3 |
| 6 | Masahiro Tanaka | 5 | 0 | 7.9% | 4.6 | 5.4 |
| 7 | Andrew Miller | 3 | 0 | 4.8% | 2.9 | 3.9 |
This race is incredibly close, which speaks to the fact that none of the pitchers in the AL had a particularly spectacular season to set themselves apart from their peers. I wouldn't be surprised if any of the top four gentlemen in this table took home the CYA.
| 2016 NL Cy Young | ||||||
| Rank | Name | Vote Points | 1st Place Votes |
Share | fWAR | rWAR |
| 1 | Jose Fernandez | 51 | 5 | 81.0% | 6.2 | 4.2 |
| 2 | Noah Syndergaard | 40 | 2 | 63.5% | 6.5 | 5.3 |
| 3 | Max Scherzer | 32 | 2 | 50.8% | 5.6 | 6.2 |
| 4 | Kyle Hendricks | 10 | 0 | 15.9% | 4.5 | 5.0 |
| 5 | Johnny Cueto | 9 | 0 | 14.3% | 5.5 | 5.6 |
| 6 | Clayton Kershaw | 6 | 0 | 9.5% | 6.5 | 5.6 |
| 7 | Madison Bumgarner | 5 | 0 | 7.9% | 4.9 | 5.0 |
I imagine that manyf folks would feel a lot of emotions if Jose Fernandez were to receive this award posthumously. There's a very strong argument that his 2016 season deserves the honor.
| 2016 AL Rookie of the Year |
||||||
| Rank | Name | Vote Points | 1st Place Votes |
Share | fWAR | rWAR |
| 1 | Michael Fulmer | 37 | 6 | 82.2% | 3.0 | 4.9 |
| 2 | Gary Sanchez | 33 | 3 | 73.3% | 3.2 | 3.0 |
| 3 | Edwin Diaz | 9 | 0 | 20.0% | 1.9 | 1.4 |
| T-4 | Chris Devenski | 1 | 0 | 2.2% | 2.8 | 2.8 |
| T-4 | Tyler Naquin | 1 | 0 | 2.2% | 2.5 | 0.9 |
It feels like this race essentially comes down to whether or not a voter thinks 229 PA is enough to warrant a first place ROY vote. Michael Fulmer was very effective (if somewhat unspectacular) for almost the entire season, whereas Gary Sanchez was hot hot fire after he was called up in August.
| 2016 NL Rookie of the Year |
||||||
| Rank | Name | Vote Points | 1st Place Votes |
Share | fWAR | rWAR |
| 1 | Corey Seager | 45 | 9 | 100.0% | 7.5 | 6.1 |
| 2 | Trea Turner | 19 | 0 | 42.2% | 3.3 | 3.5 |
| 3 | Kenta Maeda | 13 | 0 | 28.9% | 3.3 | 2.4 |
| T-4 | Seung-hwan Oh | 2 | 0 | 4.4% | 2.6 | 2.8 |
| T-4 | Trevor Story | 2 | 0 | 4.4% | 2.8 | 3.1 |
This race is about as close the women's 800M freestyle race was at the Rio Olympics last summer.
| 2016 AL Manager of the Year | ||||
| Rank | Name | Vote Points | 1st Place Votes |
Share |
| 1 | Terry Francona | 45 | 9 | 100.0% |
| 2 | John Farrell | 13 | 0 | 28.9% |
| 3 | Buck Showalter | 11 | 0 | 24.4% |
| 4 | Jeff Banister | 4 | 0 | 8.9% |
I wonder how many voters felt remorseful about throwing a second or third place vote Showalter's way after the conclusion of the AL WC game. (I know I did.)
| 2016 NL Manager of the Year | ||||
| Rank | Name | Vote Points | 1st Place Votes |
Share |
| 1 | Joe Maddon | 39 | 7 | 86.7% |
| 2 | Dave Roberts | 19 | 1 | 42.2% |
| 3 | Terry Collins | 10 | 1 | 22.2% |
| 4 | Don Mattingly | 4 | 0 | 8.9% |
| 5 | Dusty Baker | 3 | 0 | 6.7% |
| 6 | Pete Mackanin | 1 | 0 | 2.2% |
Congratulations to you if you knew which team Mackanin managed without having to go look it up. You are a better baseball fan than I am.
- - -
Done! It doesn't feel like the LLWAA made any picks that are particularly outrageous, but we'll have to wait 11 more days to see just how well these agree with the actual results. If you feel like sharing your picks or making fun of ours, please feel free to do so in the comments.
goms