We’re still a couple weeks away from MLB’s regular season awards being handed out, but since the regular season is over, we can make cases for which players deserve which awards.  There have been some pretty egregious selections in the past, so it wouldn’t surprise me if certain players are shafted this year, too.  Basically, if someone – let’s call him Jerek Deter – receives a lifetime achievement award in the form of an MVP trophy while someone else – called, say, Moe Jauer – receives no recognition for having an unprecedented season for a catcher, I’m going to firebomb the BBWAA.  Keep reading for Unathletic’s picks for the MVP, Cy Young, and Rookie of the Year Awards in each league.

American League Most Valuable Player

Joe Mauer led the AL in OBP and slugging, and was the only player in the league to sport an OPS over 1.000.  When you throw in the fact that he plays his position as well as anyone, Mauer is a no-brainer for the AL MVP.  Many will make the case for Derek Jeter, but he simply doesn’t deserve it this year.  Sure, Jeter’s having a great season, but 1) Mauer’s is clearly better and 2) if we’re going to get into the whole value part of the argument, Jeter is on a team whose lineup features seven guys with at least 22 home runs.  You can make the argument about leadership and intangibles, and I’ll wipe my ass with those arguments.  The proof is in the numbers, and Mauer should win this award.

American League Cy Young

While not as clear cut as the AL MVP race, I think it’s obvious that Grienke deserves the AL Cy Young Award.  At this point, anyone who evaluates a pitcher’s performance based on wins should be dragged out to a field and shot.  Cy Young himself couldn’t win more than 18 or 19 games on the Royals; wins are a team-dependent statistic and shouldn’t be given much weight at all.  Grienke led the AL in ERA and WHIP.  Felix Hernandez had a slightly better BAA (.227 to .230), but Grienke struck out 25 more batters (not team-dependent) and walked 20 fewer (also not team-dependent).  Felix may win the award next year, and CC would dominate any of these guys in a pie-eating contest (again, not team-dependent), but Grienke was the best pitcher in the AL this season.

American League Rookie of the Year

This was the most difficult award to decide.  Despite strong rookie seasons from Rock Porcello and Gordon Beckham, Jeff Niemann had the most impressive rookie season out of anyone in the AL.  Niemann’s numbers were very comparable to Porcello’s (Niemann: 3.94 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, 125 K, 59 BB; Porcello: 3.96 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, 89 K, 52 BB), but the fact that Niemann has a better K-rate (meaning he can get batters out without help from his teammates and relies less on luck than Porcello) and pitches in the terrifying AL East gives him the edge.  It’s daunting, really.  A rookie pitcher taking on the Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays, and even the Orioles is like:

a) Sports Guy metaphor – Daniel San taking on Cobra Kai before meeting Mr. Miyagi.

b) Political metaphor – Sarah Palin taking on Newsweek, Time, U.S. News – “all of them.”

c) Sex metaphor – a virgin taking on Audrey Bitoni and Nikki Benz in a threesome.

And the correct answer is “C.”

National League Most Valuable Player

There’s absolutely zero argument for anyone to win the NL award over Albert Pujols.  Fielder and Hanley had tremendous seasons, but Pujols’ was legendary.  Pujols had a 1.101 OPS (compared to the defensively inferior Fielder’s 1.014), belted 47 homers, and even stole 16 bases at an 80% success rate.  These are silly, video game numbers.  Pujols will and should win, and we should probably get used to that.

National League Cy Young

Tim Lincecum should win the NL CY Young Award over Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright.  Sure, Carpy’s ERA was a quarter of a run better than Lincecum’s, and his WHIP was slightly better, too (1.01 to 1.05), but Lincecum gave his team about 32 more innings of shut-down pitching.  That amounts to a little over 3 starts.  Lincecum dominated the strikeout category, too, leading the league with 261 (!).  It’s amazing that he’s only 25.

National League Rookie of the Year

Like the AL ROY Award, the NL ROY was difficult to decide.  J.A. Happ pitched way better than anyone expected in Philly (2.93 ERA in 166 innings), and Tommy Hanson had a great year in Atlanta (2.89 ERA in 127.2 innings).  It was Chris Coghlan, though, who had the best NL rookie season.  Coghlan ended up finishing the season with a .390 OBP, and that’s from a large sample size of over 500 at bats.  Coghlan took the leadoff spot away from the offensively anemic Emilio Bonifacio and actually gave Hanley the opportunity to drive in runs.  Significantly, Coghlan led all rookies in hits, OBP, total bases, doubles, and multi-hit games.  He had the most hits since the all-star break (110) out of any player in baseball, let alone rookies.  It’s tough to compare hitters with pitchers, but Coghlan is the choice here.