Blog Entry #6

With the 2021 MLB season officially over, we’ve officially moved into award season. I will outline my personal picks for a few major awards and explain my reasoning.

AL MVP: Shohei Ohtani.

He’s compared to Babe Ruth for a reason and that’s because nobody has both hit and pitched at an elite level since Ruth in the ancient days of baseball. There’s really no reason anyone should vote against Ohtani as he is clearly the most valuable player by every definition of the award. Vlad Guerrero Jr. clearly had better hitting stats than Ohtani and improved defensively from previous seasons, but there’s no way you can say Guerrero Jr. was more valuable than Ohtani, even with each team’s win-loss record factored in.

NL MVP: Juan Soto.

Juan Soto may have had the most dominant season since any one of Barry Bonds’ years, and the reason is that no pitcher threw him anything to hit. They were all too scared to throw to him. He had a .465 OBP, a number that doesn’t even seem real in today’s pitcher-friendly era. He didn’t slug the ball at a crazy rate however which is why he won’t be unanimous. Bryce Harper should be the only other NL player getting first-place votes, as he too had a crazily high OBP of .429 combined with a .615 SLG. However, I would give Soto the nod based on the pure fear factor from opposing pitchers.

AL Cy Young: Robby Ray.

The AL Cy Young seems so lacking this year, similar to 2016 when Rick Porcello won it with a season that in retrospect doesn’t look dominating in the same way that a Cy Young winner usually does. There was no standout pitcher this year. However Robby Ray deserves to win it as the best of the candidates. Ray had 11.5 K/9 with just 2.4 BB/9, which translated to a 2.84 ERA. He had an all around really good season. Gerrit Cole is a close second and him and Ray had very similar seasons based on the statistics. However, Cole’s 3.23 ERA ruins his chances compared to Ray.

NL Cy Young: Corbin Burnes.

I like to think that the Cy Young should go to the most dominant pitcher, and Corbin Burnes was definitely that (not counting deGrom’s partial season). 12.6 K/9 (best in NL), 1.8 BB/9, and an astounding 0.4 HR/9 translate into a 1.63 FIP and a league-best 2.43 ERA. There are plenty of options for second place, but Corbin Burns should get the NL Cy Young

AL Rookie of the Year: Luis Garcia.

The duo on the Tampa Bay Rays each made a good case for their own selection, but I would pick Luis Garcia as AL Rookie of the Year. A 3.48 ERA with a nearly equal FIP in 155 innings is more impressive to me than the stats Randy Arozarena put up. Arozarena has a legitimate case however, putting up 4.1 WAR, compared to Garcia’s total of 2.6. I consider Garcia to have been better, but it really comes down to pitching vs hitting.

NL Rookie of the Year: Trevor Rogers.

The NL Rookie of the Year race is basically the exact same as the AL version. Jonathan India has pretty similar stats to Randy Arozarena, and Trevor Rogers edges him out with a solid rookie pitching season. Rogers allowed just six home runs which factors into his 2.64 ERA. He only pitched 133 innings compared to India’s full season, but his stats don’t suggest he would have slowed down with more innings. He gets the nod in my opinion.