Wake Me Up When September Ends

When the air gets cool, you know its about to be October Baseball. In this post, I will make my prediction of who is going gets which awards. (Hopefully with no bias)

AL MVP - Justin Verlander. How can he not be MVP? Without him, the Tigers would be somewhere around 2nd and 3rd place in the AL Central. I really considered Jacoby Ellsbury, Jose Bautista and of course Curtis Granderson. (If I was really bias) Ellsbury has the highest WAR (Win Above Replacement) then any other player this season. a 30/30 season also helps, but his team is not in the playoff. Bautista was my early favorite, but he slowed down since the All Star Break, plus his team was out of the running this season long ago. Granderson has a chance to win this, although he does have stiff competition. His team is in the playoff, but Yankees have other possible MVP candidate including CC and Cano. All in all, I think Verlander has a good possibility to win MVP and he should not be shunned because he plays 1/5 the game as these position players do.

NL MVP - Matt Kemp. Kind of contradictory to what I said about players in non contending team winning, but his numbers were that good. 39 homeruns and 40 Stolenbase, my God!. My other choice would of been Ryan Braun, but he will lose some votes to his teammate Prince Fielder. This decision was a lot easier then picking a AL MVP.

AL Cy Young - Justin Verlander. If he is winning MVP, he is definitely winning CY Young or this prediction would not make sense. Not to mention that he won the triple crown for pitching in the AL. The dark horse to win is CC Sabathia and Jered Weaver. Both had magnificent season, but Justin Verlander had a spectacular season.

NL Cy Young - Clayton Kershaw. Not in a contending team, but what great season he had. At the ripe age of 23, he already has a triple crown for pitching under his belt. Talk about future Hall of Famer. The dark horse to win is Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay of course. These two were great in Philadephia, but Clayton was flat nasty.

AL Rookie of the Year - Jeremy Hellickson. I really considered Mark Trumbo to win this, but I really like how Jeremy Hellickson did not waver as his team had a lot of pressure trying to overcome the Red Sox. I also considered Michael Pineda, but he was not the same after the All Star Break.

NL Rookie of the Year - Craig Kimbrel. I think this should be unanimous. Tie for most saves in the NL. Although he did falter at September, but take nothing a way from his accomplishment.

AL Comeback Player of the Year - Umm...Jacoby Ellsbury. This guy struggled with injuries last year and just manage to hit 32 homeruns, along with 39 stolen bases. No one comes close.


NL Comeback Player of the Year - Lance Berkman. This guy was terrible when he was with the Yankees. He hit 14 homeruns with the Yankees and Astros and batted .248 avg. This year, he hit 31 homerun and .301 avg. No brainer!

AL Manager of the Year - Joe Maddon. He managed his ball club to the post season. Although I am a big Yankee fan, by no means should Joe Giraridi win Manager of the Year. He do not know how to manage a club. Maddon had to face injuries by his franchise player Evan Longoria, unproductive BJ Upton, Yankees and Red Sox with only a payroll of only 42 million. Maddon should be able to win this.

NL Manager of the Year - Tony LaRussa. My close second is Kirk Gibson. I am aware that no one saw Arizona winning the NL West, but Tony had to deal with more adversity. Tony LaRussa had to deal with the re-surging Brewers, losing Adam Wainwright for the season, struggling/injured Pujols for the half, injured Matt Holiday and a struggling Chris Carpenter. I know the NL West is no walk in the park, but Arizona was just good this year. The whole Arizona offense clicked this year and the rise of Ian Kennedy really propelled them to win the West. Either one would not be a wrong choice.

These are my predictions and I'm aware that not everyone see eye to eye on these answers. Whoever reads this, feel free to leave down feedback and your prediction.

The Fall of the Berlin Wall.

In the wake of what happen in the baseball world yesterday, I had to make a blog about it. I do not even have time to introduce myself, but oh hey my name is Kevin, but Evan for short. Where do I even begin? Wow, what a monumental collapse by the Boston Red Sox.

Who would of thought the Boston Red Sox would blow an 9! game lead that they held since September. Many baseball analyst and sports writer already predicted the Red Sox to win the AL East, but boy were they wrong.


What went wrong with them exactly? Well first off, it was their pitching. Their pitching was a disaster. In September, the Red Sox pitching ERA was a dismal 5.84. Pitching was not only their problem, but the whole team in general. Injuries also played a big part. The offense was solid, but their base running and fielding was not so great. Although the Red Sox went 7-20 in September, the Rays had a little help from the Yankees.

Was it me or did the Yankees gift wrap the games to the Rays? Sure, the Yankees was winning 7-0 with with 2 innings left to go and they let the Rays rally. The Rays came to to the bottom of the 9th inning trailing by 1 run and the Yankees could of let Mariano Rivera close the game, (Yeah I'm sure they needed him to "rest" for the playoffs) but they did not use him. They had Cory Wade throw a meatball to Dan Who? Oh right Dan Johnson who is hitting .108 with a slugging percentage of .178 prior to last night's game. That of course setup Evan Longoria with the walk off home run in the 12th inning minutes after Jonathan Papelbon blown the save and let the Orioles walk off on them.

Well who is exactly to blame for their collapse?
-Theo Epstein (Boston's GM) - the man who made the team. Your first to get blame if everything goes wrong, but last to get congratulated for winning.

-John Lackey (Boston's Starting Pitcher) - 6.41 era. Need I say more?

-Carl Crawford (Boston's Left Fielder) - 142 Million Dollar Bust! .255 Average..

-Injuries - Boston was hit with a lot of injuries this season. Kevin Youkilis, Erik Bedard, Clay Buchholz, J.D Drew, Marco Scutaro just to name a few.

-Adrian Gonzalez (Boston's 1st Basemen) - Adrian was not actually a bust, but his post All Star Break numbers are not nearly as good as pre All Star Break.

-Terry Francona (Boston's Manager) - The manager gets blamed for not making the right choice. Kind of like a catch-22. If he made the right choices, he doesn't get the credit he really deserve, but if he makes the wrong choice, he will never hear the end of it.

-Daniel Bard (Boston's Relieve Pitcher) - Gave up 13 earn runs in September!! Took 4 losses in September alone. (Makes you wonder if he will be the closer next season)

-Pitching Staff - When you have Kyle Weiland pitching, you know your season is in trouble. 5.84 era in September also does not help your team.

Well there is always next season. This off season might be a tough one. Many questions on Epstein's moves, Papelbon, Wakefield and Varitek's contract. Many things the Red Sox has to address and the nation has to rebuild their confidence in their team.