S18 Mid-Season Awards

AL MVP:  My goodness the AL is loaded with guys having fantastic seasons......Brady Jones, Omar Castillo, Santos Torres, Sammy Cochrane, Roy Bell, Ralph Kydd and Abraham Matthews to name a few would be worthy candidates in most seasons, but this ain't no ordinary season being put up by 3-time MVP Pedro "Hack" Bonilla.  Bonilla has been nothing short of Ruthian, hitting .352 with a .417 OBP and 1.155 OPS.  In 91 games he's got 35 HR's, 101 RBI's, 94 runs, 130 hits, 27 doubles and the man has even stolen 20 bases!!!  Bonilla is on pace to crack the top 5 single season runs created list and is on his way towards MVP #4.  If he gets his 4th MVP award, only Dante Ming who won 9 MVP's would have more.

AL Cy Young:  Among the many worthy contenders, its comes down to two, but how can the blog choose between Marino Pena and Dan Shaw?  Both of these men have been flat out dominant so far.  Pena has gone 12-3 for Augusta holding opponents to .230 OAV, .297 OBP and posting a 1.14 WHIP and a 2.91 ERA.  Shaw has been just as good for barjaz and his Rocks of Wichita by going 11-3 and holding opponents to .214 OAV, .292 OBP and posting a 1.13 WHIP and a 3.27 ERA.  To further illustrate just how even these guys are, both have both put up 13 quality starts.  Coin flip.........Marino Pena is the mid-season AL Cy Young!!         

AL ROY:  This is a two person race between Geovany Molina and Enos Hoffman (my apologies to Edwin Sabathia who's saved 15 of 17 for Cleveland).  Hoffman is tearing up AL pitching and leads all rookies with 28 HR (4th in the league).  On top of this he's racked up 91 hits, scored 53 runs, picked up 57 RBI and has swiped 15 of 19 SB attempts.  The only knock against him are his OBP of .343 and the fact that he strikes out more than double the amount he walks.    Most years these mid-season stats would be enough to win ROY at the end of the year, but not with Molina around.  Molina who must certainly benefit from the monsters that surround him in the Anaheim lineup, has been a little monster himself, hitting .311 with a .423 OBP and a 1.046 OPS.  Monlina also has went deep 21 times, scored 69 runs and has walked almost 2x for every strikeout.  His number are impressive and thus Geovany Molina is the mid-season AL ROY.

AL Manager of the Year:  dengodd2 -  Augusta was ranked 17th in the pre-season power rankings and dengodd2 has led them to 58 wins and the 2nd best record in the AL.....very impressive.

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NL MVP: This race is much less clear than in the AL, and I'd venture to say that there are 8-12 guys in the AL who'd be the NL MVP if they were in the NL.  That said the contenders in the NL include Chuck Merrick, Gary Girardi, Jason Swann, R.J. Ordonez, Groucho Hargrave, Raymond Brock, Nigel Lidge, Eugene Moreno, Tony Pena and Cesar Rios.  The mid-season NL MVP however belongs to none other than S17 NL MVP Frank Robbins.  Robbins has carried the Pelicans this season putting up 23 HR, 86 RBI, scoring 55 runs and walking 42x while hitting .332 with a .408 OBP.  Robbins is also leading the NL is runs created.

NL Cy Young: There are multiple pitchers having great seasons this year including Bronson Jiang,  Rico Roque and Robert Lambert to name just a few.  The blog also feels that Burlington's Gustavo Mateo deserves special recognition by going 11-2 with a 1.05 WHIP and a 2.36 ERA.  That said, the mid-season NL Cy Young has got to belong to the Downriggers Gregg Sweeney.   Sweeney has been a work-horse this year.  Not only is he 12-4 with a 1.25 WHIP and a 2.99 ERA, but he's pitched 4 complete game shutouts (already tied for #5 all-time) and has pitched 135.2 innings--2nd most in the NL.  Sweeney has also put together 15 quality starts on his way towards his first Cy Young award.    

NL ROY:  When Lee Fick went down with a serious early injury langer1979 must have been nervous.  Thanks to Les Callaway all those nerves are a distant memory and so is Mr. Fick's hold on the 1B spot in Chicago.  Callaway has been great so far racking up an NL leading 31 HR's to go along with 81 RBI and 66 runs on top of a near .300 OAV and .622 SLG. 

NL Manager of the Year:  langer1979 and tmantom3285 have their teams playing great ball, but both of these teams were top 10 in the pre-season power rankings.....cebola on the other hand has taken the pre-seasons 27th ranked team and lead them to the NL South division lead with 55 wins.....boy was the blog wrong on that one!!!  My bad...