S23 NL Awards

NL MVP - Hi Shouse:   I know there could be arguments out there for some other guys (Roland Soriano and Art Krause in particular) but the blog don't want to hear that nonsense!!!  Shouse was simply amazing this year ---sure he smacked 39 HR, had 107 RBI, 217 hits, 103 runs, and a slash line of .327/.379/.550, but we can't overlook the fact that he was the second coming of Ken Griffey Jr. in CF this season.  35 plus plays is obscene!!!!

NL Cy Young - Rafael Beltre:   This one was tough.  As far as the blog was concerned, it came down to Beltre and his running mate, Bryan Christiansen.   Both men clearly benefited from that fact that they put up the numbers they did in hitter friendly Colorado.   Neither men put up the dominant number seen by Hurst and Valdes in the AL, but considering where they were pitching, they were more than solid.   Beltre was 15-7, 218 innings pitched, 1.35 WHIP, 3.46 ERA, 22 QS, 5 CG and 2 Shutouts.  Christiansen was 15-3, 182.1 innings pitched, 1.28 WHIP, 3.16 ERA, 19 QS and 2 CG.  In the end the fact that Beltre threw about 40 more innings, had 3 more CG's and had 2 Shutouts were the deciding factor.   Time to lock this young man up long term!!!

NL ROY - Welington Rijo:   Any other year and this award would be going to Santo Cerda ( hell, for that matter 5 more wins and he would probably be winning the Cy Young as well), but unfortunately Mr. Cerda ran into the second coming of ARod legend, Omar Castillo!!!  Rijo came up after the 20 game call up mark to save a year of eligibility and immediately started bashing NL pitching.  In 141 games, he finished with 98 runs, 168 hits, 39 HR, 123 RBI, 66 walks, 125.246 RC and a slash line of .319/.395/.608!!  Mr. Rijo is a beast!!!

NL Coach of the Year:  With a 24 win improvement and a jump from the cellar to the playoffs, mtg54 just edges out ARod pioneer and S3 World Series Champ, richard46920 who made a hugely successful return to the world (can we put the venom on the beginning of the season behind us?)  If richard46920 didn't have a solid team left behind by holer to work with the script could be flipped, but in the end mtg54's huge improvement and shrewd pickup's have the blog leaning his direction.  Congrats to mtg54!!