Stark: Handing out end-of-season awards, from Cy Young to Cy Yuk, MVP to LVP | The Athletic ($)
Jayson Stark of The Athletic released his mock end-of-season awards ballot on Thursday. He notes that the choices published here won’t be exactly the same as he has an actual vote and is not allowed to release the real deal at this time. Before we briefly summarize his picks and I get in on the fun with my own choices, let’s look at the Colorado Rockies’ award winner in detail.
Stark hands out Cy Young awards and also “Cy Yuk” awards for the pitchers in each league who had the worst season. The National League Cy Yuk award went to none other than Wade Davis (though Kyle Freeland is also mentioned as an honorable mention).
There’s a lot to say about just how bad Davis’ year was and Stark includes all the statistics that reinforce that point. What Stark also does is reminds us of the Davis of old. From 2014-2015, he pitched to an ERA of 0.97. It was an incredible run of 139 1/3 innings in which he kept his earned run average under one. And now the Rockies are seeing him with an ERA of 8.65 (the highest mark of any pitcher with 50 or more games this year) in the second year of a three-year, $52 million contract. Stark opines that this has some to do with Coors Field. I’m of a mind that the ballpark isn’t to blame for his worst strikeout rate since becoming a reliever, a walk rate over six per nine innings and a velocity decline. Anyway…
Stark’s pick for American League Most Valuable Player is Mike Trout, while his NL MVP is Christian Yelich (Nolan Arenado is given an honorable mention for being in the conversation). For Cy Youngs, he goes with Justin Verlander in the AL and Jacob deGrom in the NL. Rookies of the Year are Yordan Álvarez for the AL and Pete Alonso takes home honors in the senior circuit.
The season isn’t over yet and there are certainly some close races to keep an eye on, but I will also entertain you with my picks as of this writing.
NL MVP:
1. Cody Bellinger
2. Nolan Arenado
3. Christian Yelich
4. Anthony Rendon
5. Ronald Acuña Jr.
6. Yasmani Grandal
7. Stephen Strasburg
8. Jacob deGrom
9. Jack Flaherty
10. Kyle Crick (here’s why)
AL MVP:
1. Mike Trout
2. Alex Bregman
3. Marcus Semien
4. Mookie Betts
5. Justin Verlander
6. Gerrit Cole
7. Charlie Morton
8. Lance Lynn
9. Lucas Giolito
10. Rafael Devers
NL CY:
1. Strasburg
2. deGrom
3. Flaherty
4. Max Scherzer
5. Yu Darvish
AL CY:
1. Verlander
2. Cole
3. Morton
4. Lynn
5. Giolito
AL Rookie:
Yordan Álvarez
NL Rookie:
Pete Alonso
Feel free to share your mock ballots in the comments!
Colorado Rockies: An All-Star Game coming to LoDo in the near future? | Rox Pile
The Rockies submitted paperwork to have Coors Field host an All-Star Game within the next five years, as Noah Yingling of Rox Pile writes.
Progressive Field just hosted in 2019 and they previously hosted in 1997. The last time Coors hosted was 1998, so it wouldn’t be at all unprecedented to see the summer classic return to Colorado.
It might be wise for Major League Baseball to look into Coors Field as host again, because only two All-Star Games since 1998 have seen better attendance than the Coors game—2000 at Turner Field and 2008 at Yankee Stadium.