Monday 16 November 2015

MLB Awards this week

There's some key awards being handed out this week by MLB.  Below is the schedule:

Nov. 16, 2015

BBWAA Rookies of the Year, MLB Network, 6 p.m. ET

Nov. 17, 2015

BBWAA Managers of the Year, MLB Network, 6 p.m. ET

Nov. 18, 2015

BBWAA AL and NL Cy Awards, MLB Network, 6 p.m. ET

Nov. 19, 2015

BBWAA AL and NL MVPs, MLB Network, 6 p.m. ET

For Blue Jays fans, the most anticipated award will be the AL MVP.  My guess is that it will rain on November 18th....if yah know what I mean.  If JD doesn't win it, then I'm sure #bluejays twitter will blow up.

The only other player award that a Blue Jay has a shot at is the AL Cy Young.  Although I see Keuchel as a lock.  Price did have the lower ERA, but most other stats go to Keuchel.  Price's own endorsement of Keuchel at the end of the regular season probably makes it easier for any voter who was conflicted between the two.

I believe there is a BBWAA award  for exec of the year award to be handed out at some point too, although I'm not sure on the date for it.  The departed AA would be a good bet for that one.

All of that said, for me, these kind of awards have less triumph in them than they did years ago.  Perhaps I used to see more meaning in the recognition.  Baseball is filled with so many stats, and yet when it comes down to it, these votes are based on a lot of subjectivity.  Whether it's the new stats vs traditional stats debate, a look at the success of the club, or dissecting the words "Most Valuable Player" to mean something other than "best player", there's lots of different interpretations on how to vote for an MVP.  If the baseball writers decided that Trout was the MVP, that wouldn't take anything away from what Donaldson did this year, or the other way around.  These things only matter cause we pretend that they do. I've heard arguments that Donaldson should be MVP because when the Jays and Angels played head to head in August, Donaldson had a much better series than Trout.  There's lots of reasons why JD should be MVP, but that shouldn't be one of them.  Baseball writer's just love to find a small sample size event to drive a narrative.  We certainly saw that kind of bs from the media in the playoffs.

In any case, I'd be happy for Donaldson if he wins.  He deserves it and he's our guy.



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