Ron Santo is already in for 2012. But who will stand next to him on Induction Day? If I had a ballot, these are the players I would vote for:
Now realistically, I don’t think Raines or McGwire will get into the Hall of Fame this year. Larkin, however, has a real chance of getting in this year, especially with such a weak ballot of players. We’ll find out when they announce the results next week.
My picks for MVP this season:
American League MVP Award prediction: Curtis Granderson
2011 stat line: .262 BA, 41 HR, 119 RBI, 25 SB
National League MVP Award prediction: Matt Kemp
2011 stat line: .324 BA, 39 HR, 126 RBI, 40 SB
My picks for the 2011 Cy Young Award:
National League Cy Young Award prediction: Clayton Kershaw
2011 stat line: 21-5 W-L, 2.28 ERA, 248 SO
American League Cy Young Award prediction: Justin Verlander
2011 stat line: 24-5 W-L, 2.40 ERA, 250 SO
Who should win this season’s Rookie of the Year awards? Here are my picks:
American League Rookie of the Year prediction: Mark Trumbo
2011 stat line: .254 BA, 29 HR, 87 RBI, 9 SB
National League Rookie of the Year prediction: Craig Kimbrel
2011 stat line: 4-3 W-L, 2.10 ERA, 127 SO, 46 SV
The Comeback Season of the Year award goes out to the player who once dominated the league, then fell out of the leader boards, before rising back to dominance again this season.
National League Comeback Season of the Year: J.J. Putz
Dominant years 2006-2007 average: 5-1 W-L, 1.86 ERA, 93 SO, 38 SV
Down years 2008-2010 average: 5-5 W-L, 3.75 ERA, 47 SO, 7 SV
Comeback year 2011: 2-2 W-L, 2.17 ERA, 61 SO, 45 SV
American League Comeback Season of the Year: Dustin Pedroia
Dominant years 2007-2008 average: .322 BA, 12 HR, 66 RBI, 14 SB
Down years 2009-2010 average: .293 BA, 14 HR, 56 RBI, 14 SB
Comeback year 2011: .307 BA, 21 HR, 91 RBI, 26 SB
It’s awards time again! Next week, Major League Baseball will unveil the winners of some of the most prestigious awards in baseball. So this week, I’m going to make my picks for who I think should win the awards.
The first award I’m giving out is my own invention. Breakout Season of the Year goes to the player with the most impressive statistical performance who was previously largely unknown in the leader boards.
American League Breakout of the Year: Curtis Granderson
Average Performance 2004-2010 (normalized to 162 games):
.268 BA, 26 HR, 74 RBI, 16 SB
Performance 2011:
.262 BA, 41 HR, 119 RBI, 25 SB
National League Breakout of the Year: Ian Kennedy
Average Performance 2007-2010 (normalized to 162 games):
8-11 W-L, 4.33 ERA, 160 SO
Performance 2011:
21-4 W-L, 2.88 ERA, 198 SO
A couple years ago I crunched some stats and came up with a list of 114 of the greatest MLB players of all time, one selected for each year since 1895. Since then, I’ve added Albert Pujols (2009) and John Smoltz (2010) to the list.
For 2011, I’ll be choosing from a short list of 6 players who have already accomplished enough to all but ensure a spot for themselves in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Which one of these players deserves the next spot in my exclusive list of greatest MLB players of all time?
216-146 W-L, 3.46 ERA, 3,116 SO, 22SV
6x All-Star
He’s a member of the 3,000 Strikeout club, and to-date every single pitcher to reach that milestone has gone to the Hall of Fame after becoming eligible.
75-56 W-L, 2.22 ERA, 1,074 SO, 578 SV
11x All-Star
Mo needs only 24 more saves to break Trevor Hoffman’s all-time saves record. If he becomes the all-time saves leader, he’ll keep that distinction for a long time since the active player with the next most saves just broke 300 (that’ll be K-Rod).
.328 BA, 90 HR, 579 RBI, 402 SB
10x All-Star
What if Sadaharu Oh came to the United States in 1967 to play in the Major Leagues and hit over 600 homers? That’s pretty much what Ichiro is doing today. He won’t break Pete Rose’s all-time hits record, but he might well get 3,000 MLB hits and more hits overall than Pete Rose over the course of his career.
.312 BA, 236 HR, 1,155 RBI, 330 SB
11x All-Star
Say all you want about how overrated Yankees players are, but with only 6 hits to go to reach 3,000 career hits, Jeter is a sure bet for the baseball Hall of Fame.
.318 BA, 442 HR, 1,461 RBI, 179 SB
9x All-Star
If Vladimir Guerrero can stay healthy and productive for about 3 more seasons, he has a good chance of reaching 500 homers and 3,000 hits.
178-89 W-L, 3.29 ERA, 1,829 SO, 1SV
7x All-Star
As the youngest player in this list (34), Halladay probably has a few more years of dominant stuff left in his arm. He has already won two Cy Young Awards, pitched a perfect game, and leads all active pitchers in complete-game shutouts (19). The scary thing is, 2011 is shaping up to be the best season of his career.
I’m sure not many people have noticed, but for the first time in almost 3 years, I missed a few daily pack breaks. Sometimes life comes at you hard and certain low priority things like opening up packs of baseball cards need to be put on the back-burner for awhile. Anyways, I’ll try to catch up on the pack breaks when I get some spare moments of free time.
Also, I’d like to thank Community Gum for commenting and suggesting a way to fix my recent spam problems. Normal commenting is back while I assess if Askimet is strong enough to keep the hordes of spam at bay.