Come to Think of it...Breaking Down MLB's Postseason Awards

I have read an awful lot about who should be the MVP, or the Cy Young award winner in each league.  Whenever there is a year when no one totally dominates, the debate often gets hot and heavy.

Perhaps the only award most everyone agrees on is the AL Cy Young.  But even there you still have a smattering of fans who think the award should go to a relief pitcher. Shame, shame, I say.

So here is one man's opinion on who should win some of Major League Baseball's postseason awards. As always, I encourage your input as well.

Most Valuable Player 

This award is perhaps the most misunderstood of all the awards, primarily because people have differing views on whether the award should be restricted to players on winning teams or open to everyone.

The argument for restricting the award is the thought that it's called "Most Valuable Player" and not "Best Player".  And a player can't be that valuable if the team is losing - the team could lose with or without that player.

Others believe that it should go to the player with the best statistics.  But even there, you find controversy as you have sabermetric proponents on one side of the equation (so to speak) versus traditionalists who mainly look at batting average, home runs and runs batted in.

Unfortunately, many voters fall into that traditionalist group, ignoring OBP, VORP, OPS and other useful stats.

Another point of contention falls among those that believe the MVP should be open to pitchers. Like me, those that are against this say that they have their own award (Cy Young) and anyway, how can a guy who appears once every five days be as valuable as an everyday player?

National League

The MVP of the NL should be Albert Pujols, hands down.  He has helped keep a Cardinals team that was not expected to do anything this year, stay in contention up to very recently.  He gets on base almost 50 percent of the time, with an OBP of .467. Ryan Howard, who is getting serious consideration of late, has an OBP of .338. That's a huge difference.

And while Howard has more homers than Pujols, Albert plays better defense, and runs the bases better than Howard. Howard's RBIs shouldn't matter, since they are primarily a function of how many run producing opportunities he gets by virtue of the top of the order getting on base so frequently.

Honorable Mention: Chipper Jones, Lance Berkman, David Wright, Carlos Delgado.

American League

The MVP of the AL could be several different candidates, but I will go with Joe Mauer of the Minnesota Twins in a close contest over Dustin Pedroia, who has had a nice season with Boston.

Mauer doesn't have the power numbers usually reserved for MVP winners, but he plays the most important position on the field and plays it very well.  He is arguably the top defensive catcher in the game today. His OBP is .417 and has struck out only 47 times.

Honorable Mention: Josh Hamilton, Carlos Quentin, Justin Morneau, Grady Sizemore.

Cy Young

Another hotly contested issue is whether or not relief pitchers should be allowed to win the Cy Young award. Some say no, pointing out that they pitch usually less than one-half of the number of innings as a starter does. Still others point to a record like Francisco Rodriguez this year as a possible exception to the rule.

Since saves are a fairly unimportant statistic to me, given how watered down closing has become, I personally don't even consider a relief pitcher for the Cy Young.  They can win the Rolaids Award, if there is still such a thing.

Unfortunately, this is another area where voters tend to be old fashioned. Many still give the award to the pitcher with the most wins. That's just stupid, folks. A pitcher really can't help it if he receives lousy run support, it's out of his control. And that's what wins depend on, so that should never be the deciding argument, unless everything else is equal. Alas...

American League

Most everyone agrees that Cliff Lee of the Cleveland Indians will not only be a shoo-in, but actually is deserving of the award.  At 22-2 with an ERA of 2.41 and a WHIP of 1.09, Lee has come back off the scrap heap to have a great season.  This one is cut and dried.

Honorable Mention: Roy Halladay, Daisuke Matsuzaka.

National League

Forget about all the talk around Brandon Webb.  Yeah, I know, 22 wins and counting. But wins are subjective.  ERA is not.  And that's why Tim Lincecum of the Giants should be the NL Cy Young award winner in 2008. 17-4 with a 2.46 ERA and a WHIP of 1.15, Lincecum leads the league in several categories and is most deserving.

Honorable Mention: Johan Santana, Ryan Dempster.

Comeback Player of the Year

National League: Ryan Ludwick, from .267/.339/.479 to .294/.368/.576

American League: Cliff Lee, from 5-8, 6.29 ERA to 22-2, 2.41 ERA

Manager of the Year

National League: Lou Piniella, despite loads of talent, was instrumental in insisting upon changes that led to Ryan Theroit, Reed Johnson and Jim Edmonds (among others) making huge impacts and for suggesting the switch from closer to starter for Ryan Dempster.

American League: Joe Maddon, for taking a team that lost 96 games last year to the 2008 playoffs.

Rookie of the Year

National League: Geo Soto, in what is a much closer contest than most people would think over Joey Votto of the Reds. Soto not only hit for power, but also handled a starting staff very well.  Mature beyond his years, he was the first rookie to start an all-star game at catcher in MLB history.

American League: Evan Longoria, in another close one over Alexei Ramirez of the White Sox. Longoria hit for power and played strong defense at third base.

But enough about me.  Come to think of it, what do you think?