The Football Fan Spot

AL MVP: Miguel Cabrera- Detroit

He leads the AL in OPS right now with an OPS of 1.066. He also leads or is tied for the lead in homeruns, RBIs, slugging, batting average, doubles, and he’s 2nd in on base percentage, 3rd in runs, oh, and his team’s in first place in their division.

AL Cy Young: Cliff Lee- Seattle

He’s got a few things working against him. He’s only got 8 wins, but a lot of that has to do with his team, but as Zach Grienke showed last year, wins aren’t the most important thing. Also, if he gets traded, he’ll go somewhere where he will get better run support. He missed a few starts with injury, but in the grand scheme of things, those few starts won’t matter if he stays healthy the rest of the way. He's also on a bad team, but again I don't think that matters as much. Cliff Lee has been the type of pitcher this year who has thrown it in the strike zone and still gotten guys out. Despite his amazing 89 strikeout to 6 walk ratio, opposing batters are still hitting .231 against him. His WHIP and ERA lead the league and despite a few missed starts, he still has 103.2 inning pitched thanks to 5 complete games. That may not look terribly impressive now, as he ranks 26th in the league with that number, but that’s about 8 innings per starts given his 13 starts. If he keeps that up, he’ll be in the top ten in innings pitched by the end of the year.

AL Rookie of the Year: Brennan Boesch- Detroit

Out of everyone in the AL with a minimum 250 plate appearances, Boesch ranks 5th in OPS, 4th in batting average (trailing by 2 points), 7th in on base percentage, 4th in slugging, and he’s also got 12 homeruns and 47 RBIs and could finish the year with 20+ homeruns and 90+ RBIs. Oh yeah, and he’s a rookie.

NL MVP: Joey Votto- Cincinnati

He leads the NL in OPS with an OPS of 1.014, good for 28 points more than 2nd place Albert Pujols. He has 21 homeruns, could for 1 more than 2nd place Albert Pujols. He has a batting average of .316, good for 5th in the league and 8 points higher than 6th place, Albert Pujols. In terms of runs + RBIs, he leads the league with 115, 4 more than 2nd place, Albert Pujols. He’s slugging 25 points higher than 2nd place Pujols, his on base percentage is 3 points higher than 2nd place Albert Pujols. To bust out a fancy stat, he leads the NL in runs created with 70.2, that’s 2.8 than the man in 2nd place. Can you guess who that is? It’s Albert Pujols. Oh, and his team currently leads the division over the 2nd place St. Louis Cardinals and Albert Pujols.

NL Cy Young: Josh Johnson- Florida

I know what you’re thinking. Not Ubaldo Jimenez? Yep, though most baseball fans couldn’t pick him out of a lineup, Johnson has been the best pitcher in the NL this year. He leads the NL in ERA with 1.82 and he’s tied for the lead in WHIP with 0.96. Opposing batters are batting .203 against him. Those 3 numbers I listed are all either the same or better than Ubaldo Jimenez. Ubaldo has more wins, but also more run support and as Tim Lincecum showed last year, it’s not all about wins. Out of all players with more than 1 start, he leads in quality start percentage. As far as just pitching is concerned, a pitcher does a better job when he throws a quality start than when he throws a win. A win is a team effort. A quality start is almost all on the pitcher. His on base percentage, slugging percentage, and OPS against are also all better than Ubaldo’s.

NL Rookie of the Year: Stephen Strasburg- Washington

He wouldn’t deserve it as of now, but since these are award predictions and not awards based on the first half, I’m giving it to Strasburg. What I’ve seen of him in limited action definitely suggests that he can finish this season with a sub 3 era, amazing strikeout ratios, strikeout to walk ratios, and maybe even some wins if his team can get them for him.