MLB Mid Season Awards

July 15, 200817 yr

The 2008 MLB All-Star break has arrived and like always everyone gives out their mid-season awards as if they even mattered. So I?ve decided to give out the useless and meaningless awards myself as an excuse to talk baseball. I am not a biased person and I am a big stat rat so you?re going to get some in-depth answers as to who I believe the first half award winners are. So here they are the LineupMag's 2008 useless MLB mid-season awards.

I like to reward MVP awards to position players since they?re in the lineup everyday and I only accept pitchers who are having ridiculous seasons. I have created a point system where players are rewarded on the position they play and where they stand in the stat categories I feel are most important. Those categories are OPS, Offensive Win %, Adjusted Batting Runs, Extra Base Hits, and Total Bases. The leader in that category will get 5 points, second place will get 4 points, third will get 3 points, ETC. As for position points I placed the positions in order of importance and scarcity, 8 points for catcher, 7 for 2nd base, 6 for shortstop, 5 for centerfielder, 4 for third baseman, and 3 for 1b, LF and RF.

Stats you might not recognize are Offensive Win % and Adjusted Batting Runs. Offensive Win% is a measure of a player's value based on the number of runs a team would score if all batters on the team had the same number of 'runs created' as that player. Adjusted Batting Runs is a measure of a batter's ability to contribute more runs than the average batter in the league, adjusted for the batter's home ballpark; created by Pete Palmer, Total Baseball.

I am a huge fan of OPS (On Base Plus Slugging) as the tell all tale for best hitter. OPS judges the ability to get on base and rewards you for extra base hits, unlike batting average in which walks aren?t counted and homeruns are just as good as singles.

Note: Incase you were wondering by RBI?s and runs scored are not apart of this system, its because those stats are too team driven and don?t tell much about the individual player. Homeruns are not a part of it because they are accounted for in OPS, extra base hits, Adjusted Batting Runs, Extra Base Hits and Total Bases.

NL MVP -

Here are the leaders of each category with amount of points rewarded next to the player?s name.

The top 5 OPS leaders in the NL in order are 5-Lance Berkman, 4-Chipper Jones, 3-Albert Pujols, 2-Patt Burrell and 1-Dan Uggla.

The top 5 Offensive Win % leaders for the NL in order are 5-Chipper Jones, 4-Albert Pujols, 3-Lance Berkman, 2-Matt Holliday, and 1-Patt Burrell.

The top 5 Adjusted Batting Runs leaders in the NL in order are 5-Lance Berkman, 4-Chipper Jones, 3-Albert Pujols, 2- Hanley Ramirez, and 1-Patt Burrell

The Top 5 Total Bases leaders in the NL in order are 5-Lance Berkman, 4-Chase Utley, 3-Hanley Ramirez, 2-Ryan Braun and 1-Nate Mclouth.

The Top 5 Total Bases leaders in the NL in order are 5-Lance Berkman, 5-( tied with Berkman) Nate Mclouth), 3-Chase Utley, 2-Ryan Braun, 1-Dan Uggla.

Total points leaders ?

23-Lance Berkman

13-Chase Utley

10-Albert Pujols

The results are Lance Berkman by a land slide, I know his team is in last place in the NL Central but the award is Most Valuable Player not best player on best team. He is the only player in the top 5 of all of those categories while leading 4 out of the 5. The position points wont even make a difference because of his dominance in all those categories. Berkman is the first half MVP and shouldn?t be punished because the rest of his team isn?t getting the job done. The 32 year old Berkman also has 22 HR, 73 RBI and a career high 15 SB?s and still has 69 games remaining on his season to improve those numbers.

AL MVP-

The top 5 OPS leaders in the AL in order are 5-Milton Bradley, 4-J.D. Drew, 3- Alex Rodriguez, 2-Ian Kinsler and 1-Kevin Youkilis.

The top 5 Offensive Win % leaders for the AL in order are 5-Milton Bradley, 4-Alex Rodriguez, 3-J.D. Drew, 2-Ian Kinsler, and 1-Grady Sizemore.

The top 5 Adjusted Batting Runs leaders in the AL in order are 5-Milton Bradley, 4-Ian Kinsler, 3-J.D. Drew, 2-Justin Morneau, and 1-Josh Hamilton.

The Top 5 Total Bases leaders in the AL in order are 5-Ian Kinsler, 4-Josh Hamilton, 3-Grady Sizemore, 2-Jermaine Dye and 1-Justin Morneau.

The Top 5 Extra Base Hits leaders in the AL in order are 5-Ian Kinsler, 4-Brian Roberts, 3-Aubrey Huff, 2-Josh Hamilton, 2-Grady ( tied with Hamilton) .

Total points leaders -

18-Ian Kinsler

15-Milton Bradley

10-J.D. Drew

7-Alex Rodriguez

7-Josh Hamilton

Ian Kinsler wins the AL mid season MVP award by 3 points over his teammate Milton Bradley and that?s without counting position points which would have increased his lead by 2 more points. Kinsler like Berkman isn?t on a first place team but plays a position that historically doesn?t have much offense and his team is 4 games over .500. He?s also batting .337 (which leads the AL ) with 14 homers, 58 RBI and 23 SB.

Now on to the pitchers and the mid season Cy Young awards! With the pitchers I like to keep it simple as far as deciding who the best really is. The only untraditional thing I do with the pitchers is stay away from wins and losses because to many times that depends on the pitchers offense, defense and bullpens that follow them. Here are the stats I like to look at for the Cy Young: ERA, WHIP, K/BB Ratio, Quality Starts and Batting Average Against. I will also reward an extra bonus point for each complete game just because of how valuable complete games are in this era of going deep into bullpens.

NL Cy Young -

The top 5 NL ERA leaders in order are 5-Edison Volquez, 4-Tim Lincecum, 3-Dan Haren, 2-Johan Santana, 2-Carlos Zambrano ( tied with Santana).

The top 5 NL WHIP leaders in order are 5-Dan Haren, 4-Cole Hamels, 3-Ben Sheets, 2-Dave Bush, 1-Brandon Webb.

The top 5 NL K/BB Ratio leaders in order are 5-Dan Haren, 4-Ben Sheets, 3-Cole Hamels, 2-Randy Johnson, 2-Brandon Webb (ties with Randy Johnson).

The Top 5 NL Quality Starts leaders in order are 5-Dan Haren, 5-Tim Lincecum ( tied with Dan Haren), 3-Tim Hudson, 2-Johan Santana, 2-Edison Volquez ( tied with Johan Santana ).

The top 5 NL Batting Average Against leaders are 5-Dan Haren, 4-Ryan Dempster, 4-Edison Volquez ( tied with Ryan Dempster), 2-Cole Hamels, 1-Oliver Perez.

Points leaders -

23-Dan Haren

11-Edison Volquez

9-Tim Lincecum

The mid season Cy Young award winner with leading 4 of the 5 categories is Dan Haren by a landslide and the complete games wont make a difference at all. The big offseason trade to get Haren has been working out for the D-Backs who although are under .500 they still lead the NL West at the break. Haren?s 8-5 record would fool you into thinkings hes not having much of a great year but that goes back to run support and other variables that go into a win/loss record for pitchers and the exact reason why we don?t take that into affect in this system.

AL Cy Young -

The top 5 AL ERA leaders in order are 5-Justin Duchscherer, 4-Cliff Lee, 3-Shaun Marcum, 2-John Danks, 1-Roy Halladay

The top 5 AL WHIP leaders in order are 5-Justin Duchscherer, 4-Roy Halladay, 3-Shaun Marcum, 2-Cliff Lee, 1-Ervin Santana.

The top 5 AL K/BB Ratio leaders in order are 5-Roy Halladay, 4-Cliff Lee, 3-Jamie Shields, 2-Josh Beckett, 1-Mike Mussina.

The Top 5 AL Quality Starts leaders in order are 5-Zach Greinke, 5-Jeremy Guthrie, 5-Tim Wakefield, 2-Mark Buehrle, 2-Cliff Lee, 2-Ervin Santana (3 way tie for 1st and 4th)

The top 5 AL Batting Average Against leaders are 5-Justin Duchscherer, 4-Shaun Marcum, 3-Gavin Floyd, 2-Tim Wakefield, 1-Greg Smith.

Points leaders -

Justin Duchscherer- 15 + 1 CG= 16

Cliff Lee- 12 + 1 CG= 13

Shaun Marcum- 10

Roy Halladay- 10 + 7 CG= 17

The AL mid season points Cy Young award winner is Roy Halladay by one point, but since Justin Duchscherer leads 3 of the categories and only lost by one point I?m going to call it a split decision. Both of these aces might not be on first place teams but have carried their teams into contending for a playoff spot. Halladay?s 7 complete games in this era of rare complete games put him right at the top of the points system. Duchscherer?s ERA of 1.82 (the only one under 2 for a starting pitcher this year) along with his WHIP of .865 proves his dominance and that he?s deserving of this split decision.

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