Before the season started, I gave my award predictions for Manager of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Cy Young and MVP. I’m going to take a brutal look back at these predictions and evaluate how they faired. Every award has 30 voters, so the votes are out of all the ballots. If you want to take a look back at my reasoning for these picks, you can find the original Rookie of the Year article HERE.
NL Honorable Mentions:
Alex Verdugo— Dodgers OF
86 PA, .260/.329/.377, 1 HR, 4 RBIs, 98 wRC+, 0.2 fWAR
ROY Finish: N/A
Votes Received: N/A
Lewis Brinson— Marlins OF
406 PA, .199/.240/.338, 11 HR, 42 RBIs, 56 wRC+, -1.0 fWAR
ROY Finish: N/A
Votes Received: N/A
National League Darkhorse:
Victor Robles— Nationals OF
66 PA, .288/.348/.525, 3 HRs, 10 RBIs, 131 wRC+, 0.5 fWAR
ROY Finish: N/A
Votes Received: N/A
National League Pick:
Ronald Acuna— Braves OF
487 PA, .293/.366/.552, 26 HRs, 64 RBIs, 143 wRC+, 4 DRS, 3.7 fWAR
ROY Finish: 1st
Votes Received: 27 1st place, 3 2nd place
Analysis:
I nailed my pick on the dot, but everything else went poorly. Acuna had a phenomenal rookie season, as many expected. My honorable mentions and darkhorse were as far off as they come as none of them were listed on any ballots. Brinson is having about as bad of a start to a career as someone could have, it might be time to give up on him as an elite player. My other picks just didn’t get enough time to warrant voting for them.
American League Honorable Mentions:
Franklin Barreto— Athletics SS/2B
75 PA, .233/.253/.493, 5 HRs, 16 RBIs, 100 wRC+, 0.2 fWAR
ROY Finish: N/A
Votes Received: N/A
Willie Calhoun— Rangers LF/2B
108 PA, .222/.269/.333, 2 HRs, 11 RBIs, 55 wRC+, -3 DRS, -0.6 fWAR
ROY Finish: N/A
Votes Received: N/A
American League Darkhorse:
Francisco Mejia— Indians/Padres C
62 PA, .179/.258/.375, 3 HRs, 8 RBIs, 73 wRC+, 0.0 fWAR
ROY Finish: N/A
Votes Received: N/A
American League Pick:
Shohei Ohtani— Angels SP/DH
51.2 IP, 3.31 ERA, 3.57 FIP, 10.97 K/9, 1.0 fWAR
367 PA, .285/.361/.564, 22 HRs, 61 RBIs, 152 wRC+, 2.8 fWAR
ROY Finish: 1st
Votes Received: 25 1st place, 4 2nd place
Analysis:
Again, I nailed the winner, but pretty bad other than that. After a rough Spring Training, Ohtani proved to be the phenom we all expected, shining on the mound and at the plate. Miguel Andujar and Gleyber Torres both put up a good fight finishing 2nd and 3rd, but Ohtani had such a spectacular season, the pitching was just the icing on the cake.
Check back in the coming days for my Cy Young predictions!
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