The Baseball Blog: First Half Awards and Recap

First Half Recap and Awards

PITCHING DOMINATES

The swing back in favor of pitchers this season has been remarkable.
There are currently 12 pitchers in the Majors with ERA’s under 3.00 (that qualify for the league leader of course); that’s the same number of pitchers who have finished the year with ERA’s under 3.00 in the previous 3 years combined. Last season 1 pitcher had an ERA under 3.00 at the end of the season in the entire MLB and only 3 pitchers have finished with ERA’s under 3.00 in the last 2 seasons combined. The last time more than 9 pitchers had ERA’s under 3.00 at the end of the season was in 1997 when 13 pitchers did it.

There are currently 2 pitchers with ERA under 2.50. No pitcher with enough innings to qualify for the league leaders has finished the season with an ERA of less than 2.50 in either of the last 2 seasons and a total of 3 pitchers have done it in the last 4 seasons combined. There is 1 pitcher who currently has an ERA under 2.00. No pitcher has finished the year with an ERA under 2.00 since 2005, and only 1 pitcher has done it in the last 7 seasons combined.
There are currently 6 pitchers qualified pitchers who have a WHIP less than 1.05. No pitcher finished last season with a WHIP under 1.05 and only 1 pitcher did so in 2006. There have not been as many as 6 pitchers with WHIP under 1.05 at the end of any season in the post strike era.

There are currently 3 pitchers with WHIP under 1.00 in the MLB. Only 3 pitchers have finished the season with WHIP under 1.00 in the last 3 seasons combined. Roy Halladay is in a different league than the rest of the starters in the game when it comes to Complete Games. Halladay had 7 last season to lead the Majors and he has 7 already this year. No one has had more than 7 in a season since 2004 and if he throws 3 more in his final 13 or 14 starts this year he will be the first pitcher in this century to reach double digits in CG in a single season. No one else in the League currently has more than 3. The Atlanta Braves have had just 3 complete games in this season and the previous season combined.

THE LONG BALL IS DOWN

For whatever reasons you choose to believe, power is down dramatically. It has been dropping for years but it hasn’t been like this. We may be going back to that more boring brand of baseball that was played in the 80’s. There are currently no players on pace to hit 50’s homers this season. It actually wasn’t that long ago that no player hit 50 in a season. There were no 50 homer totals in 2003 or 2004. In the last 3 years there has been at least 1 and a total of 5.

Only 2 players are currently on pace to hit as many as 45 home runs. The last time that less than 3 players hit at least 45 home runs was in 1995 when the season was just 144 games long. At least 4 players have hit 45 homers every year since 1998.
There are 7 players currently on pace to hit 40 or more home runs. Just 5 players hit 40 last season. This would be back to back season of 7 or less players with 40 or more homers after at least 8 players hit 40 bombs in 11 straight seasons from 1996-2006. If indeed only 7 players do hit 40 homers this season it would be a total of 12 over the last 2 seasons combined. From 1996 to 2001, at least 12 players hit 40 homers each year, a span of 5 seasons.

FIRST HALF AWARDS
The only reason people give out hypothetical awards at the All-Star Break is because it’s a good topic. It isn’t even the first half; it’s way more than that. And we never stop at the end of the season and give out second half awards. But anyway, it’s good for discussion.

NL MVP: Hanley Ramirez
Runner Up: Lance Berkman
He’s been the best all around player on a team that you might say is overachieving. He’s in the top 10 in the NL in average, OBP, SLG, OPS, Homers, Stolen Bases, Hits, Extra Base Hits, Times on Base, and Total Bases and he leads the NL in Runs. He had 45 RBI from the leadoff spot and is 3rd in the NL in Runs Created. He’s also doing all of this from short stop and while he does make a lot of errors he also leads NL short stops in putouts.

AL MVP: Ian Kinsler
Runner Up: Josh Hamilton
Everyone wants to give it to Josh Hamilton because of the “story” but I’m not a big story guy. I’m more of an actual results on the field guy, and while Hamilton has certainly been awesome, I have to give the nod to Kinsler. And to be honest, it isn’t close. And let me say, I know that my knowledge of the AL is mostly limited to stats and not actually watching games, but I had no idea this guy was this good. He is leading the AL in Batting Average, Runs, Hits, Total Bases, Doubles, Runs Created, EXBH, and Times on Base. He is in the top 5 in the AL in OBP, OPS, Stolen Bases, and Sacrifice Hits. He is in the top 10 in the AL in Slugging, Triples, RBI, and Sacrifice Flies. He also has 14 homes, strikes out only once every 7.24 at bats, and has stolen 23 bases in 24 attempts. And oh by the way, he’s doing all of this at second base where leads all AL second baseman in putouts, assists, double plays, and Range Factor.

NL Cy Young: Edinson Volquez
Runner Up: Tim Lincecum
The guy’s 12-3 with a 2.29 ERA and he pitches half the time at the Great American Band Box. Give it to him.

AL Cy Young: Justin Duchscherer
Runner Up: Cliff Lee
This one isn’t even close. I don’t understand what all the mumbling and grumbling has been about there not being a clear candidate to start the All-Star Game. If people are voted in and elected to the team based on first half performance than I must be missing something because from what I’m looking at it says this guy has a 1.82 ERA, a 0.87 WHIP, a .186 batting average against, and has allowed 71 hits in 108.2 innings. Unless that information is incorrect, whoever the half brained pigeon is that said Mariano Rivera should start the All-Star Game needs to be slapped in the face. It is ridiculous. Who care’s that he’s only 10-5? He plays for Oakland; they only score 3.63 runs a game. He’s pitching better than anyone in the League and no one cares because he plays for the A’s and no one can say his name. Pathetic.

NL Rookie of the Year: Giovonto Soto
Runner Up: Jair Jurrjens
This one’s not close. He leads all NL rookies in Average, OPS, Runs Created, and Homers. And he’s a catcher

AL Rookie of the Year: Evan Longoria
Runner Up: David Murphy
Another easy one. He leads all AL rookies in OBP, SLG, OPS, Runs Created and Homers.

NL Manager of the Year: Tony LaRussa
Runner Up: Freddi Gonzalez
I hate to admit it but LaRussa’s has done an incredible job with that team. I thought they’d lose something like 100 games. Instead they may make the postseason.

AL Manager of the Year: Joe Maddon
Runner Up: Ron Washington
On July 6th the guy had the Rays at 55-32, the best record in all of baseball, 5 games up on the Red Sox. Every club in Major League Baseball should retire his jersey number.

NL Reliever of the Year: Brad Lidge
Runner Up: Billy Wagner
He’s all the way back to the dominant form he had back a few years ago. He’s 20 for 20 in save chances and has a 1.13 ERA and a 1.13 WHIP with 55 K in 40 innings. Batters are hitting .181 off him with no homers.

AL Reliever of the Year: Mariano Rivera
Runner Up: Fransisco Rodriguez
There have been a thousand closers over the years and a lot of great ones but nobody like the best. And make no mistake, Rivera is the best and he’s showing it again this year. Yes, Rodriquez has a million saves, but Rivera is 23 for 23 in save chances and has a 0.64 WHIP and a 1.06 ERA with 50 K in 42.1 innings. He has allowed just 23 hits and 4 walks. Batters are “hitting” .158 off him with a .414 OPS.

First Half Best Surprise Team: Tampa Bay Rays
Runner Up: St. Louis Cardinals, Oakland A’s, Minnesota Twins, Chicago White Sox, Florida Marlins
The Rays are the clear number one here. After that you can take your pick.

First Half Best Surprise Player: Carlos Quentin
Runner Up: Cliff Lee
22 homers, 70 RBI, and a .900 OPS. Damn. Good call by the D-Backs to give up on him.

First Half Biggest Disappointment Team: Seattle Mariners
Runner Up: Cleveland Indians
It’s sad that Cleveland fell so hard after finally putting everything together to get to the postseason last year but Seattle has gone from a surprise team last season, to spending a bunch of money to go for it all this year, to being the worst team in the League and a complete disaster that will take years to come back from.

First Half Biggest Disappointment Player: Erik Bedard
Runner Up: Jeff Francour
When he’s actually pitched he hasn’t been that bad but he’s been nothing like the pitcher they thought they were getting when they traded for him. Worst of all, he’s been hurt for much of the season and is on the DL again.

First Half Least Valuable Player: Tony Pena
Runner Up: Omar Vizquel
I’m not sure what is going on in Kansas City but there’s no way that Pena should have ever gotten 181 at bats this season. It’s simply another case of KC treating their fans with absolutely no respect. The guy has gone 28 for 181 to hit .155 with a .176 OPB, a .204 SLG, and a ridiculous .380 OPS. Defensively he has a below average fielding percentage and has absolutely no range, registering the 2nd worst Range Factor among AL starting short stops.

First Half Least Valuable Pitcher: Matt Morris
Runner Up: Jason Jennings
Morris made only 5 starts for the Pirates, all in April, and he was horrific. If he was on your fantasy team on the 5 days that he pitched for them you were eliminated from contention in your league. In 22.1 innings he allowed 31 runs on 41 hits and 7 walks and allowed 6 homers. He had a 9.67 ERA and a 2.15 WHIP and batter hit .390 off him. 7 of the runs he allowed were scored as unearned runs or else his ERA would have been 12.49. He went 0-4 and the Pirates lost all 5 games.

First Half All-Murphy AL Team
C: Joe Mauer
1B: Kevin Yukolis
2B: Ian Kinsler
3B: Alex Rodriguez
SS: Michael Young
LF: Carlos Quentin
CF: Josh Hamilton
RF: JD Drew
DH: Milton Bradley
SP: Justin Duchscherer
MR: Jim Johnson
CL: Mariano Rivera

First Half All-Murphy NL Team
C: Brian McCann
1B: Lance Berkman
2B: Chase Utley
3B: Chipper Jones
SS: Hanley Ramirez
LF: Pat Burrell
CF: Nate McLouth
RF: Ryan Ludwick
SP: Edinson Volquez
MR: Taylor Buchholz
CL: Brad Lidge