The Baseball Writers of America have announced the finalists for their awards for the just completed baseball season, which will be announced next week. It is a good bet that few of my original predictions for the winners will be accurate. Hopefully, these new predictions will be slightly better, especially since I’ll have a 33% chance of being right.
American League
Most Valuable Player: Jose Altuve, Aaron Judge, Jose Ramirez
Francisco Lindor was was my pre-season selection to win the award this year, but he was left out of the top three in part to his teammate Jose Ramirez. Judge should be a shoo-in for Rookie of the Year, leaving Jose Altuve to take home the award, adding to his hardware.
Cy Young Award: Corey Kluber, Chris Sale, Luis Severino
Ironically, in his first year away from the White Sox, Chris Sale will finally win his first Cy Young award.
Manager of the Year: Terry Francona, A.J. Hinch, Paul Molitor
Once again, I didn’t make any predictions for this award prior to the season. I’m guessing the surprising Twins will give Paul Molitor some love, but A.J. Hinch should take home the award.
Rookie of the Year: Andrew Benintendi, Aaron Judge, Trey Mancini
Another award I didn’t predict prior to the season. Judge just might be a unanimous selection.
National League
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Our Throwback Thursday feature continues, as we once again point the wayback machine back to the 1980s, finally putting our focus on the defensive leaders of that decade. As a reminder, I’ve identified a mere 14 games that I attended during this time period, when I would have been ages 5 through 14.