Tag / Christian Yelich

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Leading The League

As the 2019 season comes to an end, two members of the White Sox achieved some personal milestones.  Tim Anderson led the major leagues in batting average and Jose Abreu led the American League in RBIs.

Anderson finished the year with a .335 average, leading the American League and the major leagues.  The injured Christian Yelich of the Brewers and Ketel Marte of the Diamonbacks tied for the National League lead at .329, while Yankees infielder DJ LeMehieu finished second in the AL with .327 average.  White Sox third baseman Yoan Moncada used a torrid finish to come in 3rd in the AL, making for a fearsome left side of the infield for the South Siders heading into 2020.

Anderson becomes just the third player in White Sox history to win the batting title.  Luke Appling led the league in 1936 and 1943 and Frank Thomas wore the crown in 1997.

On the other side of the diamond,  Jose Abreu took home the RBI championship for the American League.  He finished just 3 behind the Nationals’ Anthony Rendon for the major league lead.  Abreu becomes just the second RBI leader in White Sox history, following Dick Allen in 1972.

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2018 BBWAA Award Predictions

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: Mookie Betts, Jose Ramirez, Mike Trout

Giancarlo Stanton was was my pre-season selection to win the award this year and, while he was productive, he didn’t pull away from the pack as he did last year for the Marlins.  Mookie Betts should run away and hide with this award.

Cy Young Award: Corey Kluber, Blake Snell, Justin Verlander

A late season injury kept my pre-season pick of Chris Sale from competing for his first Cy Young award.  My guess is that Blake Snell takes home the prize.

Manager of the Year: Alex Cora, Kevin Cash, Bob Melvin

Once again, I didn’t make any predictions for this award prior to the season.  Alex Cora should be a shoo-in for the award, given the Red Sox performance in his rookie campaign as skipper.

Rookie of the Year: Miguel Andujar, Shohei Ohtani, Gleyber Torres

Another award I didn’t predict prior to the season.  Despite losing time due to injury, Ohtani seems to be the odds-on favorite.

National League

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