2018 awards thread

Just noticed that Yelich already had a HOF'er on his Similarity Score list before the season; I'm sure he'll one or two more after this year.

Similar Batters through 25

Chet Lemon (965.5)
Johnny Damon (954.7)
Gary Matthews (950.1)
Carlos May (949.9)
Delmon Young (945.2)
Nick Markakis (943.7)
Lee Mazzilli (941.4)
Al Oliver (941.3)
Dave Winfield (941.2) *
Sixto Lezcano (940.3)
* - Signifies Hall of Famer

(Never realized that Lee Mazzilli had a pretty decent run in the late '70s.)

"he'll add"

think about how legendary a Yelich/Ozuna/Stanton outfield would be

that is a weird list

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51pZnwi%2BOUL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

think I read that as a kid lol

NL MVP

Metrics- Christian Yelich
Old skool- Javier Baez

That's a cool list on that similar players for Yelich. All those guys had solid MLB careers. I'd say maybe only a couple of them did not make at least one All Star team.

i accept that delmon young *had* a career, but solid is not how i'd describe it

I don't take Similarity Scores all that seriously, there are often a couple of oddball names on somebody's list, but it's a quick and fairly useful tool for getting an early line on somebody's HOF prospects. (Or at least was--it probably needs some revision.) If you're mid-career and there are three or four HOF'ers on your list, you're probably headed there yourself.

At 25, Delmon Young had a career, after that eh... Did play 10 years and I think is now playing with Kenny Powers in Mexico.

Chet Lemon (965.5) - came up earlier this year in a thread. His WAR totals are pretty impressive on BB Reference.

Lee Mazzilli (941.4) - remembered seeing him go from first to home on a blooper against the Cubs in the good old bad days.

Al Oliver (941.3)- Kool nickname with Skoop. Heck of a hitter and probably a bit under-appreciated. Career .303 hitter over 9000 at bats is pretty impressive.

Sixto Lezcano (940.3) - this guy had a way crazy batting stance. It was open and he leaned back really far.

^^^three pirate legends

Baseball Reference and Fangraphs have the same Top 4 in WAR:

1. Betts
2. Trout
3. deGrom
4. Scherzer

Baseball Prospectus is slightly different:

1. Trout
2. Betts
3. deGrom
4. Bregman
5. Scherzer

Nola starts tonight

Can Bob Melvin win a second manager of the year award?

^^ would be his third! (2007, 2012)

Jose Reyes is the Mets’ nominee for the Marvin Miller Man of the Year award.

It’s an MLBPA honor, with players voting for who they “most respect based on his leadership on the field and in the community.” https://t.co/Ef0WIFkHNh

— Tim Healey (@timbhealey) October 12, 2018

Of course. Of course.

wow, the gold glove really is a stupid award, isn't it

is the Fielding Bible the best defensive award these days, i guess? is there anything else?

i get to vote for the Rawlings Platinum Glove Award, as a SABR member

actually i guess it's open to the Great Unwashed

https://www.rawlings.com/category-landing-pages/gold-glove-platinum-page.html

i'll have you know i bathed last week, sir.

insane that Lorenzo Cain has never won one

Happy #ElectionDay! Here's a reminder from your friends at Baseball-Reference about how important it is to vote! pic.twitter.com/1owgyChl6e

— Baseball Reference (@baseball_ref) November 6, 2018

:D

the 3 "finalists" for each award have all been announced

https://www.amazinavenue.com/2018/11/6/18069270/mets-jacob-degrom-finalist-cy-young-major-league-baseball-award-announcement

wait, why was I under the impression that trout had already been excluded from the top 3?

https://media.giphy.com/media/CIGNHqM9ME51e/giphy.gif

Acuna, Ohtani

One of those occasional instances (there was an NL MVP award a few years ago like this) where the two guys are almost in a statistical dead heat, but almost every small advantage tips in one direction--the "almost" here being Soto's higher OBP, obviously a big almost--and the vote ends up being not close at all.

Acuña was so much fun to watch this season.

acuña deserved the ROY but i think i'm more impressed with soto's season

Because of his age?

age, lack of experience (eight double-a games!), plate discipline, splits against LHP . . . finishing second* in the league in OBP as a teenager is incredible

also completely unexpected -- he wasn't really the nationals' top outfield prospect, and in almost any other organization he would never have been given a shot

snitker, melvin win the kiss of death award

Snitker! such a great name

(that's the Braves guy?)

as expected, degrom wins the NL Cy Young

While the inning discussion was the great debate in the AL Cy Young Award field this year, the NL race became a referendum on the present-day value (or lack thereof) of a win stat invented in the late 1800s. Even in our more analytically savvy age, the win still has its disciples, but, ultimately, deGrom's season was so utterly and unquestionably dominant that the win was rightly rendered irrelevant.

The BBWAA voters looked past deGrom's 10-9 record and focused instead on

if everyone just stopped talking about the Win, would it finally go away?
https://www.mlb.com/news/2018-cy-young-award-winners/c-300724470

Yelich and Betts win, Baez and Trout are the second-place finishers.

Now is a good time to reread some of those “did the Brewers give up too much for Yelich?” articles

most valuable voter: the guy who had deGrom 1st tonight

He should have been a close 2nd!

8 voters left him off their ballot entirely, which shows that the electorate doesn't even agree on what this motherfucking award is.

I wasn't quite as easygoing as #MikeTrout about it the year (1993) I came in #2 for MVP. But I wasn't in the hunt as often as him. Besides, it's not like he brought it on himself by teaching @MookieBetts about special vitamins the way I did with Barry Bonds (NL MVP in 1993).

— Lenny Dykstra (@LennyDykstra) November 16, 2018

actual footage of lenny dykstra

https://i.imgur.com/krh0Zh5.jpg

Actually actual footage of Lenny 1 month ago:

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/former-all-star-outfielder-lenny-dykstra-indicted-on-drug-threat-charges/

Dykstra is facing three third-degree charges: possession of cocaine, possession of methamphetamine and making terroristic threats. Each stems from the May incident Dykstra had with an Uber driver, during which he allegedly held a gun to the driver's head.

If you get easily upset by stuff like this, do not read--you will have a coronary.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2018/11/15/one-writer-who-voted-max-scherzer-ahead-jacob-degrom-cy-young-explains-his-ballot/?utm_term=.014f3201a619

*has coronary*

that's silly, but not as silly as people who are upset about degrom's win not being unanimous. scherzer had a pretty good season, and it's not like this guy had degrom fifth

When I opened the piece up, I honestly thought it would be somebody talking about FIP or Win Probability Added or wOBA or some small but meaningful-to-him sabermetric edge the writer had discerned in Scherzer's line. His rationale was the last thing I expected (as recently as two or three years ago, it would have been the first thing I expected, which I think is indicative of how fast things are changing).

If you step back and think about how good a season Scherzer had, I think that's a fair statement.