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Baseball’s Early Award Winners
Josh Hamilton (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
With the quarter pole of the Major League Baseball season having been passed this week and Memorial Day on the horizon let’s take a look at my award winners at this point of the season.
Predictions sure to be debated and not necessarily an indication of the award winners come the end of the regular season, but let’s take a look at the best hitters and pitchers who figure to be in the conversation come October.
National League MVP: Matt Kemp
Despite missing time on the disabled list with a hamstring injury last year’s runner-up to Ryan Braun in MVP voting played like a man angry he was not elected as the league’s most valuable player in a season in which he almost won the Triple Crown and just missing going off for a 40 homerun/40 stolen base campaign.
Hitting .359 with 12 hr’s with 28 RBI and 29 runs scored the Dodgers Center fielder will look to make up for missed time when he comes off the DL June 1st.
Second Place: Carlos Beltran
Leads the NL with 14 homeruns and is second to Andre Ethier of the Dodgers in RBI with 38 while carrying a batting average of .292 for the reigning World Series Champion Cardinals. Beltran has stayed healthy while providing more than adequate numbers replacing Albert Pujols’ power numbers in the middle of the St. Louis lineup.
AL MVP: Josh Hamilton
Leads all of baseball with his 19 hr’s and 50 RBI and trails his teammate, Ian Kinsler for the ML lead in runs scored with 36. Oh and he’s hitting .378, three points behind Paul Konerko for the league lead and trails Derek Jeter for the lead in hits by two with 62. He’s doing all this for a team in first place by six games. A Triple Crown watch will be going well into the summer for Mr. Hamilton.
Second Place: Adam Jones
The Orioles Center fielder has come into his own this season for the surprising Orioles, who own the best record in the American League. Jones has 14 hr’s, 31 RBI, 33 runs scores, and has swiped seven bags while hitting .310 and playing Gold Glove defense at a premium position. The slugger is rumored to be close to signing an extension with the Orioles after his hot start.
Last season’s winner has picked up right where his 2011 season left off. 4-2 on the year, and his two losses came in which his team gave him 2 total runs of support. Owner of a nifty 1.97 ERA and tied for the league lead with a 0.90 WHIP for the NL West leading Dodgers gives Kershaw the slight edge over Cole Hamels and Brandon Beachy.
AL Cy Young: Justin Verlander
Last season’s AL MVP and Cy Young winner leads both leagues with 75 strikeouts and nearly thew his third career no-hitter two starts ago, coming a mere two outs away from pitching immortality with a third no-no. His 0.81 WHIP is best among starters and has limited opposing batters to a .172 batting average against his arsenal of pitches. Verlander beats out Jered Weaver and the resurgent Jake Peavy
Follow me on Twitter @PatrickASchmidt
Patrick is a diehard Chicago sports fan and an avid college football fan, particularly the SEC. Patrick is the host of “The Wake-up Call,” a weekly sports show on Sportstownchicago.com every Wednesday morning from 8-10. View his show’s website here. And read more of Patrick’s blogs here.
Memorial Day Standings
With Memorial Day a few days away and backyard bbq’s and pool parties about to be set off in full bloom this weekend, let’s take a minute to remember those who have given the ultimate sacrifice to help make the United States the greatest country in the world.
Memorial Day is also the unofficial day when baseball teams realize they are who they are, not to steal from Denny Green’s famous postgame rant in a Monday Night loss to the Chicago Bears years ago, but sometimes teams are not who we thought they are.
Take a peek at the top of the standings across Major League Baseball and you will see five of the six division leaders are not the team that won the division a year ago.
The biggest surprise has to be the Baltimore Orioles who entered Saturday as owners of the best record in the American League. They are one up on the Tampa Bay Rays, four and a half on the New York Yankees, and six and a half on the cellar dwelling Boston Red Sox.
Will they maintain their hot start into the dog days of summer?
Who knows, but Buck Showalter has his team playing as good as they have in a long time.
The American League Central sees the Cleveland Indians two and a half games on top of the Chicago White Sox and five games on everybody’s preseason darling, the Detroit Tigers.
It will be interesting to see if Cleveland acquires a bat or another arm to keep the Sox and Tigers in their rear-view mirror in the AL Central standings. Much like the Orioles, many don’t think they will be in first place at the end of the season, let alone the All-Star break.
However, I beg to differ because this division will beat up each other because I don’t see a complete team dominating in the summer and putting some distance between the other teams in the division. This could be a three team race well into September.
The American League West is the only division to have last year’s winner atop the standings. The Texas Rangers are poised for a third straight trip to the World Series and will look to win their first title behind Josh Hamilton, who is the front runner for the Most Valuable Player award, and a lineup that strikes fear into even the best of pitchers.
Jered Weaver can attest to that. The Angels starter gave up eight runs in three and a third innings of work in a start vs. the Rangers after yielding only one earned run in his previous 21 innings of work, including tossing a no-hitter.
The Rangers own a six game lead on the Athletics but could see a run by the Angels who are six and a half games back after a sluggish start.
The National League East sees the Washington Nationals leading the Atlanta Braves by two games. Inspired by their Manager Davey Johnson and teenage sensation, Bryce Harper and flame throwing Steven Strasburg, the Nationals are turning their immense potential into wins. Leading the NL in ERA, the Nationals are a fun team to root for behind the ageless Davey Johnson.
The Nationals have a slew of questions to answer if they are to keep their place atop the standings in the East.
Does Harper start playing like a 19- year old?
What happens when Strasburg hits his innings mark? He is only allowed 160 after Tommy John surgery ended his rookie season two years ago.
How will injured stars Ryan Zimmerman , Jayson Werth, and Michael Morse fit in the lineup and will they stay healthy?
Who closes? The team has adopted a closer- by- committee approach but have All-Star set-up man Tyler Clippard ready to step into the ninth inning.
The NL Central leaders are Joey Votto’s Cincinnati Reds who head into Memorial Day weekend with a half game lead over the defending champion St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals recently lost their All-Star first baseman, Lance Berkman for eight to ten weeks after he required knee surgery and are already playing without Allan Craig and his .373 batting average as he nurses a hamstring injury.
Can the Reds put some room between themselves and the Red Birds while they deal with injuries?
With stars like Votto, Brandon Phillips, and Jay Bruce they figure to score enough runs to keep their fifth ranked pitching staff in games. The biggest question is how recently promoted Cuban flame- thrower, Aroldis Chapman handles closing duties.
So far the early results are good as he is yet to give up a single run all season while striking out 43 batters in 24.1 innings.
The NL West boasts the team with the best record in all of baseball and very well could have the MVP, CY Young award winner, and Manager of the year all on the same team. Matt Kemp, Clayton Kershaw, and Don Mattingly have the Dodgers comfortably in first pace and have done so with a dominating home field advantage.
Winners of 19 of the teams 24 home games have given Vin Scully’s Dodgers a six and a half game lead on the San Francisco Giants. A balanced attack that sees the LA squad second in ERA and second in batting average, the Dodgers seem poised for a return to the playoffs.
Of the six teams currently in first place the Rangers and Dodgers are the only two teams I see atop the standings come October.
Meaning the fun is just beginning!
Follow me on Twitter @PatrickASchmidt
Patrick is a diehard Chicago sports fan and an avid college football fan, particularly the SEC. Patrick is the host of “The Wake-up Call,” a weekly sports show on Sportstownchicago.com every Wednesday morning from 8-10. View his show’s website here. And read more of Patrick’s blogs here.
Cubs let one Get Away on Getaway Day
The Cubs lost 4-3 in 10 innings to the Reds in Cincinnati. The loss in itself is not exactly an earth shattering revelation considering the Cubs came into Thursday’s matinee owners of the fewest wins in the Senior Circuit, tied with the San Diego Padres, with nine victories in 25 games.
However, the fashion in which the Cubs lost is what has many Cubs fans fuming.
The return of starter Ryan Dempster, who was activated off the disabled list prior to the game, along with reliever Kerry Wood, pitched a stellar ball game for eight innings. In his time on the mound, Dempster gave up just three hits and one walk and didn’t allow a single reds run.
Dempster even got some run support which has been avoiding him like the plague in his starts thus far this season. The Cubs got solo homeruns from Starlin Castro, first baseman Bryan LaHair, and Geovany Soto staking the Cubs to a 3-0 lead. Seemingly enough for the Cubs to leave the Queen City with a rare win on a day Dempster was dealing.
Rookie manager Dale Sveum faced the decision of whether to extend Dempster beyond his 101 pitches, in his first start off the DL, or turn the game over to the Cubs closer Carlos Marmol.
Marmol has been shaky this year, well actually shaky may be too nice for a closer with a 6.23 e.r.a. and somehow leads the team in walks with 12 despite only pitching one out shy of a complete game.
Nevertheless, Sveum put the ball in Marmol trusting him to get three outs before he let in three runs.
Marmol allowed each of the four batters he faced to reach base, including issuing three more free passes.
Raphael Dolis, a closer for AAA Iowa last year came in to put a tourniquet on the bleeding, and induced a Reds double play, however the tying run scored and the Reds forced the game into extra innings.
Another blown save for Marmol and Ryan Dempster gets a no decision after his eight shutout innings of work.
Dempster is still without a win on the year despite possessing an e.r.a of 0.95. What else can he do?
At the time I think Sveum made the correct call getting Dempster out after 101 pitches. He was after all making his first start off the disabled list, and Marmol pitched a perfect ninth in Wednesday’s win.
Any goodwill Marmol earned after his Wednesday outing was quickly forgotten after his meltdown on the mound Thursday afternoon where even if you gave him a map, gps, and a navigator, he couldn’t find the strike zone.
Sveum has opened himself to second guessing after this game and will have to address questions about why he took Dempster out and if he has to find a new closer after another blown save.
My prediction is Marmol will still be the Cubs closer going forward, he is getting paid too much not to be, and no viable options are on the roster to replace him, unless you include Kerry Wood who was also activated off the DL prior to the game.
Can Dolis close in the interim and give Marmol a day off if the Cubs find themselves in a save situation over the weekend vs. the Dodgers?
I think that is the smart move.
Marmol needs a mental day off and while the old saying is that closers need to have a quick memory and get over blown saves and get right back on the horse, in this situation, I believe the Cubs and Marmol are best served seeing what Dolis can do, at least temporarily until Marmol finds the form that once made him one of the nastiest closers in the National League.
Follow me on Twitter @PatrickASchmidt
Patrick is a diehard sports fan and former football player from Chicago, the greatest city in the world. The home of deep dish pizza, the greatest skyline in the world, and the best sports fans in America. Patrick has been a fan of the Cubs, Bears, Bulls, and Blackhawks since birth and is an avid college football fan, particularly the SEC. Patrick is the host of “The Wake Up Call”, a weekly sports show on Sportstownchicago.com every Wednesday morning from 8-10. View his show’s website here.
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