My Very Brief Commentaries on the MVP, ROY, and CYA

     The 2024 baseball season was filled with some extreme talent. There were two triple-crown winners among pitchers, and we had some rookies carrying their teams. All in all, the awards I'm giving my opinions on today should have been:

1) Fairly obvious choices

2) Well-deserved

The Rookie of the Year awards were announced on November 18th.
The Cy Young awards were announced on November 20th.
And the MVP awards were announced today.
I don't really care too much about the Manager of the Year awards.

NL Rookie of the Year:

Winner: Paul Skenes
My Choice: Jackson Merrill
Correct Choice: Either Skenes or Merrill

    I would have loved to see Jackson Merrill win the Rookie of the Year award. He not only was the most clutch hitter in MLB, but played stellar defense in center and took his team to the playoffs. However, it's hard to beat a flamethrower who posted an 11-3 record and 1.96 ERA. I think it could have gone either way, but of course, I'm a little bit biased :)
    What do y'all think? Who should have taken this one?

I don't have a Paul Skenes card :(

AL Rookie of the Year:

Winner: Luis Gil
My Choice: Mason Miller
Correct Choice: Mason Miller

    Mason Miller wasn't even a finalist for the Rookie of the Year. I feel they kind of jipped. He throws 104, threw to a 2.49 ERA, and collected 28 saves. His opposing slash line was .160/.233/.262, so he was near impossible to hit. Don't get me wrong, Luis Gil was solid (15-7, 3.50, 171 K), but he was inconsistent. At times he was lights-out, and at other times he looked horrible. I really think this one should have been Miller.

I don't have any Luis Gil cards either

NL Cy Young Award:

Winner: Chris Sale
My Choice: Chris Sale
Correct Choice: Chris Sale

    This one isn't very hard. Sale won the triple crown (18 wins, 2.38 ERA, 225 K). Though we have two dominant starters as the other two finalists in Zack Wheeler and Paul Skenes, you can't beat a triple crown. 

I do have Sale, but not with the Braves...

AL Cy Young Award:

Winner: Tarik Skubal
My Choice: Tarik Skubal
Correct Choice: Tarik Skubal

    I think this one was even easier. Tarik Skubal was likely the best pitcher in MLB this year, and like Sale, won a triple crown too (18 wins, 2.39 ERA, 228 K). And it was his 28th birthday yesterday when the award was announced, which makes for a nice gift. Emmanuel Clase was a finalist, which is kinda cool since he's a closer. Clase had an 0.61 ERA and 46 saves, so it's well-deserved. Seth Lugo is the other finalist, finishing as the second place man -- he was the only finalist with an ERA of 3.00.

This is my favorite card of Ubals that I own

NL MVP Award:

Winner: Shohei Ohtani
My Choice: Shohei Ohtani
Correct Choice: You guessed it, Shohei Ohtani

    I'm not gonna lie: I'm not the biggest Shohei fan. But come on, he had a 50-50 season. Even as a DH, with an offensive season that good (and his popularity), he can't lose. The other finalists were middle infielders in Ketel Marte and Francisco Lindor. They were both elite; but beating 54 homers and 59 steals is near impossible.

Bomb Squad seems right for the year Shohei had

AL MVP Award:

Winner: Aaron Judge
My Choice: Bobby Witt Jr.
Correct Choice: >sighs< Aaron Judge

    Bobby Witt played outstanding defense and was an incredible hitter (he won the batting title you know) from a harder position than Aaron Judge. But Aaron Judge did Aaron Judge things, belting 58 homers and batting .322. Not to mention his 144 RBI, 122 Runs, and OPS of 1.159. I think he'll be the next guy to win a triple crown for batting. They got it right, though I wanted Witt.

I don't know, I just like the picture on the card

Also, I gave my Stars of MLB Judge as part of a birthday gift

    

    There we go. I think for the most part, the BBWAA got the awards right. I would not have complained had Jackson Merrill won ROY or Bobby Witt MVP, but the winners were deserving of the award. What do y'all think? Did they get the awards right? What would y'all have done differently? 

    Well, thanks for reading, congrats to the winners of the awards, and happy collecting! Enjoy the rest of you week!

    I know that I said I didn't care about the Manager of the Year award. However, I would like to point out that Mark Kotsay made the leaderboard. The A's manager had a record of 69-93 -- he didn't get a vote for his record. I bet he got a vote for the way he dealt with his team leaving Oakland. Kotsay couldn't control the situation, but dealt with it the best he could. His speech on that last home game was great, and I think the fans appreciated it. I can commend that vote, even though he didn't win 100 games. 

A Pocket Full of Poseys

     Buster Posey was kind of the name of the Giants from 2010 all the way through his last season in 2021. He was an extremely talented ball player, and this fact showed across his entire career. He'll be on the Hall of Fame ballot in 2026, and I must ask these questions; should he get in, will he get in, and when will he get in? (A spoiler; most of the time, my cards and photos are gonna be off by a year or two.) 

     

Posey's last base card, as shown on my blog bat-around post

    Gerald Dempsey 'Buster' Posey III debuted in 2009 after an amazing minor league stint in which he batted .327 in 125 games. In '09, Posey batted .118 in 17 at-bats. He was shipped back to the minors for a brief while. 

    Down at the farm in 2010, Posey needed just 47 games (.349/.442/.552 slash line) to gain another look at the big-league level. He took off. In his 108-game rookie campaign, the Buster belted 18 home runs and batted .305, not only winning the Rookie of the Year award, but also helping the Giants to their first World Series victory ever in San Francisco. The hot 23-year old catcher batted cleanup in the postseason and thrived (.288 batting average in the 2010 postseason).

    2011 was an interesting, and rather painful season for Buster. He played in only 45 games this year. In the twelfth inning in a game against the Marlins, Scott Cousins slid into Posey and both fractured his fibula and tore some ligaments in the catcher's ankle. The footage of this is a bit painful to watch in itself. Of course, Posey was out for the rest of the season, and the Giants would miss out on the postseason. Posey's injury did merit a rule change however, commonly known as the Buster Posey rule. You can find MLB's definition of the rule here, but in short, a baserunner can't go out of his way to run into the catcher, or collide with a catcher when the runner could have slid to avoid said collision. A violation of the rule results in the runner being out and a dead ball. Definitely a good rule. I'm sure plenty of injuries to both catcher and baserunner have been spared due to the rule change.

    Posey was back in 2012, and I think it's an understatement to say that there was some uncertainty with the 25-year old backstop. He was a rising superstar coming off a potentially career-devastating injury. But he seemed to be fine. Posey raked in 2012, winning the batting title at a .336 mark, belting 24 homers, driving in 103, and leading the Giants to their second World Series title in three years. Buster won the MVP award, getting 422 vote points and a 94% share of the vote. He also made his first of seven All-Star appearances and won a Silver Slugger award. 

    They say 13 is bad luck. Posey only hit 15 home runs in 2013 and drove in a respectable 72, but not the 103 of the year before. He couldn't complain too much though; he batted .294 and was an All-Star again, playing in as many games as he did the year before. It was bad luck for his team though, as they fell to 76-86 after winning it all the year before.

    2014 was a great year for Buster. Not only did he manage 147 games (just one off of the two last seasons), but he put up the second-best offensive year of his career. Posey slashed .311/.364/.490 with 22 bombs and 89 RBI. This landed Posey another Silver Slugger award, and he finished sixth in MVP voting, as the Giants would go on to win another World Series; three in five years. 

    2015 was another great year for the catcher who had quickly become the face of the franchise. He batted .318 with 19 home runs, winning another Silver Slugger and finishing ninth in the MVP voting. He was an All-Star for the third time in his career. He only struck out 52 times in 150 games this year; good for an 8.4% strikeout rate. Buster never struck out much, but this is getting ridiculous!

    2016 showed another All-Star season. Buster batted .288 with 14 homers and 80 RBIs. He stole a career-high six bases that year and also came home with the Gold Glove. The Giants would make the postseason for the last time until 2021 this year. Now something about my cards; the Bunt 16 Posey card is one of my favorite cards in my whole collection, hence the reason I threw off the cycle of one card followed by one photo. I wanted the card to match with the year, you know, for sentimental reasons.

    Posey made his third straight All-Star appearance and fifth career appearance in 2017. He batted a monster .320, though he only hit 12 home runs in 140 games. Nonetheless, his impressive .320/.400/.462 slash line was enough to get him his fourth Silver Slugger award. He tied his career in high in steals with 6 too.

    The Giants catcher was an All-Star yet again in 2018, though he only played in 105 games. He had a solid, though not very Posey-like campaign in which he slashed .284/.359/.382 with just 5 home runs and 41 RBIs. 

    2019 saw me starting fantasy baseball. And let me say that I had minimal baseball knowledge (let's just say that I drafted Dylan Cozens in the third round, if y'all even know who he is). But I did draft Posey first overall. Heck, he was my favorite player, what can I say? Posey legitimately struggled in 2019 though, slashing just .257/.320/.368 with 7 home runs. He missed out on the All-Star Game and his team missed out on the playoffs. 

    Man, I just love Buster. Posey opted out of the 2020 season. He and his wife had just adopted premature twin girls and didn't want to take a risk with both the health concerns of the nation and the babies. It's really a wonderful instance of getting your priorities straight. 

    Alas, Buster's last season was in 2021. I drafted him first overall again for his last year. He did not disappoint whatsoever. In fact, he over-achieved. After taking the year off, Posey only started about two-thirds of the games in 2021, playing 113 overall. He batted .304 with 18 home runs and a .304/.390/.499 slash line. This season won Posey his seventh All-Star Game appearance and a fifth Silver Slugger award. The Giants were the best team in the MLB, with a record of 107-55 on the year. Though they would bow out in the NLDS, it was still a very amazing end to a very amazing career, an career which pained me to see an end. Ever since I paid attention to baseball and really gathered what it was, Posey was there performing for me. He was really the only player I knew for so long.

    In the last game he ever played in the big-leagues, Game 5 of the NLDS, Posey would do this on a 3-0 count:

    This home run would give the Giants a 2-0 lead over their rivals, which they could not keep. Made me go berserk at the time though, so that was cool.

    In my eyes, Posey is a sure-fire Hall-of-Famer. Considering he is my all-time favorite player I may have a little bit of bias. Both his offense and defense certainly seem worthy of the Hall, but the only problem is that his career was so short. Posey played only twelve seasons, including the 17 AB year in 2009.

    In 1371 regular season games, the catcher racked up 1500 hits, 158 home runs, 729 RBI, and a .302/.372/.460 slash line. He has a very nice resume of awards helping his case, including 7 All-Star selections, 5 Silver Slugger Awards, 3 World Series championships, a Rookie of the Year Award, an MVP award, and a Gold Glove. This doesn't even count his two Comeback Player of the Year Awards (2012 and 2021), his 2012 Hank Aaron Award, his two Wilson Defensive Player of the Year Awards (2015 and 2016) and his 2019 Lou Gehrig Memorial Award.

    All of these awards are nice, and could help him in his Hall-of-Fame case, as well as the rule change named after him, which may be a big factor in his chances. But what do y'all think? Buster will be on his first Hall-of-Fame ballot in December of 2026. I would personally vote him in, although it's not up to me, and short careers don't tend to bode too well with the sports writers. All I can do is hope and wait.

    But while I'm waiting, y'all have a good one and happy collecting! (I had so many more cards of him that I could not find for this post. I think I posted at least one of the others before though)

    Adieu Buster Posey, adieu.

Monday's Featured Card(s)

      Today we actually have two cards living, or should I say squatting, in the 2021 binder. These particular cards are from the year 2020, and are the first two cards in the binder.

    I have to say, I have no recollection getting these cards, but here they are. Gosh, seeing superstars all dressed up is slightly weird.

    I must say, Pete Alonso cleans up better than Trout. That mohawk; bad decision. Meh, who cares? Doesn't look bad on him. Anyway, these 2020 Topps Big League Award Winners are the first thing you'd see if you were to look into my 2021 binder. Maybe a bad first-impression? 

    The thing that is driving me crazy is the slant that appears from when I took the picture. I need to start scanning cards.

    Back to the cards. Mike Trout is winning the 2019 MVP Award. In 2019, Trout most definitely impressed, slashing .291/.438/.645 (leading the league in OBP and SLG). He hit 45 homers, scored 110 runs, and played in only 134 games. Trout is currently injured (as always), and I just traded him away in one of my fantasy leagues in a giant 5 for 2 deal for Juan Soto.

    Pete Alonso won the 2019 Rookie of the Year award, setting the record for most home runs by a rookie with 53. This beat Aaron Judge's 2017 record of 52, which I'm sure he wasn't too pleased about. He also drove in 120 runs for the Mets.

    That'll do it for this Monday's post. I will not be featuring cards on Mondays for the next seven weeks because my drafts are starting to fill up on the blog. However, I will continue featuring my out-of-place cards once I've finished with the seven posts that need to be shipped out. For now I think I'll stick with Monday and Friday post dates until I'm through with my binders and features.

    As always, thank you for reading, Happy Collecting, and have an amazing week!