Fish Stripes’ 2018 MLB end-of-season awards

Now that the regular season is wrapped and the playoffs are underway, it’s a good time to talk about seasonal award-winners. The BBWAA votes before the postseason begins, and we won’t know whom they’ve chosen until after the World Series ends, but we here at Fish Stripes can go ahead and give you the results of our vote now.

There’s not much debate among our staff about NL MVP or Cy Young in the Senior Circuit, with Christian Yelich and Jacob deGrom winning almost unanimously. A couple of us voted for deGrom over Yelich for MVP, presumably because deGrom was worth at least one WAR more than Yelich, depending on which site’s version of that stat you prefer. I find it surprising that Javier Báez garnered no votes, but maybe our familiarity with the ex-Marlin or our evident preference for advanced stats helped that happen.

Ronald Acuña Jr. won NL Rookie of the Year, with Juan Soto the other obvious option. Interestingly enough, Brian Anderson finished with a 3.9 WAR on Baseball Reference, just 0.2 behind Acuña, and almost a full win above Soto’s 3.0. BA played in at least 40 more games than his much younger counterparts though.

National League Manager of the Year was the most controversial of all for our writers and the only one lacking a majority of support. Brian Snitker’s guidance of a young Braves team to a division title garnered just five of eleven votes while former Marlins World Series hero and current Brewers skipper Craig Counsell came in second with three. Bud Black of the Rockies got two, and I include myself when I say everyone but Luis Davila may have overlooked the job Mike Shildt did in taking over the Cardinals mid-season and turning them into a contender. St. Louis was one game above .500 when he took over at the All-Star break and would go 41-28 to finish out the season.

In the American League, Mookie Betts was our runaway MVP winner, with Mike Trout and José Ramírez each getting a token nod. AL Cy Young was similarly polemical to NL Manager, with Blake Snell perhaps getting that “Florida” nudge he needed to get to half the votes over Justin Verlander and Chris Sale. The WAR case for any of the trio can be made depending on which site you use, but for me, the innings, K’s and WHIP differential pushed me in Verlander’s direction, along with his better peripherals.

Two-way star Shohei Ohtani won AL Rookie of the Year with Miguel Andújar getting a couple votes. It’s tough not to take the guy who excelled at both pitching and hitting in his first big-league season. Manager of the Year was a Sophie’s choice of the analytically-minded teams, with Bob Melvin of the A’s beating out the Rays’ Kevin Cash, 6-4.

What say you, Fish Stripes nation?

And now, you decide. Who ya got? Where did we go wrong? Which Fish Striper do you agree or disagree with most? Be nice.