My American League Awards

Since the playoffs start later today, it is time for my coveted annual Derek's Baseball Awards:

American League:
MVP: Justin Verlander, Detroit Tigers. Not only did Verlander win the AL pitching triple crown (24-5, 2.40 ERA, 250 strikeouts), but he led in pretty much every relevant pitching category, not just in the American League, but in all of baseball.

Verlander led in innings pitched (251) as well as WHIP (0.92), which measures the number of hits and walks given up per every inning pitched. He also led all of baseball in batting average against (.192) and on-base percentage against (.242). The man was simply a beast. He ran away with the Cy Young Award along time ago, but I think he was clearly the best player in the American League this year.

Others players should be mentioned in the race for 2nd in the voting, such as Blue Jays OF Jose Bautista (my pick for 2nd), Red Sox OF Jacoby Ellsbury and 1B Adrian Gonzalez and Tigers 1B Miguel Cabrera. Bautista had a huge year, leading the league in homers (43) and 2nd in on-base percentage (.447 behind Cabrera's .448) and knocked in 103 runs. However, Verlander to me was just head and shoulders above the rest. I know it's been almost 20 years since a pitcher has won an MVP award, but I think Verlander clearly deserves it.

Cy Young: Justin Verlander, Detroit Tigers. See above, you can make all the same arguments except you don't have to factor in the hitters.

Rookie of the Year: Eric Hosmer, Kansas City Royals. He hit .293 with 19 home runs and 78 RBIs. There wasn't a whole lot of competition, but Hosmer still had a nice year. Also to be mentioned are Jeremy Hellickson of the Rays and Ivan Nova of the Yankees.

Manager of the Year: Joe Maddon, Tampa Bay Rays. Maddon lost a ton of key players from last year's AL East Champion team, but still managed to get this year's team into the playoffs with a 91-71 record, despite being 9 games out of the Wild Card in early September. He kept the team believing, the man can manage.

National League: I'll hit those up later tonight or tomorrow morning since the National League Playoffs don't get underway until tomorrow.