Listen, we know it’s tough to catch up on everything happening in the baseball world each morning. There are all kinds of stories, rumors, game coverage and Vines of dudes getting hit in the beans every day. Trying to find all of it while on your way to work or sitting at your desk just isn’t easy. It’s OK, though, we’re going to do the heavy lifting for you each morning, and find the things you need to see from within the SB Nation baseball network as well as from elsewhere. Please hold your applause until the end, or at least until after you subscribe to the newsletter.
Jared Wickerham/Getty Images
★★★
The 2015 MLB Awards Season has been pretty straight-forward for the most part. It wasn’t a huge shock to see Kris Bryant and Carlos Correa win the Rookie of the Year awards for their respective leagues. It wasn’t particularly shocking either when it was announced that Jeff Bannister and Joe Maddon were the Managers of the Year in their respective leagues. In fact, for one half of the Cy Young Awards, you could say that there was still a lack of drama when it came to the AL Cy Young, which went to Dallas Keuchel of the Houston Astros. That meant that the only real awards drama we had left was in the NL Cy Young, which could’ve conceivably gone to three pitchers this season.
When you take a look at the years that both Zack Grienke and Clayton Kershaw had, it’s safe to say that they both had years that were absolutely worthy of the award. Kershaw has won the award so many times over the past few years that it was almost about to be renamed the “Clayton Kershaw Pitching Invitational Award.” He’d had a season in which his ERA and FIP were extremely tiny, his K/9 was at a career high (which led to him tallying a 300 strikeout season, which is amazing) and according to FanGraphs, he had his best season ever with a WAR of 8.6. He finished third in the voting. That’s absurd, and it shows you just how tight this race was.
Fortunately, Kershaw had one of those seasons where an amazing season like that could go without being recognized with an award and it won’t be considered a snub. That’s because Jake Arrieta’s performance was absolutely stunning in 2015 -- especially after the All-Star break, which is when he took his game to the next level. When you’re putting up numbers that are comparable to stats that were last seen in the Deadball era of the game, then you know that you are pitching at an extremely high level, and that was the case with Arrieta. From the month of July until the end of the season, his ERA was at 0.89 and his FIP was at 1.97. It was going to take something absolutely special to beat what the Dodgers two best pitchers did this season, and that’s what Arrieta did. The Cubs are now three-for-three in the 2015 Awards season, and while they probably won’t get the MVP nod, their three award winners all deserve the hardware that they now own.
- Speaking of Grienke, he’s currently a free agent and the new NL Cy Young winner says that he’d love to have Grienke as a rotation-mate.
- The Mariners have already been extremely busy this offseason, and now Lookout Landing wants them to make a splash by going out there and signing OF Jason Heyward.
- Understandably, the Braves’ fan base is currently on edge as they appear to be in “trade everybody” mode. Talking Chop, however, is imploring everyone to chill out when it comes to hating on new GM John Coppolella.
- Melvin Upton was traded to the Padres so that the Braves could get out from under his woeful performance and awful contract. With that being said, he appears to have revived his career in San Diego.
- The Tigers have a new closer, as they’ve acquired Francisco Rodriguez from the Brewers via trade.
- Speaking of the Tigers, they might be interested in reuniting with Doug Fister, who’s currently a free agent.
- Scott Boras and the Miami Marlins won’t be inviting each other to any holiday get-togethers, it seems.
- Darren O’Day is a reliever who’s going to cost a lot of money. While it’s normally not the best move to pay big money for relievers, FanGraphs is arguing that for O’Day, it might be okay to spend big for him.
- The Yankees are actually shifting their focus towards developing talent, instead of going down their usual path of throwing money at their weaknesses.
- There’s going to be a pretty heated argument about David Ortiz’s Hall of Fame worthiness, but for Grant Brisbee, Ortiz is already in the Hall of Fame of his heart.
See More:
