MLB awards 2014: Mike Trout, Clayton Kershaw named MVP

Before Jose Abreu won the 2014 Rookie of the Year award, the White Sox hadn’t had a player win that particular trophy award since Ozzie Guillen in 1985. That’s a fairly long drought, but that wasn’t all for the White Sox. They haven’t had an MVP since Frank Thomas in 1994, and they haven’t had a Cy Young since Jack McDowell in 1993. Before Abreu, it had been 20 years since a White Sox player has won a major award.

Is that the longest major-awards drought for a team, though? To the stat cave! Dammit, my mom’s doing laundry in there, again. To Baseball-Reference, then!

The 2014 season was the first one in which Trout produced negative value defensively according to Fangraphs, although Defensive Runs Saved thought he was sub-par in center in 2013 as well. It was also the first time he finished at fewer than 10 fWAR since his 40-game debut in 2011. His .287/.377/.561 batting line is a notch down from his last two seasons, but he finished with the same 167 wRC+ as he did in 2012 thanks to a significant league-wide decline in offense. Plus, his decreased batting average was partially offset by an increase in power.

The Angels signed Trout to a six-year, $144.5 million extension over the offseason, locking down the best player in the game through the 2020 season. That came before Trout helped power the Angels to their first postseason appearance since 2009.

Mike Trout is about to win his first Most Valuable Player award. By the time you read this, he might have already won it. This makes sense, considering he’s the best player in baseball. Put down the leaflet with WAR rankings that we passed out at the door of the Internet: Just look at the guy. The second he engages in a baseball-related activity, he looks like the best baseball player on whatever field he’s on. Now pick the leaflet back up. It’s confirmed by science. Trout is simply the best.

A brief list of past and present players with a career WAR lower than Mike Trout’s current 28.2 in 493 games:

Clayton Kershaw won the 2014 Cy Young Award unanimously on Wednesday, and MLB Network had a live interview with him and his posse. At a boarding school, apparently. Twitter didn’t fail with the jokes.

No, seriously. The guys in the sweaters. I mean, the guys in the blue sweaters. I mean, the guys in the blue sweaters flanking Kershaw. They are clearly Colten and Austin Manning. We need to get to the bottom of this.

Despite a solid 2013 campaign, Kluber’s performance in 2014 surprised everyone, and that continued with the announcement of his triumph in the Cy Young voting. The 28-year-old posted a 2.44 ERA and 2.35 FIP in 235⅔ innings this past season, striking out 269 batters and walking just 51 over 34 starts. He compiled the most WAR of any AL starter, according to both versions of the metric.

Kluber’s tremendous second half ultimately earned him the award. In 104 innings after the All-Star Break, Kluber finished with a 1.73 ERA, striking out an incredible 6.7 times as many batters as he walked. The righty allowed more than three earned runs just once in 14 starts during the second half.

Jason Kipnis is a talented player for the Indians, and he’s known as a solid defender at second base. When making the case that teammate Corey Kluber should win the American League Cy Young award, though, he offered up some compelling arguments.

So shaky. Get some real fielders back there, and both Kluber wins unanimously. Take it from one of the guys who nearly screwed him over.

Before we get into a discussion about the American League Cy Young, let us note that what Chris Sale does in U.S. Cellular Field is underrated. Baseball-Reference has it as a neutral park, but it’s certainly one of the best parks for home runs in baseball. He just might be the best pitcher in baseball, much less the American League, but he just didn’t throw enough innings. The eight starts he didn’t make had to go to someone like Andre Rienzo, who didn’t pitch well because he is a sculptor or muralist.

No, the Cy Young is almost certainly a two-man race between Corey Kluber and Felix Hernandez. Folks have been debating the merits of both for weeks, and they’ll debate the eventual decision for years. If there were ever a year to bust out the Mike Cuellar/Denny McLain machine and cut the award in half, this is it. As is, we have to pick one. That means we’re looking for tiebreakers.

A lot of the people who vote for the Manager of the Year award, I’m guessing, don’t watch the managers they’re voting for. At least, not that much. I voted on a similar award for the IBWAA, and I probably didn’t watch more than 10 games involving Buck Showalter this year before the postseason. I don’t know if he has a maddening fixation with Evan Meek or if he kept hitting Caleb Joseph cleanup. Couldn’t tell you if he calls players into his office and asks if they’ll pop the zits he can’t reach on his back, completely ruining the morale of his team.

I do know the Orioles were better than I was expecting, though.

The voting process took place prior to the playoffs, so Yost was not rewarded for managing the Royals into the World Series.

In his first season at the helm in Washington (and first as a MLB manager), Williams led the Nationals to a 96-66 record and the NL East title. The Nats finished 2014 tied with the NL’s best record before the Giants upset them in four games in the NLDS. Washington won 10 more games this season than in 2013, with Williams helping the club reclaim supremacy in the NL East.

Williams becomes the second manager in Nationals history to be named Manager of the Year after Davey Johnson earned the award back in 2012 when he led the Nats to a 98-64 record.

The hurler received 26 of 30 first-place votes and totaled 142 points to win the award. Hamilton finished as the runner-up, earning the other four first-place votes and 92 points. Wong came in third with 14 total points.

Prior to the season, Baseball America rated deGrom the 10^th-best prospect in the Mets organization. However, the combination of his age and uninspiring 2013 season (4.51 ERA in 147⅔ innings split across three levels) made it clear that the ranking was based on potential rather than performance. (It must also be remembered that hitter-friendly Triple-A Las Vegas is a pitchers’ graveyard.) “He has a ceiling as a No. 4 starter,” BA concluded, “or better.”

Early in September, I wrote a preview article for the National League awards, including the Rookie of the Year. In that article, Jacob deGrom’s name did not appear once. This is because I am bad at my job. I’m not sure if I didn’t toggle the right field in my search, if I didn’t look through the pitchers at all, or if I didn’t remember to add the innings he was going to pitch in September to what he had already accrued. Whatever the reason, it was sloppy. He was a contender, if not the favorite, back then, and now he’s likely to be the first Rookie of the Year for the Mets since Dwight Gooden in 1985.

The contrast between deGrom and Gooden is obvious in a few ways. deGrom isn’t a teenaged legend with an arm made out of melted gods, for one. That works out better for deGrom on the other end, though: By the time Gooden was deGrom’s age (26), he was already on the other side of his career arc. He would never pick up another Cy Young vote or make another All-Star team after his 25th year, yet deGrom’s career is just starting.

Nine players from each league are selected as the best hitter for their respective position. Coaches and managers from across MLB vote for the players who they feel provided the most offensive production for their position, within each league. While the Gold Glove awards have begun integrating advanced statistics into their selection criteria, the Sliver Sluggers are still based on batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage, as well as “general impressions of a player’s overall offensive value.” Managers and coaches may not vote for players on their respective teams.

The Silver Slugger award has been handed out since 1980, and is an extension of the Silver Bat Award, which recognizes the league batting champions.

Major League Baseball announced the 2014 Rawlings Gold Glove award winners Tuesday night.

Nine players from each league were named as the best fielders at their respective positions. This marks the second year sabermetric influence has been a component of the selection process. Defensive metrics -- including Defensive Runs Saved, Ultimate Zone Rating, Total Zone Rating and more -- make up 25 percent of the selection criteria. The remaining 75 percent is made up of votes from managers and coaches around the league.

The finalists for 2014 Most Valuable Player Awards -- three players in each league -- were announced by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America on Tuesday, with a pair of Southern California players in line to receive the award.

Both MVP awards will be announced on Thursday, Nov. 13, at 6 p.m. ET on MLB Network.

The Baseball Writers’ Association of America announced Tuesday the finalists for its four major awards, and the three Cy Young Award candidates in each league are no surprise.

The winners of the Cy Young Awards will be announced live on MLB Network on Wednesday, Nov. 12, beginning at 6 p.m. ET.