Once the World Series is complete and before the winter meetings heat up, baseball fans have one thing to look forward to—the BBWAA Awards announcements and winners.
Baseball fans love a good debate, and these awards often offer just that. Who could forget the battle lines drawn in 2012 between Team Sabermetrics (the Mike Trout crowd) and Team Triple Crown (the Miguel Cabrera crowd)? Or the constant debate over whether pitchers should be considered for the MVP?
Spoiler alert: Get ready to dust off the latter debate, folks.
If you are ready to get the debate started, look no further than below, where you'll find the finalists for this year's postseason awards.
National League
American League
Analysis
As you might expect, many of the finalists for the BBWAA Awards were pretty obvious selections.
No American League MVP conversation is complete without a discussion of Mike Trout. The Los Angeles Angels slugger hit .287 with 36 homers (third in the AL), 111 RBI (first), 115 runs (first) and 16 stolen bases.
Trout was chosen as the American League's Outstanding Player in the Players Choice Awards, which seems like foreshadowing for his eventual BBWAA MVP selection.
"Just to get voted by players that you're playing against, being voted by people you see every day, it means a lot, for sure," Trout said of his Players Choice Award to the MLB Network, per Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com.
One would guess he's hardly done collecting hardware this offseason.
Likewise, Clayton Kershaw appears destined to take home the Cy Young Award in the National League. Kershaw was voted as the Player of the Year by the players, per The Associated Press, via ESPN.com, after finishing 21-3 with a 1.77 ERA (the best in baseball), 0.86 WHIP (first in NL) and 239 strikeouts (third in the NL). His 21 wins also led the National League.
With the midterms also on Tuesday, Joe Posnanski of NBC Sports joked about where his vote was headed:
It's hard to imagine he's alone in that regard.
Of course, the major debate this year will be whether Kershaw also wins the MVP award, always a source of contention when a pitcher is up for the award. Andrew McCutchen of the Pittsburgh Pirates is the defending MVP, and Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins was the league's top slugger. But did anyone in baseball feel more valuable to their team in the regular season than Kershaw?
It will be interesting to see how the voters ultimately answered that question.
Meanwhile, Felix Hernandez would appear to be the likely choice for the AL CY Young Award, after finishing 15-6 with a 2.14 ERA (first in AL), 0.92 WHIP (first) and 248 strikeouts (fourth).
The front-runner for the AL Rookie of the Year would appear to be Jose Abreu after he hit .317 with 36 homers and 107 RBI. The NL Award is tighter, as Billy Hamilton (56 stolen bases), Jacob deGrom (9-6 with a 2.69 ERA, 1.14 WHIP and 144 strikeouts) and Kolten Wong (.249 with 12 homers, 42 RBI, 52 runs and 20 stolen bases) all make a strong case.
The National League Manager of the Year is also a tough call, as all three men are excellent decisions. The American League choice seems a little more clear, as Buck Showalter led the Baltimore Orioles to an AL East crown, the toughest division in baseball this year.
When you add in the fact that the Orioles dealt with major injuries along the way, Showalter should edge out Ned Yost from the upstart Kansas City Royals.
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