Gold Glove Winners:
AL:
1st Base: Eric Hosmer
2nd Base: José Altuve
3rd Base: Manny Machado
Shortstop: Alcides Escobar
Left Field: Yoenis Céspedes
Center Field: Kevin Kiermaier
Right Field: Kole Calhoun
Catcher: Salvador Pérez
Pitcher: Dallas Keuchel
NL:
1st Base: Paul Goldschmidt
2nd Base: Dee Gordon
3rd Base: Nolan Arenado
Shortstop: Brandon Crawford
Left Field: Starling Marte
Center Field: A. J. Pollock
Right Field: Jason Heyward
Catcher: Yadier Molina
Pitcher: Zack Greinke
Now lets move on to the bigger awards. We will tell you the winners and give our insight as to whether or not they got it right. So here we go.
Manager Of The Year
AL: Jeff Banister Texas Rangers
NL: Joe Maddon Chicago Cubs
Every team that has ever been successful in baseball has a great manager leading the team and that's what we got this year with Banister and Madden. With Banister, he lead a team in the Texas Rangers to an American League West title, something that the team hasn't won since 2011. This Texas team was in last place with 67 wins in 2014. This year they got healthy, with the exception of losing ace Yu Darvish, but they did manage to get slugging first baseman Prince Fielder back and healthy. When you help lead a team to a 21 win improvement from the year before, you make some noise as a manager. When you also consider the big names that got hurt during the season in Texas, with Darvish being the biggest name, it makes what the Rangers did even more impressive.
For the 3rd time in his career, Joe Madden walked away with the Manager of the Year in the National League, beating out Mike Matheny and Terry Collins. It should really come as no surprise to anybody that he walked away with it. It's not to take anything away from what the other two managers did this year. Before this season, Chicago hadn't won over 90 games in a year since winning the Central in back to back years in 2007 and 2008. This year they won 97 games and went all the way to the NLCS. He did have the biggest impact on his club this year, improving the team by 24 wins from the year before, which oh by the way was the biggest turnaround in baseball history. He was able to take a young, talented team to within four wins of a World Series appearance for the first time since 1945. Maddon twice won the award as skipper of the Rays, became the seventh manager to win the award three times and the sixth to win it in both leagues. Maddon became the fourth Cubs skipper to win the honor, following Lou Piniella (2008), Don Zimmer (1989) and Jim Frey ('84)
Rookie Of The Year
AL: Carlos Correa, Houston Astros
NL: Kris Bryant Chicago Cubs
The funny thing about both winners of the Rookie of The Year this year is that neither guy was playing on their big league roster by opening day. Once the season ended however, neither guy will be forgotten. Correa had a close race in the American League, just beating out Francisco Lindor, the shortstop for the Cleveland Indians. When Coreea was called up to the Majors on June 8th, he put up some good numbers. He just hit .279, blasting 22 homers, driving in 68 runs, stealing 14 bases, scoring 52 runs and playing stellar defense. All of this was done in just 99 games and mostly at the age of 20 (until he turned 21 on Sept. 22). That made him the youngest position player in the big leagues. To make this even better, he helped lead the Astros to the ALDS, a series in which they pushed the world champion Royals to five games. Yes Lindor did have a higher batting average (as he hit .313 compared to the .279 of Correa), but Correa had put up better numbers in other categories. Correa had the better year among first year players in the AL.
As for the National League Rookie Of The Year, it was a cake walk for Kris Bryant of the Cubs, who was a unanimous winner. IN fact, Bryant was the first unanimous Rookie of the Year Award winner since White Sox slugger Jose Abreu last year and only the sixth unanimous NL winner overall. We haven't seen a unanimous winner in the NL since Craig Kimbrel in 2011 and Bryant became the first Cubs player to win the NL Rookie of the Year Award unanimously. He's the sixth Cubs player to win the honor and the first since Geovany Soto in 2008. The numbers should speak for themselves. The only other rookie in the NL to hit as many home runs as Bryant did (26) was Joc Pederson of the Dodgers. Bryant lead all Rookies with 99 RBI's, and 87 runs scored. All of this coming after his call up to the Bigs on April 17th, allowing him to play in 151 games. Chicago really took off in the standings after he was called up to play 3rd base, with him being a big reason why. Chicago had a great season, with Kris Bryant being a big reason behind that
Cy Young Award:
AL: Dallas Keuchel, Houston Astros
NL: Jake Arrieta, Chicago Cubs
Being a 20 game winner in Major League Baseball still carries a lot of weight. Which would explain why both Dallas Keuchel and Jake Arrieta won the awards this year. Four out of the last five winners in the American League and Five of the last Six winners in the National League have won twenty or more games in their winning years. With Keuchel, he pulled out a win over David Price of the Toronto Blue Jays and Sonny Gray of the Oakland A's. This marks the 3rd time in history that an Astros pitcher has won a Cy Young award, and the first one since they moved to the American League (Mike Scott in 1986 and Roger Clemens in 2004 were the other two to win the award). Sure David P;rice put up fantastic numbers in helping the Blue Jays go on a good run and come away with the Division. But what Keuchel did was better. Keuchel finished 2015 with a 20-8 record, a 2.48 ERA, 216 strikeouts in 232 innings (most in the AL) and a 1.02 WHIP. He also didn't lose a single game at home, with a 15-0 record and 1.46 ERA at Minute Maid Park. Let those numbers sink in for a moment. He was also one of the big reasons for why the Astros came away as the Wild Card winners and hung around in the AL West race for most of the year.
With the Nation League Cy Young, it was a closer race between Arrieta and Zach Grenkie of the Los Angeles Dodgers, but Arreita came away with the Award. He just beat out Grenkie and Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers. Arrieta doesn't have to do much building if he repeats what he did in 2015. He led the Majors with 22 wins, only lost six decisions and posted a 1.77 ERA that was second only to Greinke's 1.66. Arrieta's second-half ERA of 0.75 was the lowest in Major League history, and he added 236 strikeouts in 229 innings, a 0.87 WHIP, and a no-hitter over the Dodgers. Grenkie had the Cy Young award in hand most of the year, putting up that fantastic ERA he had. But at the end of the day, Grenkie seemed to cool off in the second half of the season, whereas Arrieta was just getting warmed up. And how's this for a surprising stat for you. With Arrieta's win, it was a mini sweep of sorts for the boys from the North Side. The Cubs became the first team since the 2001 Mariners and the first NL team since the 1991 Braves to take home three BBWAA awards in the same season.
Most Valuable Player
AL: Josh Donaldson, Toronto Blue Jays
NL: Bryce Harper, Washington Nationals
Another unanimous vote locked up the MVP award this year in one league, while the winners in both leagues were very well deserving. Lets start with the American League winner, Josh Donaldson of the Toronto Blue Jays. Donaldson beat out Mike Trout of the Angels and Lorenzo Cain of the Royals (Trout was the only other player to pick up first place votes) Donaldson finished the year with a .297 batting average, 41 home runs and 123 RBI's. He was the only guy to finish in the top five in voting for MVP to drive in over 100 runs. He was also tied (with Mike Trout) for the 2nd most home runs in the AL, as both had 41 (which was three behind the 44 hit by Nelson Cruz). Yes I'll say it Mike trout was the best player on the Angels this year. But the difference between him and Donaldson was consistency. Trout had a stretch of about a month or so where he just wasn't hitting at all. Donaldson had been putting up consistent numbers all season long as the #2 hitter for the Blue Jays. When your one of the table setters for sluggers Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion, your going to get plenty of opportunities to shine.
Then there's Bryce Harper of the Nationals, who was the unanimous choice for National League MVP. The only player in the NL who hit as many homers as Harper was Nolan Arenado of the Rockies, who finished with the same number of homers at 42 and more RBI at 130 (most in the NL). The reason Harper won MVP was because he was the best player in that Washington lineup and helped keep them afloat for a while in the NL East. Harper led the Majors with a 1.109 OPS while totaling 42 homers, 124 walks and 118 runs scored, becoming the youngest player in history to hit those three marks in a season. He supplemented his historic campaign at the plate with upgraded defense in right field and an overall maturation into one of the game's great overall talents, as advertised. He was that good
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