The Seattle Mariners are playing winning baseball and are in the thick of a pennant race. Many Mariners are having career years and breakout seasons. Looking at their roster and the numbers they’re accumulating, there’s a good chance that several Mariners players have a chance to take home some regular season hardware.
The MVP, CY Young, Manager of the Year and the Rookie of the Year awards are all voted on by the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWBA) — while the Comeback Player of the Year award is decided by a poll on MLB.com. The Silver Slugger is awarded to the best offensive player in each position by the managers and coaches. The Gold Glove is awarded to each position for their defense and is also voted on by managers and coaches.
The Most Valuable Player award is the most-coveted regular season award in baseball. The MVP is usually awarded to position players. The first MVP was awarded in 1931 to Lefty Grove, a pitcher for the Philadelphia Athletics. Since 1931, 12 pitchers have won the award. This stat is a little misleading because the Cy Young award, which is awarded to the best pitcher, started in 1956. Five of the 12 MVPs awarded to pitchers were prior to 1956. It’s rare but not unheard of for a pitcher to win the MVP.
All these awards are subjective and Seattle’s geographic location doesn’t help. The East Coast is sleeping while the Mariners play the majority of their games. Felix Hernandez is having an MVP season. He’s having his finest season of his career, setting an all-time major league record of pitching seven innings and giving up less than two runs for 16 straight games. Hernandez has a 13-4 record, .87 WHIP and a 1.99 ERA; he’s on pace to pitch 236 innings. Detroit pitcher Justin Verlander is the last pitcher to win the MVP and that was in 2011. He had a 19-9 record, 210 innings pitched and a 1.175 WHIP. Felix’s numbers are better. His popularity is at an all-time high — he started this year’s All-Star Game. There isn’t a clear runaway by a position player. Mike Trout is having a great year and he’ll collect some first place votes.
The Cy Young is awarded the best pitcher in the league. Hernandez is a lock to win this award for the second time at age 28.
Mariners’ manager Lloyd McClendon is having a great first season as the skipper for the team. The Mariners haven’t made the postseason since 2001 and McClendon has done a fine job of managing a line-up of rookies, has-beens and star players. Early in the season, he stuck with Kyle Seager, Dustin Ackley and Brad Miller. He’s done a masterful job with the rotation by giving extra days off and shuttling Erasmo Ramirez from Tacoma for spot starts. The bullpen is the best in baseball and he has pulled the right strings the majority of the time. The team with the best record doesn’t always win the award. Terry Francona of the Cleveland Indians won it last year with a 92-70 record. Bob Melvin was the front runner to win his third award until the Athletics took a nose dive in the standings the last couple of weeks.
Chris Young has been the biggest surprise this season for the Mariners. Robinson Cano has played like his typical self and Hernandez is in the midst of a historic year. In 2012, Young had surgery on his right shoulder and spent the entire 2013 season in the Washington Nationals minor league system. Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik, signed the 6’10 right-hander after being cut by the Nationals during the last week of Spring Training. Young has done a fantastic job in the #3 hole in the rotation. He has a 12-6 record, 1.11 WHIP and on pace to exceed 200 innings.
The Rookie of the Year award will go to Chicago White Sox Jose Abreu who is tied with Nelson Cruz for the league lead with 32 home runs. New York Yankees import Masahiro Tanaka had a chance to win until he got injured. Mariners’ pitcher Roenis Elias will get some fourth or fifth place votes.
The Mariner that has the best chance of winning a Silver Slugger is second baseman Robinson Cano, who’s second in batting average at .329 and a .865 OPS.
Robinson Cano, Kyle Seager and Mike Zunino are all in the conversation to win a Gold Glove. Gold Gloves are often awarded on reputation and players need to be in the running for a few years before winning one.
All these awards are great individual awards and will be well deserved. It’s been an exciting year so far and I bet each player would trade them in for a chance to play in the postseason.
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