It's a Wrap

On Tuesday, Major League Baseball began handing out its postseason awards, so I’d like to give my thoughts plus take a look at my preseason predictions. First, The playoffs. I said the Rangers, Rays, Yankees and Twins would make the playoffs in the AL. Check, check, check and check. I did, however, qualify my Twins pick saying they’d make it if they went out and got a closer to replace Joe Nathan. They got Matt Capps. In the NL, I said the Phillies, Cardinals, Giants and Braves would pop the champagne. Three out of four ain’t bad. The Cardinals held a slight lead in the Central midway through the season but stunk up the joint in the second half. The Phillies sleeping bats and Cliff Lee ending up in Texas put the kibosh on my Phillies-Rays World Series rematch.

On the individual awards front, I said Roy Halladay would win the NL Cy Young. I see no reason to stray from the opinion now. The same goes with Felix Hernandez in the AL, although his win total may cause some voters to look elsewhere. I’m standing by the King though. I didn’t fare so well with the MVPs. Both Hanley Ramirez and Evan Longoria had sub par years by their standards. I think Joey Votto should win the NL MVP. Josh Hamilton had a great season but a September injury may cost him the award, but he’d get my vote. As for Rookies of the Year, I predicted Jason Heyward and Austin Jackson. Both had solid years, but not spectacular, which may have kept the door open for Buster Posey and Neftali Feliz. As for managers of the year (I did not have preseason predictions for this category) I think the NL awards should go the Charlie Manuel or holding together a team decimated by injuries and putting up the highest win total, but Bud Black will win it with the turn around in San Diego. As for the AL, I’d vote for Ron Gardenhire. Nathan missed the season. Morneau missed the second half. The Twins won the AL Central easily. Besides, I refuse to vote for the junkie in Texas. Buck Showalter deserves some votes, as he managed the Orioles to the best record in the AL East after in the time span after he took over, but he only managed half a season.

The Silver Slugger and Gold Glove awards have already been announced. The Phillies only got one award. Shane Victorino won his 3rd Gold Glove. I gave up on Gold Gloves when Bobby Abreu won one. He gave as much effort in the field as a crack head stripper gives for a lap dance when she has a rock in her duffel bag and her rent prepaid for the next two months.

In my miscellaneous section, I said breakout stars would be Billy Butler from KC and Everth Cabrera of SD. Butler started out like gangbusters but cooled off. He had a decent year. Cabrera hurt his hamstring early in the season which isn’t a particularly good thing for a speedster. He never recovered. I, also, said Adrian Beltre would have a monster comeback season. He did. And Edwin Jackson would be a bust in Arizona. He was. I predicted CC Sabathia would succumb to injury and only post 11 wins. He had 21, but did have surgery already this off-season, so I was kinda right. Kind of.

All in all I had a pretty spectacular beat on this season, but I’d trade them all in if I could have just gotten my World Series Champions guess right. (The Fightins)

Don’t forget to check out the Drunk Phils Fans page throughout the winter as I will still be posting.

See ya at the Blog.

Jay Wrizight
jaywrizight@yahoo.com