AL Rookie of the Year

[rawaction]

This race may be better than all the pennant races.

 

Papelbon, Liriano, Verlander.

 

Papelbon is completely dominating the league, and is easily baseball's best closer. Leads the league in saves, save %, and he's the toughest pitcher in baseball to hit. BUT he is still a closer.

 

Liriano is the AL ERA and WHIP leader. He'll finish 2nd in the league in strikeouts to his older, cloned teammate. And he's on pace for 19 wins despite pitching the first month and a half out of the bullpen.

 

Verlander is 2nd in the AL in ERA, and led for a chunk of the season before Liriano qualified. He will finish with more IP than Liriano. He's top 10 in WHIP, BAA, and 15th in IP despite being handled pretty carefully. While not being as dominant as the other two, you can't overlook the fact that Verlander has been the ace (a full run in ERA better than anyone else on his team) on the team that is a whopping 8 games better than any other team in the league.

 

And this doesn't include Jered Weaver, who if he continues at the pace he's at for the rest of the year, will throw himself in the race.

 

Any of the first 3 could win the Cy Young, in competition with Johan Santana and John Lackey, making that another great race.

 

AL MVP will be interesting with Manny (OPS leader), Ortiz (HR/RBI leader), Mauer (batting leader), and Hafner (along with Manny is top 5 in nearly every category).

 

In the NL it's Pujols MVP, Webb Cy Young (though Carpenter is closing), and an Uggla/Fielder battle for ROY.

[stitchface]

Liriano should be ROY imo. What is the Twins record since he became a starter (not that that is particularly relevant). Ortiz will win AL MVP as Hafner is not a factor. Don't count out Jeter though