AL Awards

With the first two months of the baseball season gone, we're a 1/3 of the way through the season. To celebrate this strange couple months of baseball in which the Indians find themselves on top the AL Central while the Minnesota Twins find themselves bottom feeding (almost a complete flip flop of those two teams from a year ago), I'm going to hand out my 1/3 of the season awards for the American League.

Most Surprising Team: Cleveland Indians
I don't think this selection will surprise anybody. As mentioned above they have almost had a complete flip flop from last year. Last year they finished 4th out of 5 teams in the AL Central; this year they sit on top of the division by 4.5 games currently. This sort of improvement was not seen by any of the professional baseball analyst and has shocked most of the baseball world, probably even a lot of the people in Cleveland.

Most Disappointing Team: Minnesota Twins
As surprising as the Indians climb to the top this year has been, the Twins descent to being the worst team in all of baseball this year has been equally if not more surprising. Last year the Twins had the 4th best record in baseball. Oh how the times have changed. Justin Morneau hasn't been the same hitter since returning from his concussion problems of last year. After a breakout year last year, flashing the power he was thought to have, Delmon Young has taken a step backwards with only 1 home run in 123 at bats, while hitting only .211. To top it all off, Joe Mauer has only played in 9 games this season.

Most Surprising Player: Jose Bautista
This is simply because no one saw this coming...for a second straight year. What's even more impressive after his breakout season last year is that he's improving. I know how do you improve on 54 home runs, 124 runs driven in, and a .260 batting average? By hitting .360 through 48 games while adding 20 home runs (on pace for 58) and driving in 40 runs (on pace for 116, a slight decrease, but hey, nobody's perfect). Bautista has a chance to be a triple crown hitter this year, which to just be mentioned in having a shot at that is a huge compliment.


Most Disappointing Player: Carl Crawford

Although he's begun to heat up a little over the past couple weeks, his arrival in Boston can't be described as anything else but a disappoint. When you consider that he's making nearly 15 million dollars this year and he's only hitting .235 with a .269 On Base Percentage while walking only 8 times and striking out 39, you have to consider him the most disappointing player in the AL so far this year in relation to his contract, expectations, and production.

MVP: Jose Bautista
As stated above Bautista has been a beast this year and has a shot at the triple crown (leading a league in home runs, RBI's, and average). Without him the Blue Jays wouldn't be close to the 28-28 record that they hold.

Cy Young: Jered Weaver
There are many deserving pitchers of this award at this point in the season, but Weaver has been everything that the Angels have needed out of him this year. He's near the top of every important pitching category, including 2nd in innings pitched (his teammate Dan Haren has him by 2/3 of an inning), 2nd in ERA, 3rd in WHIP (Walks and Hits per innings pitched), and tied with a few people for third most wins with 6.


Predictions:

West: Texas Rangers
Although they barely sit on top of the West right now, I think they're going to take hold of the division as the season goes on. Everyone knows about their powerful lineup, and it's only going to get better with Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz Jr. coming off injuries, but the starting pitching for this team has been very underrated this year. They're young and acquiring a veteran with some playoff experience could be a good idea. The bullpen can be a question mark for this team, but they've got some talent in the minors they can call up or make a move or two at the deadline, you can always acquire quality arms for the bullpen.

Central: Cleveland Indians
The scary thing about the Indians is that arguably their two best/most talented hitters in Carlos Santana and Shin-Soo Choo haven't even performed to their highest abilities this year and they're 13 games over 500.  A couple of reasons for this is the resurgence of their DH Travis Hafner who seemed all but checked out of playing the game these last couple years. The emergence of Michael Brantley and Asdrubel Cabrera have helped as well. Their lineup is fairly strong up and down with the exception of 2nd base and 3rd base, but the thing is that they have options down in the minors that seem to be ready for a chance at those positions and could possibly give them a boost in the second half of the year. Their starting pitching hasn't been too shabby either. To top it all off their bullpen has been ridiculously good this year. They're playing good ball, believe in them.

East: Boston Red Sox
After getting off to a rocky start, they've started to put it together as a team. They have a great line up with catcher being their only weakness in that line up, but any deficiencies that their line up has can be covered by their solid rotation. This is a team made up of veterans that knows what it takes, especially in the playoffs and this is why I like them.

Wild Card: New York Yankees
The Yankees are very similar to the Red Sox, but I give the Sox the advantage with the pitching which is why I like them to win the division over the Yankees. Having said that, the Yankees are still a good club, and I expect them to win the Wild Card with a good shot at winning the Division. Basically I like the Yankees and Red Sox to take the Division and Wild Card with who wins what not making that big of a difference once they're in the playoffs.

ALCS: Red Sox Vs. Rangers

AL Champions: Boston Red Sox in 5

Here's to hoping these teams prove my predictions right and Just Score.