2012 Midseason Awards

The All-Star Break is upon us, which means we've reached the unofficial halfway point of the baseball season.  (Of course, everybody's more than halfway done, but let's not focus on technicalities.)  As usual, we've had some surprises.  The Phillies and Red Sox got old in a hurry.  The Tigers aren't running away with the AL Central.  The Orioles, Pirates and Mets are good.  And there have obviously been some standouts.  It's time for my annual midseason awards.

AMERICAN LEAGUE
MVP: Josh Hamilton, Rangers-For a while, Adam Jones of the Orioles was giving Hamilton a run for his money, and Robinson Cano has made a late push into the discussion.  But Hamilton's body of work has been the best and most consistent in the American League this season.  His April was just ridiculous!  And Hamilton has carried it on (the guy's got 75 RBIs at the All-Star Break).  It also can't be ignored that he's the best player on the Rangers, who were arguably the best team in the American League for most of the first half.  If Hamilton can bounce back from his injury and put up the same kind of numbers he had prior to the All-Star Break, he could easily win his second MVP in three years.

Cy Young: Jered Weaver, Angels-This was probably the toughest call of the eight awards.  There's no clear frontrunner for AL Cy Young right now.  You could easily make an argument for a Chris Sale or a David Price or even last year's winner (and MVP), Justin Verlander.  But I'm going with Jered Weaver.  He threw the first of the five no-hitters this year, but that really has nothing to do with my selection.  The 10-1 record, 1.96 ERA, .188 batting average against and 0.90 WHIP are the reasons why.  When the Angels were struggling early in the season, Weaver was the one constant.  He was pitching like the true ace he is.  Those other guys have also been great, but I think Weaver is just ahead of the pack right now.

Rookie: Mike Trout, Angels-I don't want to give Jered Weaver too much credit for the Angels' jump back into contention, though.  The real reason Anaheim got its act together is because Mike Trout got called up from Triple-A in May.  He got a cup of coffee in the Majors last year, but now he's in Anaheim to stay.  All he's done since getting called up is hit .341, which leads the American League, and steal 26 bases, an Angels' first-half record, while playing a spectacular center field.  Oh yeah, Anaheim was 6-14 when he got called up.  They're 42-26 since and lead the AL wild card race.

Manager: Robin Ventura, White Sox-With all due respect to Buck Showalter and Joe Girardi, the best managing job in the American League this season has been done by Robin Ventura in Chicago.  Ventura has never managed before at any level, yet he's got his team in first place in a division that was supposed to be dominated by the Tigers.  Under any other circumstances, I'd say Buck Showalter is the AL Manager of the Year at midseason (if the Orioles were still in first place he might have the edge), but the White Sox' season has been too impressive to ignore what Ventura's done.

NATIONAL LEAGUE
MVP: Joey Votto, Reds-There's certainly an abundance of MVP candidates in the National League, but Cincinnati's smooth-swinging first baseman is my call.  Albert and Prince both left for the AL during the offseason, leaving Votto as the best first baseman in the National League.  And it's not even close!  He leads NL first basemen in every category.  But he doesn't just compare well to first basemen.  Votto's numbers are up there among the NL leaders in everything.  .348, 14 HR, 48 RBIs, 100 hits, 35 doubles, an NL-best .471 on-base percentage, a .617 slugging percentage.  And what I think is most impressive, Votto has more walks (65) than strikeouts (64).  With all due respect to Matt Kemp, Joey Votto might be the best player in the National League.

Cy Young: R.A. Dickey, Mets-Probably the biggest reason why the Mets are in contention is because of their starting pitching...and the Mets' best starting pitcher has been R.A. Dickey.  Dickey's stats are as amazing as his story.  Almost out of the Majors a few years ago, he developed a knuckleball, and with Tim Wakefield gone, he's now the only knuckleballer left.  The 38-year-old Dickey is 12-1 with a 2.40 ERA and has somehow struck out 123 guys in 120 innings.  Opponents are hitting just .203 off him, and Dickey threw back-to-back one-hitters in May.  Then there was that scoreless inning streak.  The most talked-about pitcher of the first half, a lot of people thought Dickey would start the All-Star Game.

Rookie: Bryce Harper, Nationals-Possibly the only player in the National League that's been talked about more than R.A. Dickey this season is Bryce Harper.  The dude's 19.  He should be on his summer vacation between his freshman and sophomore years of college.  Instead he's the youngest All-Star position player in history.  Sixty-three games into his Major League career, Harper has 70 hits, 27 of which were for extra bases, and 43 runs.  Yeah, he's slugging .472.  As a rookie!  Everybody knew that Washington was going to get really good once Harper, Strasburg, et al. were in the Majors for good.  Well, that time is now.  The Nationals are in first place.

Manager: Clint Hurdle, Pirates-Just like in the American League, there are a number of National League managers who are worthy of Manager of the Year consideration.  Davey Johnson.  Terry Collins.  Don Mattingly.  Bruce Bochy.  But they all pale in comparison to Clint Hurdle.  Ladies and gentlemen, the Pittsburgh Pirates are in first place at the All-Star Break!  Sure they've got talent (20 years of high draft picks will do that for you), but they're finally putting it all together at the Major League level.  Hurdle took the Rockies to the World Series five years ago.  The goals in Pittsburgh are a little more modest.  They'll settle for their first winning season since 1993.  If the Pirates do that (or more), Hurdle's a lock to win the real Manager of the Year award in November.