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The Brewers will have a quiet awards season.
Yesterday, MLB released the top 3 candidates for MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year, and Manager of the Year in a special on MLB Network. After going through all of the candidates, the Brewers were shut out of the awards in all four categories. Three of those (the Cy Young, Rookie of the Year, Manager of the Year) are not surprising since the Brewers didn't have a strong candidate for any of them. The MVP vote is a little more surprising, though. It's hard to argue against the three candidates that are up there (Kershaw, McCutchen, Stanton), but it would have been nice to see Jonathan Lucroy finish in the top 3 after his great season.
We also saw the announcement of the Gold Glove winners yesterday. In right field, Gerardo Parra lost to Jason Heyward, which was expected. Parra just didn't have the same amount of time played to really justify a selection. The bigger upset was Yadier Molina beating Jonathan Lucroy for the Gold Glove at catcher. If you go by the numbers, this pick is more about reputation than actual stats, as Jonathan Lucroy had the better season there (and played more games as well).
There is still one more award that we could see some Brewers take home. The Silver Slugger winners will be announced tomorrow evening, and Jonathan Lucroy and Carlos Gomez are candidates for that award. Both have some stiff competition at their positions, so we will see if one of them can win the award.
Cram Session
From BCB
- How does the Aramis Ramirez option affect payroll? Derek updated his payroll projections after the option was officially picked up.
- Our MVBrewers series continued with our second honorable mention: Khris Davis. The third honorable mention will be up this afternoon.
Other Notes
- Following the return of Ramirez, Nicholas Zettel of Disciples of Uecker has a wish list of a few things he would like to see the Brewers do this offseason.
- Teddy Cahill of Brewers.com notes that Tyler Wagner has been finding success in the Arizona Fall League.
- Two more bobbleheads were announced yesterday for 2015. Hank the Ballpark Pup gets his second bobblehead on Mother's Day (May 10), and Bud Selig will get a bobblehead on May 31.
NL Central Update
- Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors has a few notes about the NL Central.
- The Cubs plan to be active this offseason. Jasper Scherer of MLB Daily Dish notes that the Cubs want to add "elite veteran talent" this offseason.
- One of the free agents that the Cubs may pursue is Russell Martin. Jeff Todd of MLB Trade Rumors notes that the Cubs will take a shot at signing the free agent catcher.
- The one person that was wronged with the Joe Maddon hiring in Chicago was former Cubs manager Rick Renteria. Cubs GM Theo Epstein has admitted that the way things were handled with Renteria was wrong.
- Charlie Wilmoth of MLB Trade Rumors has an outlook of the St. Louis Cardinals offseason.
Around Baseball
- Chris Cotillo of MLB Daily Dish notes that Alfonso Soriano has announced his retirement. His sixteen year career includes time spent with the Yankees, Rangers, Nationals, and Cubs.
- Justin Perline of Beyond the Box Score has a list of the top 100 free agents by expected contract value.
- Dave Cameron of InstaGraphs compares two free agents, Nick Markakis and Nori Aoki, with their expected contract numbers.
- The Yankees can't outspend teams in the major-league free agent market or in the international market anymore, so they've moved on to a new way to outspend teams: Signing minor-league free agents to bigger contracts.