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Postseason Awards

© Greg Spira

With the baseball season over, the BBWAA is in the process of announcing its postseason awards. Here are my picks for those awards.

AL Cy Young - There's only one possible choice, Pedro Martinez. No other pitcher was even close, though Mike Mussina, Jamie Moyer, Bartolo Colon, and Brad Radke deserve credit for solid seasons, and Keith Foulke gets an honorable mention for a terrific season in middle relief.

NL Cy Young - Randy Johnson was almost as dominant as Pedro, leading the league in ERA, innings pitched and strikeouts. There were, however, unlike in the AL, other outstanding seasons of note, from Mike Hampton (who had the best season with the bat of any pitcher in years), Kevin Millwood and Kevin Brown.

AL MVP - In a very close call, I pick Pedro Martinez over Derek Jeter. You already know about Pedro's incredible dominance. Jeter tied for the league lead in Runs Created while playing the most important defensive position on the field. Right behind him is Nomar Garciappara, who might be even higher if he hadn't missed time due to injury. Also making my ballot are the league's best hitters in 1999, Rafael Palmeiro and Manny Ramirez, as well as 3 other players who combined great offense with valuable defense, Roberto Alomar, Ivan Rodriguez and Bernie Williams.

NL MVP - In an equally close call, I pick Chipper Jones over Jeff Bagwell. Jones is not a good defensive player, while Bagwell is, but that wasn't quite enough to justify picking Bagwell over Jones. Both clearly had MVP quality seasons. Other names on my ballot include Mark McGwire, Mike Piazza, Edgardo Alfonzo, Brian Giles, Carl Everett and Bob Abreu

AL Rookie - The writers gave their award to Carlos Beltran, but I give my vote to Mariners rookie pitcher Freddy Garcia. Acquired from the Astros for Randy Johnson last year, Garcia was the most valuable rookie in the majors, as well as one of the top 10 starters in the American League last year. Close behind Garcia is Tim Hudson, who came up midseason and quickly turned into the Athletics ace. My third place vote would go to Texas reliever Jeff Zimmerman, who terrorized hitters during the first four months of the season before succumbing to overuse. Only after these pitchers would I pick Beltran, who had a very good season and could become an extremely valuable player, but was clearly not anywhere close to being the most valuable rookie in the AL in 1999. Also worthy of mention is Blue Jays' closer Billy Koch, who was just plain dominating most of the time, and Royals' second baseman Carlos Febles, who had an excellent first half but suffered an injury riddled second half.