My oh my, what a year of baseball we had in 2012. We saw an inordinate amount of no-hitters, a few breakout seasons for what seem to be the future stars of baseball, a few historic performances (good and bad) and we bid farewell to an old friend.
Yes, 2012 was a year where the past, present and future met up. Nothing illustrated that point more than phenom Mike Trout getting Derek Jeter's autograph at the all star game....and then both of them preceding to be top five players in the American League. The supossed future of baseball was introduced to us this year (Trout and Harper) while some old familiars continued to amaze (Jeter, Konerko, Chipper Jones). We saw historically hot starts lead to pedestrian summers (Hamilton) and we saw historically cold starts lead to pretty damn good seasons (Pujols). We saw teams make the playoffs for the first time in 15 and 30 years and we saw teams make the playoffs for what seems to be the 30th year in a row. We witnessed to redemption (Dickey) and were apathetic by-standers to disappointment (Cabrera and Colon). Us baseball fans were treated to a hell of a year in 2012. Unless, of course, you happen to be a fan of the Red Sox.
The only bone I have to pick with the MLB after such an amazing season is about respect for a certain group of players. It no longer seems possible for relief pitcher to win the Cy Young. It's not fair to starting pitchers if they do but it's also not fair for some relief pitchers to have such an amazing season and walk away without a major award. I propose that the MLB create an award given out at the same time as MVP, Cy Young and rookie of the year for the best relief pitcher in each league. They could call it a Rivera after the greatest closer in baseball history. Either way, I'm starting the first annual Rivera awards for the Hungry Dog Blog Right now. From the American League; Fernando Rodney of the Tampa Bay Rays. Mr. Rodney recorded one of the lowest era's in MLB history en route to saves. From the National League; Aroldis Chapman. Mr. Chapman became the first human being capable of throwing a baseball faster than the speed of light while also becoming a lights-out ninth inning guy for one of baseball's best teams. Ladies and Gentlemen, your 2012 Rivera Award Winners.
American League:
MVP- Mike Trout- We've come to a point where baseball can be almost completely understood through advanced stats. I, like many others, was a little wary of these stats at first. That was, until I discovered the greatest stat of all Wins above replacemet. This little tell-all stat could assign a numerical value to how many wins a player was actually worth. Therefore it's completely disrespectful to our own knowledge to become a slave to outdated accomplishments such as the Triple Crown. First of all, RBI's are a completely meaningless stat. They're completely dependant on who is hitting in front of you. Secondly, Trout is only slightly behind Cabrera in average and has displayed top notch power (31 Home runs). Those are Cabrera's advantages. Now onto to Trout's- he's got better speed (49 sbs to 4) He's 7th in the entire MLB in defensive WAR, making him the best defensive centerfielder in baseball while Cabrera is one of the worst at third base. Trout is the first player EVER to get 30 home runs, 45 steals and 125 runs scored. Baseball reference has Trout as the only player in the top ten of both offensive and defensive WAR (he's first at offense). This season Trout was worth 10.7 wins to his team, more than 3 above the next best player (Robinson Cano at 7.6, Cano, interestingly enough, is not being considered for MVP). Sorry baseball traditionalists; this one isn't even close. We just witnessed an all time great season by a 20 year old while Cabrera was worse than he was last year(More on this later). Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, Carl Yastrzemski and Cal Ripken Jr. are the only live-ball era position players to post a WAR this high in a single season. If you include pitchers, Dwight Gooden is the only one to post a WAR that high before the age of 22. Welcome to the future of baseball.
Runner Up- Miguel Cabrera- I suppose it's not fair to brush a season as unique as Miggy's off as easily as I did in the previous paragraph. Don't get me wrong here, Cabrera is a future hall of famer who had a career year in 2011. Wait that must be a typo right? I must mean 2012 right? Wrong. Cabrera had his best year lasy year and still was only fifth in MVP voting. 2010-11 Cabrera had a better batting average, on base percentage and slugging average than 2012 Cabrera. I think people believe that someone who's had a career as good as Cabrera's is owed an MVP. People don't realize how hard it is to win this award. Ken Griffey Jr. only won it once, Derek Jeter never won it, David Ortiz has never won, same with future hall of famers Jim Thome and Manny Ramirez. Cabrera may never win an MVP but that doesn't take away from what he's done this year as the second best player in the American League.
Honorable Mentions (Derek Jeter, Josh Hamilton, and Adrian Beltre)- Hamilton's incredible start must be commended as much as his flame out is criticized. Lucky for him, there's playoff baseball to make up for it. Jeter led the league in hits and hit .316 at the age of 38 while moving into the top ten all time in hits, incredible. Adrian Beltre quietly added another great year to his nearly hall of fame resume.
Surprise Player of the Year (Non Trout division)- Edwin Encarnacion- The Blue Jay nearly double his career high in home runs while leading the American league for most of the season.
Comeback Player of the Year- Adam Dunn- After an incredibly, historically bad 2011 (-3 WAR), Adam Dunn returned to his home run/strike out/walk heavy ways. 2012 was vintage Dunn as he hit .206 with 41 home runs, 105 walks and 220 strike outs (the three categories account for nearly 50% of his at bats). Welcome back Mr. Dunn, we've missed you dearly.
Cy Young- Justin Verlander- Just another year with 200+ innings pitched, 200+ strike outs, less than 100 walks, less than a 3 era, 17 or more wins and single digit losses. He's now done all those things four years in a row. While he took a step back from his incredible 2011 MVP season, Verlander was still the most dominant pitcher in the American league. He'll be the scariest game 1 starter for whom ever the Tigers happen to run into this October.
Honorable Mentions- Chris Sale, Felix Hernandez, David Price: I could easily be convinced that David Price was this year's Cy Young, he led the AL in era and was the ace of the best pitching staff in baseball. King Felix had another incredible year for another forgettable Mariners team and threw an incredible perfect game in August. Chris Sale jumped into the spotlight this year for a Chicago team that surprised many in sticking around as long as they did.
Surprise Pitcher- Bartolo Colon......just kiding. Chris Sale- Yes that same Chris Sale. The White Sox have a hell of a future and this guy figures to be the center-piece of it.
Comeback Pitcher of the Year- Jake Peavy- After four injury riddled seasons, Peavy finally returned to form in 2012. Despite an 11-12 record Peavy posted a 3.37 era and logged 200 innings as the second best pitcher on a near playoff team.
Rookie of the Year- Ha, Trout locked this up in May. The only debate is whether or not this is the greatest rookie season of all time. My vote is for yes.
Biggest AL Disappointment- Jon Lester- After years of being one of the best pitchers in the American League, Lester joined many of his teammates in falling apart in 2012. The former all star needed a late surge just to get his era under 5 and failed to win double digit games after averaging over 16 wins a season since 2008.
National League
MVP- Buster Posey- I don't think we need to cover who will win NL comeback player of the year this season. After missing nearly all of 2011 with an injury, Posey came back with a vengence in 2012. The San Francisco catcher has been playing like a mad man since July and put up an incredible line of .336/.408/.549 this season. Posey is only 25 years old but caught 147 games this season. The Giants may now face a dilemma. A few years ago the Twins had the best hitting catcher in baseball with Joe Mauer. After winning three batting titles and an MVP, Mauer's body began to break down. This year he's been playing mostly first base and is again one of the better hitters in the American League. It's difficult for a catcher to be relied on as a team's best hitter. That's one of the reasons why Bryce Harper stopped catching after high school. The Giants may have to think long and hard about moving Posey to infield in the near future.
Honorable Mentions-Votto, Wright, Braun, McCutchen- Although he missed nearly half the season I feel compelled to mention Votto here. The Red's first baseman was on base to shatter the double's record and put up historically good on base and ops lines. David Wright put up another great season for baseball's punchline franchise as he moved into first all time in hits and RBI's for the Mets. McCutchen had a breakout season as he was the driving force behind an exciting summer for Pittsburgh. Unfortunatly, his struggles also contributed to a fall collapse and eventually, a 20th straight losing season for the Pirates. Braun put up another great season while (hopefully) making people forget about the false steroid accusations.
Suprise Player- Chase Headley- The 28 Padre posted a career best 31 home runs and 113 R.b.i's in the very pitcher friendly Petco Park. Next year may be huge in deciding the fate of Headley's career. If the Padres are able to sustain the momentum they built up over the last two months of this season, they may attempt to lock him up long term. If they again start slow they may attempt to find what Headley's trade value is on the open market. AKA: when A-Rod gets hurt, they'd see how much the Yankees would be willing to give up. However, this all depends on Headley continuing to perform.
Cy Young- R.A. Dickey- 20-6, 2.73 era, 233.2 innings pitched, 230 strike outs, back to back one hitters. Forget surprise player, that's a pretty damn good season for anyone. Especially for a guy that was pitching in Buffalo in early 2010. This has to be one of the craziest stories in baseball history. It's not just a story of a veteran, journeyman knuckleballer who finally achieved success, throw in his tell all book released this winter and the completeness of his numbers and you have a truly unique case. It's just too bad he's stuck playing on the wrong side of the city.
Honorable Mentions- Jonny Cueto, Clayton Kershaw, Gio Gonzalez Kershaw continued his dominant ways in 2012 while leading the NL in era and could easily end up as Cy Young. Gonzalez and Cueto emerged as superstars and will both be game one starters for the top two teams in the National league.
Comeback Pitcher- A.J Burnett- After escaping the burning lights of New York, Burnett put up career best numbers for much of the season and appeared to a Cy Young candidate. Then, like the rest of his team, Burnett faltered a bit late. However, he still ended up with good enough numbers to wow a few people (especially Yankees fans).
NL Rookie of the Year- Bryce Harper- It appeared as though Cincinnati's Todd Frazier had this locked up for most of the season. However due to a late cold streak and incredible last two months for the National's outfielder, the award is Harper's. The 19 year old put his potential on full display these past two months as he finished the season with a .270/.340.477 line, 22 home runs and a 5.0 WAR.
Suprise Teams- Oakland- The "Moneyball" style of management is finally beginning to pay off for Oakland who won its first division title in nearly a decade this year. Suprisingly, much of the success was due to an offense that was as good as any over the second half of the season. The key to 2012 was the incredible Reddick for Bailey swap they must have pulled off at gunpoint with the Red Sox. The A's are a relatively young team and as long as they're willing to spend a little money (Cespedes), they'll be able to contend for years to come. Hats off to Billy Beane and the entire organization for pulling off a division title with the 29th highest payroll in baseball.
Baltimore- The O's had the ultimate "horshoe in the ass" season combined with the emegence of a few young stars. Baltimore finished the season 29-9 in one run games, 16-1 in extra innings and had a losing run differential for nearly the entire season. Meanwhile Adam Jones, Matt Wieters, Manny Machado and J.J Hardy all broke out with career years. The O's have a veteran manager in Showalter, a more than solid bullpen and all the fluky luck in the world on their side this October.
Most Disappointing Teams-
Philadelphia- Well I guess it turns out you can't just give 8-9 figure contracts to a bunch of guys in their 30s and expect everything to turn out okay. The Phillies were dealt a harsh lesson in reality in 2012 when they learned that they were in fact, not the Yankees. The Phillies mortgaged their future on a supposedly historically good pitching staff. What they and many pundits failed to realize was that each pitcher they gave a massive contract to was either aging (Halladay, Oswalt), unreliable (Hamels) or both (Lee). They also failed to realize that an overweight slugger with a 17 career WAR doesn't make a good franchise player. Overall, the Phillies got old and didn't think to bring in any young blood (or how about developing a prospect?). Thus it should be remembered, only the Yankees are the Yankees.
Miami- After receiving a ton of offseason attention, the Marlins of Miami were one of the worst teams in baseball. Nearly the entire roster underachieved as the team began to strip parts in July. Reigning NL batting champ Jose Reyes was downright average, Hanley Ramirez continued his slide before being traded, Giancarlo Stanton and Emilio Bonifacio missed significant time, Zambrano and Buerhle looked old and the oober expensive close, Heath Bell, couldn't close. Miami may as well clean house this offseason.
Under the Radar
Team- Arizona- It seems as though people are forgetting that it was this team that won the NL West in 2011. The D' Backs have as good of a young core as there is in baseball right now. There is a slew of young pitching waiting to break out and dominate for a full season. Ian Kennedy is the oldest on the staff at the age of 27. The rest of the staff; Cahill (24), Miley (25) Corbin (22) and Bauer (21) appears to have it's best days ahead. The lineup is also loaded with quiet, young talent. Justin Upton gets much of the attention but guys like Miguel Montero, Paul Goldschmidt, Aaron Hill and Jason Kubel make this a team to watch out for in 2013.
Player- Jon Lucroy- The 26 year old catcher from Milwaukee missed nearly half of the season but still recorded a 3.5 WAR and batted .320. Lucroy is a full, healthy season away from joining Brian McCann, Buster Posey and Yadier Molina among the NL elite.
Other Important Happenings of 2012
No Hitters/Perfect Games- A year with seven no hitters is incredible enough but three perfect games? That's insanity. The league has gone entire decades (34 years once) between perfect games, now it's only a matter of months. Despite everything else that happened this year, 2012 will be remembered for the no hitters and perfect games.
Chipper Jones's Farewell Tour-The aging superstar is going out in a blaze of glory after putting up a line of .287/.377/.455 in a season where he turned 40. Jones has been a part of 14 playoff teams in Atlanta and is receiving the type of farewell tour others only dream of. A class act, Jones is respected in nearly every stadium in America, even those he tortured (though, to be fair, it would become quite tiresome for the Mets to boo every person who had success against them....zing!).
Payroll- The new luxury was designed to keep teams from spending unfair amounts of money on their team. It worked on the perrenial big spending New York Yankees. It's worth noting the Yankees no longer have George Steinbrenner around to push the envelope and spend unnecesary money. But the Yankees now deserve more credit than they have received in the past few years. The 2012 Red Sox and Phillies showed that simply spending incredible amounts of money isn't enough to win. The Yankees have now made the playoffs in 17 of the last 18 seasons (no one else has made it 10). There's something to be said about that type of sustained success, it's not just about having money.
Eternal "Primed for a break-out season" teams- Toronto- After years of finishing just out of the money, the Blue Jays fell apart in a season where they would have had the best opportunity to make the postseason. 2012 can be blamed mostly on injury but how long can the Blue Jays survive while falling short every season?
Kansas City- Every year it seems Kansas City is among many of the "expert's" sleeper teams. The Royals have picked in the top ten for nearly two decades now and many had hoped that some of these picks would eventually pay off. No one has been labeled franchise saver quite like Eric Hosmer and the Royals have little to show for it so far. But they do have a little to build off of; Alex Gordon is finally starting to play like an all star, Mike Moustakas and Billy Butler had very good seasons and they should be getting four pitchers back from Tommy John surgery in 2013.
A Change of Fortune in our Nation's Capital- Yes that was the Washington franchises first playoff clinch in over 30 years. But let's take a moment to realize something even more incredible. The Nationals were the worst team in baseball in both 2008 and 2009. Only three years later they're the best team and appear to be equipped for the long haul.
Houston, We Have 213 Problems- 213...the number of games the Astros have lost in the past two seasons. To make matters worse, word is Houston has one of the worst farm systems right now. While he just established that quick turnarounds are possible with the right moves, the Astros really have their work cut out for them. It's going to take at least three years before this franchise has a semblence of a chance to compete.
MEGA TRADE/future cast- The August trade between the Dodgers and Red Sox signified a few things. First of all, the Dodgers were going to be the new big spending team in baseball. The Yankees payroll has fallen each year since 2008 and they longer seem as willing to dole out incredible sized contracts. The Dodgers have no such fear. Secondly, this trade signified that the Dodgers weren't really paying attention to the rest of baseball. They're attempting to build their team off players like Adrian Gonzalez and Hanley Ramirez who just appear to be on the down end of their career (by the way, it doesn't count as taking a flyer on them if you're paying them a full superstar salary). Somewhere along the line this year the Dodgers ceased being an organization that made intelligent decisions and became baseball's equivalent to the amnesty clause. They took on bad contracts from underachieving teams in three different situations. Now they're stuck with Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, Shane Victorino, Adrian Gonzalez, Hanley Ramirez and Joe Blanton. All of whom are overpaid and on the downside of their career. And they have a free October to show for it. Apparently the Dodgers didn't pay attention to the Phillies and the Red Sox this year. They didn't take warning as to what happens when you have a team full of overpaid 35 years (some of whom have questionable attitudes). After the final out of the World Series the Dodgers plan for the future may be the biggest story of the offseason. Perhaps because it's so clear they're going against the grain. Intelligence and statistical analysis is what will win in baseball from now on.
Stay Hungry My Friends.
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