Baseball's Offseason Awards So Far...

I realized this afternoon that I hadn't said all that much about baseball's offseason awards to this point.  Mostly because not all of them have been announced, but also because I've been a little busy lately.

So, here they are to this point:

AL Gold Glove:

C	Joe Mauer, Minnesota (1st)
1B	Carlos Pena, Tampa Bay (1st)
2B	Dustin Pedroia, Boston (1st)
SS	Michael Young, Texas (1st)
3B	Adrian Beltre, Seattle (1st)
OF	Torii Hunter, LA Angels (8th)
OF	Grady Sizemore, Cleveland (2nd)
OF	Ichiro Suzuki, Seattle (8th)
P	Mike Mussina, NY Yankees (7th)

You won't hear too much complaining from me about this list; mostly because I believe the AL to be a far inferior league (stupid DH rule....) and I don't tend to keep up on it too much.  But given that the Gold Glove more often than not is handed out on reputation a lot of times, it is impressive to see five first-timers on this list; especially considering that they are all infielders.  Although, now that I see that, I'm wondering where Kevin Youkilis is.  I seem to remember hearing earlier this season that he hadn't committed an error since 1975 or something....  Upon further review, turns out Youk had 4 E's this season compared to Pena's 2.  I sit corrected.  Congratulations to all the winners.

NL Gold Glove:

C	Yadier Molina, St. Louis (1st)
1B	Adrian Gonzalez, San Diego (1st)
2B	Brandon Phillips, Cincinnati (1st)
SS	Jimmy Rollins, Philadelphia (2nd)
3B	David Wright, NY Mets (2nd)
OF	Carlos Beltran, NY Mets (3rd)
OF	Nate McLouth, Pittsburgh (1st)
OF	Shane Victorino, Philadelphia (1st)
P	Greg Maddux, SD/LA (18th)

Now this is one where I will raise a bit of an eyebrow.  Maybe I'm just a bit too much of a Cardinal fan, but I thought that Albert was the best defender at 1B in the NL this year.  Of course, having looked at the numbers now, Albert committed just as many errors as Yo, Adrian Gonzalez in 200 fewer innings, and I imagine his 9 fewer put-outs in those same innings has more to do with his pitching staff than him personally.  Although, I am very happy for Yadi on winning his long overdue first Gold Glove.  That man has hands down been the best defensive catcher in all of baseball for a handful of years now.  Look for plenty more where that came from.

AL Rookie of the Year: Evan Longoria.  Can't argue with this a bit.  This guy was rock solid once he was called up early in the year.  He only played in 122 games (between injury and starting the season in the Minors), but still ended up with 27 HR's, which was good for 14th in the AL.  Give him another 40 games, and he easily a 35 HR/100+ RBI guy, look for a lot of good seasons out of him down the road.

NL Rookie of the Year: Geovany Soto.  Again, can't argue with a guy who hit 23 HR's and 86 RBI's while hitting .285 and starting the All Star game for the NL as a catcher.  I have a feeling I might get sick of seeing him 18 times a season.

And finally, announced today:

NL Cy Young: Tim Lincecum.  This guy was 18-5 on a terrible team (Giants were 72-90 this year, but really weren't even that good.)  He had the league's second-best ERA at 2.62 (behind some scrub named "Santana") and led the majors in strikeouts.  Not bad for the David Eckstein of pitching (dude's 5'11'' and 160 pounds).  And just for the record, I did spell "Lincecum" without looking it up.  As Kenny Mayne said in a commerical yesterday, "Stick that on your FacePage and poke it."

All righty, I'll update next Tuesday after all the awards have been announced.  And, just to forewarn you, if Pujols isn't the NL MVP, I'm going to be a little ticked off....