And of course the final of the big postseason awards, the MVP.
American League
Jose Altuve
Jose Altuve led the Houston Astros to one of the best records in baseball. He led the AL in hits, in batting average, WAR, and is a pretty fair second baseman. I think all that will give him the title over Aaron Judge. It may also help that Judge can win the Rookie of the Year Award and my guess is that some writers will vote him the Rookie award and then decide “that’s enough” and slight him for the MVP. They shouldn’t, but someone probably will.
National League
Giancarlo Stanton
Although the Marlins didn’t make the playoffs, without Giancarlo Stanton they might not have gotten to 50 wins (OK, I’ll give the rest of the roster 60 wins). He led the majors in home runs, RBIs, and led the National League in WAR and slugging. Those are the kinds of numbers that get both traditionalists and more modern stat guys attention. I think Nolan Arenado should get a lot of consideration, but my guess is that the Coors Field factor will hurt him a lot (although he didn’t do badly on the road). On a personal note, I loved Joey Votto’s season and would be very happy if he picked up a lot of support. I also think that Goldschmidt will get a lot of support.
As usual, don’t put large bets on my say so.
Verdun2's Blog 