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MLB: National League’s Most and Least Deserving of Each Key Award

By Joshua Mayer

Apr 7, 2016; Washington, DC, USA; Washington Nationals right fielder Bryce Harper (34) is presented with the National League MVP award by Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo before the game between the Nationals and the Miami Marlins at Nationals Park. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 7, 2016; Washington, DC, USA; Washington Nationals right fielder Bryce Harper (34) is presented with the National League MVP award by Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo before the game between the Nationals and the Miami Marlins at Nationals Park. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports /
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With the MLB playoffs starting, it is a good time to predict the regular season awards, along with opposites of each award for least valuable player, manager, etc. We will start with a focus on the National League.

With the Cubs dominating the NL all season long, it can be assumed they will dominate the voting boxes similar to last season. While this could be true with superstars like Kris Bryant and Jon Lester hoping to take home an award, each player has a lot of competition for their respective MLB awards.

The MVP, Cy Young, Rookie, Manager, and Reliever awards are the basics. Also included are an opposite award for each. The Juan Castro award is for least valuable player, as the former infielder somehow played 17 years with a .229/.268/.327 slash.

The Jose Lima award is for the least valuable pitcher, as even with two good seasons, the righty pitched to a 5.26 ERA over 15 seasons.

Though eventually finding moderate success, Cristian Guzman was atrocious in his rookie season with a .226/.267/.276 slash, while getting caught stealing seven times with only nine successes. Due to that 1999 season, he gets the name of the worst rookie.

Manager was tough, but I gave the honor to Buddy Bell. The former player got three separate opportunities to manage and had a losing record with all three teams. Not a greatly successful managerial career.

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Lastly, the worst reliever award was given to a man named Lewis. Yep, just Lewis. A pitcher for the Buffalo Bisons in 1890, stats show he only played in one game, giving up 20 runs in three innings. No one on this list was that bad, but maybe there is a reason Lewis changed his name and hid immediately after. (Just kidding that’s not what happened–at least I don’t think that’s what happened).

Format

I formatted this award after the baseball writers do theirs. Top ten for MVP, five for Cy Young, three for anything else. Without further adieu, let’s see who is worthy of the top awards in baseball, along with the even more prestigious worst awards.

*All stats courtesy of Fangraphs

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