MLB: Predicting the Award Winners for 2017
By Jason Reed
Each and every year several of MLB’s bests are awarded with the most prestigious accolades in baseball. Whether it be exceptional fielding, hitting, or all around greatness these players shine above the rest. With a new year upcoming, who will earn these prestigious honors?
Baseball has perhaps the most diverse and prestigious awards in all of American sports. With the MVP, Cy Young, Silver Slugger, and Gold Glove MLB has quite a good selection of greatness in its ranks. As of late, some of these awards have been dominated by certain individuals, and rightly so. In a time where World Series wins and awards are driving points for Hall of Fame discussion, these awards are second in importance only behind the World Series. With so much talent in MLB, these awards are always up for grabs. In 2017, this trend will no doubt remain constant.
Of course some of these awards have been dominated in recent years. We can directly look at Mike Trout for MVP, or Salvador Perez for Gold Glove. However, often times these awards vary from recipient to recipient, as we have not seen a repeat of AL Cy Young since Pedro Martinez in 1999-2000. 2017 will be the same, there will be an MVP or Cy Young candidate none of us saw coming and a handful of new Gold Glove and Silver Slugger winners. The game of baseball is constantly evolving, and so is the talents along with it.
With all of that being said, it may be a difficult task to predict who will win what award next season. That doesn’t mean I won’t try though! Looking at past trends and future expectations, a viable prediction can be made for each award. While some of these will be very easy, AL MVP, some may be shocking. Therefore, let’s look at the most likely winners for MLB’s most prestigious awards.