One thing I would like to mention, but in no way debate - how Miguel Andujar was snubbed for AL Rookie of the Year. In 149 games played (and 573 at-bats) Andujar posted a .297 AVG, with 27 HR and 92 RBI. He led all qualified rookies in hits (170), 2B (47), RBI (92) and was tied for first in HR with 27 with Daniel Palka of the Chicago White Sox (124 games). Andujar was only second in Batting Average to Joey Wendle of the Tampa Bay Rays (139 games) - Wendle hit exactly .300.
The actual winner of the award was Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Ohtani signed with the Angels prior to the 2018 season after playing 5 seasons in Japan with the Nippon Ham Fighters. He has drawn a lot of hype prior to his signing as he is considered both a flame-throwing starting pitcher and quality hitter.
In his five seasons in Japan, he hit .286AVG/48HR/166RBI - solid for his age. As a pitcher he made 82 starts, with a 42-15 record, 2.52 ERA in 543.0 innings pitched. In that span he struck out 624 batters with a 1.076 WHIP, easily establishing himself as one of the NPB's top players.
In his first season in the MLB, as a DH in 104 games he hit .285AVG/22HR/61RBI. Note that he did not play any defensive innings in the field other than pitcher. He did not hit in any game that he pitched in. As a starting pitcher, Ohtani made 10 starts, with a 4-2 record, 3.31ERA in 51.2 innings - he struck out 63 batters with a 1.161 WHIP. For the amount of games he played, these are quality stats.
Ohtani winning drew a lot of controversy from Yankee fans (of course), and non-writers (HA) and I, myself being both a Yankee fan and a non-writer would be one of these people. However, I want to preface my arguments with the fact that I am not disappointed in this selection just because I am a Yankee fan. I am a baseball fan in general - I have a respect for the game and always have. All season long, I watched the media fawn all over Ohtani, especially during the actual award presentation - I'm looking at you Amsinger - the hype was blown exponentially out of proportion.
The following reasons are why I do not believe Ohtani actually earned his Rookie of the Year award, and I feel that I have debated these to no end:
He only played 104 games - that's 64% of his team's games.
He was primarily a Designated Hitter, and in the 104 games he was in the lineup as a hitter, he did not play a single inning of defense.
He only pitched 50.1 innings, and only made 10 starts - previous RoY winners that were pitchers each made at least 25 starts. Not to mention, nine of his 10 starts came before June 7th - A MONTH BEFORE THE ALL-STAR BREAK! If he were a reliever, and the 50.1 innings were spread out over the length of the season, this would be a different conversation.
His numbers were very good - but because he only hit in a little over half the season, you cannot guarantee he maintains his offensive productivity. You cannot legitimize his numbers based on "projections" - that is purely speculation that he "might" maintain this kind of production. If he does play the entire season, and has numbers somewhat consistent with what he posted in his short season, you would have no complaint from me. The fact of the matter is he did not.
In games that he pitched, he did not hit he was only the pitcher. I know the AL has the DH, but you are not required to use it. If you really wanted to impress people, Ohtani could have hit in those games if they really wanted him to, and pinch hit for his spot after being pulled. This is exactly what they would have done if he had signed with ANY National League team. This definitely would have impressed me more.
The Angels cherry-picked his opponents. They coddled him, and the majority of his starts came against weaker teams (OAK - two, SEA, MIN, TB, DET, + KC), and he performed well (naturally). He went 4-2 on the season, his four wins were against struggling teams - two wins against Oakland in April (before they turned their season around), Tampa Bay in May (before they turned their season around), and Seattle in May (a solid team at the time, but were struggling). When he faced quality teams in three starts (two vs. Houston, and one vs. Boston) he was 0-2 in 9.2 innings, giving up 9 earned runs (8.38ERA). Yet, the media continued to call him dominant, and elite... he also did not face playoff teams such as the Indians or the Yankees. In fact, he was scratched from his start against New York, and rescheduled a day later, when the Angels were no longer playing the Yankees...
He played 5 seasons of professional baseball in Japan prior to coming to the United States to play in the MLB. He's already a seasoned veteran, same logic that was used to judge Hideki Matsui in 2003. He's already played and performed in several games in front of thousands of fans...
He missed significant time with injuries from June 7th to July 3rd - almost a month's worth of games due to a Right Elbow Sprain that will require him to have Tommy John Surgery.
Apparently, when casting their votes MLB writers overlooked all of this information. That's because Ohtani was a media darling, and the writers seemed to only focus on fact that he could hit and pitch in his shortened season. They claim that what he did when he played was more than enough. In my opinion, Andujar (or any other opponent for this award) didn't stand a chance. The only legitimate reasons anyone could formulate for why Andujar didn't win was his lackluster performance at third base, and because he didn't pitch. But, how can you evenly compare two players like this. Never mind the fact that Andujar is an every day third basemen (with weak defense) that posted consistent offensive numbers over the course of the season, that led all rookies in batting average, hits, runs, home runs (tied), extra base-hits, and runs batted in? He even broke the franchise record for doubles in a season as a rookie (43, Joe DiMaggio), and tied the MLB record for doubles with 47 (tied with Fred Lynn).
The media was so obsessed that this guy could possibly hit AND pitch well, he was deemed the "Japanese Babe Ruth" before he even threw a pitch in the US. It didn't matter what quantity of stats he produced - he had to just perform a little, prove he wasn't just a gimmick and the media would run away with it. I get it - he is a very unique player and we haven't had a player that could pitch AND hit like this in a very long time, and I could imagine how exciting it would be to have someone come into the league like this, perform on a small sample size, and get to write about it. However, I am sorry - I just don't see it, the writers dropped the ball on this one.
You don't have to point out that I don't get a vote, and that I am just a blogger - I already know these things. But I am sorry - as a baseball fan, when I compare the idea of him to the stats he actually produced in the number of games he played in, it just wasn't enough for me and I flat out disagree with the outcome, regardless of how unique and exciting such a player may be. This has nothing to do with the runner-ups being Yankees. I look at Ohtani's 2018 numbers and just say, "that's it? he didn't play a whole season, his competition DID and produced consistently"
I will end this rant now, as it ended up being much longer than I had intended. I will not change my mind on this regardless of any argument brought forth. Sorry. The only way I could ever see Ohtani legitimately winning this award is if Andujar was not a rookie this season - yes, Ohtani would beat out Gleyber.
I will say, for all of the other award winners (NL RoY, Managers of the Year, Cy Young, + MVP) I have absolutely no complaints - they did indeed get it right.
The only argument I would have is possibly for AL Manager of the Year to have been Kevin Cash. But, Bob Melvin was quite deserving considering the start to the season Oakland had, and what they accomplished just to make it into the Wild Card game.
My one big question is, how does J.D. Martinez win TWO Silver Slugger Awards?
You read that correctly, J.D. Martinez of the Boston Red Sox won one Silver Slugger Award for Designated Hitter, and another Silver Slugger as an Outfielder... the first ever to win two in one season. Martinez who only played only 57 games in the outfield in 2018 (93 games as Designated Hitter) won an award as one of the top hitting outfielders in the American League. Let me start by saying he 100% deserved the Silver Slugger Award for DH - but did he really deserve a second one? I personally do not. I think Michael Brantley of the Cleveland Indians was plenty deserving. In 134 games in Left Field (143 games total), Brantley hit .309 AVG/17HR/76 RBI - pretty solid numbers considering the majority of AL outfielders hit well below .300, battled injuries, or struck out 150+ times. I wanted to suggest Khris Davis of the Oakland Athletics, but in the 151 games he played in 2018, only 11 games in the outfield. Outside hitting 48 home runs and driving in 123 runs, he hit .247 and struck out 175 times - yikes... Therefore my vote goes to Brantley.
What do you think about the Silver Slugger? Was J.D. Martinez justified in winning two? Was there any other legitimate outfielder that was deserving of the award?