2008 Preseason Awards

Written by Colin on February 25, 2008 – 7:48 am

We’re going to dig into this year’s preseason and hand out some of our own awards and make predictions as to the end of season awards.

Preseason Team Awards

Best AL Team: Detroit Tigers
Best NL Team: New York Mets (I said it, but I’m not happy about it.)
Most Hyped Team: New York Mets
Worst AL Team: Tampa Bay Devil Rays
Worst NL Team: Florida Marlins (this was a no-brainer.  The state of Florida is apparently cursed.)
Best AL Division: The AL East beats out the Central for this title with the Blue Jays being the determining factor.
Best NL Division: The East is strong (and beats out the West) with the Mets, Phillies, and Braves all looking for the division title.  We should see some great baseball out of this division all season long.
Worst AL Division:  The West is going to be ugly with Oakland, Seattle, and Texas.  Texas should be on the rise, but Oakland completely disassembled whatever they had last year in their fire sale.
Worst NL Division:  The NL Central has a couple teams that are decent (Chicago and Milwaukee), but Cincinnati, Houston, and Pittsburgh bring the division down to the worst in the NL.

This year is going to be fun to watch in several divisions – the AL East and Central promise to be intriguing, as do the NL East and West.  The Tigers and Indians are going to create some great story lines, and we’re all familiar with the NL East and the competition we’ll see there this year.

Preseason Individual Awards

AL MVP: Alex Rodriguez
NL MVP: Matt Holliday
AL Cy Young: C.C. Sabathia
NL Cy Young: Jake Peavy
AL Batting Title: Ichiro Suzuki
NL Batting Title: Matt Holliday
AL HR Title: Alex Rodriguez
NL HR Title: Ryan Howard

There we go – our projections for the individual awards in 2008.  No, we don’t think Johan Santana will win the NL Cy Young award this year – he’s a great pitcher, but I think Peavy will pull it out this year.  The others don’t have many surprises – Matt Holliday is a very solid hitter that is only helped by the fact that he plays in Colorado.


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Posted in League Analysis | 11 Comments »


11 Responses to “2008 Preseason Awards”

  1. By Cameron on Feb 25, 2008 | Reply

    I disagree about the Rays, they’ve bolstered they’re bullpen with Troy Percival, and have a solid lineup headed by Carl Crawford (easily the most underrated player in baseball) and Tony Pena. I personally believe that the O’s are the worst team in the AL (especially after trading Bedard)

  2. By Cameron on Feb 25, 2008 | Reply

    sarry i ment carlos pena

  3. By John on Feb 25, 2008 | Reply

    How can the division with the worst team (Just the Rays, they are Devils no more) be the best division in the AL? The Central is way better. Tigers O vs. Indians pitching is going to be the best battle of the season.

  4. By Mike on Feb 25, 2008 | Reply

    So what you’re saying is that the only thing that changed during the ENTIRE offseason was that the Tigers got better? You think everyone else will perform exactly the same?!

  5. By Colin on Feb 25, 2008 | Reply

    Thanks for the comments guys – a couple of thoughts:

    - Cameron, you may have a point there. The O’s may beat the Rays out as the worst AL team.

    - John, the reason I think the AL East is the best division despite the Tigers/Indians has to do with a good team/bad team look. The BoSox and Yankees are the good teams in the East, and the Orioles and Rays are two of the worse teams. The Jays are a decent team – they’ve added some good power too. In the Central, the Tigers/Indians take the good team badge, but there are three bad teams. Minnesota is not going to be much, and the White Sox and Royals are not looking much better than last year.

    - Mike, I’m not sure what makes you think I don’t think anything has happened to any team but Detroit – that’s not my point at all. I think we’re going to see a lot of nuances and differences from last year. My point is that Detroit, in my mind, is the best looking team this coming year in the AL. Feel free to disagree :)

    Colin

  6. By Bill B. on Feb 26, 2008 | Reply

    I think the Tigers are the most hyped team. Everyone’s predicting 100+ wins for them when all they did was unnecessarily improve their already great offense. They needed pitching and did nothing but add Dontrelle Willis (and his ’07 season wasn’t a good indication of future success, especially with his sloppy mechanics).

    I would be surprised if the Tigers crossed 92 wins.

    The Rays will flirt with .500. They definitely are not the worst AL team. That honor goes to the Orioles.

    If you’re going with probability with your individual awards predictions, I can’t disagree with you. Very safe picks and they look similar to ’07′s winners.

  7. By Smitty on Feb 26, 2008 | Reply

    Interesting. The Sporting News picks the Braves to win the division with Teixeira winning the NL MVP. Plus, they give the Phillies the wildcard.

    They are also predicting the Red Sox beating the Cubbies in the Fall Classic.

    Smitty

  8. By Cameron on Feb 2, 2009 | Reply

    I disagree about the Rays, they've bolstered they're bullpen with Troy Percival, and have a solid lineup headed by Carl Crawford (easily the most underrated player in baseball) and Tony Pena. I personally believe that the O's are the worst team in the AL (especially after trading Bedard)

  9. By Mike on Feb 2, 2009 | Reply

    So what you're saying is that the only thing that changed during the ENTIRE offseason was that the Tigers got better? You think everyone else will perform exactly the same?!

  10. By Colin on Feb 2, 2009 | Reply

    Thanks for the comments guys – a couple of thoughts:

    - Cameron, you may have a point there. The O's may beat the Rays out as the worst AL team.

    - John, the reason I think the AL East is the best division despite the Tigers/Indians has to do with a good team/bad team look. The BoSox and Yankees are the good teams in the East, and the Orioles and Rays are two of the worse teams. The Jays are a decent team – they've added some good power too. In the Central, the Tigers/Indians take the good team badge, but there are three bad teams. Minnesota is not going to be much, and the White Sox and Royals are not looking much better than last year.

    - Mike, I'm not sure what makes you think I don't think anything has happened to any team but Detroit – that's not my point at all. I think we're going to see a lot of nuances and differences from last year. My point is that Detroit, in my mind, is the best looking team this coming year in the AL. Feel free to disagree :)

    Colin

  11. By Bill B. on Feb 2, 2009 | Reply

    I think the Tigers are the most hyped team. Everyone's predicting 100 wins for them when all they did was unnecessarily improve their already great offense. They needed pitching and did nothing but add Dontrelle Willis (and his '07 season wasn't a good indication of future success, especially with his sloppy mechanics).

    I would be surprised if the Tigers crossed 92 wins.

    The Rays will flirt with .500. They definitely are not the worst AL team. That honor goes to the Orioles.

    If you're going with probability with your individual awards predictions, I can't disagree with you. Very safe picks and they look similar to '07's winners.

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