Notice: Trying to get property 'display_name' of non-object in /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo/src/generators/schema/article.php on line 52
keyboard_arrow_uptop

The All-Star break is a good time to take a quick look back at the first half. For that purpose, Baseball Prospectus authors Jeff Bower, Clay Davenport, Jeff Hildebrand, Gary Huckabay, Jonah Keri, Chris Kahrl, Mat Olkin, Keith Scherer, Joe Sheehan, Greg Spira, Michael Wolverton, and Derek Zumsteg took the time to participate in midseason balloting for baseball's MVP, Cy Young and Rookie of the Year awards. As usual, we're using the BBWAA point system for the MVP (14-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1) and Rookie (5-3-1) awards, and our own concoction for the Cy Young (10-7-5-3-1) awards. The first number after the name is the number of points the player was voted, while the numbers in parentheses following the points total are the number of first-place votes (if any) the player received and the number of ballots the player was on.

AL MVP
Alex Rodriguez 155 (10) (12)
Jason Giambi 86 (1) (11)
Ichiro Suzuki 84 (11)
Torii Hunter 82 (1)(12)
Alfonso Soriano 66 (12)
John Olerud 48 (9)
Mike Sweeney 42 (11)
Jim Thome 29 (9)
Nomar Garciaparra 28 (7)
Derek Lowe 28 (5)
Johnny Damon 15 (5)
Paul Konerko 13 (4)
Derek Jeter 12 (4)
Bernie Williams 8 (2)
Miguel Tejada 8 (1)
Eric Chavez 4 (1)
Bartolo Colon 4 (1)
Omar Vizquel 3 (2)
Pedro Martinez 3 (1)

Alex Rodriguez may be stuck on a last place team, but the Prospectus staff clearly thinks he's still the most valuable player in the league. Rodriguez, Torii Hunter, and Alfonso Soriano were the only players to appear on all 12 ballots. Derek Lowe, finishing 10th, was the only pitcher to finish in the top ten. Almost half of the top 15 finishers play up-the-middle positions.

NL MVP
Barry Bonds 168 (12) (12)
Sammy Sosa 99 (12)
Lance Berkman 66 (11)
Brian Giles 57 (10)
Shawn Green 51 (11)
Andruw Jones 44 (9)
Adam Dunn 43 (9)
Jim Edmonds 22 (5)
Randy Johnson 21 (4)
Jeff Kent 18 (5)
Tom Glavine 18 (4)
Vlad Guerrero 18 (3)
Todd Helton 14 (4)
Albert Pujols 14 (3)
Junior Spivey 11 (4)
Mike Lowell 9 (3)
Cliff Floyd 8 (2)
Jose Vidro 8 (2)
Bob Abreu 4 (2)
Mike Piazza 4 (1)
Larry Walker 3 (2)
Curt Schilling 3 (1)
Pat Burrell 1 (1)

Barry Bonds was an unanimous Prospectus midseason NL MVP. Sammy Sosa was the only other player to appear on every ballot. Two pitchers, Randy Johnson and Tom Glavine, finished in the top 10. The NL list has far fewer players at skill positions at the top of the list than the AL list does. Only the Padres and Brewers had no players receiving a vote.

AL Cy Young
Derek Lowe 117 (11) (12)
Pedro Martinez 68 (1) (12)
Bartolo Colon 50 (8)
Barry Zito 16 (6)
Jamie Moyer 16 (4)
Kenny Rogers 11 (5)
Tim Hudson 7 (3)
Roy Halladay 6 (2)
Jeff Weaver 4 (2)
Roger Clemens 3 (1)
Freddy Garcia 3 (1)
Jarrod Washburn 3 (1)
Mark Buerhle 2 (2)
Ramon Ortiz 1 (1)

The Red Sox dominated the AL Cy Young balloting, with only Derek Lowe and Pedro Martinez appearing on all 12 ballots. Lowe won 11 of 12 first place votes. Bartolo Colon was the only other pitcher to gain significant support; most voters ignored his recent trade to the Expos. No reliever received a vote.

NL Cy Young
Randy Johnson 98 (6) (12)
Tom Glavine 95 (5) (12)
Curt Schilling 69 (1) (12)
Odalis Perez 31 (11)
Eric Gagne 8 (4)
Roy Oswalt 4 (2)
Matt Morris 2 (2)
Vicente Padilla 3 (3)
Elmer Dessens 1 (1)
Kip Wells 1 (1)

In what was by far the closest vote in this Prospectus balloting, Randy Johnson just edged Tom Glavine in the voting for the NL midseason Cy Young, and Curt Schilling finished a very strong 3rd. The only other pitcher to appear on more than 4 ballots was Odalis Perez, who appeared on 11 ballots. Eric Gagne, who finished fifth, was the only reliever in either league to get Cy Young votes.

AL Rookie of the Year
Eric Hinske 50 (8) (12)
Rodrigo Lopez 32 (3) (10)
Bobby Kielty 11 (5)
Tony Fiore 6 (1) (2)
Jorge Julio 4 (2)
Dustin Mohr 3 (3)
Kevin Mench 2 (2)

Eric Hinske easily won the Prospectus midseason AL Rookie balloting, with only Orioles pitcher Rodrigo Lopez also receiving multiple first place votes.

NL Rookie of the Year
Josh Fogg 33 (5) (9)
Kazuhisa Ishii 27 (4) (7)
Brad Wilkerson 16 (1) (6)
Austin Kearns 16 (2) (4)
Damian Moss 7 (3)
Jason Simontacchi 6 (4)
Mark Prior 2 (2)
Michael Tejera 1 (1)

No player appeared on more than 75% of the ballots in the Prospectus voting for midseason NL Rookie of the Year, which was won by Pirates pitcher Josh Fogg in a close vote over Dodgers starter Kaz Ishii. Outfielders Brad Wilkerson and Austin Kearns finished in a tie for 3rd.

The Prospectus staff will take another look at these races at season's end – hopefully in October – and at the same time will let readers voice their choices in the 11th Annual Internet Baseball Awards.

Greg Spira is an author of Baseball Prospectus. You can contact him by clicking here.

 

Thank you for reading

This is a free article. If you enjoyed it, consider subscribing to Baseball Prospectus. Subscriptions support ongoing public baseball research and analysis in an increasingly proprietary environment.

Subscribe now
You need to be logged in to comment. Login or Subscribe