Post Season Awards

Jason Budden: Un-Common Sense?

Early this year, I gave a rundown of my MVP, Cy Young and Rookie of the Year selections, based on their performance through the early part of May. Now that the season is over, here are my picks for the end of season MVP and Cy Young awards.

AL MVP

Dustin Pedroia - If you told me at the beginning of the season that the Red Sox would make the playoffs, even though 1) Manny Ramirez would be traded, 2) David Ortiz, Mike Lowell and J.D. Drew would each miss over 40 games during the season to injury, and 3) Josh Beckett would get hurt and only win 12 games...I would have said you're crazy. Hats off to Dustin Pedroia. He hit .326 with 17 homeruns, 83 RBI, 118 runs and 20 stolen bases. He carried this team when no one else could.

NL MVP

Albert Pujols - He quietly put together another monster year hitting .357 with 37 homeruns, 117 RBI and 100 runs. I don't know how that year was kept quiet, but this season there was not much fanfare around Albert Pujols. Maybe it was because the Cardinals faded late in the season. Maybe it was because the Cubs and Brewers were a more exciting story in the NL Central Division. Maybe it is because we have become used to seeing Albert put up these numbers. Regardless, he deserves the NL MVP award.

AL Cy Young

Francisco Rodriguez – I think I stand alone on this pick. Most all of the experts are selecting Cliff Lee, and I have no problem with that selection. Lee went 22-3 with a 2.54 ERA, but 14 of his wins came against teams with losing records including eight wins against the lowly Mariners, Tigers and Royals. That might be nitpicking, but if KRod doesn’t win the Cy Young, after breaking the single season saves record by five saves, what closer will ever win the award? How could you give it to a closer, unless they break this record, which is very unlikely? The previous record stood for 18 years. Are closers really disregarded that much that KRod’s accomplishment could go unrewarded? Not by me.

NL Cy Young

Tim Lincecum – The stats of Lincecum and Johan Santana are almost identical:

Lincecum: 227 IP, 18 – 5, 265 Strikeouts, 2.62 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 3.15 K/BB
Santana: 234.1 IP, 16 – 7, 206 Strikeouts, 2.53 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 3.27 K/BB

So why Lincecum? I really can’t give you a good reason. In the end, I picked Lincecum because he struck out 59 more batters than Santana, no other concrete reason.


Jason Budden is the Vice President of Operations and Marketing at Baseball Factory. Jason joined the Baseball Factory in 1997 while still a junior in high school. After going through the Baseball Factory's college recruiting program he was placed at Johns Hopkins University where he played two years of college baseball before graduating with a degree in Economics. After working part-time at the Factory throughout college, Jason joined the team as a full-time employee in January 2002 when he was promoted to Director of Marketing. He currently oversees all marketing projects and sponsorship opportunities at Baseball Factory. He is also in charge of development and marketing for Baseball University, the leader in online baseball education and a division of Baseball Factory.