Grading My 2019 Awards Predictions

The votes have been tallied and the results are in for the 2019 Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) awards winners.

This means it’s time for me to grade last week’s predictions.

American League Rookie of the Year

My Prediction: Yordan Álvarez
Winner: Yordan Álvarez

Running Tally: 1/1

National League Rookie of the Year

My Prediction: Pete Alonso
Winner: Pete Alonso

Running Tally: 2/2

The Rookie of the Year category was the easiest to predict by far. There wasn’t much of a competition given that some of the finalists missed significant time due to injuries. However, Álvarez’s status as a member of the 2019 Astros may forever taint his award following the electronic sign-stealing allegations raised against the organization.

American League Manager of the Year

My Prediction: Aaron Boone
Winner: Rocco Baldelli

Running Tally 2/3

I picked the wrong manager of a 100+ win team.

National League Manager of the Year

My Prediction: Mike Shildt
Winner: Mike Shildt

Running Tally: 3/4

Writers love a good underdog story, even though the Cardinals are never underdogs.

American League Cy Young Award

My Prediction: Gerrit Cole
Winner: Justin Verlander

Running Tally: 3/5

This was my biggest miss. I underestimated baseball writers’ love of pitcher wins and durability, which were the categories where Verlander outperformed the competition this year.

National League Cy Young Award

My Prediction: Jacob deGrom
Winner: Jacob deGrom

Running Tally: 4/6

When no candidate has totally run away with the season, the award will go to last year’s winner.

American League Most Valuable Player

My Prediction: Alex Bregman
Winner: Mike Trout

Running Tally: 4/7

The BBWAA avoided a major black eye by voting Trout, the most deserving candidate, MVP over Alex Bregman after news broke of alleged electronic sign-stealing by the Astros since their 2017 championship season.

National League Most Valuable Player

My Prediction: Cody Bellinger
Winner: Cody Bellinger

While I pointed out last week that Christian Yelich had followed up his 2018 MVP campaign with an even better 2019, I knew he would likely finish behind Bellinger, who tied Yelich for the lead in fWAR and excelled at multiple positions for the league-leading Dodgers. Yelich’s loss will preserve the reputation of the BBWAA, since the Brewers have also been implicated in the electronic sign-stealing scandal rocking baseball. Yelich’s disparate 2019 home/road splits (Home: .347/.451/.750 vs. Road: .312/.409/.597) are of note when considering the allegations involving the Brewers.

Final Tally: 5/8 (63% – D)

I barely made a passing grade this year!