Awards season

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Update: Kershaw wins Baseball Prospectus’s NL Player and Pitcher of the Year awards.

Adrian Gonzalez and Juan Uribe won Defensive Player of the Year awards at their respective positions. In addition,

Gonzalez’s honor comes one day after he won a National League Gold Glove Award for the fourth time in his career. Gonzalez also won the Fielding Bible Award as top defensive first baseman in 2014.

Gonzalez also won the 2014 Silver Slugger award for National League first basemen.

Zack Greinke won a Gold Glove for 2014 as well.

A few days ago Clayton Kershaw was awarded three Players’ Choice awards: MLB Player of the Year, National League Outstanding Pitcher and Marvin Miller Man of the Year Award. He’s the first player ever to win three Players Choice awards in one season. It’s the third time he’s won the Outstanding Pitcher award.

Today he was awarded the 2014 Warren Spahn Award for best left-handed pitcher in the major leagues. It’s the third time he’s won the Spahn award, given by the Oklahoma Sports Council in Spahn’s home state.

62 thoughts on “Awards season”

        • $154,000 a game. Now, of course we will be paying Clayton about $1,000,000 a game by comparison #glass house

          • It’s still possible, but teams and players’ agendas don’t match up the way they used to. 33-year-old player says “I’d like to play my remaining five years with this team.” Management says “We’d like that, but we can’t give you a five-year contract. You’d be 38 at the end of it and who knows how badly your skills might have eroded by then, if not before.”

  3. It must be nice to have such enormous financial capabilities like the Dodgers and Yankees, but there is something to be said for knowing your limitations, too. Example: The Dodgers would like to have Martin, probably Lester, maybe some other top of the market free agents. While the agents dance the Dodgers, Yankees, et al around for months before signing, some of the lesser clubs will have picked off the best of the remaining free agents and whichever of the big clubs don’t win the big prizes will have to settle for less than they could have had…

  4. Apparently, the dodgers do not want to add more players with large contracts that expire when the players are around 35+ years old. They would become like the Yankees and Phillies are now. The Dodgers have too many of those already. That leaves out trading for Hamels, signing Sherzer, Shields, Lester, etc.

    Schebler and Sweeney are becoming more tradeable and more desirable for the Dodgers as well.

    So, goodby hanley, and if all goes as wished, goodby Ethier and Crawford. Jose Fernandez would be a good hello to however.

    • It’s one thing moving forward, in that sense Hanley is an easy decision, but quite another in terms of how to deal with existing contracts. It would seem to boil down to how much the Dodgers are willing to pay to have Ethier and Crawford play for someone else. – Bob Hendley

    • The Fish are not going to give up on a highly talented, cost-controlled pitcher like Fernández.

  5. Just crazy thoughts I know, but…
    AGon’s value will never be higher, trade him now for pitching and prospects. Keep Hanley, put him at first.
    Kemp’s value may never be this high again, and with his injury history, get the most you can for him. Unless they change their minds and would be willing to trade Puig. Trading Puig would be my preference, you would get a lot for him too.
    Don’t take on another bad contract from Texas at short. Go with defense (Rojas) or youth (Seager) from within.
    Personally, I keep Ellis catching, Rojas at short, Gordon at second, whichever is the best defensive outfielder we have in center.
    I am old school, pitching and defense, strength up the middle. Seemed to work well for the Giants and Royals.
    .

    • I really wouldn’t cry if they traded Agon and put Hanley at first. But I won’t hold my breath until that happens….

  6. Kershaw won the NL MVP award too. Voting went like this:

    Kershaw got 18 of 30 first-place votes and 355 points in balloting by members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

    Stanton got eight first-place ballots and 298 points. McCutchen got four first and 271 points.

    In the AL the Angels’ Mike Trout was a unanimous winner of the MVP award.

  11. Should the Dodgers take on a bad contract in exchange for Crawford? There was mention of talks between Texas and Dodgers about trading Crawford for Elvis Andrus, who is only 26 and a two-time All-Star but is also coming off perhaps the worst season of his career and has $120 million owed to him over the next eight seasons. That’s about 4 years longer than Crawford’s remaining contract and about $40 million more than Crawford is owed.

    Still, it gives the Dodgers a good shortstop and one less outfielder. And it gives the Rangers a left handed bat they want in the outfield and reduces their long jam in the infield plus give Jurickson Profar, two time number 1 prospect, a chance to play.

    Seager would move to third. Arruebarrena would probably be traded.

    I like trading for Andrus more than I like swapping contracts for a pitcher like Danks.

  12. I’ve seen the idea of acquiring Tulowitzki from the Rockies in a couple of places, but Cliff Corcoran at SI writes what I think about that: “A blockbuster deal for Troy Tulowitzki is fun to contemplate, but Tulo, though a far better player than Ramirez, is another injury-prone 30-year-old.”

  14. For those who have been clamoring to bring up Pederson now, remember when Jerry Sands was the next great Dodger?

    • Pederson is significantly younger and more athletic. He has his question marks, but few people thought Sands was a legitimate prospect (though I think he deserved a bit more slack).

  15. What do you think Martin will get? I’d go 4 years for $50MM, add a couple of years as a backup, maybe 6 years for $60MM total.

      • That may well be but I cannot feel good paying players more than they are worth. What am I saying, is anybody on Earth worth $10MM a year when there are millions starving…

        • You don’t sound like a John Galt on that issue – perhaps your username is ironic. I would agree but, for better or worse, the open market will determine what Martin gets.

          • The Good Old Open Market… It got us inflation, depression, Obama, Bush, and a plethora of other things I don’t want to think about. I wish it was 1950 again!