Buster Olney offers his ballots on the major awards today, and the ROY balloting is, of course, the most compelling to me as a Ranger fan:
AL Rookie of the Year:
- Elvis Andrus
- Rick Porcello
- Andrew Bailey
My gut feeling is that that is how the top three will end up going -- Andrus will win, followed by Porcello and Bailey. Porcello has just gotten a lot more buzz than the other rookie starting pitchers, and is viewed as a key part of a playoff team. Bailey has the gaudy ERA and save numbers, but relievers generally don't get a ton of support in these votes.
So I'll be mildly surprised if Elvis doesn't end up the winner.
I was just going to leave it at that, but I wanted to comment as well about Olney's other ballots. Olney has Justin Verlander and Mariano Rivera as the 9th and 10th place vote-getters on his MVP ballot...which wouldn't be all that remarkable, except neither is in the top 3 in his Cy Young balloting. His top three on the Cy Young are Greinke, King Felix, and Sabathia, none of whom appear on his MVP ballot.
Why? No explanation, although I assume that we'd get the usual b.s. about just because you're the best pitcher doesn't mean you're the most valuable, blah blah blah.
Which is stupid, but whatever. We go through this every year. I should be inured to it by now.