Jack Torrance - Contributing Reporter
And the Award goes to...
Continuing off last year's award season. You can generally find the runs, HRs, RBIs, and AVG listed on the website when voting but we'll cover a few of the player's advanced stats; including their Cash points (fantasy points - offense focused), weighted SBs (when relevant, attempted 15 or more), extra base hits, a player's wOBA (weighted on-base average), wRC+ (weighted runs created), and even a player's wRAA (weighed runs above average). All in the effort to see how each individual effected the games they played. Players in bold is our predicted winner.
MVP
We'll start off with the MVP race, listed by Skynet's favorites (ie. listed in order from website)
- AL - Let's year winner Kyle Crain (C/DH) has come back with a vengeance since missing S54. He follows up last year's performance by winning the AL Triple Crown! This time isn't not Matty Moss or TJ Christenson but Johnnie Daniels (RF) who joins him on the MVP list. While I'm not surprised to see WYW (1B) on the list, it's strange to now see his teammate Weiss given the superb season he had. Cervantes (2B) makes his return to the MVP ballot and rounded out by teammate Vin Pirela (CF)
- Kyle Crain (C) - Predicted Winner
- Cash points - 663
- xBH - 78
- wRAA - 76.5
- wOBA - .472
- wRC - 192
- wSB - irrelevant
- Case for: Sounds like a broken record but he's producing those numbers while also managing the pitching staff behind the plate. And he won the Triple Crown. Even our historians can't tell you last time that happened. Lead the league in RC27 at 11.12; likely top 10-15 single season record.
- Al Cervantes (2B)
- Cash points - 594
- xBH - 79
- wRAA - 59.2
- wOBA - .425
- wRC - 165
- wSB - -2
- Wei-Yin Wan (1B)
- Cash points - 686
- xBH - 77
- wRAA - 74.4
- wOBA - .448
- wRC - 193
- wSB - 0
- Vin Pirela (CF)
- Cash points - 542
- xBH - 80
- wRAA - 41.1
- wOBA - .398
- wRC - 147
- wSB - irrelevant
- Johnnie Daniels (RF)
- Cash points - 604
- xBH - 71
- wRAA - 66.6
- wOBA - .456
- wRC - 180
- wSB - irrelevant
- NL - Many of the usual suspects, Shea Crowe, Omar Gonzales, Douglas Laxton. Add in Bonk Burnett who had a great season for Hartford in CF and Drew Ducati who played well above his head.
- Omar Gonzales (1B) - Predicted Winner
- Cash points - 803
- xBH - 95
- wRAA - 99.9
- wOBA - .489
- wRC - 235
- wSB - 3
- Case for: O.G. didn't like us calling him the second best player in the NL last year so he put up a monster of a season this year. His 11.32 RC27 ranks top 10-15 all time for a single season. A rounder error puts him under 100 for wRAA and his wRC of 135% better than league average is amazing! Only Laxton got close at 109% better.
- Bonk Burnett (CF)
- Cash points - 610
- xBH - 78
- wRAA - 58.1
- wOBA - .449
- wRC - 194
- wSB - 0
- Drew Ducati (1B)
- Cash points - 509
- xBH - 69
- wRAA - 36.1
- wOBA - .394
- wRC - 142
- wSB - 8
- Douglas Laxton (RF)
- Cash points - 582
- xBH - 75
- wRAA - 75.8
- wOBA - .480
- wRC - 209
- wSB - -2
- Shea Crowe (2B)
- Cash points - 688
- xBH - 102
- wRAA - 68
- wOBA - .439
- wRC - 173
- wSB - irrelevant
Cy Young
Next we have the Cy Young award. This time we'll be looking at a few advanced stats such as ERA+, FIP, Weighted Cash points to neutralize park factors. In the future, if we can figure out why our WAR numbers are so off, we'll include those as well. But for now we'll include K/BB and Quality Starts or Inherited Runners Scored as well. A reminder on ERA+, the average is 100 and anything above 100 indicates the pitcher performed better than average while below performed worse than average. Score of 150 would be 50% better than average. The FIP focuses solely on the events a pitcher has the most control over: K, BB, HBP, and HR.
- AL - Interesting group here, three starters and two relievers. So you get to pick between an Atlanta and Houston pitcher, which is no surprise given how quickly they separated themselves from the pack.
- Mitch Dillard
- ERA+ - 155
- FIP - 3.10
- Cash - 513
- K/BB - 2.79
- QS% - 55%
- JC Wall - Predicted Winner
- ERA+ - 137
- FIP - 3.69
- Cash - 471
- K/BB - 2.03
- QS% - 70%
- Case for: This was a close one with Dillard and Wall, but we felt Wall's 8 additional quality starts helped the team and relied less on the bullpen. That's one reason why you'll notice Wall's 24 wins. But everything else points to Dillard winning.
- Whit Benoit
- ERA+ - 225
- FIP - 3.11
- Cash - 320
- K/BB - 2.88
- IR% - 15%
- Jiovanni Poole
- ERA+ - 143
- FIP - 3.48
- Cash - 447
- K/BB - 2.79
- QS% - 70%
- Stephen Ramirez
- ERA+ - 163
- FIP - 2.55
- Cash - 350
- K/BB - 2.96
- IR% - 26%
- NL - Some of the usual suspects here as well. Drew, White, Combs, Bonilla all familiar faces on the Cy Young ballot. But this year Vancouver adds Cy Hawkins. Bonilla while familiar is on the Chicago squad instead of New Orleans this year and proved to be a great signing this off-season. Can Nigel White take home another NL Cy Young?
- Nigel White - Predicted Winner
- ERA+ - 224
- FIP - 2.79
- Cash - 482
- K/BB - 3.49
- QS% - 66%
- Case for: This guy has been a cheat code in the NL since coming over from Dover and signing his S53 max contract. This would be his 4th season in the NL and if he wins the award as he should, his 4th NL Cy Young. I bet NL teams hope he signs with an AL team after next season.
- Danys Solis
- ERA+ - 142
- FIP - 3.63
- Cash - 410
- K/BB - 2.49
- QS% - 47%
- Avisail Mujica
- ERA+ - 199
- FIP - 3.01
- Cash - 491
- K/BB - 3.86
- QS% - 48%
- Ronnie Andrews
- ERA+ - 245
- FIP - 2.78
- Cash - 385
- K/BB - 3.09
- IR% - 50%
- Alton Drew
- ERA+ - 142
- FIP - 3.18
- Cash - 493
- K/BB - 2.77
- QS% - 63%
Cash Points
The top 20 hitters players under the Cash system are:
- 803 - Omar Gonzales (Tok)
- 688 - Shea Crowe (Chi)
- 686 - Wei-Yin Wan (Hun)
- 663 - Kyle Crain (Atl)
- 662 - Louie Weiss (Hun)
- 610 - Bonk Burnett (Har)
- 604 - Johnnie Daniels (Atl)
- 594 - Al Cervantes (Phi)
- 589 - Mickey Barmes (Hel)
- 582 - Douglas Laxton (NO)
- 581 - Alex Perez (Har)
- 579 - Warren Cobb (Har)
- 546 - Dilson Ross (Sal)
- 542 - Vin Pirela (Phi)
- 527 - Damion Ni (Hun)
- 524 - Chuck Rupe (Phi)
- 509 - Drew Ducati (Col)
- 500 - Bernie Mendez (Tok)
- 476 - Leonel Martinez (Har)
- 475 - Josh Hunt (NO)
And the bottom 10 hitters with at least 300 ABs are. It's generally filled with SSs who often but not always provide solid defense to make up for it. Let's see who we've got this year. Tanking seems a little more higher than normal as the numbers are lower than normal.
- 42.5 - Brooks Jarvis (NY - SS)
- -57.8 wRAA
- 53 - Lewis Gaetti (NY - SS)
- -52.7 wRAA
- AL CF Gold Glove
- 78.5 - Mark Durrington (Wash - SS)
- -42.2 wRAA
- 86 - Willie Martin (Buf - 2B/SS)
- -29.6 wRAA
- 86.5 - Michael Woo (Hou - SS)
- -27.3 wRAA
The top 20 pitchers under the cash system are:
- 513 - Mitch Dillard (Hou)
- 513 - Alan Street (Atl)
- 493 - Alton Drew (Chi)
- 491 - Avisail Mujica (Hart)
- 482 - Nigel White (Hart)
- 478 - Tony Lim (CS)
- 471 - J.C. Wall (Atl)
- 464 - Ed Wood (OKC)
- 450 - Ray Aaron (Chi)
- 447 - Jiovanni Poole (SLC)
- 446 - Victor Ortega (Hart)
- 434 - Midre Benavente (Col)
- 425 - Roger Simon (Hun)
- 422 - Harold Foltynewicz (Sal)
- 414 - Eli Moreno (Buf)
- 411 - Frank Kim (Min)
- 410 - Carmen Arnold (Hou)
- 410 - Danys Solis (NO)
- 407 - Rico Bonilla (Chi)
- 406 - Damaso Ethier (Atl)