Twins Daily Staff Predictions: World Series and Individual Awards

Twins Daily Staff Predictions: National League

Twins Daily Staff Predictions: American League

World Series Champion: Dodgers

Oh wow, that’s a really risky pick there. The team that, on paper, will give most All-Star rosters a run for their money is going to take home the piece of metal at the end of the year? Who could see such a thing coming? I mean, what else is there to say about the Dodgers that has not already been written about ad nauseum?

After doubling down last off-season by acquiring former MVP Mookie Betts, the team doubled down yet again and added the spinmaster general himself, Trevor Bauer, in order to create the most unholiest starting rotation man has ever seen. The Pitching Ninja gifs that this staff will create will be written about and read in the future as we today read about the Call of Cthulhu and the Old Testament. The only factor going against the Dodgers (outside of pressure from the Padres) is that no team in MLB has won the World Series in back-to-back years since the 1999-2000 Yankees. As for regular season success? Their win over/under is set at 102.5. Enough said.

Author’s pick: I chose the Padres not necessarily because I think that they’re the best team in MLB but more so because I think they might be the most fun team in the league and that should count for something (it does not, indeed, count for anything).

Full Results:

Dodgers: 13

Padres: 3

Yankees: 3

Twins: 2

Braves: 2

NL MVP: Tie between Juan Soto, Mookie Betts, and Fernando Tatís Jr.

Hey, now there’s an interesting result! Not only did we end up with a three-way tie for the award, but Ronald Acuña Jr. and his four votes made this a solid four-man race. The lack of a Mike Trout-like presence means that the winner of this race will be decided by the essential philosophies of the voters.

Juan Soto is the best hitter of the bunch, but he can’t field his position well and how valuable is an elite corner outfielder on a Nationals team that is utterly destined to be mediocre? Fernando Tatís Jr.’s sneezes have more talent than I possess in my entire body but he still has yet to play more than 90 games in a season. Mookie Betts is probably the safest bet but he could get overshadowed on a star-studded Dodgers squad that has two other MVPs already on the roster. Ronald Acuña Jr. has as much upside as any other player in baseball but just simply lacks a true completely dominant season as his WAR totals have always been somewhat depressed due to mediocre fielding statistics. Yes, these are nitpicky but we had no choice but to split hairs when there are so many great options to choose from.

Author’s pick: I chose Acuña Jr. because he became a more all-around hitter in 2020 (18.8% walk rate!) and, more so than any other choice, possesses the elite, toolsy ability to completely dominate the game in a way that ever so slightly one ups the other incredible players in the NL.

Full Results:

Juan Soto: 5

Mookie Betts: 5

Fernando Tatís Jr.: 5

Ronald Acuña Jr.: 4

Corey Seager: 2

Francisco Lindor: 2

NL Cy Young: Jacob deGrom

This pick was so obvious that when I filled out the form, I wrote “Jacob deGrom (duh)” because, well duh. deGrom inarguably has been the best pitcher on the planet since the start of 2018. Name any stat and he’s the guy at the top of the leaderboard.

fWAR? deGrom. ERA? deGrom. FIP? deGrom? Innings pitched? Yeah, you get it.

deGrom was well on his way to winning his third straight Cy Young award until the odd 2020 season paved the way for Trevor Bauer to swipe the hardware. That’s not to say Bauer was not deserving. He bullied and harassed hitters all season and was well deserving of the award. Still, it’s hard not to think that deGrom would have won it yet again if the season was the standard 162 game affair. A more interesting question here is how much does a third Cy Young award change deGrom’s place among the historically great starting pitchers? A third Cy Young win would place him with Clayton Kershaw, Sandy Koufax, Pedro Martínez, Jim Palmer, Tom Seaver, and Max Scherzer. That’s a lot of greatness.

Author’s pick: The guy throws 102! As a starting pitcher! Human beings should not be able to do this!

Full Results:

Jacob deGrom: 18

Walker Buehler: 2

Brandon Woodruff: 1

Jack Flaherty: 1

Luis Castillo: 1

NL Rookie of the Year: Ke’Bryan Hayes

Here we reach one of the only reasons why anyone would willingly watch the Pirates in 2021. I mean, I’m shocked that showing this team on television isn’t banned by one of our many peace treaties or something like that. Anyways, Hayes put up a 195 wRC+ over 95 plate appearances and has continued to absolutely destroy the ball in spring training. This along with his elite prospect status places him at the very top of the list when it comes to those who will likely win this award.

Also of note: Sixto Sánchez, who throws 100, was great last year for the Marlins, and is named “Sixto”. I don’t think his case requires much more of a description. It is somewhat interesting that Ian Anderson only came in third in our voting despite putting up a 2.54 FIP in 2020 while throwing about a hundred straight scoreless innings in the playoffs for the Braves.

Author’s pick: Ke’Bryan Hayes. And I fully stand by what I said about the Pirates. That team is going to be bad.

Full Results:

Ke’Bryan Hayes: 9

Sixto Sánchez: 6

Ian Anderson: 4

Dylan Carlson: 3

Cristian Pache: 1

AL MVP: Mike Trout

Mike Trout.

Author’s pick: Mike Trout.

Full Results:

Mike Trout: 16

Shohei Ohtani: 2

Aaron Judge: 2

Tim Anderson: 1

Matt Chapman: 1

Bo Bichette: 1

AL Cy Young: Gerrit Cole

Man, we really need some true contrarians on this site. Wow, the two best pitchers in the league are going to win each league’s respective Cy Young award, next you’re going to tell me that the Pope is Catholic. Anyways, Cole’s case more or less speaks for himself. He’s been a strikeout machine ever since the Astros taught him how to totally legally raise his spin rate better harvest his skills and shed whatever nonsense they were feeding him over in Pittsburgh. He then turned two ridiculous seasons with Houston into over $300 million guaranteed with the Yankees and will now have the honor of being viciously booed by New Yorkers as a future overpaid 37-year-old.

What’s more interesting to me at least is the battle for second place in the Cy Young race. The triumvirate of AL Central aces all have strong arguments for why they could potentially overturn the results that so far favor Gerrit Cole. Maybe the mail-in ballots will favor Shane Bieber.

Author’s pick: Gerrit Cole. Bieber was a close second, though.

Full Results:

Gerrit Cole: 8

Kenta Maeda: 4

Lucas Giolito: 4

Shane Bieber: 4

Tyler Glasnow: 3

AL Rookie of the Year: Randy Arozarena

When my own dad texts me out of the blue to say that “Arozarena is mythical”, you can tell this guy is something else. He somehow has just 99 career regular season plate appearances but broke everyone’s brains when he made a mockery of pitchers in the postseason. Arozarena bashed 10 homers throughout the entire playoffs and really didn’t even seem to be trying too hard while he did it.

The names after Arozarena represent one of the more disputed awards that we have analyzed today. Besides Arozarena, the only other player to receive more than two votes was Jarred Kelenic (who officially will not start 2021 in the majors). This race is pretty wide open, as even Arozarena is far from a guarantee to repeat his monstrous total 2020 performance.

Author’s pick: See, now I chose Casey Mize in part because I really do think that he’ll be great in the future but also I believed without any doubt that Arozarena had lost his rookie eligibility. Whoops.

Full Results:

Randy Arozarena: 7

Jarred Kelenic: 4

Alex Kirilloff: 2

Nate Pearson: 2

Ryan Mountcastle: 2

Wander Franco: 1

Casey Mize: 1

Dane Dunning: 1

Tarik Skubal: 1

Triston McKensie: 1

Nick Madrigal: 1

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