The Chicago Cubs had an amazing season in 2015. The 97 wins, the NLCS appearance, the excitement over the rookies, and Joe Maddon have made this season more fun than any in recent memory. With the great season, there were many great individual performances as well, and some of our Cubs are finalists for some of the most prestigious individual awards baseball has.
Chicago Cubs awards finalists
You can expect to celebrate three Chicago Cubs award winners by the end of next week, as their performance have certainly merited recognition. While some of these races will be close, I expect a clean sweep for the Cubs awards finalists.
National League Rookie of the Year
While there have been great performances from several rookies in 2015, none have made the impact that the Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant has. Not only is Bryant the consensus favorite to take home the award, he has already been named the NL Most Outstanding Rookie (voted on by players), and Baseball America’s Rookie of the Year in which he became the first player to be named College Player of the Year, Minor League Player of the Year, and Rookie of the Year in successive years.
Competition
Kris Bryant will have stiff competition for the NL honor. While Bryant should remain the heavy favorite, there are some other rookies that had great 2015 seasons.
Matt Duffy – Another third baseman, Duffy had a phenomenal season for the San Francisco Giants. His .295/.324/.428 slash line was impressive, and while his average took a dip towards the end of a long season, he had it over .300 for a good portion of the season.
Jung Ho Kang – Kang played a great shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2015. Owning a .287/.355/.461 slash line, his offensive play helped the Pirates make the playoffs for the second consecutive season. Unfortunately his season was cut short by a Chris Coghlan slide, he will likely finish third in the NL Rookie of the Year race.
Kris Bryant – Bryant was the leader of the pack from the day he was called up (or maybe his second game). He hit 26 HRs, drove in 99, had a slash line of .275/.369/.488 and led all rookies with a 5.5 WAR. Not to mention Kris was a huge part of a Cubs team that made its first trip to the playoffs since 2008.
The award will be announced Monday at 6 p.m. Eastern on MLB Network.
National League Manager of the Year Award
Not only has it been fun to watch the Chicago Cubs players, equally enjoyable has been watching Cubs manager Joe Maddon take the reins of this team. While most fans thought Maddon was going to add a certain level of confidence to the Cubs roster, we didn’t know exactly how much adding a legitimate major league caliber manager would improve the team’s overall play.
Competition
Joe has some stiff competition in the Manager of the Year race this year. From the skippet of another young up-and-coming team, to a team that’s there every single year but was riddled with injury, there were some great managerial jobs in the 2015 MLB baseball season.
Mike Matheny – The St Louis Cardinals are sort of like the chicken or the egg franchise in baseball, are players good because the entire organization is good, or are they good because of the managers in place to coach them. Regardless, the Cardinals were the best team in the NL Central throughout 162 games, finishing with 100 wins. Most impressive was their ability to continue to play exceptionally well despite the mass amount of injuries they dealt with. Mike Matheny deserves credit for that.
Terry Collins – Face it, the New York Mets not only are very similar to the Chicago Cubs, they made the best turnaround of any team within the season. While some of that turnaround was due to the acquisition of players like Yoenis Cespedes, Collins’ ability to manage a young pitching staff that had many inning limitations due to past injuries, was magnificent. Collins proved how much of an in-game strategist he really was during the NLCS against the Cubs. His ability to manufacture runs, and put his players in the position to succeed was extremely impressive. While this isn’t a postseason award, Collins managed the team to a great run, manipulating his pieces to get the most out of them, especially since the All Star break.
Joe Maddon – Joe changed the attitude of the Chicago Cubs from the first day he stepped in as the team’s new manager. He made it okay for the Cubs to talk about winning the World Series without the need to snicker underneath their breath. He came in with a reputation of being able to lead young baseball players, and allowing them to succeed on the biggest of stage. Whether it was his in-game management, his wacky road trip dress ups, or just the ability to command the room and demand excellence from his players, Maddon created a sense of winning around the Chicago Cubs organization. Expect him to be named the best manager in the NL for the 2015 season.
The award will be announced November 17th at 6 p.m. Eastern on MLB Network.
National League competition Cy Young Award
What more can be said about Jake Arrieta, especially his record breaking second half? From record breaking ERA’s to his no-hitter against another playoff team, he was by far the best pitcher for the final three months this past season.
Competition
While Jake’s performance in 2015 was nothing short of spectacular, in an odd sense, he chose the wrong season to have that breakout year. What is meant there is, there were a couple other performances by guys who had impressive stats that voters often find sexy.
Clayton Kershaw – the two-time Cy Young award winner, and MVP, possibly had the best season of his career. Read that again, Clayton Kershaw possibly had the best season of his career, and he is likely to finish third in Cy Young voting. His 232 IP was the third most in his career, resulting in a career best 301 strikeouts, the first pitcher to do so since Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling in 2002.
Zack Greinke – Zack’s biggest achievement was his 45 2/3rds scoreless streak, the longest streak of 40 or more innings since Clayton Kershaw in 2014, and fifth longest of all-time. Additionally Zack led the Major’s in ERA (1.66) and of course helped the Dodgers win the NL West.
Jake Arrieta – This is really a two horse race, or the choice between is the first half or second half more important. While Jake holds a lead in wins, strikeouts, innings pitched, and complete games… Greinke leads in ERA and advanced stats like ERA+ and ERA-, and WAR.
The award will be announced November 18th at 6 p.m. Eastern on MLB Network.
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