AL - Joe Maddon – Tampa Bay Rays.  This is about as much of a slam dunk as there is in predicting results.  He has done a great thing getting this team to mesh.

NL – Charlie Manuel – Philadelphia Phillies.  It is very easy to predict things if you are only going to pick the WS participants, although these awards are voted on before the season begins.  I have to give these guys a lot of credit, though, they kept their teams in contention all year.

Notes:  Personally, if I had a vote, Manuel would not win in the NL, but rather Tony LaRussa.  The job he did with mediocre talent this year was an awesome display of managing.  That is not a knock on the Cards’ players, but an accreditation to LaRussa’s experience.

Before we get into the real postseason awards, I wanted our little site to give its predictions (Gold Gloves not withstanding).  Here’s the Crystal Baseball view of this past year:

American League

MVP:  Joe Mauer, Twins.  On ESPN’s message board during the play in game between Minnesota and Chicago, a lot of the posters were convinced that Mauer and Morneau were officially out of the running for MVP because of their performance in the game.  I’m not under that assumption to give it to Pedroia because of that.  He had a fantastic season and should be top three (if he wins, I would not be offended if I were Mauer).  My unofficial vote goes to Mauer because of the game he called behind the plate with a lot of very young pitchers.  Honorable Mention: Justin Morneau, Kevin Youkilis.

Cy Young: Cliff Lee, Indians.  Yea, that is all I have to say about that!  Oh, except…22 wins on an underachieving team (for a guy who does not like wins, you’ll notice I spoke about them a lot in this article!).  Honorable Mention: (This is a distant mention) Roy Halladay, Daisuke Matsuzaka.

Rookie of the Year: Evan Longoria, Rays.  This is a three horse race (Alexei Ramirez & Jacoby Ellsbury) but I believe Longoria was the best rook this year.  He was good in the field and hit the ball with great power considering he wasn’t called up until part way into the season.  You see the honorable mentions above.

National League

MVP:  Albert Pujols, Cardinals.  How will he hit with a fully healthy elbow?  The pitchers in the NL Central must tremble at that prospect.  How he would not get it would befuddle me.  Ryan Howard had the most HR & RBI, but he also struck out 1 in every 3 times with a .251 BA.  Pujols OPS was also .230 higher.  Even more substantiated by a .460+ OBP.  From a baseball fan (if you need to know what team, shoot me an email and i’ll tell you)who saw 35+ Cards games this year, he changes everything for that team.  Honorable Mention: Lance Berkman.

Cy Young:  Tim Lincecum, Giants.  Once again, it is close, but Johan Santana is my runner up.  I don’t respect the Wins category very much, but the Giants were terrible and Lincecum pulled out 18 wins this year.  A 260 SO performance this year, and in my mind, he was the best pitcher this year.  Honorable Mention: Brandon Webb, Edinson Volquez.

Rookie of the Year: Geovany Soto, Cubs.  Joey Votto had a slight (and i mean slight) lead in most offensive categories, but Soto was widely respected as a solid game caller and defender behind the plate for a pitching staff that excelled this year.  It is because of his position on the field and his excellence behind the plate I believe Soto deserves it.  Honorable Mention: Jay Bruce/Jair Jurrjens/Hiroki Kuroda.

Shout out to your feelings on the matter.