The 2006 Triple Steal Awards

Okay, before the playoffs get going and people really start debating the awards, here are the Triple Steal staff's awards for the 2006 season. We each voted for a top five for MVP's (five points for #1, four for #2, etc.), and top three for everything else (three points for #1, etc.). Here we go:

AL Manager of the Year: Jim Leyland (7 points)
Ron Gardenhire (6), Joe Torre (5)

Ross: "The Tigers weren't supposed to be anywhere near the playoff picture."
Warren: "Gardenhire at least eventually figured out which of his hitters were terrible (Tony Batista)."
Sully: "I think Leyland is over-rated, but nobody else stood out. I hate this award."

NL Manager of the Year: Joe Girardi (8 points)
Willie Randolph (4), Grady Little (4), Jerry Narron (2)

Ross: "The Mets put the Braves away early. Something no team has done in a long time. Randolph deserves the award."
Warren: " Narron did pretty (well) for a team with not a lot of good players, and for a GM that traded away half of the good ones."

AL Rookie of the Year: Francisco Liriano (6 points)
Justin Verlander (5), Jonathan Papelbon (4), Jered Weaver (3)

Sully: "I hate excluding Verlander."
Warren: "I hate leaving off Liriano."
Ross: "I feel horrible leaving Weaver off."

NL Rookie of the Year: Hanley Ramirez (8 points)
Ryan Zimmerman (4), Clay Hensley (4), Josh Johnson (1), Dan Uggla (1)

Warren: "Can I give an award to a sub-.500 pitcher (Hensley)? Sure I can!"
Ross: "This is not the American League."

AL Hank Aaron Award: Travis Hafner (7 points)
David Ortiz (6), Manny Ramirez (3), Jermaine Dye (2)

Ross: "If Manny batted in front of Ortiz instead of the other way around, Manny would win the Triple Crown."
Sully: "I'm probably short-changing Manny (left off ballot), but he quit on the team in August, so screw him."

NL Hank Aaron Award: Albert Pujols (9 points)
Ryan Howard (6), Miguel Cabrera (2), Lance Berkman (1)

Ross: "Pujols is the best hitter."
Sully: "Pretty self-explanatory."

AL Cy Young Award: Johan Santana (9 points)
Roy Halladay (6), Joe Nathan (1), Chien-Ming Wang (1), Barry Zito (1)

Warren: "Justin Verlander just misses the cut because he played in front of a great defense."
Ross: "Wang gets my third place vote because he had a ballooned ERA from early in the season when he couldn't pitch with men on base, since he figured it out, he's been as good as any pitcher outside Johan Santana."
Sully: "I don't usually like voting for closers, but... Nathan was pretty nasty, especially in the second half."

NL Cy Young Award: Roy Oswalt (6 points)
Bronson Arroyo (3), Trevor Hoffman (3), Brandon Webb (3), John Smoltz (2), Chris Carpenter (1)

Sully: " This was Webb's award until (Sunday's game). Too bad - they're pretty close."
Warren: "My semi-crazy choice... Arroyo led the league in innings pitched and had the 4th best ERA in front of a hideous defense. He's a flyball pitcher that had Adam Dunn and the remains of Ken Griffey, Jr. in the outfield. He's lucky they caught anything."
Ross: "This is just as much a career achievement award vote for Hoffman as anything... but what better year to do something like that when not a single starter in that league was able to pull off more than 16 wins against not even that good of competition."

AL MVP: Derek Jeter (15 points)
Johan Santana (11), Joe Mauer (5), David Ortiz (5), Travis Hafner (4), Grady Sizemore (3), Jermaine Dye (1), Justin Morneau(1)

Ross: "Yes, I have 3 Twins in the top 5, however, I also didn't think that the Twins would finish ahead of either the White Sox or Indians, not to mention pulling out the division from the Tigers."
Warren: "I don't understand all the hype for Morneau, and I think he's clearly the #3 player on the team (and maybe #4 if Liriano hadn't gotten hurt). Sizemore had a great, mostly unnoticed season."

NL MVP: Albert Pujols (14 points)
Ryan Howard (12), Carlos Beltran (8), Lance Berkman (5), Miguel Cabrera (3), Jose Reyes (2), Chase Utley (1)

Warren: "For some reason, Beltran has been getting very little love, especially
compared to Ryan Howard. I think Beltran was the MVP until a subpar September, and I think you could argue that given the Mets' big lead, his September performance shouldn't matter all that much."
Sully: "I wanted to vote for Ryan Howard. I really did. But (Pujols) was just better in every single stat except home runs and RBI, he's better defensively, he strikes out about 70% less often... there's just no way I could vote against Pujols."
Ross: "The Cardinals almost collapsed down the stretch, and the Phillies, after raising the white flag on July 31st, almost made it because the power display Howard put on."