And for my grand finale, the American League and National
League Most Valuable Player Awards!!!! But really, in all seriousness the MVP
Awards in both leagues are the big one, the award that every player wants and
the award that only a select few get to obtain during their Major League tenures.
We all grew up pretending to be the batting champion, the World Series MVP that
came up with the big hit in Game 7, and the perennial MVP and that feeling
undoubtedly doesn’t change as you grow older and your dreams begin to come to
fruition. The childhood dreams of being the league’s MVP is about to come true
for these two men.
Will Aaron Judge get robbed again? Will he get robbed by one
of his own teammates in Giancarlo Stanton or Gary Sanchez? Will Judge truly get
robbed by someone who can’t even see over the counter at McDonalds? In all
seriousness, no he won’t in my opinion. That doesn’t mean I think he will win
it either, although I do foresee a special kind of productive season for him
once again here in 2018. No, I like to go bold and a little bit against the
grain in these decisions. With that in mind I am going to go with Josh
Donaldson of the Toronto Blue Jays as your 2018 AL MVP. Now I know what you are
thinking, Dan… MVP’s generally don’t go to a player on a losing team. No, they
don’t. But Donaldson is in the final year of a contract with a team that
doesn’t look likely to contend even for a Wild Card here in 2018, which means
there is a huge possibility that the Blue Jays third baseman will be traded at
or before the July 31st trading deadline. If Donaldson were to be
traded to an American League team where his stats don’t have to be started over
I truly think the Toronto right-hander will win the award and head into free
agency fresh off a huge statistical season.
Remember when Miguel Ozuna hit over .300 and smashed 37 home
runs in a season? It feels like it was forever ago, but it was just last season
with the Miami Marlins. Now that Ozuna has some protection in the lineup and is
on a team in the St. Louis Cardinals that is expected to contend here in 2018 I
think a lot more people will start to know and recognize the name, and just
what he brings to the table. Ozuna could easily surpass 40 home runs here in
2018 with an average around .285. Sprinkle in 100+ RBI and a nice OBP and SLG
percentage and ladies and gentlemen, we have an MVP in the making. It is a bold
prediction, mainly because it isn’t Bryce Harper or Paul Goldschmidt, but
that’s what I do. Bold predictions, and sometimes they come true. Stay tuned.
That’s it. Prediction Season is over here on The Greedy
Pinstripes. I hope you enjoyed, and we will see you after the season concludes
to check in on some of these predictions to see how well I did. Until then,
ciao and enjoy your day.
