Thursday, September 22, 2016

Looking Back at My 2016 Comeback Player of the Year Award Predictions


This is my post regarding the Comeback Player of the Year Awards that I wrote in March. In the post I predicted that Matt Wieters of the Baltimore Orioles would win it for the American League and that Wil Myers would win it for the National League with the full knowledge that Major League Baseball only hands out one award for the entire league. I’m just nice like that and I want to hand out two. Here is the post with my predictions and explanations. It looks like I did a halfway decent job with these predictions if I don’t say so myself. 

The Comeback Player of the Year, quite possibly the most useless award in all of Major League Baseball’s set of awards? Why you may ask? The league or whoever votes on these things focus too much, in my opinion, on a guy who missed a chunk of the previous season due to injury and less on a player that makes a true comeback. I was pretty on the fence about this award before last year but when Alex Rodriguez did not win the award that solidified it for me. Leaving my bias and opinions aside I wanted to take a stab at an American League and National League Comeback Player of the Year Award winner for the 2016 season. 

In the American League I went a little off the script here with my pick. This player is technically still coming back from an injury but the injury did not keep him off the field for the majority of the 2015 season. In fact this man played much of the 2015 season on the field and behind the dish for the Baltimore Orioles, Mr. Matt Wieters. Wieters is entering the 2016 campaign in his second season removed from Tommy John surgery after playing in 75 games last season. Wieters struggled with the bat last season and struggled to command the running game at times last season. They say positional players need a year to recover from the injury while pitchers need two full years to be fully back to themselves but everybody is different just like every injury is different. Wieters has to throw the ball back to the pitcher a good 150-200 times a night, control the running game and bat on a surgically repaired elbow that may or may not have been 100% when he did it all. Wieters should benefit from a long winter off and should be back to form in 2016 winning the award outright.  

I considered going with Marcus Stroman here for the AL but after that September and October he had I felt like he already came back, you know?  


In the National League I went with a “can’t miss” prospect that has yet to live up to the expectations and hype over a 162-game schedule. Wil Myers of the San Diego Padres was thought to be the next big thing when he was with Tampa but after a trade to the West Coast and a wrist injury later we fans were left wondering once again what could have been with Myers. 2016 may finally be the year we see a full season and a productive season out of Myers as he has yet to play in more than 88 games in a season during his career or get more than 335 at bats. Myers started out last season hitting well with four home runs and a .286 average in April as the leadoff man before hurting his wrist again and ending his season. Myers, if he can finally stay healthy, might not only win this award but may be in consideration for the NL MVP Award as well. You never know. 

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