Predicting the 2019 Season: The Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman Award Winners

The best relief pitcher in the American League is now awarded the Mariano Rivera Award, while the best relief pitcher in the National League is given the Trevor Hoffman Award. Who will win each prestigious award in 2019? Keep reading…

Brad Hand of the Cleveland Indians is my pick for the Mariano Rivera Award. No, I’m not picking Aroldis Chapman, but I did seriously consider it to be completely honest. I just feel like Hand pitched extremely well for Cleveland after being traded from the Padres last season and I think that will translate to a strong 2019 campaign. Hand was splitting the closing duties with Cody Allen in 2018, but Allen has since departed via free agency at the time of this writing and will leave all the save opportunities to Hand. Hand has struck out at least 100 batters in three consecutive seasons and will look to make it a four-peat here in 2019.

Jeremy Jeffress of the Milwaukee Brewers is my pick to win the Trevor Hoffman Award for the National League. I have the Brewers making it to the World Series in 2019 and that cannot be done without a strong bullpen. I know some probably expected me to pick Josh Hader, if I was going to pick a Brewers player, or Edwin Diaz of the Mets, but I just had a gut feeling with Jeffress that I simply cannot ignore.

Remembering My 2018 Predictions: Mariano Rivera Award & Trevor Hoffman Award

The original post was written on March 22, 2018 and it outlined my prediction for the Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman Award winners. The Mariano Rivera Award goes to the best relief pitcher in the American League while the Trevor Hoffman Award goes to the best relief pitcher in the National League respectively. My predictions had Ken Giles of the Astros winning in the American League (and promptly punching himself in the face in celebration for it) while the National League winning was Wade Davis of the Colorado Rockies. What a tough day at the plate for me as I put up an 0-3 in my predictions. Tomorrow is another day for baseball though, that’s the beautiful thing about playing a game basically every day. 

Prediction Season is here at The Greedy Pinstripes and with the Division winners and Wild Card winners announced, the postseason done, and the New York Yankees named the World Series Champions for the 2018 season we will switch directly into awards season. Contrary to some beliefs the relief pitchers in Major League Baseball have their own award at the end of the season, the Mariano Rivera Award for the best relief pitcher in the American League and the Trevor Hoffman Award for the best reliever in the National League. Now I am not trying to incite a riot here or really even spark up a debate, although feel free to debate in the comments section or on Twitter by sending @GreedyStripes a tweet, but for that reason (both these awards and the American League and National League Cy Young Awards that we will cover at a later time) I feel like these pitchers should be disqualified from the running for AL and NL MVP awards. I just do, sorry. Without kicking the hornets’ nest any more let’s take a look at my predictions for the Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman Award winners for the 2018 season. 

The New York Yankees and their closer Aroldis Chapman are at a bit of a disadvantage when it comes down to awards like the Mariano Rivera Award for the best reliever in the league. The Yankees have the best problem a manager can have, too many qualities relievers, too many relievers with closing experience, and too many weapons at one manager’s disposal to be able to single-handedly point out and showcase just one of them. For that reason, I cannot pick a Yankee to win the award, but instead I will choose a member of the team that knocked out the Yankees in the 2017 ALCS, the Houston Astros closer Ken Giles. Giles should have the most opportunities of any closer in the American League to nail down a save, and with the Astros offense behind him the right-hander should have a bit of wiggle room if he were to have an off night. These awards generally go to a pitcher on a winning team, for obvious reasons, so why not the closer on the team that I predicted to be tied for the most wins in the American League in 2018? Just makes sense to me. 

The Colorado Rockies built what the organization hopes to be a “Super Bullpen” during the offseason before the 2018 season and those efforts will yield great results for a team starved of quality pitching. The team has a staff of young starters with tons of upside, but it will be the bullpen’s ability to turn every game into a six-or-seven inning contest that will separate the team from the pack and keep the club in a lot of games that they normally wouldn’t have won. At the helm of this bullpen will be the Rockies closer, former Cubs fireballer Wade Davis. Davis should enjoy the lack of pressure pitching for the Rockies as opposed to pitching with the Cubs in recent seasons which should show not only on the field, but in his stat line as well. The fact that Colorado has also added big arms to help him like Bryan Shaw will only help Davis succeed giving him less innings to “mop up” and less jams to get out of, which could subsequently wear a pitcher down and inflate his stat line just a bit. 

TGP 2018 Predictions: Mariano Rivera & Trevor Hoffman Award Winners

Prediction Season is here at The Greedy Pinstripes and with the Division winners and Wild Card winners announced, the postseason done, and the New York Yankees named the World Series Champions for the 2018 season we will switch directly into awards season. Contrary to some beliefs the relief pitchers in Major League Baseball have their own award at the end of the season, the Mariano Rivera Award for the best relief pitcher in the American League and the Trevor Hoffman Award for the best reliever in the National League. Now I am not trying to incite a riot here or really even spark up a debate, although feel free to debate in the comments section or on Twitter by sending @GreedyStripes a tweet, but for that reason (both these awards and the American League and National League Cy Young Awards that we will cover at a later time) I feel like these pitchers should be disqualified from the running for AL and NL MVP awards. I just do, sorry. Without kicking the hornets nest any more let’s take a look at my predictions for the Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman Award winners for the 2018 season.

The New York Yankees and their closer Aroldis Chapman are at a bit of a disadvantage when it comes down to awards like the Mariano Rivera Award for the best reliever in the league. The Yankees have the best problem a manager can have, too many qualities relievers, too many relievers with closing experience, and too many weapons at one manager’s disposal to be able to single-handedly point out and showcase just one of them. For that reason, I cannot pick a Yankee to win the award, but instead I will choose a member of the team that knocked out the Yankees in the 2017 ALCS, the Houston Astros closer Ken Giles. Giles should have the most opportunities of any closer in the American League to nail down a save, and with the Astros offense behind him the right-hander should have a bit of wiggle room if he were to have an off night. These awards generally go to a pitcher on a winning team, for obvious reasons, so why not the closer on the team that I predicted to be tied for the most wins in the American League in 2018? Just makes sense to me.

The Colorado Rockies built what the organization hopes to be a “Super Bullpen” during the offseason before the 2018 season and those efforts will yield great results for a team starved of quality pitching. The team has a staff of young starters with tons of upside, but it will be the bullpen’s ability to turn every game into a six-or-seven inning contest that will separate the team from the pack and keep the club in a lot of games that they normally wouldn’t have won. At the helm of this bullpen will be the Rockies closer, former Cubs fireballer Wade Davis. Davis should enjoy the lack of pressure pitching for the Rockies as opposed to pitching with the Cubs in recent seasons which should show not only on the field, but in his stat line as well. The fact that Colorado has also added big arms to help him like Bryan Shaw will only help Davis succeed giving him less innings to “mop up” and less jams to get out of, which could subsequently wear a pitcher down and inflate his stat line just a bit.

Predicting the AL & NL Relief Pitcher Award Winners

The Mariano Rivera Award for the American League and the Trevor Hoffman Award for the National League go out to the best relief pitchers from each league every single season. Last year it was one of the Yankees winning the award in Andrew Miller, could it be either Miller, Dellin Betances or Aroldis Chapman again this season or will we see a new American League arm grab the award? And with Craig Kimbrel out of the National League who will step up and grab the horse by the reigns for the National League Award? I have no concrete idea but I do have a prediction anyway. 

Andrew Miller is the reigning Mariano Rivera Award winner but I can’t see him winning the award once again in 2016. Aroldis Chapman will get the bulk of the saves opportunities in the Bronx once he returns from suspension keeping Miller more in the 7^th and 8^th innings then in the 9^th in New York. It may finally be Wade Davis’s time to shine. The Royals will likely have one of the best teams in the American League this year and Davis may get the most opportunities for saves than any other. Kelvin Herrera will likely pitch the 8^th and is little-to-no competition for Davis and I believe the award is his for the taking barring any sort of injury.

In the National League I’m going to go with another former New York Yankee that never should have been traded away, Mark Melancon of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Melancon will have one of the best outfield defense’s behind him, a great catcher in Francisco Cervelli and an offense that should net him a ton of leads and save opportunities. All he has to do is keep the ball down, cut down on the walks and steal those saves from the other team. Simple as that. 

Yankees Asked for Lance McCullers Jr. from Houston

The New York Yankees made it clear that they were willing to move three key players from the Yankees 2015 squad, Brett Gardner, Ivan Nova and Andrew Miller. While the team's GM Brian Cashman was also more than willing to hold onto these three men, especially Miller, he acknowledged that the team could be blown away in a potential trade offer for a young starting pitcher with less than three years of service time. For a good example of this we look to MLB Trade Rumors who announced that the Yankees asked for Houston Astros rookie Lance McCullers Jr. in a potential trade for Andrew Miller.

Miller was the American League's best relief pitcher in 2015 which was evident by him winning the Mariano Rivera Award for the AL so it makes sense for the team to ask for the sky for Miller. He has three years remaining on a pretty team friendly deal at this point and is coming off a year where he was nearly perfect closing out games for the Yankees. Obviously the deal never went through and the Astros instead went to Ken Giles of the Philadelphia Phillies for their relief help but this goes to show you, and I'm speaking directly to those "Why isn't Brian Cashman doing anything" and the "sky is falling" fans, that Cashman IS trying to make the team better. He is.

McCullers is a 22-year old right-handed starting pitcher that would have looked especially good in Yankees pinstripes in 2016. He wouldn't be a free agent until after the 2021 season after going through the arbitration process and posted a 6-7 record with a 3.22 ERA (3.26 FIP) in 2015. The sky is the limit for McCullers and he would have been a welcomed addition to the Yankees young starting rotation. Maybe next time.

Remembering 2015: Andrew Miller

Who Would Actually Be Interested in Ivan Nova?

The New York Yankees are going to be aggressive this winter, at least all signs point to that statement being true, and GM Brian Cashman is willing and ready to trade anything and everything not tied down. All winter long we’ve heard or come up with our own Brett Gardner trade rumors or Andrew Miller trade proposals but one name may be more intriguing than both of them, Ivan Nova. Yes Gardner had a great first half and I am fully aware that Miller won the Mariano Rivera Award for the best relief pitcher in the American League but young and controllable starting pitching is hard to find. That’s what Cashman is banking on when he dangled Ivan Nova’s name out there in trade rumors, who would actually be interested in him though?

Nova himself had a down season in 2015 after missing much of 2014 with Tommy John surgery. We all know that command is the last component to come back after a UCL replacement surgery and we all know that the second year removed is always the true indicator of how well a pitcher will respond. Nova will be in his second year removed from the surgery in 2016 making him the ultimate buy low candidate for many teams. It also doesn’t hurt that Nova is relatively cheap, he shouldn’t make more than $6 million through arbitration, and it also doesn’t hurt that he’s under team control for not only the 2016 season but the 2017 season as well. Don’t be fooled into thinking that Nova alone is not going to bring back a haul for New York but in the right package, maybe a package with Gardner for example, a deal could be struck that benefits both sides in the long run.

You can obviously count out anyone in the AL East because it’s doubtful that Cashman trades within the division but there aren’t many other teams that you can 100% cross off the list at this point. The New York Mets come to mind as a team not interested in Nova but what about the Washington Nationals? They could use all of Gardner, Miller and Nova in 2016. Could a mega deal happen?

Rebuilding teams like the Phillies, Braves, Reds, Brewers, Rockies, Athletics and White Sox are unlikely to pursue Nova while teams currently re-tooling like the Padres, Cubs, Mariners, Rangers, Nationals, Twins, Pirates, and even the Dodgers would likely have varying degrees of interest. There will be no shortage of interest on Nova, the question will be whether the package the Yankees get back is worth it or not. One thing is for sure though, there’s no reason to simply give away the 28-year old Nova. 

IBWAA SELECTS MILLER, MELANCON IN RELIEF PITCHER AWARD VOTE

Los Angeles – The Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) announced the winners in its relief pitcher category Sunday, with the New York Yankees’ Andrew Miller winning the 2015 IBWAA Rollie Fingers American League Relief Pitcher of the Year award, and Mark Melancon, of the Pittsburgh Pirates, being selected as the 2015 IBWAA Hoyt Wilhelm National League Relief Pitcher of the Year.

Miller received 58 first-place votes (33.14%) and 414 points while being named on 124 of 175 ballots (68.89%). Others receiving first-place votes include Dellin Betances (49), Wade Davis (34) and Huston Street (11).

Melancon received 84 first-place votes (47.73%) and 517 points while being named on 125 of 176 ballots (69.44%). Others receiving first-place votes include Aroldis Chapman (46), Trevor Rosenthal (24) and Jeurys Familia (15).

Election results are as follows:

AL Reief Pitcher:

1st Place: Andrew Miller, New York Yankees – 414 points
2nd Place: Dellin Betances, New York Yankees – 372
3rd Place: Wade Davis, Kansas City Royals – 306

NL Relief Pitcher:

1st Place: Mark Melancon, Pittsburgh Pirates – 517 points
2nd Place: Trevor Rosenthal, St. Louis Cardinals – 359
3rd Place: Aroldis Chapman, Cincinnati Reds – 312

Ballot tabulations by Brian Wittig & Associates, using the Borda Method.

The IBWAA was established July 4, 2009 to organize and promote the growing online baseball media, and to serve as a digital alternative to the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA). Voting for full season awards takes place in September of each year, with selections being announced in November. The IBWAA also holds a Hall of Fame election in December of each year, with results being announced the following January.

The relief pitcher awards were established in 2010.

Among approximately 400 others, IBWAA members include Jim Bowden, Jim Caple, David Schoenfield and Mark A. Simon of ESPN.com; Tim Brown, Yahoo! Sports; Craig Calcaterra, NBC Sports Hardball Talk; Bill Chuck, GammonsDaily.com; Derrick Goold, St. Louis Post-Dispatch; King Kaufman, Bleacher Report; Kevin Kennedy; Kostya Kennedy, Sports Illustrated; Will Leitch, Sports on Earth; Bruce Markusen, Hardball Times; Ross Newhan; Dayn Perry and Matt Snyder, CBSSports.com; Mark Purdy, San Jose Mercury News; Tom Hoffarth and J.P. Hoornstra Los Angeles Daily News; Pedro Moura, Orange County Register; Tracy Ringolsby, MLB.com; Ken Rosenthal, FoxSports.com; Eno Sarris, FanGraphs; Dan Schlossberg, USA Today; Jesse Spector, Sporting News and Wendy Thurm.

Association membership is open to any and all Internet baseball writers, with a yearly fee of $20, or $35 lifetime. Discounts for groups and scholarships are available. Members must be 18 years of age to apply.

For more information please visit www.ibwaa.com.

Contact:



Howard Cole
Founding Director, IBWAA
baseballsavvy@aol.com

Andrew Miller is the AL Reliever of the Year

Andrew Miller has been named the American League's Best Reliever for the 2015 season, congratulations to him. Miller finished the season with 36 saves in his first season as a closer in the league. Miller wins the Mariano Rivera Award while pitching for the New York Yankees, seems like fate to me.

Starting Pitchers Should Not Be Allowed to Win the MVP Award

It was reported on Thursday evening that Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim won the MVP Award for the American League and Clayton Kershaw won the award for the National League. I made this same argument when Justin Verlander won the award a few years back for the Tigers and I will make the same argument today, a starting pitcher should not be allowed to win the MVP Award in my opinion.

Starting pitchers have their own award that they can win and it’s called the Cy Young Award. How is it fair that Kershaw, who undoubtedly was the most valuable player in the league, can win the award for pitchers and the award predominantly for the positional players. If a positional player could win the Cy Young Award or the Mariano Rivera Award and such I would have no problem with it but they can’t. The relievers have their award, the pitchers have their award, and the positional players should have their award.

While I understand that the positional players have Silver Slugger Awards that does not carry the same weight as being the most valuable player in the league. It seems like a one-way street that only the pitchers can take in my opinion and it doesn’t seem right with me. As a member of the IBWAA I had an MVP vote and I refused to vote for Kershaw for that exact reason, I voted for Giancarlo Stanton.

This is a debate that will rage on forever I think and a debate that most feel extremely passionate about one way or the other. I won’t win this debate with anyone and I’m not interested in a debate because you won’t win one with me either. This is my opinion and my opinion is that a starting pitcher who pitches every fifth day and has their own prestigious award should not be allowed to win the MVP.

Discuss. 

AL & NL Best Reliever Awards Named For Mariano Rivera & Trevor Hoffman

Major League Baseball just announced that yearly the best relief pitchers in the American League and the National League will be named after the two men with the most saves in the history of the game, Trevor Hoffman and Mariano Rivera. Obviously the best in the AL will receive the Rivera award and the best in the NL will receive the Hoffman award after both men spent their entire careers in their respective leagues.

Mariano Rivera retired as the All Time saves leader with 652 saves, all for the New York Yankees, as Trevor Hoffman finished his San Diego Padres, Milwaukee Brewers, and Florida Marlins career with 602 saves, second most in Major League history.

The new awards will be given out at the end of the 2014 season and will replace the MLB's Delivery Man of the Year Award. The award will be determined by a vote of other great relievers with Rivera and Hoffman being joined by Dennis Eckersley, Rollie Fingers, Goose Gossage, Lee Smith, John Franco, Billy Wagner, and Bruce Sutter. The nine voters will rank the top three in each league based solely on regular season performance and will use a 5-3-1 weighted points system to determine the winner.

My colleague and friend Bryan Van Dusen said he would not sleep until an award was named after the great Mariano Rivera. Well Bryan, sleep tight my friend.