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Astros’ recent award recognition

Today’s post springs from curiosity on this writer’s part after noting that the Astros had multiple players and their manager receiving votes for the four major league awards in 2021, Rookie of the Year, Manager of the Year, Cy Young and MVP. I was wondering about whether the team had done this before in the recent past (they have multiple times) and then it became a bit of a fun research project, that I decided to take all the way back to the year after their first World Series appearance, 2006.

Here is the listing of what place they were voted to in each season and category.

YEAR ROOKIE OF                        THE YEAR MANAGER OF                    THE YEAR CY YOUNG MVP
2021 LUIS GARCIA – 2 DUSTY BAKER – 3 LANCE MCCULLERS – 7 CARLOS CORREA – 5
        JOSE ALTUVE – 18
        KYLE TUCKER – 20
2020 CRISTIAN JAVIER – 3 DUSTY BAKER – 6 FRAMBER VALDEZ – 11 GEORGE SPRINGER – 13
2019 YORDAN ALVAREZ – 1 A.J. HINCH – 5 JUSTIN VERLANDER – 1               ALEX BREGMAN – 2                   
      GERRIT COLE – 2 GEORGE SPRINGER – 7
        GERRIT COLE – 10
        JUSTIN VERLANDER – 11
2018   A.J. HINCH – 4 JUSTIN VERLANDER – 2             ALEX BREGMAN – 5
      GERRIT COLE – 5 JUSTIN VERLANDER – 10
        JOSE ALTUVE – 13
2017 YULI GURRIEL – 4 A.J. HINCH – 3 JUSTIN VERLANDER – 5 (NOTE TOTAL BOTH LEAGUES) JOSE ALTUVE – 1
        GEORGE SPRINGER – 13
        CARLOS CORREA – 17
        MARWIN GONZALEZ – 19
2016 CHRIS DEVENSKI – 4     JOSE ALTUVE – 3
2015 CARLOS CORREA – 1 A.J. HINCH – 2 DALLAS KEUCHEL – 1 JOSE ALTUVE – 10
2014 COLLIN MCHUGH – 4     JOSE ALTUVE – 13
  GEORGE SPRINGER – 8      
2013        
2012        
2011        
2010   BRAD MILLS – 6 BRETT MYERS – 10  
2009       MIGUEL TEJADA – 23
2008   CECIL COOPER – 7   LANCE BERKMAN – 5    
        JOSE VALVERDE – 24
2007 HUNTER PENCE – 3     CARLOS LEE – 19
2006   PHIL GARNER – 7 ROY OSWALT – 4 LANCE BERKMAN – 3

Just some observations…..

  • In 2021 did Jose Altuve really get more votes for MVP than Kyle Tucker? It shows that lots of times reputation may over-ride performance
  • It was interesting that A.J. Hinch kept falling in the Manager of the Year award standings year to year because apparently, it takes little talent to win with really good players.
  • Kind of ironic that Gerrit Cole finished ahead of Justin Verlander in the MVP voting, but got nudged in the Cy Young voting in 2019.
  • Did you remember that Collin McHugh was voted ahead of George Springer in the 2014 Rookie of the Year voting?
  • Did you remember Chris Devenski getting ROY votes in 2015? Thinking back, it makes sense, but I’d forgotten.
  • Except for that odd-wad 2020 season, the Astros had three or four players receive MVP votes in every season between 2017 and 2021.
  • You can see a lot of what powered this team’s renaissance with so many players receiving Rookie of the Year recognition
  • No surprise that the 2011 through 2013 seasons were huge bagels of non-recognition
  • Brad Mills was sixth in MOY voting in 2010? Cecil Cooper was seventh in 2008?
  • Man- you could have given me a thousand guesses and I don’t think I would have picked Jose Valverde to get MVP votes for us in 2008. Well, if you allowed me to look at a roster I would have gotten there.
  • Cool to see Phil Garner, Lance Berkman, Hunter Pence and Roy Oswalt pop up on this list.

When a team does what the Astros have done since 2017 and make it to the ALCS at least every season, the voters for these awards put your team and their stars on the radar.

What strikes you when you look at those getting votes?

Obviously, Dusty Baker is the one who would get MOY votes in 2022, but who do you think is the most likely to get votes for Rookie of the Year, Cy Young and MVP for the Astros in 2022?

Here at Chipalatta we wish you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving and want you to know that we keep all of you in our prayers.

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64 responses to “Astros’ recent award recognition”

  2. Happy Thanksgiving everyone……I’ll be working in this foreign land tomorrow. Turkey will be stuffed and roasted by my Norwegian friends come evening. We’ll see how that turns out. I hope there are no smoked eels or some other viking delicacy put in my bird.

    I’ve got to give ROY votes to Jeremy Pena, as you guys are all pretty sure that he’ll be a factor in 2022. Other than that, we’d have to have Yuli go down and a guy like Norel step up, or a batch of pitching injuries to get a rookie enough innings in 2022. Jose Siri? Nope.

    Cy Young? Verlander and McCullers!

    MVP would have to be Tucker unless Bregman comes into camp transformed. Actually, he’s the guy I’m worried about long term.

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  3. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Thank you so much for the prayers for Mrs. Bill and me. Keep them coming, as we both (Mrs. Bill especially) still have a long road back to healthy-town.

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  4. I gotta admit your post was a little hard to follow Dan….but I blame it on my poor eyesight!!
    Mr. Bill you have no idea how happy to learn you and your sweet wife are getting better. All of us have prayed hard for you ever since Dan told us of your Covid diagnosis🙏 God bless you and I hope both of you are on the road back to health soon.
    I’m going to “help” my adult children cook tomorrow, I’m a control freak so I have to make sure I get the Turkey in the oven to my liking! I’ve had a bit of a set back with my spine….so standing more than a few minutes is very painful.
    There are soo many things I’m personally thankful this year, and this blog and all of you fellas are right up at the top. I’m thankful for great doctors who have taken such good care of me, my wonderful family who had to stop everything to help me walk again…..and of course my beloved Astros baseball team!
    Happy Thanksgiving fellas (and my sweet friend Sandy!) eat too much, help with the dishes and DON’T FORGET TO KISS THE COOKS! Much love, Becky⚾

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  5. Happy Thanksgiving to all. I just want to say I am eternally grateful for all of you that comment and some that just read on this blog. It is so comforting to visit with people, disagree with people, compliment people, and have a discussion yet remain civil and respectful. That is so uncommon these days. And for that I am grateful to each of you and to God that we can enjoy this site.

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  6. Lots to be thankful for even in these tumultuous times. Good health and happiness to all our fellow Chipalattas . Stay safe and a Happy Thanksgiving to all.

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  8. I wouldn’t count any one of Altuve, Bregman, Tucker or Alvarez out of the MVP spot.
    If the league puts some tack on the ball, I wouldn’t count JV, LMJ, Framber or Two-Step-Throw out of the Cy Young competition, either.
    Pena would be my choice for ROY, but he is going to have to take some walks for that to happen because his lack of walks will keep his OPS down and OPS is becoming a calling card for awards.

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  10. Everyone has a favorite or at least a preference. My preference is Seth Martinez. He was acquired through Rule 5 and pitched well for Sugar Land. And I can’t write him off after 3 innings. I think Pedro Leon, Norel, etc will be in the minors for most of next year.

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    • Leon reminds me of exactly the player that Billy Beane hated in Moneyball. “Tools” with no ability to give results. Right now I would find the first franchise I could think of that loves “tools” guys, super athletes, and con them out of the best possible pitcher I could.

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      • In fairness, that accurately describes Beane the player…so his first hand experience should give more weight to not staying too enamoured with high tool, low result guys.

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  12. Happy Thanksgiving guys and Becky!
    Y’all are right at the top of my blessings list.
    Continued prayers for Mr.Bill and the Mrs.
    great catching up the other night Becky. We need to do it more often.

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    • Happy Thanksgiving to all. I smoked our turkey for nine hours yesterday. Looking forward to our family dinner in a few minutes. I see some in the league are doing long term extensions for their young stars. I wonder if the Astros have any consideration of that for Tucker and Alverez?

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  13. The deadline for tendering contracts to arbitration eligible players has been moved up to this coming Monday, November 30th at 7pm Central time.
    The Astros have 6 players eligible for arbitration and they are:
    Diaz
    Montero
    Stanek
    Maton
    James
    Valdez.
    Any player not tendered a contract becomes a free agent.
    Baseball’s CBA expires 28 hrs. later giving those free agents a day to look for deals before baseball’s expected lockdown occurs, thus freezing all deals for all players and teams until a new CBA is approved by MLB and the MLBPA.

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  14. I am hoping the lockout does not last too long. I am really looking forward to Altuve getting 2 more hits. That will allow him to pass High Pockets Kelly in career hits. Quite an honor.

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    • It would truly be amazing because High Pockets Kelly was 6’4″ tall. Altuve would barely be as high as High Pockets’ pockets.
      Altuve currently has 41.4 WAR for his career
      George “High Pockets” Kelly had 25.9 WAR for his career and is in the Baseball Hall of Fame with a vote from the Veteran’s Committee in 1973. He retired in 1932.

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  15. Sometimes I enjoy “snarky” quotes from other teams blogs. From the Orioles:

    “Mike Elias and company snuck in one last 40-man roster move before Thanksgiving, claiming a former Astros prospect who’s got a 6.04 career ERA across parts of four MLB seasons. So… he’ll fit right in.”

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  16. Perusing Altuve’s stats today. He needs to average 152 hits over the next 8 years to reach 3000. Does he get there? I don’t think so. He’s going to have an injury here and there. But I do think he’ll eventually reach 3000. Biggio picked up 265 hits over 286 games at 40 and 41 years of age. Jose will likely hang around and get it done somewhere as a DH late in his career. Does he remain an Astro?

    Someone mentioned getting Alvarez and Tucker extended last week. Sure would be nice to have those guys locked up, especially Tucker. His 5.7 WAR should be a regular occurance. But it’s unusual to extend a 24 year old DH. Has it happened? Yordan finished with a 3.0 WAR in 2021, including a -1.2 in leftfield in limited playing time. He’ll never be a good outfielder. But he sure is a valuable hitter. So what do we have to pay these two guys?

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    • A decent comp for Yordan is Nelson Cruz. And Nellie has made $12 + Million each year for past 7 years. (So maybe buy out his Arb years starting at $1 Million and stagger it up. Then pay him $12 million on an option for 2026 & 2027)

      For Tucker a decent comp is Eloy Jiminez who the White Sox signed through 2026 but last two years are team option up to $18.5 Million at the end. So similar to Yordan but ending higher toward $20 Million on a team option.

      But for most teams, these two would be a year early to get a buy out of the arb years.

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      • The date June 9, 2019 to debut Yordan was quite the calculation by Jeff Luhnow. My best guess in February was June 15, when asked by a SFG guy if he should draft him in his fantasy league.

        Seemed obvious to me all along they were manipulating his service time, and especially because I mentioned here repeatedly that Tyler White was blowing off his “training” at the country club. It all worked out since Yordan won RoY and we were winning without him.

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    • He has pitched a lot as a closer. And Pressly has several years as closer also. The complaints I saw was all his “blown saves.” Neris in his career – 26 Blown Saves. Ryan has 24 in his career. Neris has 84 saves with Pressly has 44. I am sure there are some Astros fans that want to dump Pressly, but he is a top of the list relief pitcher. And Neris appears to be very good also.

      I checked and Mariano Rivera is not available.

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  21. I think the Astros do not want to be in the same dilemma they were in for the first half of last season, namely, with a disappointing bullpen.
    Despite what Mets or Phillies fans say, Neris looks to be a good add. I like that he has four pitches in case one is not working well on a given night.

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    • I hope he won’t mind if I call him Nevis from time to time. 17 is pretty good money. I guess the Stros just did not want to go the 3 years Graveman got, or he simply had no interest in Houston. I have to figure Neris will be shown that he’ll be more effective if he uses his pitches differently.

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  23. Update from Mr. Bill
    – He is pathogen-free and almost fully recovered – resuming work (and hopefully parody song writing) tomorrow
    – His wife – Rose Mary (much nicer name than Mrs. Bill) has been moved from hospital to rehab for between 2 and 6 weeks of therapy
    I told him we would keep her on our prayers and heck I know that the spouse needs your prayers too

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  24. Dan….thank you so much for letting us know how Mr.Bill and his wife are doing. The BEST part was Mary Rose is off the ventilator and in rehab, our prayers have been answered🙏. The arlington little league signed Marcus Semien to a 7yr deal today, as well as Kole Calhoun….no word on Calhoun’S contract as far as number of years and money. December 1st is looming large let’s hope they come to a deal and this nonsense stops.

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  27. Interesting developments with Marte going to the Mets 4/78, and Simien to the Strangers (Becky’s favorite team) NOT…! I saw a video on the possibility of Chris Taylor to the Astro’s . Doesn’t seem likely but interesting to say the least. I’d say our chances of retaining CC are getting to the point of slim and none. If there is no lockout it should be a fun off season to watch.

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    • So body with some inside knowledge or a super suspicious person needs to explain what is causing all of this last minute activity. Is there going to be a hard cap? Is there going to be shorter time before free agency? Are agents going to get less next week? Do the owners plan on a lockout going all the way through Spring Training?

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      • Tuesday at midnight the carriage turns into a pumpkin.
        I think that after the GM meetings everybody decided to go get players signed with the CBA we currently have as the devil we know, rather than the devil we don’t know with a new CBA.
        I’m pretty sure it was established at those meetings that a lockout is imminent.

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  30. It’s only my perception, but it would seem the Astros would want to announce the signings of Verlander and Neris by the end of tomorrow., when the CBA expires.
    They have one opening on the 40-man roster, so it follows that they will need to open up at least one other spot by then.
    Remember that all teams must tender or not tender contracts to their Arb-eligible players by this evening. That will create some havoc league-wide for some additional signings tomorrow, as additional free agents hit the market.

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    • So did Scherzer capitalize on Cohen having a hissy-fit over Matz going to STL? It’s going to be fun seeing how this upcoming Mets team full of 8-figure salaries can underperform. Don’t forget the also get Robinson Cano back from his PED suspension! Personally, I don’t like Scherzer and never have. I hope he stays healthy, but struggles. I know we’d all accept a contract like that if our bosses offered it, but on the heels of his Nationals contract (lost of backloaded money), signing such an ugly one with the Mets just speaks to greed and narcissism.

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