Last winter, Ryan Sosin of Tigers Central and Billfer at Detroit Tigers Weblog and I had a chat one evening to try to lay out the groundwork to establish a network of sorts for Detroit Tigers bloggers. While things sort of sputtered during the season, Billfer did do a nice job of arranging a set of postseason awards that I and a bunch of Tigers’ sites took part in.

Placido Polanco took home player of the year as he put together a very nice season after the Tigers acquired him in a trade that involved Ugueth Urbina. It was a trade I initially felt we got the short end of, and I’m now eating crow about (while being happy about it).

Jeremy Bonderman won pitcher of the year. This was the one award that I deviated from the crowd as I picked Kyle Farnsworth. Chris Shelton was the consensus pick for breakout player of the year.

All this leads us to this years upcoming BBWA awards. Here are my picks for who’s going to take home their prospective trophies…

AL Manager of the Year – Ozzie Guillen – I know he had the rough August and September, but the White Sox came out of nowhere.

NL Manager of the Year – Bobby Cox – All he does is keep on winning, and this year he did it with a ton of rookies. It’ll be interesting to see how he does next year without Leo Mazzone.

AL Rookie of the Year – Robinson Cano – This is one of those things where I think the voters will go one way, when I could see a guy like Scott Kazmir walking away with the award.

NL Rookie of the Year – Ryan Howard – Filled in nicely after Jim Thome went down and helped the Phillies come to within one game of the NL Wildcard.

AL Cy Young – Bartolo Colon – I think Johan Santana should walk away with his second straight Cy Young, but Colon will nab it because he came out ahead in the more popular win column.

NL Cy Young – Roger Clemens – He just keeps on going, and going, and going…

AL MVP – Alex Rodriguez – I think he’ll edge Big Papi

NL MVP – Albert Pujols – I think you can make a strong case for Derek Lee, but the writers have been itching to give Pujols an MVP. The fact that he was the best player on a 100 win team will push him ahead of Lee.

Permalink | Posted in 2005 Tigers