Jose Abreu, Luis Robert, Rick Renteria among finalists for postseason awards

Jose Abreu

White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu is a finalist for American League Most Valuable Player. Center fielder Luis Robert is a finalist for Rookie of the Year, and former manager Rick Renteria is a finalist for Manager of the Year.  

The BBWAA award finalists were announced on MLB Network on Monday night. 

Abreu seems to be the most likely of these three people to win. The other MVP finalists are Cleveland Indians third baseman Jose Ramirez and New York Yankees infielder DJ LeMahieu.

Here's a side-by-side comparison of these three players: 

LeMahieu: .364/.421/.590, 10 HRs, 10 2Bs, 27 RBIs, 3 SBs 

Abreu: .317/.370/.617, 19 HRs, 15 2Bs, 60 RBIs, 0 SB 

Ramirez: .292/.386/.607, 17 HRs, 16 2Bs, 46 RBIs, 10 SB 

Abreu led the league in hits with 76. His RBIs and slugging percentage also were league-leading totals. LeMahieu led the league in both batting average and on-base percentage. Ramirez topped the AL with 45 runs scored. 

Robert's competition for the Rookie of the Year award includes Seattle Mariners outfielder Kyle Lewis and Houston Astros pitcher Cristian Javier. 

Here's a side-by-side comparison of these three players: 

Lewis: .262/.364/.437, 11 HRs, 3 2Bs, 28 RBIs, 5 SBs 

Robert: .233/.302/.436, 11 HRs, 12 2Bs, 31 RBIs, 9 SBs 

Javier: 5-2, 3.48 ERA, 12 games (10 starts), 54.1 IP, 36 H, 54 Ks, 18 BBs 

I think what hurts Robert here is his ice-cold September. He was hitting .298 when August ended, but then he hit .136 the rest of the season. Lewis might very well win because he didn't have a prolonged slump like that. 

Renteria is a finalist for Manager of the Year along with Charlie Montoyo of the Toronto Blue Jays and Kevin Cash of the Tampa Bay Rays. Cash led his club to a 40-20 record and an AL pennant. Montoyo's team got into the playoffs despite having to play its home games in Buffalo. Renteria went 35-25, but got fired after the Sox blew the AL Central the last week of the season and made a quick exit from the playoffs. 

I'm assuming Renteria finishes third.

Mookie Betts is the difference between the Dodgers and Rays -- and about that Blake Snell decision

Mookie Betts

Both the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Tampa Bay Rays are considered elite, forward-thinking organizations by most people around Major League Baseball.

But here's the key difference between the two: The Dodgers have the resources to acquire -- and pay -- a high-end baseball player such as Mookie Betts.

Los Angeles won its first World Series championship since 1988 on Tuesday, beating the Rays, 3-1, in Game 6. 

Betts, a five-tool player who can beat the opposition in multiple ways, led the Dodgers in the decisive game. He went 2 for 4 with a double and a home run. He scored the go-ahead run in the bottom of the sixth inning and gave Los Angeles some cushion with a solo home run off Tampa Bay reliever Pete Fairbanks in the bottom of the eighth.

The Rays took a 1-0 lead into the sixth inning, and their ace, Blake Snell, was dealing.

Austin Barnes, the Dodgers' No. 9 hitter, singled off Snell with one out. It was only the second hit off the Tampa Bay left-hander, who struck out nine of the 18 batters he faced.

But apparently Rays manager Kevin Cash decided Snell was only going to go through the Los Angeles batting order twice. Snell was removed from the game in favor of right-hander Nick Anderson, even though he had only thrown 73 pitches and seemed to have plenty left in the tank.

Up stepped Betts, who doubled Barnes to third base. Anderson's wild pitch allowed Barnes to score the tying run, with Betts advancing to third. The contact play was on as Corey Seager grounded to first base, and Betts used his speed to score the go-ahead run on the fielder's choice. 2-1 Dodgers.

The Betts home run in the ninth put it away, as Tampa Bay batters had no chance against Los Angeles left-hander Julio Urias, who faced seven men and retired them all -- four by strikeout.

But back to that Snell decision ... I don't think too many baseball people thought it was a good choice. Why would you take out your ace, a former Cy Young winner, when he's dealing in a must-win game?

Well, the Rays believe in their analytics, and the numbers say it's best not to let your starting pitcher go through the opposing batter order for a third time. 

OK, I don't like it, but I get it. But let's say you agree with the idea of taking Snell out. If that's the case, then why was Anderson the choice? 

Anderson has made 10 appearances this postseason. He has been scored upon in eight of them -- EIGHT!!! -- including seven appearances in a row. His playoff ERA is 5.52.

He has been pitching poorly by any measure. In what baseball universe is he the best choice to face Betts and Seager in a 1-0 game with a World Series championship on the line?

No universe that I'm living in. 

Analytics are all fine and dandy, and the Rays have used them to great success. You can't argue with a 40-20 record this season, nor can you argue with an American League pennant.

But sometimes you have to trust your eyes a little bit. Even a blind man can see that Anderson has not been pitching well. You just can't go to him there, although the Dodgers and their fans are very happy that Cash did.

Rocco Baldelli, Mike Shildt win Manager of the Year awards

Mike Shildt

Some things never change: The Manager of the Year awards always go to guys who made the playoffs with a team the media didn't expect to be in the postseason.

Here in 2019, Rocco Baldelli of the Minnesota Twins and Mike Shildt of the St. Louis Cardinals won the awards in their respective leagues.

Everyone, including me, thought the Cleveland Indians would win the AL Central this season. They did not. Baldelli, who was in his first year with the Twins, led the team to 101 wins and a 23-game improvement. When the playoffs rolled around, it was the same old Minnesota -- the Twins got swept in the first round by the New York Yankees.

But that regular-season performance was enough for Baldelli to edge New York's Aaron Boone in the AL Manager of the Year balloting. Both men received 13 first-place votes, but Baldelli was second on 13 ballots, while Boone was second on only nine.

Tampa Bay's Kevin Cash got three first-place votes and finish third. Oakland's Bob Melvin finished fourth, and Houston's A.J. Hinch got one first-place vote and finished fifth.

In the National League, Shildt got the nod for leading the Cardinals to 91 wins and an NL Central title. I actually was not surprised by St. Louis' success -- I picked them to win that division.

I just kept that opinion mostly quiet, because I live in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, and any White Sox fan who dares to question the greatness of the Cubs is subject to tar and feathering around here.

Most of the media had the Cubs winning the NL Central, too, even though the Brewers were the defending champions.

The Cubs, of course, were the mid-80s-win-total team I expected them to be. They finished third behind the Cardinals and Brewers, who won a wild card spot in the NL.

The respective managers of those two teams, Shildt and Milwaukee's Craig Counsell, finished 1-2 in the Manager of the Year balloting for "surprisingly" doing better than the Cubs.

Shildt got 10 first-place votes and 14 second-place votes to win the honor, while Counsell got 13 first-place votes, but only six second-place votes. Brian Snitker of the Atlanta Braves earned three first-place votes and finished third. Dave Roberts of the Los Angeles Dodgers got four first-place votes and finished fourth.

Oakland's Bob Melvin, Atlanta's Brian Snitker win Manager of the Year awards

Bob Melvin

Oakland's Bob Melvin and Atlanta's Brian Snitker were named Managers of the Year in their respective leagues Tuesday.

For me, one of these winners was a surprise and one was not.

The 57-year-old Melvin is one of the best managers in the American League, and this is his third time winning the award. In fact, 2018 might have been his best managerial job, as he took an Athletics team with the lowest Opening Day payroll in baseball ($68 million) and molded it into a 97-win club that earned an AL wild-card spot.

Oakland improved by 22 wins in 2018, the most improvement by any team in baseball. Here's the thing that stood out to me about the A's: They used 34 pitchers to get through the season and not a single one of them threw enough innings to qualify for the ERA title.

It truly was a mix-and-match situation in Oakland, as injuries forced Melvin to give starts to journeyman pitchers such as Edwin Jackson, Brett Anderson and Trevor Cahill.

I found it remarkable that the A's finished second in the AL West, which might have been the deepest division in baseball. Full credit goes Melvin, his staff and his players for the year that they had.

Melvin got 18 of a possible 30 first-place votes. Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora got seven first-place votes and finished second. The other five first-place votes when to the third-place finisher, Tampa Bay's Kevin Cash.

I'm a little surprised that Snitker won the award in the National League, not that he isn't deserving. The Braves had an 18-game turnaround under his direction and were surprise champions in the NL East.

Coming into the season, everyone picked the Washington Nationals to win that division. Instead, Atlanta spent 115 days in first place and never lost more than four in a row. That's the sign of a good manager -- the absence of a long losing streak. Most "experts" had the Braves finishing third at the start of the season, but their rebuilding plan came together a year ahead of schedule and quieted skeptics.

Snitker has to be enjoying this success. He's been with the Atlanta organization for 40 years, and often, a longtime organization man doesn't get the opportunity to manage. However, he had a big year in only his second season at the helm.

That said, I thought Milwaukee's Craig Counsell would win the NL award. Counsell guided the Brewers to a league-best 96 wins and the championship of the NL Central. Despite having significant deficiencies in the starting rotation, Milwaukee reached Game 7 of the NLCS before losing to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Everyone, and I mean everyone, had the Cubs winning the NL Central this season. And given what the Cubs and Dodgers have accomplished in recent years, who had the Brewers emerging as the team with the most regular-season wins in the NL? Certainly not me.

But, the majority of voters gave the nod to Snitker. He got 17 of the 30 first-place votes. Counsell got 11 first-place votes and finished second. Colorado's Bud Black got one first-place vote and took third.