Here is the 2020 Hall of Fame ballot

Paul Konerko

Below is a list of every player on the 2020 Hall of Fame ballot. Names are listed alphabetically:

Bobby Abreu, Josh Beckett, Heath Bell, Barry Bonds, Eric Chávez, Roger Clemens, Adam Dunn, Chone Figgins, Rafael Furcal, Jason Giambi, Todd Helton, Raúl Ibañez, Derek Jeter, Andruw Jones, Jeff Kent, Paul Konerko, Cliff Lee, Carlos Peña, Brad Penny, Andy Pettitte, J.J. Putz, Manny Ramírez, Brian Roberts, Scott Rolen, Curt Schilling, Gary Sheffield, Alfonso Soriano, Sammy Sosa, José Valverde, Omar Vizquel, Billy Wagner, Larry Walker.

Of note for White Sox fans, Konerko is on the ballot for the first time. I do not expect Konerko to make the Hall this year or any other year, but hey, I didn't expect Harold Baines to get in either, but he did.

Jeter is the only sure bet to get in among the other first-timers. Other notables making their first appearance on the ballot include Soriano, Giambi, Dunn, Lee and Abreu.

Me personally, I hope Giambi doesn't get in. He's a steroids guy, and I hold a grudge against him for cheating to win the 2000 American League MVP award. (Frank Thomas was more deserving.)

Walker is on the ballot for the final time, and we'll see if he can get the votes necessary for induction on his last kick at the can, much like Edgar Martinez did last year.

Players must appear on 75% of the ballots in order to be inducted. Last year, there were 425 ballots cast, so 319 votes were necessary to cross the 75% threshold.

Hall voters are required to submit their votes by the end of the calendar year, and this year's class will be announced Jan 21 on MLB Network. The 2020 induction will be July 26.

Mike Trout, Cody Belllinger win 2019 MVP awards

Mike Trout

Over the past eight seasons, here are Mike Trout's finishes in the MVP voting:

2012: 2nd
2013: 2nd
2014: 1st
2015: 2nd
2016: 1st
2017: 4th
2018: 2nd
2019: 1st

I used to be one of the people who thought the MVP should come from a playoff team, but even though the Los Angeles Angels stink, Trout is so far and away the best player in the American League that he shouldn't be denied the award.

This season, Trout batted .291/.438/.645 with 45 home runs and 104 RBIs and had very little help with the Angels. He missed the last 19 games of the season with an injury, and even that didn't matter in the voting.

Trout got 17 of the 30 first-place votes, while Alex Bregman of the Houston Astros got the other 13 first-place votes to finish second. No doubt, Bregman garnered the votes from the guys who want the MVP to come from a playoff team.

Former White Sox infielder Marcus Semien, now with the Oakland Athletics, finished in third place.

In the National League, Cody Bellinger of the Los Angeles Dodgers got 19 first-place votes to win the award. He beat out last year's winner, Christian Yelich of the Milwaukee Brewers, who got 10 first-place votes.

The other first-place vote went to third-place finisher Anthony Rendon of the Washington Nationals.

Yelich had a higher batting average than Bellinger (.329 to .305), a higher on-base percentage (.429 to .406) and a higher slugging percentage (.671 to .629). Can you tell I was partial to Yelich in this race? I don't think he had as much help with the Brewers as Bellinger had with the Dodgers.

But, to be fair to Bellinger, he had more homers than Yelich (47 to 44) and more RBIs (115 to 97). It's also true that Bellinger is a superior defensive outfielder, and he was healthy for the whole season.

Yelich missed the Brewers' last 18 games with a fractured kneecap, and voters apparently were not as forgiving toward him as they were to Trout. Bellinger played it out to the end, and his team won a league-best 106 games. That was enough to push him over the top.

Justin Verlander, Jacob deGrom are 2019 Cy Young winners

Justin Verlander

After watching the playoffs unfold, I think Gerrit Cole is a better pitcher than Justin Verlander right now. But voting for the Cy Young Award occurs when the regular season ends, and postseason play is not a factor.

Through that lens, it's not a surprise that Verlander edged Cole -- his teammate with the Houston Astros -- for the American League honor, because Verlander's regular season was slightly better than Cole's.

Verlander got 17 of the 30 first-place votes, while Cole got the other 13 to finish second. Tampa Bay's Charlie Morton placed third in the voting, while the White Sox's Lucas Giolito finished sixth.

Verlander led the Major Leagues in wins (21), innings (223), batting average against (.171) and WHIP (0.80). He had a 2.58 ERA in a league-high 34 starts and finished with exactly 300 strikeouts. He also threw a no-hitter Sept. 1 against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Cole led the league in strikeouts (326) and had a better ERA than Verlander (2.50), while going 20-5. Cole gave up the same number of earned runs as Verlander (66) in 10.2 fewer innings, but the win total, the innings count and the no-hitter were enough to sway voters toward Verlander.

Really, whichever voters went here, they weren't wrong. I would have voted for Cole, but I can't say Verlander didn't deserve the award -- the guy was 21-6, that's a helluva year.

In the National League, Jacob deGrom's won-loss record over the past two seasons is nothing special. He was 10-9 in 2018, and he went 11-8 in 2019. But he won the Cy Young in both years because his peripherals are out of this world.

His WHIP was 0.97 this season, and that makes him the only qualified NL pitcher with a WHIP below 1.00 in each of the past two years.

This year, deGrom led the National League in strikeouts (255) and ranked second in ERA (2.43) and WHIP. He was third in innings with 204, and posted a 1.89 ERA over his final 23 starts, covering 152 innings.

That was good enough to dominate the voting, as deGrom totaled 29 of the 30 first-place votes. Hyun-Jin Ryu of the Los Angeles Dodgers got the only other first-place vote and finished second. Washington's Max Scherzer placed third.

Jose Abreu accepts qualifying offer from White Sox

Jose Abreu

First baseman Jose Abreu will be back with the White Sox for the 2020 season.

Abreu accepted the one-year, $17.8 million qualifying offer from the team Thursday. The veteran can become a free agent without restriction after next season, but the possibility still exists that he could sign a multiyear deal -- perhaps a three-year contract -- that would keep him in Chicago beyond 2020.

Abreu, who will be 33 on Opening Day next season, batted .284/.330/.503 with a 33 home runs and an American League-leading 123 RBIs in 2019. He has topped 100 RBIs in five of his six seasons with the Sox.

In other news around the league, Minnesota right-hander Jake Odorizzi also accepted the one-year, $17.8 million qualifying offer to remain with the Twins.

So, if you were looking for the Sox to potentially sign Odorizzi to fill a hole in the starting rotation, cross him off your list.

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.

Pete Alonso, Yordan Alvarez win Rookie of the Year awards

Pete Alonso

There wasn't much drama in this year's Rookie of the Year awards, was there?

Pete Alonso of the New York Mets collected 29 of the 30 first-place votes to win the National League honor, while Yordan Alvarez of the Houston Astros was a unanimous choice in the American League.

Alonso set a MLB rookie record with 53 home runs and batted .260/.358/.583 with 120 RBIs in 161 games. The previous record for rookie homers was set only two seasons ago, when Aaron Judge hit 52 in 2017.

Atlanta pitcher Mike Soroka got the other NL first-place vote and finished second, as he went 13-4 with a 2.68 ERA in 29 starts for the NL East champion Braves. San Diego shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. placed third in the balloting, despite playing only 84 games.

Tatis Jr. batted .317/.379/.590 with 22 home runs, 53 RBIs and 16 stolen bases in those 84 games, and he plays a premiere defensive position. If he had stayed healthy for a full season, it might have been a tight race between him and Alonso.

However, Alonso is the deserving winner because he produced at a high level and appeared in every Mets game but one.

In the American League, Alvarez also did not play a full season. He was not called up until June 9 and appeared in only 87 games. But, he batted .313/.412/.655 with 27 home runs and 78 RBIs while playing for the AL champion Astros. That's outstanding production in a pennant race, and it's impossible to argue with this selection.

Baltimore pitcher John Means finished second in the voting, going 12-11 with a 3.60 ERA in 31 games (27 starts). Given that the Orioles went 54-108, it is not too shabby for a rookie to finish over .500.

Tampa Bay's Brandon Lowe placed third after batting .270/.336/.514 with 17 home runs in 82 games. Lowe got injured and only played six games after the All-Star break, which essentially killed his candidacy for the award.

Actually, I'm a little surprised the Sox's Eloy Jimenez finished fourth and behind Lowe. Jimenez had an uneven season, but he did finish with 31 home runs and 79 RBIs in 122 games. I would have thought that would be enough for a top-three finish in a weak rookie crop, but the voters decided otherwise.

Regardless, none of these AL rookies played as well as Alvarez, and really, if you don't have a case for first (Jimenez doesn't), it probably isn't worth too much discussion.

Taking a short vacation ...

Good morning, readers. I'm on a plane to Phoenix for my sister's wedding this Friday.

I'll return to Chicago on Monday afternoon, Nov. 12, so blogging will resume sometime shortly thereafter.

Cheers,

JB