Phillies’ Team Awards
Major League baseball will be announcing their awards shortly. Everything from rookie of the year, coach of the year and league MVPs will be delegated out to America’s best. In my opinion, there should be some Phillies’ winning those awards but we’ll see. To have some fun with it, here’s how we would give out the Phillies’ team awards (some real, some made up):
Rookie Of The Year: J.A. Happ
That was a tough one. The guy was incredible this season and I wish we saw more of him in the playoffs. There wasn’t even any competition in this decision and not only is he the Phillies’ ROY, but he better get the MLB ROY award as well. It’s hard to find someone in baseball who did more for their team- especially for a winning team. His record ended at 12-4 and his ERA was an incredible 2.93. Give the guy the award MLB.
Biggest Disappointment: Brad Lidge
This was a close one between two players. You guessed it… Brad Lidge and Cole Hamels. I decided to go with Lidge because Hamels somehow managed to win 10 games in the regular season and the Phillies were able to replace him as the ace with someone much better. The same can’t be said about Lidge. After going 48-48 last year and being a key reason for the World Series title, he was a disaster. I don’t want to talk about it too much because it makes most Phillies fans cringe but he ended the season 0-8 with too many blown saves and an ERA over 7. Oh yeah… and a loss in the World Series.
Biggest Surprise: Chan Ho Park
Chan Ho is the biggest surprise this season because of the way he handled his transition into the bullpen. Things were not looking good at all when he started the first few games. He clearly didn’t have it and was replaced by Happ. The guy was understandably upset because he came in here hoping to be a starter and now he was moved to the bullpen. But he accepted his new role and surprised us with how well he performed. With all the injuries to the bullpen, he became one of the reliable go to guys. Let’s hope they bring him back next season.
MVP: Ryan Howard
This could be close because so many people had great seasons for this team. You can make arguments for him, Cliff Lee, Utley or even Werth but I’m going with Howard. He had another Howard type season with 141 RBI and 45 home runs. He was also a beast in the NLCS (not so much in the world series but did anyone show up?). How can you ignore numbers like that? It’s hard to pick a team MVP on this team but I think Howard gets it. I also wouldn’t be surprised if he was named NL MVP. He deserves it.
