We're down to the last two awards of baseball's red carpet season, and then the 2017 baseball season will have officially given up the ghost.
While some of the players competing for hardware this year were expected -- you get no credit for predicting Clayton Kershaw to be a great pitcher -- we've had our share of surprises, including Aaron Judge, an intriguing offensive prospect heading into the season, who exploded for 52 homers and found himself in the AL MVP race. Luis Severino struggled to a 5.38 ERA in his first full season and had been booted out of the rotation in 2016, but finished third in the AL Cy Young voting. And who would have predicted Mike Trout not making the final three of the AL MVP voting?
Inconceivable!
Having a projection system isn't all that fun if you don't do cool stuff with it, so while we're relaxing and enjoying Giancarlo Stanton rumors, I'm making ZiPS work and projecting probabilities for the 2018 awards. Such is the life of a PC until the robopocalypse rises up and destroys humanity.
Also, please note that for free agents, I projected them in the American League 50 percent of the time and the National League 50 percent of the time. No free agent makes this list, though J.D. Martinez comes closest, projecting as the 14th-most-likely NL MVP and ranking 16th in the AL. So, on with the projections -- and yes, Trout makes an appearance.