FanPost

The Unofficial Tiger Awards 2016

Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports

The first thing to know about playing baseball in Michigan is, Michigan's really cold.

-Derek Jeter

The sun has set on the 2016 Detroit Tiger season. For the second year in a row they didn’t make the playoffs. But they showed improvement over the lowered bar 2015 season, and with some young developing talent in key positions, there’s reason to look forward to 2017 with measured optimism.

But I don’t want to look forward to 2017 yet, especially since Tiger GM Al Avila is making portentous remarks about the Tiger offseason strategy. I’d rather look back one more time on the Tiger season that was: some great performances, much drama, some major disappointment in Atlanta, and the return of meaningful baseball in September.

Comeback Player of the Year

Candidates: Victor Martinez, Cameron Maybin

Winner: Victor. Last spring Martinez was facing the same fan and pundit doubts as he did after the 2013 season. Have injuries become too much? Can he still produce? Can he walk? Victor did produce. Despite a late season slide, he put up 27 HRs and.826 OPS in 2016, which exceeded or approximated his career averages. And none of those hits were leg hits! He likely lost 70 to 100 points on his slugging percentage just because he hits 400 foot singles now.

Player Who Most Fulfilled First Step Requirement for a Comeback Year in 2017:

Candidates: Mike Pelfrey, Anibal Sanchez, Mark Lowe, Jordan Zimmermann

Winner: Jordan Zimmermann.

This was a tough one. My process of elimination goes like this: Despite an awful season, Pelfrey won’t have too far to crawl back to career averages. Anibal’s tough year is enough to be nominated but he won last year, and you can’t qualify for this award by repeating the first step. Mark Lowe set a very low bar, but his career has been a model of inconsistency, so what is he bouncing back to? I give this award to the injury-plagued Jordan Zimmerman, with fervent hope that he get to the second step next year with a vengeance.

Cy Tiger Award

Candidates: Justin Verlander, Michael Fulmer, Max Scherzer, Rick Porcello

Thought I’d add a couple of Tiger alum for perspective. Sorry about that. It’s hard to say good-bye, though in some ways Rick is still with us, as one of the latter Award categories will show.

Winner: Justin Verlander.

Michael Fulmer is a great revelation and wonderful story. But so is the pervasive talent and determination of one Justin Verlander. Justin is also the pick of many fans and writers for the American League Cy Young. I support that sentiment. In the interest of space, I'll just post Rob Rogacki's link on this

http://www.blessyouboys.com/2016/10/3/13157126/justin-verlander-al-cy-young-vote-detroit-tigers

Best "Rusty? Do I look Rusty?" Dramatic Performance

Candidate and Winner:

That would be Julio David Martinez, who on August 3, 2016 hit the ball out of the park on the first pitch of his first at bat after being activated from the disabled list with a broken hand …off Chris Sale! In one stroke he was crossed off the worry list. It was no fluke, either. Martinez went on to hit .404 in August, with a 1.076 OPS, numbers that served as a gateway to production that was actually better in the second half than before he broke his hand.

Rookie of the Year

Candidates: Michael Fulmer, Michael Fulmer, JaCoby Jones, Michael Fulmer

Winner: Michael Fulmer

After giving this a lot of thought (the time needed to type his name) I picked Fulmer. His ERA of 3.06 and 1.19 WHIP are better than average, but they are insufficient indicators of the value he brought to the Tigers. His 33 1/3 scoreless innings streak in June came at a time when Jordan Zimmermann struggled to come back from a groin injury while Anibal Sanchez and Mike Pelfrey struggled to be major league starting pitchers. His dominance and savvy made him a vital catalyst in the Tigers’ viability throughout the season.

The Ryan Raburn Award

Candidates: Tyler Collins, Andrew Romine Justin Upton

Winner: Justin Upton

There are many ways you can win this award. You can be a utility player for at least three years (Collins, Romine). You can provide exasperatingly erratic but sometimes awesome offensive production (Upton). Or you can be versatile at defense, good or bad (Romine, generally good). All three candidates qualify in one way or another. But this year’s "Raby" goes to Upton. His season was vintage Raburn, circa 2009-2011: glacially slow start with a very gradual warm-up which eventually rises to torrid levels. Upton did it with more HRs and extreme patience shown by Tiger management, and yes, his career numbers show he’s a more complete player than Raburn, but he had a Ryan Raburn kind of year.

*Note: Acknowledged, RR’s 2009 season didn’t follow the slow start, scorching finish pattern, but his streakiness has continued since he left Detroit and has migrated west to Colorado.

Overachiever Award

Candidates: Cameron Maybin, Kyle Ryan, Matt Boyd(?)

Winner: Cameron Maybin.

Despite being hampered by injuries intermittently throughout the year, Cam put up when it counted most, posting a .383 OBP, 61 points above his career average. The Tigers were 55-39 in games Cam played, and 21-26 in games he did not. It’s dangerous to draw conclusions about this, like the Tigers would have won 95 games over a full season if Maybin was in the lineup, but it’s not outrageous to use the venerated term "sparkplug" when describing Maybin’s positive effect on game outcomes.

Best Reason to Look Forward to 2017:

Candidates: The Kid Starters, Bruce Rondon, More Miggy, Healthy Nick, JD Martinez, Ian Kinsler, Joe Jimenez, JaCoby Jones

Winner: The trio of Michael Fulmer, Daniel Norris and Matt Boyd has provided multiple auspicious moments to the Tiger season. Is it too much to hope for these 3 to become a staple in the Tigers rotation for years to come, as they develop their skills without putting a huge dent in the Tigers’ salary structure? Is it?

MVP:

Candidates: Miguel Cabrera, JD Martinez, Justin Verlander, Ian Kinsler

Winner: Miguel Cabrera.

Last year I called this post "The Non-Miggy Awards" for what I thought were obvious reasons. But this year I thought it was time for Cabrera to compete with the mortals again, and he went ahead and won the MVP. Every year it gets harder to hit more home runs than your age, but Cabrera destroyed that benchmark, 38 to 33. This is more impressive when you consider Miggy’s recent history. Last year he was hurt. In 2014 he was recovering from core muscle surgery. In 2013 Miggy played hurt. This year Miggy played the whole season, and surged in the second half.

Miguel finished third in OPS, and only the Benjamin Button-like David Ortiz had a higher slugging percentage than him. Let’s not forget that Big Papi got to rest for 40 minutes between each at bat, while Miggy was guarding first, networking with opposing base runners, subtly uncovering their weaknesses through apparent small talk. He does it all.

The Gift That Keeps on Giving Award subtitled, The Thank You Dave Dombrowski Award

Candidate and Winner: The Rick Porcello trade.

First we received Yoenis Cespedes and Alex Wilson which registered on the plus side of our balance sheet. Too bad we had to let Yo go, but in return we received a reliable relief pitcher in Alex and a starting pitcher with comparable skills to Kid Rick (if not better) and years of team control ahead of him in Michael Fulmer. Then Al Avila took the other half of that deal and acquired Justin Wilson, who was a very effective short reliever until August and September came around.

Though we lost Porcello, who had a great 2016, he was paid $20 million while the Tigers have a Rookie of the Year starting pitcher and a couple of every day Wilson relievers for about 10% of Porcello’s salary.

Best "What Are We Going to do With J.D. Martinez’s Expiring Contract?" Award?

Candidates

Sign Him to a Long Term Contract, Let Him Play Out His Contract, Trade Him

Winner: You, whoever you are, who makes the best case for any of these alternatives. I don’t see how they can afford to sign him, or how they can afford to lose him. Let the discussion ensue.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of the <em>Bless You Boys</em> writing staff.