Exit Poll: AL, NL Rookies of the Year
TOWER GROVE — One of the last awards to be handed out in the annual weeklong roll-out of the Baseball Writers Association of America awards is the one award that’s dominated so much conversation around St. Louis this month — the National League MVP. Here’s a safe best: Somebody with ties to St. Louis will win it.
Heck, the winner will be a player who calls St. Louis home during the offseason.
But before we find out if St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols wins his second MVP or if Philadelphia Phillies slugger and St. Louis native Ryan Howard wins his second MVP, there are six more awards that will be announced first. The slate of award announcements begins today with the Jackie Robinson awards, given to the top rookie in each league. The schedule is as follows:
- TODAY: AL and NL Rookies of the Year
- TUESDAY: NL Cy Young
- WEDNESDAY: AL Manager of the Year
- WEDNESDAY: NL Manager of the Year
- THURSDAY: AL Cy Young
- NOV. 17: NL MVP
- NOV. 18: AL MVP
Each day during the coming awards week, Bird Land will host a poll of readers for that day’s award. Use the below polls to either predict the winner or make your one-click case for who you think should be the winner. While there are clear favorites for each of the Rookie of the Year awards, it should be noted that the awards were voted on before the start of the playoffs, and that some exceptionally performances might be lost by the high-watt, hype-machines other rookies got this summer.
For example, Kansas City shortstop Mike Aviles scored 68 runs and drove in 51 others with a .325 batting average this past season. Or, Detroit pitcher Armando Galarraga emerged on an awful team with a 3.73 ERA in 178 2/3 innings. Over in the National League, the former Detroit farmhand Jair Jurrjens was a revelation for Atlanta and up in Cincinnati Joey Votto and Jay Bruce were the most powerful rookie tandem for the Reds in decades.
Onto the polls, and note each name is accompanied by some standard statistics.
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Later today: PostCards.
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Derrick Goold said he was going to Mizzou for capital-J journalism, but after growing up in the Time Zone Baseball Forgot he was really drawn to MU sitting between two major-league cities. Goold joined the Post-Dispatch in 2001 after working for The Times-Picayune and Rocky Mountain News, covering sports from LSU to NHL and every level of baseball in between. 
By showing that the NL MVP will be announced on both the 17th and 18th, are you suggesting a split award?
Just kidding, but it wouldn’t be the first time.
My vote (as if I had one) would have gone to Pujols. But then again, if I was going to hand out awards, he’d have had another Gold Glove, too.