Awards Explanations, Part 1

Well, I've predicted three of the awards unveiled so far correctly. So I might as well explain those ballots. Here's my original ballot. Now then, explanations:

AL Rookie
It had to be Mike Trout, right? Any other choice is just wrong. Yu Darvish was solid enough in his introduction to the pros. He had a high K rate, and did a good job at keeping the ball in the park (especially for the Ballpark in Arlington). Too many walks still, but he did manage a 3.29 FIP and 5.1 fWAR. I feel like he and Yoennis Cespedes are very standard 2-3 choices. Not a very difficult ballot, although there were a lot of other decent rookies.

NL Rookie
I already wrote about this, before Harper went off in September. He and Miley were both good-about equally good, in fact (4.9 fWAR to 4.8 fWAR). In short, Harper gets the extra edge for his age. Yasmani Grandal was a great hitter, especially for a catcher (144 weighted Runs Created, third among 200 plate appearance-catchers behind Buster Posey and Carlos Ruiz). He didn't get enough playing time for me to list him higher. Shame he got busted for testosterone.

Managers of the Year.
The AL was basically between Buck Showalter and Bob Melvin. I went with Showalter because I felt he deserved some credit for the O's record in one-run games. Melvin was still a good choice. Joe Maddon is always a good third choice; guiding the Rays to 90 wins without Evan Longoria for most of the season was huge.

In the NL, Davey Johnson took the surprising Nationals to the best record in the League. After that, there were fewer huge surprises, so I went in record order more or less. I feel like that wasn't a bad call in this case.

So there you have it. Not in-depth explanations, but none of these picks so far is too shocking.