SnoTap's First Half National League Awards

I am pretty confident every blog across America has their own awards for the season, but I have to add SnoTap's to the mix. There are some standard awards with a couple different ones in there as well. Check out the American League version that came out this morning.  

NL MVP
Troy Tulowitzki SS, Colorado Rockies - Obviously, I want to give the award to one of the Milwaukee Brewers whether it be Jonathan Lucroy or Carlos Gomez, but it has to be Tulowitzki. He is the league leader in home runs, WAR by a full win mind you, batting average, OPS over 1,000 (Only one in the National League), Slugging Percentage and On-Base Percentage which is stunning .435. It is not out of the realm of the possibilities for Tulo to get the first National League Triple Crown since Joe Medwick in 1937 when he did with St. Louis.

NL Cy Young:
Adam Wainwright P, St. Louis Cardinals - Hear me out, I believe at the end of the year, Clayton Kershaw will be the winner of the Cy Young, but if we are talking about first half, Wainwright deserves the award as his statistics are spread over 19 games versus 14 for Kershaw who battled injury for the first two months. Wainwright allowed only 28 runs during the first half of the season and a WAR of five, the highest for National League pitcher. Kershaw's numbers are damn silly, but for the first half, Wainwright deserves the Cy Young.


NL Rookie of the Year: 
Billy Hamilton CF, Cincinnati Reds - I could make a compelling case for Jacob deGrom of the Mets and I think Gregory Polanco and Kolton Wong (Somehow still a rookie) might be there at the end of it. But Hamilton deserves it thus far. He is the glue that makes Cincinnati go. Hamilton already has 38 stolen bases hitting .285 and leads all rookies in both doubles and triples. It also seems like he only gets better as he scuffled a bit to start the season, but Hamilton has been red hot as of late hitting .407 in the last seven days.

NL Surprise Team:
Milwaukee Brewers - There is the hometown team making an appearance. It had to be the Brewers honestly. Many of the teams that are vying for playoff spots have been there before in the past couple of years. Milwaukee is back to prominence after two years of struggling especially early on in the season. Brewers are hurting right now losing eleven of their last 13 games, but still, no one expected them to lead the National League Central.

NL Disappointing Team: 
Arizona Diamondbacks - The expectations were not there for Arizona like they had been in years past, but truthfully, no one expected them to be this bad. They are 16 games under .500 with a startling run differential of -71. They also have been very immature with their actions against Ryan Braun earlier this year which should surprise no one. Arizona finally needs to start focusing on prospects and start selling pieces of the team not named Paul Goldschmidt.

NL Breakout Player: 
Henderson Alvarez P, Miami Marlins - Miami looks to have a solid front-line pitching staff for the future with Jose Fernandez and Alvarez. He is the ripe age of 24 and came over to Miami in the Toronto Blue Jays mega deal. He had a decent campaign in 2013 with a no-hitter at the end of the year, but he is excelling in his first full season as a Miami starter. He allowed only 35 runs thus far this season yielding to a WAR of 2.7. Marlins are set up real nicely.

NL Regressing Player: 
Ryan Howard 1B, Philadelphia Phillies - I know what you are saying, Ryan Howard has been regressing for years. But this is his first full season in the last two years therefore some people might think Howard would have a rebirth. Nope, that didn't happen at all. Howard is hitting a measly .220 with an OPS of .381 and a negative WAR. It is fair to say Howard is done for his career. Maybe he comes back in five years and has one more big year, but it's not happening for awhile.

Most Overplayed Storyline:
Yadier Molina-Jonathan Lucroy riff - I am sick and tired of this garbage. The attack ad was funny then St. Louis blew out of proportion making it a national story. After that, Molina gets hurt and the Cardinals fanbase shines again when Wainwright struggled in the All-Star Game giving up three runs with Lucroy behind the dish. I am done and over with it, let's move on.

Bold Prediction
The bottom will fall out on San Francisco - There are eight teams vying for five spots meaning one or two of them are going to fade off into an abyss. I have a feeling San Francisco is going to be one of them. They had a horrible second part of the first half. On June 8th, San Francisco had a 42-21 record, since then, they have only won 10 games. Five weeks and only 10 games won.

Charlie.

Brewers-Rockies Preview (6/20-6/22)

Brewers previews to get you ready for the series where we have five things to watch, pitching matchups and prediction. We add a YouTube video in the mix, it could be really anything.   

Pitching Matchups 

Friday:     Marco Estrada (5-4 4.82) vs. Christian Bergman (0-1 3.75)  7:40 pm FSNWI 

Saturday: Wily Peralta (7-5 2.98) vs. Christian Fredrich (0-0 0.00)       3:10 pm FSNWI   

Sunday:    Kyle Lohse (8-2 3.09) vs. Tyler Matzek (1-1 3.75)              3:10 pm FSNWI 

Five Things To Watch 

1.) Exorcising Coors Field's Demons - In the last two years, Milwaukee has won one of six games at Coors Field. This is not a place that treats the Brewers well in the past couple years. Brewers have not won a series in Denver since 2005 (To be fair, Milwaukee got a split in 2011 during a four-game series at Coors Field). That was nine years ago! Victor Santos and Chris Capuano were the winning pitchers of the series. WES HELMS hit a home run in the first win of the series. Hopefully, things can change this weekend.

2.) Marco Estrada's Do or Die Start - Everyone expecting the worst with Marco Estrada tonight at Coors Field. I really do believe if Estrada struggles again tonight, Jimmy Nelson will face Colorado next weekend at Miller Park. Estrada has been downright awful in the last month or so. Estrada needs to avoid the walks without question because he will probably give up a home run or two tonight, that's the expectation. Everyone is expecting a dumpster fire so hopefully Estrada will use that as motivation and deliver a complete gem. 

3.) Trying to avoid Troy Tulowitzki - We always talk about Brewers killers, but maybe the most notable and the President of the whole thing is Troy Tulowitzki. Whenever he faces Milwaukee, he mashes against the Brewers. In the last three years, Tulo has 24 hits against Milwaukee with a little over half of them being for extra-base hits including five home runs. This equates to an average of about .358.  For the season, Tulowitzki has 18 home runs with batting .356 having an MVP-like season as well as three of his last seven games featured three hit games.  

4.) Dealing with a no-hit team - The last game Colorado played they did not fare well losing 8-0 with Clayton Kershaw no-hitting them striking out 15 batters. Colorado is come in pissed wanting to make a point. Now, they were swept by the Dodgers where Colorado only scored three runs. Is the regression monster looming given how outrageous their offensive numbers have been this season and Milwaukee catching them at the right time?  Or is this a case of Colorado being a wildly inconsistent baseball team?   

5.) Carlos Gomez hit and on-base streak deserves attention - I don't know why people haven't talked about Carlos Gomez's streaks right now. He reached on-base 32 straight games whether it be on a walk, error or base hit. Gomez also has a 15-game hitting streak going which is the best of his career. Honestly, I believe Gomez can have a field day at Coors Field. It seems like a place where he could completely rake and have a massive series. 

Appropriate YouTube Video


I have to go with the Dumb and Dumber line about John Denver. So good every time.

Prediction 
As much as I want to think the Brewers will reverse their luck here and take a couple games, I have them winning one. Let's go with Peralta's start on Saturday.  Usually when the opposing team has three pitchers with a combined four total MLB starts plus one making their Major League debut would give you encouragement, Milwaukee makes those guys look like Cy Young. Even one win gives the Brewers a .500 West Coast trip.