The announced winners came as zero surprise: Yordan Alvarez of the Astros and Pete Alonso of the Mets. They were overwhelming favorites and both won in landslides. Indeed, Alvarez garnered all 30 first place votes, and Alonso 29/30.
Alvarez in only 87 games racked up 27 homers and 3.7 bWAR, numbers most players would be very happy with after a full 162 games. He slashed .313/.412/.655 with an OPS+ at 173.
Alonso, of course, hit a rookie record 53 homers and accumulated 5.0 WAR. He slashed .260/.358/.583 with a 147 OPS+.
Fan Interference 
Thanks, Ray’sFan1 for keeping the lights on after the end of active baseball. It is appreciated even if some of us had such a crappy end that we appear comatose.
My comment has nothing to do with your excellent work keeping us informed, however. I offer a quote, the opening of a story by Ryan Fagan of the Sportin’ News (who if you recall failed to notice Crash Davis’ all-time minor league record home run):
“We all love to read (and write!) about the worst contracts in baseball. You know the big ones by heart: Josh Hamilton, Barry Zito, Jacoby Ellsbury, Albert Pujols, Mike Hampton and on and on.”
You may note that TWO OF THE FIVE contracts noted were (what is the proper verb, oh, I know) PERPETRATED by the idiocy of one Arturo (Arte) Moreno, namer of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
In this long offseason, I offer to all the PROOF that your level of discontent, frustration, and general pissed-off-ednes can never match that of the natives of sunny Southern California who choose NOT to where the Blue. Thanks for allowing my occasional rant.
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We fans all know our favorite teams have budgets. We also know everyone ages. Thus seeing “our” team sign a guy for more money than his production will be worth—especially the true albatross contracts that in turn harm the team’s ability to sign other players—can be very frustrating. Some fans go too far and blame the players, and that’s wrong. “No, Mr Moreno, don’t give me $300M over the next 10 years—I’ll be a shadow of my former self by the end of the deal due to age and injuries. Just sign me for $150M for 5 years.” That magical thinking is nuts. The players signing those deals aren’t being greedy. You’re right, the owners offering those deals are being dumb. Of course, us Rays fans find ourselves looking wistfully at free agent lists knowing the high end guys are out of our range—sort of like visiting the Maserati dealership before buying a Sentra.
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