Mid-season peak at Ripken, JR

W/ the all-star game, home run derby, and futures game all played out the past couple of days, its time to hand out some mid-season hardware.

MVP

I'm not sure what's scarier, the season that Clarence Guiel has put up to date, or the thought hat even if he missed the rest of the season due to injury, he'd remain a front runner for MVP honors. A .344 average, 1.2 OPS, 44 homers, 120 rbi, 84 runs and 26 stolen bases. The Boise all star is on pace for roughly 78 homers, 213 rbi and 150 runs.

In the running:
Ted Wilson (KC) .361/30 hr/100 rbi/71 r/22 sb
Hic Hartley (Salem) .313/ 26 hr/82 rbi/ 84 r/18 sb (and gold glove caliber defense at 3rd)
Stewart Wells (Florida) .346/18 hr/71 rbi/64 r/12 sb
Steve Munson (Min) .328/24 hr/92 rbi/82 r/12 sb

CY Young:

A much tougher call for the mid-season Cy Young winner, but I'll throw my support behind the league leader in striketouts, era and wins, and 2nd in Whip amongst eligible canidates. Charlotte's Bruce Dougherty has been dominate so far. His lead leading 142 strikeouts, 1.59 era and 12 wins have helped pace Charlotte's quest to reclaim their division title. Although I guess when you look at those numbers, its really not that tough a call for this award.

In the running:
Oscar Baumann (SYR) 10-2/2.29 era/98 k/0.90 whip
Steve Standridge (LAA) 9-2/2.10 era/65 k/1.07 whip
Chad Lamb (LAA) 12-2/2.70 era/110 k/1.15 whip
Jesus Fernadez (Salem) 12-7/2.67 era/87 k//1.17 whip
Sandy Murphy (Salem & Pitt) 10-2/2.66 era/98 k/1.17 whip

GM of the year:

I'll call this one a tie b/w the 2 league leaders at the mid way point. Cobcommish has not only chased down the mighty Syracuse franchise, but he's managed to put some space b/w him at the all star break. His 65 wins leads the league and while he has made few moves of high significance this season (outside of retaining Kris Jackson) his cummulative efforts over the past several seasons have paved the way to serious W-S contender.

The owner that might have done the most to improve his odds of winning it all goes to tdvy. Not only has the move from Boise to LA sparked the already potent Clarence Guiel, but knowing he had Guiel's bat to lead the way, he went out and acquired two staff aces in Chad Lamb and Autin Durbin to pace the way to 59 wins at the moment.