Wright, Terry, RA, Kirk & the Mid-Season MLB Awards

In a report for the New York Post, columnist Joel Sherman hands out mid-year MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year and Manager of the Year awards.

According to Sherman, Dickey is the National League Cy Young Award winner for the first half, while David Wright is third in the MVP race behind Pirates OF Andrew McCutchen and winner Reds 1B Joey Votto.

Sherman feels Kirk Nieuwenhuis is the fourth best National League rookie to date, behind winner Nationals OF Bryce Harper, as well as D-Backs starting pitcher Wade Miley Braves SS Andrelton Simmons.

Lastly, Terry Collins has been the second best manager in the National League, according to Sherman, behind only Davey Johnson of the Nationals.

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Matthew Cerrone: The fact that these four men are peppered throughout this major categories says everything you need to know about why the Mets are where they are in the standings during the first week of July. Sherman is one columnist and the season is only half over, so this doesn’t mean much. But, it does shine a light on Dickey, who has been off-the-charts type amazing this year… and that is a slight concern, frankly.

Right now, the Mets are on pace to win 86 games, thanks in large part to Dickey, who accounts for 27% of the team’s wins. What are the chances that Dickey replicates his first half to win 23 games for the year, so the team can keep up that pace? Plus, who knows what ramifications there will be to pitching him more frequently, as ESPN.com’s Buster Olney suggested they might do sooner than later? I think this is an intriguing idea, and I don’t worry about Dickey’s ability, but I do wonder if he will be overexposed and become more hittable than he has been…

The point is, as great as Dickey has been, and as very good as Johan Santana and Jon Niese have been, the team’s fielding, hitting and bullpen are going to need to step it up some place to counter what will be an inevitable bump in the road for the starting pitchers. I mean, I hope that bump never comes, all while the fielding, offense and bullpen step it up anyway, because that would make for a dominant second half. However, the team should prepare (i.e., acquisitions) and (everyone not named Dickey, Johan and Wright) better perform as though that bump is actually coming… just in case.

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Brian Erni: The MVP race has been fascinating to watch unfold. Even though McCutchen probably gets a lot of acclaim for bringing the Pirates back to relevance, I think Wright should be second on the list behind Votto. Not to take anything away from McCutchen, but Votto and Wright are running 1-2 in the Majors in Wins Above Replacement (WAR), and they have been two of the most dominant players in the league thus far.

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To see the rest of Sherman’s list, including American League rankings, and the anti-award  rankings, click here for his report in the New York Post.

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