National League Awards

ROY
He may have to wait until Aubrey Huff gets injured for his call-up, but once he arrives, I think he’ll be ready to contribute in a big way. Coming seemingly out of nowhere into uber prospecthood owing to a slight change in his approach at the plate, the well named Belt spent last season lacing balls all over the place in high A, AA, AAA and in the AZ Fall League. There is a movement to get him into the lineup on opening day for the Giants (my keeper fantasy league is a fan of this movement) but he’d have to learn LF pretty much on the fly. Teams will usually hesitate to do that but considering their outfield isn’t exactly the spryest bunch even without him, it may be worth getting that bat in the lineup. You may recall the Padres impatiently putting Kyle Blanks in LF a few years back since he was blocked by Adrian Gonzalez. Didn't work out so well for them. Huff is no Gonzazlez but a contract's a contract, I guess.

Cy Young
The NL had quite the battle for Cy Young last year. Among the names batted about heavily for not being batted about were Halladay, Jiminez, Wainright and Josh Johnson. Of those 4 I would only expect to see Halladay and Johnson in the running again this year. Wainright will miss the season for surgery, of course and although he does throw hot fire, I really don’t expect to see Jiminez repeat what he did last year. Though allowances certainly should be made for the fact that half of his starts are made in Coors Field. I do think that Lincecum will return from his “year off” and get some consideration again. Let’s not forget that a bona fide ace has switched leagues and will be tossing, at some point, for the Brew Crew. For the sake of not going with the repeat choice and selecting last year’s unanimous winner, Halladay, my choice for this year’s Cy Young is Josh Johnson. Do you like how my paragraph has 0 rationale about my selection? I do.

MVP
Is a machine affected by contract years? Doesn’t matter: Albert Pujols for the win. And frankly, it’s going to take a huge year from Fat Albert to keep the redbirds in contention.

NL Awards
Rookie of the Year: Brandon Belt
Cy Young: Josh Johnson
MVP: Albert Pujols