Your Turn (Beckett Baseball No. 80): Who are your hobby award-winners?
By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor
Mike Trout‘s all-around dominance this season has made a mockery of the can’t-miss cardboard around him and, by season’s end he just might have the American League Rookie of the Year and American League MVP awards in his grasp.
For the next issue of Beckett Baseball and as the season winds down, we simply want to know … Who are your 2012 hobby award-winners?
We want to know who your Rookie of the Year, MVP and Cy Young winners are … on cardboard. (Tell us other players in other areas if you feel they stand out, too.)
Tell us in the comments below. Please include your name and location with your comment. We’ll run a selection of the best answers in the next issue of Beckett Baseball.
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Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball magazine. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.
Rookie of the Year needs to be Yu Darvish seeing as this was his first breakout season on cardboard. Mike Trout might be the MVP of the AL but he also the MVP on cardboard since he seems to be doing no wrong.
Cy Young is probably going to have to be Darvish as well, just because his values and prices are dominating
mike trout has to be the card board rookie of the year in the al. all his cards are hot. cy young cardboard in the al should be david price. how can you go wrong with 16 wins 2.28 era with 167 strike outs. under rated in my book. josh hamilton would have to be my card board mvp. .290 batting average, 35 home runs and 111 rbi’s. plus he plays for a contending team. yu darvish is having a good season but trout is on fire. i rememeber back when the halos got pujols they were thinking about trading this kid for some pitching. i think they made the right choice in keeping him.
my picks in the nl
cy young- stephen strasburg
mvp-andrew mccutchen
mike trout has to be the card board rookie of the year in the al. all his cards are hot. cy young cardboard in the al should be david price. how can you go wrong with 16 wins 2.28 era with 167 strike outs. under rated in my book. josh hamilton would have to be my card board mvp. .290 batting average, 35 home runs and 111 rbi’s. plus he plays for a contending team. yu darvish is having a good season but trout is on fire. i rememeber back when the halos got pujols they were thinking about trading this kid for some pitching. i think they made the right choice in keeping him.
my picks in the nl
cy young- stephen strasburg
mvp-andrew mccutchen
Rookie of the year- Bryce Harper (Trout technically isn’t a rookie on cardboard.)
MVP- Mike Trout (For obvious reasons.)
Cy Young- RA Dickey (We all knew Darvish would be hot, but coming into the season Dickey was an unknown. There’s not a lot of his cards making a fun chase when he was hot.)
AL ROY: Darvish
AL MVP: Trout
AL CY Young: Darvish
AL LVP: Hosmer, Lester
AL under-appreciated: Konerko
AL Honorable Mentions: Billy Butler, Felix Hernandez, Chris Sale
NL ROY: Harper
NL NVP: McCutchen
NL Cy Young: Cain, Chapman
NL LVP: Anyone in an Astros uniform, anyone in a Phillies uniform not named Cole, Lincecum
NL Under-appreciated: Votto, Bruce, Starlin Castro, Michael Bourn, Yadier Molina
NL Honorable Mentions: Matt Kemp, Johnny Cueto, Ryan Braun
Well my wife is known in our house as the card ninja because she has had some awesome pulls this year for us. I would say out of her awesome pulls, Harper has to be our Rookie of the Year. Her latest pull was a Bryce Harper, Topps Finest Orange Refractor Jumbo Patch Auto. This came out of 2 single packs we bought from a vendor we frequent online.
Honorable mentions would be her Tim Lincecum Allen and Ginter red back retail pull and her mysterious feeling about a box of Allen and Ginter at our LHS which yielded a Meadowlark Lemon 6/10 red auto.
If I could nominate a non-playing MVP, it would be my wife Starr for her awesome pulls this year!
Joe Reynolds
Montgomery, AL
ROY would have to be mike trout for sure. No other rookies are doing close to as good as he is.
MVP would have to be mike trout, because his cards would triple in value after that and because he is amazing.
Cy young should be yu darvish because his rookies should be worth more than they are and that would do the trick.
The MVP will always be Derek Jeter. There is not one active star player who has cards that sell has well as Jeter. Even with the high asking prices I still think they are a solid pickup and value because its hard to beat a Yankee legend on cardboard.
The rookie of the year is hard to pick. Darvish and Harper where hyped early but I don’t see those cards paying off. Trout isn’t a baseball card rookie but his cards are hot now. Too bad Todd Frazier isn’t in a lot of the 2012 releases.
Can there even be a Cy Young on cardboard when people seem to ignore pitchers unless they are named Nolan Ryan. I don’t trust Darvish enough to give him the nod. I collect Chapman but I sometimes shocked to see how cheap some of his cards are, not super cheap but nothing that breaks the bank.
Pujols is putting up good numbers but his cards have recovered yet. It will be interesting to see what happens to guys like Kemp, Votto, and Hamilton over the next fews years as well. I would watch Cano because somebody has to replace Jeter as the Yankee of choice.
AL MVP- Miguel Cabrera
AL ROY- Mike Trout*
AL Cy Young- Jered Weaver
* Honerable mentions for ROY: Yu Darvish, Scott Diamond and maybe even Tommy Milone.
NL MVP- Andrew McCutchen
NL ROY- In cardboard, definately Bryce Harper
NL Cy Young- R. A. Dickey (he surprised the most, too)
-John
St.Cloud, MN
MVP and ROY: Mike Trout hands down. Even his non-rookie base cards are selling for a few bucks apiece on Ebay months after release, when any other player won’t sell for a buck. That’s incredible in itself, and his autographs are flat-out unaffordable for many collectors.
Cy Young: Very interesting, in another “Year of the Pitcher” position players seem to be dominating the hobby. Though the real Cy Young races are wide open, I’ll give Jered Weaver the hobby Cy Young, due to his steadily increasing card values and his signature appearing in most 2012 products.
Dan C.
MVP and ROY: Mike Trout hands down. Even his non-rookie base cards are selling for a few bucks apiece on Ebay months after release, when any other player won’t sell for a buck. That’s incredible in itself, and his autographs are flat-out unaffordable for many collectors.
Cy Young: Very interesting, in another “Year of the Pitcher” position players seem to be dominating the hobby. Though the real Cy Young races are wide open, I’ll give Jered Weaver the hobby Cy Young, due to his steadily increasing card values and his signature appearing in most 2012 products.
Dan
Marion, IL
I do believe that Trout has been outstanding this year, but my bias against the Angels can’t let call me call him mvp. Although, I do wonder if they would be in the cellar this year if it weren’t for him keeping them barely above average. …? That and I’m just upset I haven’t pulled anything remotely interesting with Trout or Darvish’s name on it.
I’d have to give my cardboard ROY to Bryce Harper since Trout is not a rookie on cardboard in 2012.
MVP would have to be Mike Trout along with a breakout for Matt Kemp in the first half of the year.
Cy Young on Cardboard would have to be Yu Darvish. His cards are the hottest, although i have a feeling Chris Sale will take a big jump if the White Sox can make the post season.
Keith S.
San Antonio, TX
I think with the level his prices are currently at, and the price jumps they have already taken, MIke Trout deserves all three.
-Thommy Selden, Los Angeles
Trout is hands down as ROY, as much as I was hoping Cespedes would take baseball by storm (he’s done OK but even team MVP might be asking too much). Verlander is the CY and Cano could be MVP but Jeter will take a few votes from him….