More PCA Love

Alas they didn’t make it through the postseason as many of us hoped against hope would happen, but that doesn’t take away from the incredible season Pete Crow-Armstrong had, given how often we checked in on the presumptive NL MVP every other day or so. Anyway, there are a few extra accolades before they announce the major award finalists in November.

First up, Baseball Digest announced some awards, including PCA as the MLB Player of the Year…

Crow-Armstrong received 21 first-place votes, two second-place votes and one third-place vote from the independently submitted ballots of a 24-member blue-ribbon panel of longtime baseball observers, which included writers, broadcasters, former players, managers and executives. Yordan Alvarez of the Houston Astros received two first-place votes, 16 second-place votes and five third-place votes while the Tampa Bay Rays’ Junior Caminero got one first-place vote, three second-place votes and nine third-place votes.  

I don’t know if this not-unanimous vote portends how MVP voting will go, but at least Pete won overwhelmingly.

Next up, the Hank Aaron Awards, which I don’t know for sure that Pete will win because there are some major boppers on the list:

Pete Alonso – Baltimore Orioles 
CJ Abrams – Washington Nationals
Yordan Alvarez – Houston Astros 
Jake Bauers – Milwaukee Brewers
Randy Arozarena – Seattle Mariners 
Pete Crow-Armstrong – Chicago Cubs
Junior Caminero – Tampa Bay Rays 
Elly De La Cruz – Cincinnati Reds
Willson Contreras – Boston Red Sox 
Shohei Ohtani – Los Angeles Dodgers
Yandy Díaz – Tampa Bay Rays 
Matt Olson – Atlanta Braves
Riley Greene – Detroit Tigers 
Kyle Schwarber – Philadelphia Phillies
Ben Rice – New York Yankees 
Sal Stewart – Cincinnati Reds
Miguel Vargas – Chicago White Sox 
Fernando Tatis Jr. – San Diego Padres
Bobby Witt Jr. – Kansas City Royals 
Jordan Walker – St. Louis Cardinal

PCA did lead the majors in home runs along with former Cubs legend Kyle Schwarber, scored the most runs, and was among the lead leaders in RsBI and stolen bases. However, he was second to Yordan Alvarez in both slugging and OPS if people care about those things, as well as OBP, plus Yordan did lead the majors in batting average (imagine that). PCA, of course, led all baseballin WAR and even offensive WAR, though I imagine some of the stolen base/base-running was baked into that. Still, clearing the next closest competitor by two full wins and change has to count for something.