Who do you think will / should win the NL MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year, Manager of the Year, Comeback Player of the Year, and every other individual achievement award?

(Since the American League doesn’t play baseball, but some distorted version of it using substitute hitters and other such anomalies, we won’t discuss their individual achievements here.)

Comeback Player of the Year: Brad Lidge

Lidge already won the award, and deservedly so. I saw Ryan Ludwick garner significant votes, but I’m not sure what he was coming back from — he was NEVER any good, was he? Maybe there should be an award for “Late Bloomer of the Year”.
Mets CPOTY: Fernando Tatis

NL Rookie of the Year: Geovany Soto

Jair Jurrjens is up there too, as is Jay Bruce, but Soto put up the best numbers for a rookie catcher in a long time. Edinson Volquez would be tied with Soto, but he pitched just enough in the junior circuit to remove his rookie status.
Mets ROY: Daniel Murphy. Tough luck for Danny Boy, as he exceeded rookie status by one at-bat — so no chance to vie for this award in 2009.

Manager of the Year: Lou Piniella

This was a really tough one, as it was a neck-and-neck decision between Piniella and Charlie Manuel — and I had to give Dale Sveum consideration as well. Laugh all you want, but Sveum found a way to manage a team that appeared to be dead and buried, and was 2 1/2 games out of the wild card with six games to play, into the postseason.

I chose Piniella over Manuel because he managed around several key injuries during the season and still led the Cubs to the best record in the NL. At various points, the Cubs lost Alfonso Soriano, closer Kerry Wood, and ace Carlos Zambrano for significant periods. Further, Piniella inserted Wood into the closer role, and moved previous closer Ryan Dempster to the rotation — two moves that made a huge impact on the team’s success. Piniella also gets props for his ability to mix and match his middle infielders and center fielders for maximum performance. Finally, Piniella did an excellent job of bullpen management, an area where Charlie Manuel also did very well.
Mets MOY: Jerry Manuel (runner up: Willie Randolph)

NL Cy Young Award: Brandon Webb

The National League has not seen a 20-game winner since 2005, and that benchmark gets more and more difficult to reach as today’s game continues to degenerate by relying heavily on bullpens. The award is named for Cy Young because he won more games than anyone else in history — not because he was necessarily the best all-around or most-skilled pitcher. In the spirit of that, Webb gets the award by a landslide.
Mets CY: Johan Santana

NL MVP: Manny Ramirez

Scream all you want about Manny only playing half a season (actually, less than that). Bottom line is this: without Manny, the Dodgers don’t come close to the playoffs, much less win the NL West. There are strong arguments for Ryan Howard, Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun, and C.C. Sabathia, and if you said I can’t pick Manny because he played in only 53 games, then I’d go with Howard. If the Mets made the playoffs, Carlos Delgado and David Wright would easily be in this conversation.
Mets MVP: tie, Carlos Delgado and David Wright

Post your choices below.