With the All-Star game over and the season resuming soon, I thought I would take a minute to look at who impressed the first half of the Major League Baseball season. Awards are something everyone likes to hand out, especially when there is no active baseball happening at the moment.

I’ll start in the American League, as someone who covers an American League team (Texas Rangers) I am a little more familiar with that side of things.

Some of my awards are real ones that are given out at the end of the season, and some are simply made up to entertain myself. I hope you enjoy.

American League:

MVP: With a .306 average and 34 home-runs before the All-Star break, I believe Aaron Judge is the man for the award at the break. The Yankees are having a bit of a bounce back season after a very disappointing 2023, and Judge is a large part of the reason.

Judge seems locked in at the plate and is always someone you want to see bat if you get the chance. A  healthy Judge is a scary player for any opposing pitcher.

Another All-Star who gets an honorable mention is the Baltimore Orioles infielder Gunner Henderson. With a .286 BA and 28 homers, he has helped lead the O’s to a record of 58-38 at the break.

Cy Young: Tarik Skubal is having one heck of a season for the 47-50 Detroit Tigers. With is 2.41 ERA and his 10-3 record, he is easily the ace of a struggling team. Skubal has struck out 140 batters while only walking 21. He is averaging 10.9 k’s per 9 innings pitched. In my mind he is the clear winner for the first half Cy Young award.

Rookie of the Year: This award gets in my wheelhouse as the favorite to win it for the season is the Rangers Wyatt Langford. Although I’d love to pick him for my mid-season rookie of the half year, he didn’t have a impressive first half, just an impressive June and early July.

Langford had one inside the park homerun before June, and now he sits at 5 homers including a grand slam. He is coming on fast, his defense has vastly improved and he is learning major league pitching better. I really do think he has a legit chance to be the rookie of the year for the American League.

But for the mid-season award, I think I have to go with the A’s closer Mason Miller.

Miller has converted 15 saves and has a staggering 70 strike-outs in just 39.2 innings pitched. The Athletics are not a good team, but Miller is dynamic to watch.

He throws hard but that is not all he does. He can get batters out in multiple ways, not just blow it by them. Miller is another one that if your team is playing the A’s, you want to watch the 9th inning to see Miller throw.

Manager of the Year: Not that I am biased, but I believed that Bruce Bochy should have been manager of the year in 2023. He took a team that underperformed 2 years on a row and made them World Series Champions.

But were talking about 2024 now. Steven Vogt has taken a Cleveland Guardians team that lost Shane Bieber to injury and manager Terry Francona during the off-season to retirement. And what has he done? Vogt has led them to the best record in the American League at the All-Star break (58-37). In my opinion he is the only option for manager of the year at the break.

Strike out King: Cal Raleigh likes to swing. In fact, he has struck out 118 times in 358 at-bats. That is a strikeout rate of 33%.

The Mariners are barely hanging on the the American League West lead at the moment. Only 10 guys in the league have more that 100 strike-outs, and Raleigh leads Brent Rooker by 6 k’s at the break.

The No Thanks Award: There are some players that opposing pitchers just don’t want to face. The leaders on that front in 2024 with the most intentional walks is a Texas tie between Yordan Alavarez and Corey Seager, who have 9 a piece.

When the game is on the line, you don’t want to see either of these guys up at the plate. A lot of managers will just skip them if they can and move on to whoever bats behind them.

I was a little surprised to see that Aaron Judge was 5th on that list with 5 IBB.

Surprise Player of the Year: I wanted to add this one for one reason – Josh Smith of the Texas Rangers. The fact that Smith, a player I predicted the Rangers would designate for assignment after Spring Training, was in the conversation for the All-Star game, is amazing in itself.

Not to mention his.383 on base percentage (leads AL 3rd baseman), his .292 batting average (.001 point behind Red Sox 3rd baseman Rafael Deavers) and his 19 doubles (second in the AL by 1).

Smith has surprised Rangers fans with his amazing play at third as well filling in for oft-injured Josh Jung. Smith deserves the accolade for playing out of his mind the first half of the season.

Who did I miss? Let me know in the comments!