MLB Awards Watch: Kris Bryant carries the NL MVP flag

Jose Quintana. 1. player. 63. <p>The AL Cy Young race is <em>brutal</em>. Quintana is the only pitcher that ranks inside the top four of both versions (FanGraphs and Baseball-Reference) of the WAR statistic, and his steady hand is valuable. The veteran holds a 2.93 ERA across 144.1 innings (22 starts) and while Chris Sale always garners the headlines, Quintana has been the better pitcher this season. This won’t be a flashy choice and there are at least five pitchers that have legitimate arguments here, but give me Quintana… as of today.</p>. SP. Detroit Tigers

player. 95. <p>FanGraphs <em>hates</em> Hamels. I respect the site’s work a great deal, so their placement of Hamels at 19th (!) in the AL in fWAR worries me, but Baseball-Reference disagrees (Hamels is in a tie for the lead) and the eye test passes for me. The left-hander ranks third in the AL in ERA (2.89) with nearly a strikeout per inning, and while his control has slipped (3.44 BB/9) a bit in 2016, I’m still riding with Hamels.</p>. SP. Texas Rangers. Cole Hamels. 2

Detroit Tigers. Michael Fulmer. 3. player. 63. <p>This feels silly to me, but the numbers say otherwise. Fulmer has pitched only 111 innings, while his competition has eaten through at least 140 frames. However, Fulmer leads the AL in bWAR (4.3) with a sizable league lead in ERA (2.43) and that means that he is in the discussion. Am I skeptical that he can keep this up over nearly two additional months? Absolutely, but Fulmer’s baseline right now is very high and he is, at the very least, in the mix because of a down year elsewhere.</p>. SP