Time to hand out the hardware in another awards list as worthless as the rest.

AL Cy Young
At the Break: Cliff Lee, Cleveland. Final: Even with KRod’s mind-blowing, yet typical of the times 62 saves, and with apologies to Roy Halladay (20-11, 9 complete games, 2.78 ERA) this was a one-man race from the beginning. Lee won 22 of 25 decisions for a wicked .880 winning percentage on a team that seemed to misfire all year. He finished first in wins and ERA (2.54), second innings pitched (223.1), WHIP (1.11) and complete games (4) and walked only 34.

NL Cy Young
At the Break: Tim Lincecum, San Francisco. Final: Lincecum was the best player on a bad team. The 24-year-old won 25 percent of his team’s games, finished third in the NL in innings pitched (227), first in strikeouts (265) and in BAA (.221) and second in ERA (2.62). Lincecum also proved to be a roadblock to losing streaks. His 18 wins were proceeded by 38 loses. By contrast, the Diamondbacks lost 22 games leading up to Brandon Webb’s, Lincecum’s biggest competitor, 22 victories.

AL Manager of the Year
At the Break: Joe Maddon, Tampa. Final: Maddon’s philosophy of few rules and great accountability has struck a cord with the league’s fifth-youngest team (27.6 years). Improving from last (66 wins) to first (97) is impressive enough. To do it as the entire league waited for them to fold while holding off baseball’s newest evil empire, the Boston Red Sox, attests to their toughness.

NL Manager of the Year
At the Break: Fredi Gonzalez, Florida. Final: Having L.A. at the top of the National League West is enough to garner Joe Torre a few votes, but for all the hype, the 2008 Dodgers won only two more games than the 2007 version. Almost by default the award goes to Gonzalez. The Marlins had plenty of offense finishing second in the National League in home runs and fourth in runs, but its pitching staff was a mess. The Marlins were 10th in the league in saves, 11th in ERA and the pitchers who started games (11) won a total of 56 games. Maybe the award should go to pitching coach Mark Wiley after the team reduces its ERA by half a run from 2007.

AL MVP
At the Break: Ian Kinsler, Texas. Final: Kevin Youkilis doesn’t exactly cut a perfect athletic figure in his Red Sox uniform, but through sheer will and enthusiasm he made up for David Ortiz’s down year and helped to hold things together after the Manny-be-Manny act left for Los Angeles. The ever-improving first baseman had a career year with 29 home runs, 115 RBI (fourth in the AL), a .312 batting average (sixth), 91 runs, a .569 slugging percentage (third) and an .958 OPS (fourth).

NL MVP
At the Break: Lance Berkman, Houston. Final: Ryan Howard’s .251 average and 199 Ks hurt. The Mets four-way MVP log jam (Wright, Reyes, Beltran, Delgado) makes it nearly impossible for any one to win just as Ryan Braun will have to fend off his bigger-named teammate. Although the Cards finished 11.5 games behind the Cubs, without Luis Pujols St. Louis would have instead been fighting Pittsburgh for the league cellar. Pujols led the NL in total bases, slugging and OPS. He’s second in average and walks, third in hits, fourth in home runs and RBI. He even stole 15 bases while striking out only 54 times.

AL Rookie of the Year
At the Break: Evan Longoria, Tampa. Final: The race is much more crowded then at first glance. Jose Arredondo has 10 wins and a 1.62 ERA but was a setup man for KRod and is unknown. Armando Galarraga was the best on a bad Tiger’s staff going 13-7 with a 3.73 ERA and Mike Aviles toiled in K.C. where his .325 average has gone unnoticed. That leaves the big three of Alexei Ramirez, Evan Longoria and Jacoby Ellsbury. Ramirez leads in average (.290), Longoria leads in the sexy numbers — home runs (27) and RBI (85) and Ellsbury in stolen bases (50) and runs (98). Winning matters so Longoria gets a slim victory over Ellsbury. Also, the Tampa third-bagger is baseball’s newest star.

NL Rookie of the Year
At the Break: Jair Jurrjens, Atlanta. Final: Jurrjens petered out after the All Star break finishing 5-8 on the season, while Joey Votto and Geovany Soto have battled it out to a virtual tie for first year honors.
Votto leads Soto by three runs and one home run but lags in RBI by two. Votto (first base) did outhit Soto (catcher) by 14 points, but does that out weight the difference in position importance? No. Even before Geovany became recognized for his hitting, he was lavished with praise by his manager, teammates and commentators for his skills behind the plate and his ability to work with the Cubs always flaky pitching staff.
smurray@midweek.com

With the positively mediocre preseason predictions for the 2007 season designated shredder food, it’s time to once again wade into the unpredictable future that is the 2008 Major League Baseball season.

AL East
While the New York Yankees will put a lot of hurtin’ on pitchers, this division belongs to the Red Sox. The team is loaded offensively with Manny, Big Papi and Mike Lowell, but for the team that scored the third most runs in the league, it’s the pitching staff that separates them from the Yankees and every other team in the AL. Boston led the league with a 3.87 ERA last season and boasts two Cy Young candidates and enough depth that their fifth starterr was good for 12 wins. Even if the staff struggles, which could very well happen as the long season took its toll on Daisuke Matsuzaka while Curt Schilling battled injuries and age, their offense and bullpen will get them into post-season play. And that’s where it will get scarier for AL teams because of the Sox top four relievers racked up 46 saves and a combined era of 2.05.

AL Central
A year ago the Tigers were one win behind Boston for the best record in baseball at the All-Star break just to have it collapse as injuries devastated their pitching staff and cost DH Gary Sheffield a large part of the second half. Though pitching remains a concern, a similar break down is unlikely as this team will simply bash its way to the division crown. Defensive improvements will also help if for no other reason than moving stone-handed shortstop Carlos Guillen to first but hitting will be the star of the show. The Tigers’ likely batting order for 2008 hit .302, .341, .265, .363, .320, .296, .330, .280 and .285 a year ago. Included in this onslaught was 168 home runs in the pitching-friendly park and 762 RBI. Don’t be surprised if Miguel Cabrera wins the AL MVP award.

AL West
Provided that John Lackey, Kelvim Escobar and Scott Shields have no lingering effects from their injuries, the Angles will win their fourth division title in five years. The Mariners, with the addition of starter Erik Bedard, will make it a close, but the Angles should be able to pull this one off. In addition to strengthening their pitching staff with Jon Garland, the Angels finally found some offensive help for All-Star Vladimir Guerrero. The outfield of Garret Anderson (.297, 16, 80), newcomer Torii Hunter (.287, 28, 107 and 18 stolen bases) and Guerrero (.324, 27, 125) gives Los Angeles the firepower to weather early season pitching problems. Hunter’s addition also means better defense and more production out of the DH spot with Gary Matthews Jr. (.252, 18, 72, 18 stolen bases) being relieved of fielding duties.

NL East
If you think the Mets season-ending collapse won’t happen again, well, you’re right. But even with Johan Santana, it will hardly be a cakewalk to the division title because, surprisingly, pitching could be their downfall. Offensively the team is set with some of the best young hitters in the game, but outside of the possible 2008 NL Cy Young Award winner, the staff has holes. Pedro Martinez did post a 2.57 ERA a year ago but it was in only five starts and he hasn’t really put it together since 2005. He’s also 37 years old. John Maine is young and had a break-out year in 2007, but he’s no lock to repeat. Likewise for Oliver Perez, whose 15 wins last year were more than his combined totals in the three previous seasons. The bullpen is solid with Billy Wagner, but as a unit the relief corps pitched 500-plus innings a year ago and could falter if once again asked to carry such a load. Any bump in the road, and the Phillies will once again take over.

NL Central
Milwakee’s rotation is short and they have a retread at closer. The Cardinals’ starting five will be a piecemeal project while Matt Clement, Mark Mulder, Joel Pineiro and Chris Carpenter slowly come off the DL over the next few months. That leaves the Cubs as repeat winners of the division and it isn’t totally due to the shortcomings of others. A year ago Chicago had the second best team ERA in the league. Carlos Zambrano has a fine backup in Ted Lilly, who won 15 games last year and has reduced his ERA each season for the past three years. Rich Hill is in his third year, and though he has struggled this spring is a lock at No. 3. Hitting looks to improve with the addition of highly regarded import Kosuke Fukudome and promising catcher Geovany Soto, who hit .389 in 12 games last year.

NL West
Good luck picking what has been baseball’s tightest, but hardly best, division over the past few years. A year ago three teams finished within one-and-a-half games of each other, and No. 4 made the biggest off-season move by bringing in arguably baseball’s best manager. San Diego had the best staff in the league last year with Arizona coming in at No. 4. Unfortunately, neither team could hit worth a lick finishing at two final spots on the board. Colorado and Los Angeles finishing atop the hitting category, but couldn’t match their two interdivisional rivals in pitching. Flip a coin if you must, but with solid starting pitching, an outstanding closer, the signing of Andruw Jones and a young and talented James Loney who — at the time of this writing — was hitting .331 during spring and the Dodgers are the team to beat in the National League West.

AL Playoffs
Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles, Cleveland
Even with Chien-Ming Wang fronting the rotation and Joba Chamberlain likely to move into a starting role, the Yankees’ long-in-the-tooth pitching staff is finally too much to overcome. Cleveland, a 96-game winner last year, beats Boston and Detroit out powers L.A. to set up a American League Central showdown for league supremacy.

NL Playoffs
Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia
The deeper Dodgers get past Philly while Chicago provides some hope after a century of failure by defeating the Mets and getting to the division finals.

World Series
Detroit’s lack of bullpen strength becomes obvious as the team cannot hold its early leads and Cleveland moves on to the World Series to play Los Angeles as once again the Cubs suffer another season of disappointment.
Indian fans, who themselves have suffered through 50 years of losing, celebrate their team’s victory at the Rock ‘N Roll Hall of Fame.
Where else are they going to go?