With a little less than a month remaining in the 2017 MLB Regular Season, the pennant races and award races are starting to heat up! How the pennant races unfold could impact what players take home the hardware after the regular season. Let’s take a dive into who should take home some hardware in 2017.

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The AL and NL Manager of the Year Award is one of the most overlooked in baseball. These managers are responsible for getting 25 ball players to stay focused on winning a World Series Championship as well as managing difficult baseball situations every single game. In the AL, it is easy to say the Houston Astros’ manager A.J. Hinch is the most deserving AL manager this season. After being hired by the Astros in 2015, it took him little time to take his team to the playoffs. The Astros finished 86-76 in 2015, but injuries and inconsistent pitching kept them out in 2016. In 2017 however, the Astros exploded once again, and they are the favorite in the AL to make it to the World Series.

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The NL is a much closer race. The NL West has 3 fantastic teams that are all probably going to make the playoffs this season. The Dodgers, Diamondbacks, and Rockies all have legit chances to fight through the rest of the National League field and make a World Series appearance in 2017. Personally, I am going to give the nod to Torey Lovullo of the Arizona Diamondbacks. In his first season as manager, Lovullo has lead the Diamondbacks to a fantastic season in which they will win over 90 games. They have a more consistent pitching staff than in years prior and their lineup may be the best in baseball. While Paul Goldschmidt is having a fantastic season, he is still not my NL MVP…

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Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins is my NL MVP. His last 6 weeks have been absolutely incredible. It is great that Stanton was able to stay healthy for an entire season, and this allowed us to see what he’s capable of. He is going to finish with about 60 home runs, 130 RBI’s, and a .285 batting average. These numbers are incredible, and it is a shame that the Marlins cannot put together a good season as a team. It is hard to imagine where the Marlins would be without him this season. Without his consistent power, the Marlins may be the third worst team in the NL behind only the Giants and Phillies. While understanding the incredible season Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt are having, Stanton is single handedly carrying his team, while Goldschmidt and Arenado play on well rounded teams that actually win games.

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The AL MVP should go to Jose Altuve of the Houston Astros. He will likely end the season hitting around .350, around 40 stolen bases, 25 homers, 90 RBI’s and the AL Batting Title. Just when people think Jose Altuve is going to level out and exit his prime, he goes and improves his power and continues to be one of the most consistent hitters and all around great baseball players the game has today. He has helped lead the Astros back into playoff contention and make them the favorites in the AL to make it to the World Series. He has a nice supporting cast of players on his team, but he has always remained consistent and healthy which helped keep the Astros on track to make the playoffs again in 2017.

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The AL and NL Rookies of the Year are going to be the New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge and the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Cody Bellinger, respectively, by a landslide. Each player has helped lead their team to winning records and also a playoff appearance (most likely). They will be the first pair of rookies to each hit more than 40 homers in a season, and they each have respectable batting averages. The crazy hot start these two rookies got off to this season was incredible, and fans can only hope these two are just getting started.

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The Cy Young Award is always one of the toughest to decide, along with the MVP Awards. My AL Cy Young Award winner is a little less tough than the NL this season. Chris Sale has had a historic season for the Boston Red Sox. It is incredible how well he has pitched this season, and the amount of strikeouts he is racking up is crazy! He is on his way to finishing the year with a little over 300 K’s on the season. He is also in the top 10 in ERA, WHIP, K’s per 9 innings, and wins. He is arguably the best player on a great Red Sox team, and this is his year. He will finally finish in the top 2 in the Cy Young vote, and he will take home the hardware barring any insane collapse over his next 3 to 4 starts.

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The NL Race between Clayton Kershaw and Max Scherzer continues to heat up, but I give the nod right now to Max Scherzer of the Washington Nationals. He has been more consistent in more starts than Kershaw. He has more wins, strikeouts, and a lower WHIP. Kershaw may have given up less home runs and have a lower ERA, but when the Dodgers went without Kershaw, they were just fine. The Nats have needed Scherzer more than the Dodgers have needed Kershaw this year, so my nod goes to Scherzer because he remained more consistent.

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The MLB Regular Season has been filled with a lot of home runs, great starting pitching, and a few surprises of who is going to take home some hardware in 2017. It is shaping up to be a great last month of baseball as well as an exciting playoff race to the 2017 World Series!