Manny Machado, Indians, umpire Angel Hernandez headline SN's MLB Midseason Awards

Joe Rivera

Manny Machado, Indians, umpire Angel Hernandez headline SN's MLB Midseason Awards image

Roll out the red carpet, don your fancy cleats, put on your best pine tar-emblazoned hat — welcome to the Sporting News MLB Midseason Awards!

We're hurtling toward the All-Star break, which means it's time for reflection, even-keeled reaction and some fun as we prep for the festivities in D.C.

MORE: Familiar names remain atop SN's latest MLB Power Rankings

While this season has been lacking in big-time shocks and storylines, there's no denying that there have been some surprises and noteworthy stories through the first 3 1/2 months.

With that, we present the SN MLB Midseason Awards — with a twist. Enjoy!

The Mike Trout Memorial 'You Deserve Better' Award

This award — aptly named after Mike Trout, since he deserves significantly better than the mediocrity he has had to endure year after year with the Angels — goes to two players in 2018.

Congratulations to Jacob deGrom and Manny Machado. They are the baseball equivalents of Thomas Jane — good actors who consistently star in bad movies.

Unfortunately for deGrom and Machado, they're going through campaigns less enjoyable than Jane's "Deep Blue Sea," though the waters are just as troubled: The Mets were 37-53 and the Orioles were 26-67, respectively, through July 11. 

Machado is off to the best offensive season of his career; he mashed 23 home runs through July 11 to go with a .314 average and a career-high 163 OPS+. DeGrom is pitching to a major league-low 1.68 ERA and a National League-leading 2.30 FIP. Both players are easily the MVPs of their respective teams.

Neither guy deserves the awfulness they've had to endure this year, but their futures are potentially brighter because both could be in different uniforms once the season ends.

Machado will almost certainly be dealt by the July 31 deadline, while deGrom is likely to continue toiling in the shark-infested seas of Flushing, Queens, and enduring another Mets box-office bomb in 2018. DeGrom being dealt would be as big of a shock as when Samuel L. Jackson was eaten by the mega-shark , but it's still a possibility.

The Most Likely to Fool You Into Thinking They're a Contender Award

The Indians will emerge from the AL Central as champs, but right now they can't hold a candle to the other division leaders.

Don't let their recent resurgence fool you: The Central is really, really bad — Cleveland is the only team in it that's over .500 — and they've feasted on their subpar rivals. The Indians were 28-14 vs. division opponents and 22-27 vs. everyone else through July 11. That's a big reason why they've held at least a share of first place since April 21.

They still boast All-Star-caliber talent in the rotation — Trevor Bauer and Corey Kluber are having great years — and lineup.

They've had a modicum of fall success in recent years, but their 2017 ALDS loss to the Yankees, when Progressive Field morphed into the Tribe's field of unpleasant dreams, felt like the end of their time as World Series contenders. It's difficult to see them not falling prey to a similar October outcome in 2018.

MORE: Home Run Derby: How to watch, participants, start time, bracket 

The Best Bad Team Award

Raise your glasses for the Rays. 

No one expected anything from Tampa Bay this year, but it has produced a surprisingly entertaining first half. The Rays were 48-44 through their first 92 games, including an impressive 7-6 mark vs. the Astros and Yankees dating to June 14.

The Rays became trailblazers in May when they implemented the innovative sabermetric plan of using an "opener" on the mound for some games. The strategy worked. Since then, a better-than-expected pitching staff — just four main guys, really — headed by Cy Young candidate and All-Star snub Blake Snell has kept the Rays afloat. 

Who knows what will happen with their bullpen down the stretch, though? Will the relievers tire out, or will they ride the momentum and help the Rays become spoilers? One thing's for sure: In a weak American League, the Rays have raised the level of competition in the East.

The Worst Good Team Award

Until the Mariners make it to the postseason, should anyone buy them as a contender?

This year the M's will make it into the postseason almost by default. They were 58-35 through July 11 but just 7-12 against division leaders Boston, Cleveland and Houston. They've beaten up on the teams they're supposed to — they're 16-3 combined vs. Kansas City, Tampa Bay and Minnesota.

The Mariners' main challenge could come from the A's for the second wild-card spot. Given the state of their rotation and the holes in their lineup, it's hard to see them challenging for any of the top spots in the AL.

The Michael Scott 'Why Are You the Way that You Are?' Award

There's no shortage of Michael Scott moments that define watching Angel Hernandez call a game. Take  this one . Or maybe this one . Or how about this one ? We settled on the "Why Are You the Way That You Are?" Award because of Scott's genuine pleading — and maybe the fact that we are dead inside .

Once again Angel is the devil on MLB's back, the most infamous umpire in the sport. At least this time it's for his bad calls and not for his discrimination lawsuit against the commissioner's office.

As the yells for robot umps and computerized K-Zones get louder, Hernandez's work behind the plate isn't helping his case. Check out some of his ball-strike stats per Bloomberg Business Week: With only 85 percent of correct calls , he's one of the worst around.

Every profession has someone who is bad at their job, but few are household names. What makes Hernandez especially "important" is that he's a household name in a profession where no one should know his name.

Sometimes Hernandez will just start umpiring a game, and not even he will know where it's going.

Congrats, Angel!

via GIPHY

The 'Good Job, Good Effort' Award

We might as well rename this one the "Oakland Athletics Award," because their entire organizational philosophy is pretty much based on this.

The A's have surprised a lot of people this year with an offense that ranks near the top five in the AL in lots of major categories. They could even challenge the Mariners for a playoff berth this year. Who saw that coming?

Here's the thing, though: At some point, the clock will strike midnight and the carriage will turn back into a big ol' pumpkin. The A's — who have a sub-.500 record vs. every team in their division — will play AL West opponents 35 more times after the All-Star break. If that trend continues, then we'll be singing lullabies to Oakland playoff hopes once again.

Until then, it's good job, A's. Never stop doing A's things.

MORE: Todd Frazier talks Mets' troubles, trade rumors and more

The 'It's OK, We Appreciate You' Award

No one — no one — appreciates Joey Votto more than SN does.

Votto is a one-of-a-kind talent with a one-of-a-kind personality who has toiled for bad Reds teams throughout his career. The Reds have played better since the firing of manager Bryan Price (including a 15-11 June), but they're still at the bottom of the barrel in the NL Central.

Votto, 34, is in the middle of another Votto-esque season: Entering play Friday, he's slashing .292/.424/.444 with nine home runs and 48 RBIs. The power hasn't been there, but everything else has been. He also continues to produce above-average defense.

Votto is a joy to watch on the field and is heading toward being one of the top 50 players of all time, so the fact that he's also inching dangerously close to "greatest players to not have a ring" territory is disappointing. His dominance — and antics — on the field make him quite the character. 

Don't worry, Joey. We see you. We appreciate you, eh?

The 'You're Special Just Because You're You' Award

There's nobody else like Shohei Ohtani. He's the real deal . He's doing things we've not seen in more than 100 years. It has been a pleasure to watch him hit bombs and make hitters look foolish with triple-digit fastballs and nasty breaking stuff.

His bat-arm combo has accounted for 2.1 bWAR in just 42 games this season — a .279/.359/.515 line as a hitter, with seven homers and a 141 OPS+, and a 4-1 record with 61 strikeouts in 49.1 innings on the mound. 

Even though he's hurt right now and just half the player he was for the first two months of the season, he's still pretty special.

Joe Rivera