AL Comeback Player of the Year ---------------Bartolo Colon- 30 Melky Cabrera- 14 Jacoby Ellsbury- 10 Endy Chavez- 6 James Shields- 5 Casey Kotchman- 5 Alex Gordon- 3 Josh Beckett- 2 Alex Avila- 1 Jason Varitek- 1 ------------------ THE AWARD The comeback player of the year is award to "the player who is judged to have "re-emerged on the baseball field during a given season."
CANDIDATES This is a list of potential candidates, you may have your own to vote for
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+3 Aaron Harang +2 Lance Berkman +1 Jason Isringhausen
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Can't believe I was thinking about potential Mets for this yesterday, thought of Beltran and Capuano, but forgot about Izzy. Really a great comeback story, deserving of winning the award. This guy's career was basically over. He pitched nine games in 2009 dealing with injury, and didn't pitch in the majors in 2010. But the Mets gave him a call and gave him a chance to return to the organization where he started his career. He wasn't even expected to make the team, and dealt with some injuries at the end of Spring Training that carried over into the start of the regular season, but he pitched well enough that they brought him into the bullpen when he was ready, thinking he would be one of the least frequently used guys. He ended up pitched great and earning the 8th inning setup role, then took over as closer after we traded K-Rod, eventually earning his 300th career save.
Berkman's a good choice, too, this guy looked like he was in the tail end of the career, but just had a phenomenal year this season, completely stunned me. I fully expect this award to go to one of these two.
Chris Capuano deserves mention as well, we brought him in on a small contract ($1m or $1.5m with incentives IIRC) to compete for a back of the rotation spot but more likely a bullpen role. He ended up winning a spot in the rotation and pitched well for the entire season. His numbers weren't that great, but this was his first full season since 2007 after being plagued by injuries including his second Tommy John surgery. He went 11-12 for a disappointing Mets team and led the staff with 168 strikeouts. He pitched the best game of his career on August 26th against the Braves, throwing a complete game, two hit shutout, with 13 strikeouts.