SPECULATOR: 2012 Longshot leaders and award winners, part 1

As we do every year, we close out the pre-season calendar with a look at some possible long-shot league leaders and award winners. As always, our philosophy for this exercise is that anyone can predict an Albert Pujols MVP award or a Félix Hernández Cy Young campaign. We're not interested in that level of prognostication; we're going to stick our necks out a good bit further.

Many of our nominees this year are players who have previously demonstrated the level of performance necessary to achieve these awards or thresholds. But, extending Ron Shandler's theme of "recency bias" from earlier this week, that performance level may not be the most recent data point in these players' career progression. By freeing ourselves of recency bias,...

Almost!

You’re just a few clicks away from accessing this feature and hundreds more throughout the year that have a singular goal in mind: Winning your league. Subscribe to BaseballHQ.com here!

Already a subscriber? Sign in here

More From Speculator

We continue the rookie class check-in outside the Top 25 in this year's HQ100.
Jul 29 2026 3:09am
We check in on the Top 25 preseason prospects who have made their MLB debut so far, and speculate on their outlooks moving forward.
Jul 22 2026 3:06am
How much can we trust certain pitchers entering uncharted workload territory in the second half?
Jul 15 2026 3:07am
Aroldis Chapman is likely on the move, but instead of speculating on where he might go, we'll dive into potential fill-ins.
Jul 8 2026 3:07am
A retrospective look at first-half all-stars taken late in drafts, including CHW duo Miguel Vargas and Sam Antonacci.
Jul 1 2026 3:06am

Tools