| 13 October 2010
Back in September, The Baseball Bloggers Alliance (BBA) announced the renaming of their annual postseason awards to comply with the wishes of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA), thereby avoiding confusion between the two organizations. This allowed the BBA an opportunity to recognize some of the legendary greats of the game, naming their highest honors after them. Here are the new names for the awards and my votes for 2010.
Connie Mack Award (manager of the year)
Willie Mays Award (rookie of the year)
Goose Gossage Award (top reliever)
Walter Johnson Award (Cy Young)
Stan Musial Award (MVP)
Below are my votes, as well as the final votes from the Boston Chapter of the BBA. Leave your thoughts in the comments section!
Connie Mack Award
1 Terry Francona
2 Ron Washington
3 Joe Maddon
Tito tallied 12 votes to Washington's 6 here in Boston, but it will be interesting to see if the rest of the baseball bloggers appreciate what he was able to do with rookies and minor leaguers for most of the 2010 season. Washington deserves plenty of votes also for winning the West (and the ALDS) with Lee, Hamilton and a cast of no-names in the rotation. The Rangers could always hit, but
1 Neftali Feliz
2 Austin Jackson
3 Brennan Boesh
Feliz beat Jackson 15 to 10 among all voters. I can't disagree. Jackson was definitely impressive for Detriot, but it's hard to imagine that Texas actually started the year with Frank Francisco as the closer. Yes, the West is weak, but 40 saves as a rookie!? Feliz wins, hands down.
Goose Gossage Award
1 Rafael Soriano
2 Joakim Soria
3 Neftali Feliz
Soriano saved 27 games as a Brave in 2009, but no on expected him to become the AL best closer the following year. Soriano's 45 and Jaquin Benoit's 25 holds were a huge factor in Tampa Bay's AL East championship. That's why they rmain tied among the Boston Chapter for this award. Marioano Rivera and Sorioa were in the mix as well, which tells me my fellow voters didn't want to give Feliz two awards. Personally, I don't see how Soria didn't get more votes after logging 43 saves for a Royals team that won just 67 games...
Walter Johnson Award
1 C.C. Sabathia
2 Felix Hernandez
2 David Price
4 Jon Lester
5 Clay Buchholz
I have to be honest... I disagree with the vote I submitted. Wins play a major role in the CY Young voting, but I think there's too much emphasis placed on that category. Given a chance to cats my own vote, I managed to fall intop the same trap, and pu C.C. ahead of Felix.
Sabathia may have won 21 games, but wins are a team stat in my opinion. The fact that Hernandez was almost a point lower in ERA and lead the AL at 2.27 makes him a better pitcher. He won 13 games for one of the worst teams in baseball, lead the league in innings pitched (249.2) and innings per start (7.33), and threw 6 complete games. Oh, and he was one K shy of the league best at 232.
That's why the voters gave King Felix 24 votes, with David Price finishing second with 14 votes. Sabathia was 4th behind Buchholz, though I'm not sure I agree with that. If anything Lester should have been ahead fo Buchhy and C.C. with 19 wins and 225 Ks.
Stan Musial Award
1 Miguel Cabrera
2 Josh Hamilton
3 Jose Bautista
4 Robinson Cano
5 Adrain Beltre
6 Vladimir Guererro
7 Delmon Young
8 Alex Rodriguez
9 Joe Mauer
10 Jon Lester
Hamilton won the top spot among our voters with 45. Bautista came in second with 38 and I commend my fellow voters for giving him votes, despite the fact that he played for the 4th place Blue Jays. Bautista's 54 homers put him 15 dingers ahead of Paul Konerko (39) and his 124 RBI ranked him 3rd, just one behind Arod and two behind Cabrera.
Personally I think Cabrera was the most well-rounded offensive player this year with 38 HR (3rd), 126 RBI (1st), 111 runs (2nd) and a 3.28 BA (2nd). Hamilton finished with a .359 BA, but only logged 518 at-bats - similar to Joe Mauer (.327, 510) - and therefore, less production.
Lastly, I hate to say it but Robinson Cano was outstanding this year. He logged 200 hits (Cano and Ichio were the only two in MLB to do so) while Jeter regressed and Arod and Teixeira were all about the ding dongs.
Hamilton, Bautista, Cabrera (37), Beltre (31) and Cano (19) rounded out the top five in out vote and I don't dispute those results one bit. It will be fun to see if the rest of the BBA agrees, as well as the actual MLB MVP voters.
As always, thanks for reading. Leave your comments below.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
