Kimbrel And Valverde Win 2011 Goose Gossage Award
In earlier voting this postseason by the Baseball Bloggers Alliance, Atlanta Braves closer Craig Kimbrel won the Willie Mays Award for top rookie handily while the American League race for that award was much tighter. With the Goose Gossage Award, handed out to the best reliever, Kimbrel got to see how the other half lives, at least somewhat.
Kimbrel beat Milwaukee’s John Axford by 13 points in the votes submitted by the National League voters of the Alliance, accumulating 78 points and garnering 12 first place votes. Axford, on the other hand, received 65 points on the strength of seven first place selections. Kimbrel’s bullpen teammate Johnny Venters was a very distant third with nine total points.
The race in the American League was a little more anti-climatic as Detroit closer Jose Valverde gained 13 first place votes on his way to a league-leading 74 points total. Two New York Yankees followed him in the voting, with Mariano Rivera receiving four first place votes and 56 total points while David Robertson gained 39 points for third.
The complete voting results are as follows (first place votes in parenthesis):
American League
Jose Valverde, Detroit (13) 74
Mariano Rivera, New York (4) 56
David Robertson, New York (3) 39
Jonathan Papelbon, Boston (1) 21
Koji Uehara, Texas (1) 6
Alfredo Acevas, Boston (1) 5
Neftali Feliz, Texas 2
Greg Holland, Kansas City 2
Chris Perez, Cleveland 2
Brandon League, Seattle 1
Vinnie Pestano, Cleveland 1
National League
Craig Kimbrel, Atlanta (12) 78
John Axford, Milwaukee (7) 65
Johnny Venters, Atlanta (1) 9
Joel Hanrahan, Pittsburgh 8
J.J. Putz, Arizona 7
Sean Marshall, Chicago 6
Heath Bell, San Diego 3
Tyler Clippard, Washington 3
Sergio Romo, San Francisco 1
The Baseball Bloggers Alliance was formed in the fall of 2009 to encourage cooperation and collaboration between baseball bloggers of all major league teams as well as those that follow baseball more generally. As of this writing, the organization consists of 316 blogs spanning all 30 major league squads as well as general baseball writing.
The BBA is organized under a similar structure as the Baseball Writers of America, where blogs that follow the same team are combined into “chapters” and only two votes from the chapter on an award are counted. The blog chapters that are focused on general baseball were allowed two votes as well, which they could use both on the same league or split between the two leagues.
Chapters generally followed one of two methods when casting their ballot. Either representatives of the chapter were given the ballots for voting or a “group ballot” was posted, accounting for both of their votes.
Notably, though the Alliance’s awards came out well before their official counterparts, the BBA selections have matched those of the Baseball Writers of America in all but two instances in the past two years. This, of course, does not include the Goose Gossage Award that is exclusive to the BBA.
Ballots are posted on the respective blogs and for this award, were tabulated on a 5-3-1 point scale for first through third place. In the interest of transparency, links are given below for the ballots. Chapter affiliation is in parenthesis. Those chapters that decided on the group method are noted with an asterisk.
American League
Baltimore Sports and Life (Baltimore)
Baseball Is My Boyfriend (Texas)*
Baseball North (Toronto)
Boston Red Thoughts (Boston)*
Contract Year (Oakland)*
The Flagrant Fan (General)
Kings of Kauffman (Kansas City)*
Lady At The Bat (New York)
Misc. Baseball (History)
Motor City Bengals (Detroit)
North Dakota Twins Fan (Minnesota)
The Rays Rant (Tampa Bay)
Seattle Mariners Musings (Seattle)
Seedlings To Stars (Other)
Some Thoughts On Baseball (Toronto)
Tigers Amateur Analysis (Detroit)
The Tribe Daily (Cleveland)*
Twins On Twins (Minnesota)
National League
Appy Astros (Houston)
Blog Red Machine (Cincinnati)
Cincinnati Reds Blog (Cincinnati)
Dugger Sports (Philadelphia)
The Eddie Kranepool Society (New York)*
The Flagrant Fan (General)
Misc. Baseball (History)
On The Outside Corner (St. Louis)
Phils Baseball (Philadelphia)
Prose and Ivy (Chicago)*
Raise The Jolly Roger (Pittsburgh)
RJ’s Fro (San Diego)
Rockies Woman (Colorado)
22 Gigantes (San Francisco)
Victoria Seals Baseball Blog (Other)
Websoulsurfer (San Diego)
Where Have You Gone, Andy Van Slyke? (Pittsburgh)
Prior Winners
2010: Rafael Soriano, Tampa Bay; Brian Wilson, San Francisco
The official website of the BBA is located at baseballbloggersalliance.wordpress.com. The BBA can be found on Twitter by the handle @baseballblogs and by the hashmark #bbba.
For more information, contact Daniel Shoptaw at founder@baseballbloggersalliance.com.
Christopher Wenrich is a senior fantasy baseball contributor for BaseballDigest.com and can be reached at philliesmuse@yahoo.com. You can follow him on Twitter @DuggerSports.
Kimbrel And Hosmer Win 2011 Willie Mays Award
Craig Kimbrel of the Atlanta Braves easily won the Baseball Bloggers Alliance’s Willie Mays Award for top rookie in the National League. The American League award, though, was a much different story.
Kansas City first baseman Eric Hosmer and Tampa Bay pitcher Jeremy Hellickson both received 67 points in American League voting, creating the first tie for an award since the Alliance began handing out the honors in 2009. Hosmer received nine first place votes, while Hellickson garnered eight. Rounding out the top three in the AL was Mark Trumbo, the first baseman for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
In the National League, Kimbrel, who set a rookie record for saves as Atlanta’s closer, outpaced his teammate, first baseman Freddie Freeman, by thirty points. Kimbrel received 65 points, including 11 of 16 first place selections. Washington Nationals second baseman Danny Espinosa was a distant third.
The complete voting results are as follows (first place votes in parenthesis):
American League
Jeremy Hellickson, Tampa Bay (8) 67
Eric Hosmer, Kansas City (9) 67
Mark Trumbo, Los Angeles of Anaheim (3) 27
Michael Pineda, Seattle (3) 23
Desmond Jennings, Tampa Bay 7
Ivan Nova, New York 7
Brett Lawrie, Toronto (1) 5
Dustin Ackley, Seattle 4
Zach Britton, Baltimore 3
Alexi Ogando, Texas 3
Jordan Walden, Los Angeles of Anaheim 2
Chris Sale, Chicago 1
National League
Craig Kimbrel, Atlanta (11) 65
Freddie Freeman, Atlanta (3) 35
Danny Espinosa, Washington (1) 17
Vance Worley, Philadelphia (1) 10
Wilson Ramos, Washington 5
Darwin Barney, Chicago 1
Brandon Beachy, Atlanta 1
Dillon Gee, New York 1
The Baseball Bloggers Alliance was formed in the fall of 2009 to encourage cooperation and collaboration between baseball bloggers of all major league teams as well as those that follow baseball more generally. As of this writing, the organization consists of 316 blogs spanning all 30 major league squads as well as general baseball writing.
The BBA is organized under a similar structure as the Baseball Writers of America, where blogs that follow the same team are combined into “chapters” and only two votes from the chapter on an award are counted. The blog chapters that are focused on general baseball were allowed two votes as well, which they could use both on the same league or split between the two leagues.
Chapters generally followed one of two methods when casting their ballot. Either representatives of the chapter were given the ballots for voting or a “group ballot” was posted, accounting for both of their votes.
Notably, though the Alliance’s awards come out well before their official counterparts, the BBA selections have matched those of the Baseball Writers of America in all but two instances in the past two years. This, of course, does not include the Goose Gossage Award that is exclusive to the BBA.
Ballots are posted on the respective blogs and for this award, were tabulated on a 5-3-1 point scale for first through third place. In the interest of transparency, links are given below for the ballots. Chapter affiliation is in parenthesis. Those chapters that decided on the group method are noted with an asterisk.
American League
Baltimore Sports and Life (Baltimore)
Baseball Is My Boyfriend (Texas)*
The Blue Jay Hunter (Toronto)
Boston Red Thoughts (Boston)*
Camden Crazies (Baltimore)
Contract Year (Oakland)*
Detroit Tigers Scorecard Blog (Detroit)
The Flagrant Fan (General)
Infield Fly (Toronto)
Kings of Kauffman (Kansas City)*
Lady At The Bat (New York)
Misc. Baseball (History)
North Dakota Twins Fan (Minnesota)
Old English D (Detroit)
The Rays Rant (Tampa Bay)
Seattle Mariners Musings (Seattle)
The Tribe Daily (Cleveland)*
Twins Trivia (Minnesota)
Victoria Seals Baseball Blog (Other)
National League
Appy Astros (Houston)
Bernie’s Crew (Milwaukee)*
Blog Red Machine (Cincinnati)
Cincinnati Reds Blog (Cincinnati)
Dugger Sports (Philadelphia)
The Eddie Kranepool Society (New York)*
The Flagrant Fan (General)
Misc. Baseball (History)
RetroSimba (St. Louis)
Rockies Woman (Colorado)
Victoria Seals Baseball Blog (Other)
Where Have You Gone, Andy Van Slyke? (Pittsburgh)*
Prior Winners
2010: Neftali Feliz, Texas; Buster Posey, San Francisco
2009: Andrew Bailey, Oakland; Andrew McCutchen, Pittsburgh
The official website of the BBA is located at baseballbloggersalliance.wordpress.com.
The BBA can be found on Twitter by the handle @baseballblogs and by the hashmark #bbba. For more information, contact Daniel Shoptaw at founder@baseballbloggersalliance.com.
My 2011 BBA All-Stars
As a member of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance (BBA), I participate each year in several voting sessions during the course of a baseball season. It is now time to unveil my BBA votes for the 2011 MLB All-Star Game.
National League
C: Brian McCann
1B: Joey Votto
2B: Brandon Phillips
3B: Placido Polanco
SS: Jose Reyes
OF: Matt Kemp
OF: Ryan Braun
OF: Matt Holliday
SP: Roy Halladay
NL Rationale: McCann seemed to be an easy choice to me, as he has the best offensive statistics among NL catchers at this time. First base was somewhat a tough decision as I contemplated between Votto and Gaby Sanchez. Both have similar numbers; however, Votto got my vote because he is heating up again while Sanchez has cooled off lately; furthermore, Votto’s .407 OBP is superior to Sanchez’s .376 OBP.
I reluctantly voted for Polanco at third base because he is in a major slump at this time. He has good numbers with a .289 AVG and 39 RBIs; however, his hitting is not as hot as it once was. Polanco hit .398 in April, .248 in May and is currently hitting .207 in June. Nevertheless, he is one of the best contact hitters in baseball when his game is on. He is also an excellent defensive player. No NL third baseman really has mind-blowing numbers this season, so Polanco gets lucky and gets my vote.
Jose Reyes was an easy choice at shortstop. Despite the New York Mets not being contenders in the NL East, I believe Reyes deserves to be mentioned as a possible NL MVP candidate this season. At this time, Reyes is hitting .341 with 61 runs and 28 stolen bases.
Matt Kemp and Ryan Braun were obvious choices for me in the outfield. The difficulty was selecting a third NL outfielder. I originally wanted to cast my vote for Lance Berkman; however, Berkman’s hitting has cooled off recently. His fellow St. Louis Cardinals teammate Matt Holliday has been a much more consistent hitter this season and is the focal point of the Cardinals’ offense while Pujols is on the DL. Despite an earlier trip to the DL, Holliday has a .330 AVG with nine home runs and 39 RBIs.
Roy Halladay gets my vote for the starting pitcher job. In the past few weeks, I felt the NL pitcher spot was a two-man race between Halladay and Hamels. After their most recent outings, Halladay edges Hamels in virtually every stat and is the NL leader in strikeouts; Halladay also has five complete games on the season.
American League
C: Victor Martinez
1B: Adrian Gonzalez
2B: Robinson Cano
3B: Alex Rodriguez
SS: Jhonny Peralta
OF: Jacoby Ellsbury
OF: Jose Bautista
OF: Curtis Granderson
DH: David Ortiz
SP: Justin Verlander
AL Rationale: although Victor Martinez splits time between catching and serving as the designated hitter, Martinez gets my vote for the catcher spot in the AL. Martinez currently has a .333 AVG, six home runs and 44 RBIs. No other AL catcher can match him in production at this time.
Adrian Gonzalez was THE most obvious choice for any all-star position on either team this season. Gonzalez is having a monstrous season and should be a unanimous choice for the AL MVP if the season were over today. Gonzalez currently has a .361 AVG with 16 home runs and 71 RBIs. Just as many expected when he was traded to the Red Sox, Gonzalez is putting up video game-like statistics in hitter-friendly Fenway Park. Should Gonzalez remain hot, there is a very real possibility of him winning the triple crown (a feat last accomplished by Carl Yastrzemski in 1967).
Robinson Cano and Alex Rodriguez were obvious choices for me at second and third base. Cano has no competition in the AL at the position. Although Adrian Beltre put up similar numbers to Rodriguez, Rodriguez has the higher AVG and gets my vote.
Shortstop is where it gets interesting: I originally planned to vote for Asdrubal Cabrera of the Cleveland Indians; however, Detroit Tigers shortstop Jhonny Peralta got my vote. Peralta has a higher AVG and his power numbers are similar to Cabrera, despite having many fewer at-bats than Cabrera.
Jose Bautista was an easy selection for the AL outfield. With the exception of Adrian Gonzalez, Bautista has been the best hitter in baseball this season. The Blue Jays left fielder is currently hitting .325 with 23 home runs and 48 RBIs.
Curtis Granderson and Jacoby Ellsbury also get my votes for the outfield. Offensively, Granderson has been the complete package for the Yankees this season. Granderson is currently hitting .276 with 21 home runs, 55 RBIs, 68 runs and 12 stolen bases. Ellsbury is hitting .303 with nine home runs, 39 RBIs and 25 stolen bases.
David Ortiz was an easy selection for the designated hitter slot in the AL for two reasons: (1) I took Victor Martinez out of consideration for it by voting him to be the catcher and (2) Ortiz has the numbers to back up the vote. Ortiz is curently hitting .311 with 17 home runs and 48 RBIs. He also has 20 doubles, a .391 OBP and .972 OPS. Ortiz may hit .300 or higher for the first time since the 2007 season. Ortiz is turning back the clock and hitting once again like an AL MVP candidate; unfortunately for Ortiz, an MVP will be impossible to win this season if teammate Adrian Gonzalez keeps hitting in Ruthian fashion.
Selecting a starting pitcher for the AL was no easy task. I juggled between Justin Verlander (10 W, 2.38 ERA, 0.84 WHIP), James Shields (8 W, 2.29 ERA, 0.96 WHIP) and Josh Beckett (6 W, 1.86 ERA, 0.92 WHIP). Although all three pitchers have superb numbers, Beckett’s downfall is that he had not pitched nearly as many innings as Shields or Verlander.
In the end, Verlander got my vote because he not only tossed a no-hitter (the second of his career), but flirted with a no-hitter several times this season. Furthermore, his 0.84 WHIP is superior to Shields’ 0.92 WHIP. Simply put, Verlander has been more dominating than any other AL pitcher this year.
Christopher Wenrich is a senior fantasy baseball contributor for BaseballDigest.com and can be reached at philliesmuse@yahoo.com. You can follow him on Twitter @DuggerSports.
