2014 BBA Awards

As a member of the BBA I have the pleasure of voting for the BBA's postseason awards. Furthermore, as chapter president this year, I had the pleasure of collating the collective voice of Mariners BBA blogs. Here is the Seattle chapter's ballot for BBA postseason awards:

Connie Mack Award (Best Manager)

1. Buck Schowalter, Orioles
2. Lloyd McClendon, Mariners
3. Mike Scioscia, Angels

Willie Mays Award (Rookie of the Year)

1. Jose Abreu, White Sox
2. Masahiro Tanaka, Yankees
3. Dellin Betances, Yankees

Goose Gossage Award (Best reliever)

1. Dellin Betances, Yankees
2. Wade Davis, Royals
3. Sean Doolittle, Athletics

Walter Johnson Award (Best pitcher)

1. Felix Hernandez, Mariners
2. Cory Kluber, Indians
3. Chris Sale, White Sox
4. Jon Lester, Athletics
5. David Price, Tigers

Stan Musial Award (MVP)

1. Mike Trout, Angels
2. Felix Hernandez, Mariners
3. Cory Kluber, Indians
4. Jose Bautista, Blue Jays
5. Jose Abreu, White Sox
6. Jose Altuve, Astros
7. Robinson Cano, Mariners
8. Miguel Cabrera, Tigers
9. Michael Brantley, Indians
10. Adrian Beltre, Rangers

Have fun agreeing or, more likely, disagreeing!

2013 BBA Award Results

The totals are in and counting for this year's BBA Awards. I've summarized the AL picks below, with my selections in parentheses:

Connie Mack
John Farrell, Red Sox (Terry Francona, Indians)

Willie Mays
Wil Myers, Rays (Wil Myers, Rays)

Goose Gossage
Koji Uehara, Red Sox (Koji Uehara, Red Sox)

Walter Johnson
Max Scherzer, Tigers (Max Scherzer, Tigers)

Stan Musial
Mike Trout, Angels (Mike Trout, Angels)

We shall see who the BBWAA chooses for their awards. The BBA vote wasn't close for the Musial, but I expect the BBWAA to have a tougher time choosing between Trout and Cabrera.

2013 BBA Awards

It's that time of year again, to make my picks for the Baseball Bloggers Alliance awards. I only vote on the AL, since I am a Mariners blog. Without further ado, my picks:

Connie Mack Award (Manager of the Year)
Terry Francona, Indians - Cleveland's stunning run to a playoff berth in September made Francona a pretty easy choice. Cleveland spent some significant money in the offseason, signing both Nick Swisher and Michael Bourn, so I don't want to make it sound like Francona willed this team to some sort of miraculous new level. However, neither Swisher nor Bourn lit the world on fire. Most of Cleveland's improvement came from players within, perhaps most notably from Jason Kipnis taking a step forward and possibly becoming this generation's version of Chase Utley. The Indians somehow believed that they belonged with the likes of the Rangers, Orioles, and Yankees down the stretch when the wild card race got tight. They literally didn't lose when the wild card spots when wild card spots were up for grabs at the end of the season. Plus, by picking Francona, I have a vaguely good reason to link to a couple great videos and say go on down to Cleveland town!

Willie Mays Award (Rookie of the Year)
Wil Myers, OF, Rays - Frankly, peaking at the NL rookie class this year, there's an argument that the AL should donate this award to the NL so that they can have two recipients. It's remarkable how different the rookie classes are in both leagues. However, since I have to pick a rookie, I'll go with Myers. He was quite good, and would have run away with this award quickly if he had started the year in the majors. He turned out to be a key cog in the middle of the Rays order, and the Rays were were a playoff team this year too. David Lough of the Royals and Brad Miller of the Mariners might have been able to catch this award too with more playing time.

Goose Gossage Award (Reliever of the Year)
Koji Uehara, Red Sox - I was very tempted to go with Mariano Rivera, because he was good this year, but really I would have handed it to him more as a lifetime achievement award. I decided I would do that if there were no stand-out relievers. The problem is that Uehara's season is unlikely to be duplicated, like, ever. He retired 37 consecutive batters at one point this season, which is insane considering 27 in a row is a perfect game. Uehara was probably the beneficiary of several lucky bounces, but he combined that with some serious talent. It all added up to a magical season in relief, particularly once he took over as Boston's closer. Greg Holland also doesn't get enough credit for how good he is, and I gave some serious thought to handing him this award too.

Walter Johnson Award (Cy Young)
Max Scherzer, Tigers - It doesn't matter your favorite stat, Scherzer is the obvious choice in the AL this year. Wins? He got 21, the only 20-game winner this year. ERA? Sub-3.00. Strikeouts? Over 10 per 9 innings. Innings pitched? Over 210. WAR? Leads pitchers in that category too. Scherzer is in the top 5 of virtually every pitching category that could possibly matter, though perhaps there is an argument that he was somehow propelled by the rest of the Tigers staff. Anibal Sanchez and Justin Verlander also populate the leaderboard with him in all sorts of stats. Yu Darvish would have been a very serious contender for this award without his mid-season injury.

Stan Musial Award (MVP)
Mike Trout, OF Angels - Trout is a total package unlike any other in the AL. Both Miguel Cabrera and Chris Davis had phenomenal power seasons, but it's not like Trout doesn't bring power to the plate (with 27 dingers), and he brings just as much hitting ability and patience with way more speed, baserunning, and defense. He was worth 10.4 WAR according to FanGraphs, which is over 2.0 WAR ahead of anyone else in the AL. Kyle Seager was the only Mariners position player to rack up more than 2.0 WAR on the season, just to put into perspective just how big the gap is between Mike Trout and everyone else*. Mike Trout should be an easy, easy choice for the AL MVP race, but there's little doubt in my mind that the big home run totals from both Cabrera and Davis will steal some (most?) of the votes away.

*And also put into perspective how putrid the improved Mariners offense (and it was improved) still was.

Check the Baseball Bloggers Alliance website to see who wins these awards as votes get tallied up, and compare them with the BBWAA awards to find out how badly they mess up this year.

2012 Award Winners

I never got around to posting the Baseball Bloggers Alliance (BBA) postseason awards as they were announced. However, thanks to my negligence, the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) has also voted on their awards! So, below is a handy table comparing the two associations' choices for 2012:

	BBA	BBWAA
Connie Mack	AL: Bob Melvin	AL: Bob Melvin	Manager of
	NL: Davey Johnson	NL: Davey Johnson	the Year
Willie Mays	AL: Mike Trout	AL: Mike Trout	Rookie of
	NL: Bryce Harper	NL: Bryce Harper	the Year
Walter Johnson	AL: Justin Verlander	AL: David Price	Cy Young
	NL: R.A. Dickey	NL: R.A. Dickey
Stan Musial	AL: Mike Trout	AL: Miguel Cabrera	MVP
	NL: Buster Posey	NL: Buster Posey

The Baseball Bloggers Alliance also votes on the Goose Gossage award, given to each league's top reliever. This year Fernando Rodney was voted the AL winner, and Craig Kimbrel the NL winner. The Musings is a BBA member, and my ballot (AL only since I am a Mariners blog) can be found here.

The AL MVP debate has had more than enough words written about it at this point. I made my peace with the triple crown a few months ago, and won't write more, other than to note that the BBA picked Trout and the BBWAA picked Cabrera.

Back to warming my hands over the hot stove league...

2012 Awards

One of the great privileges that comes with Baseball Bloggers Alliance membership is the opportunity to vote on postseason awards. I am classified as a Mariners blog, so I vote only on American League awards. Results of BBA-wide voting will come out as October unfolds, and I will post the results as they come out. For now, you will have to settle with how I voted, along with my rationale:

2011 Awards

As a member of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance, I have the opportunity to vote on postseason awards. Since I am a Mariners blog, I only vote on American League awards. Here are my picks for each award, along with a little rationale behind them. I will post the final results of the voting when it comes out, and compare the BBA picks with the BBWAA. The BBA awards will be announced a full month earlier, so expect some reaction on them first:

Felix Second, Greinke First in Cy Young Voting

I am happy that Felix Hernandez finished second in the AL Cy Young voting for two reasons:

1. The price to re-sign Felix would be higher if he had won the Cy Young
2. Zack Greinke really, really deserved the award

Felix deserved it too, and it's true that in many years he would have won it with the way he performed in 2009. However, analyzing Zack Greinke's numbers is a study of how bad the Royals were. Here are some fun numbers for thought, all based on Greinke's 16-8 record:

• Greinke went only 12-8 once he gave up an earned run in 2009.
• The Royals went only 8-2 in starts which Greinke allowed no earned runs.
• Four of Greinke's eight losses were quality starts
• Five of Greinke's nine no decisions were quality starts
• Only seven of Grienke's starts were not quality starts. Of those seven, Greinke won two of those games. Those were both games where he went five innings and allowed no runs.
• Greinke gave up a total of two earned runs in his six complete games, and his record in those games was 5-1.
• Greinke had nine no decisions, despite going at least five innings in every start this past year.
• Greinke had two starts against the Angels this year. His combined line was 16 IP, 12 H, 2 Runs (only 1 earned), 2 BB, and 13 K. His record in those two games? 0-1.

Seriously, 2009 Zack Greinke is the epitome of no support. His offense never bailed him out in a rare subpar start, while he had many great starts go to waste. On a decent team, Greinke goes at least 20-4. Put it this way: Grienke was so good, even the BBWA could see it despite his 16-8 record. That takes something. This is a group that handed Bartolo Colon the Cy Young a few years ago because he had 20 wins, and basically nothing else.

So, congratulations to Zack Greinke. He deserved something for what had to be a frustrating season, made only more frustrating by how masterful his performances were.

Felix won't come cheap, but Cy Youngs are killer bargaining chips, fair or not. Barry Zito got his 7 years and $126 million largely on his reputation as a Cy Young award-winner. It's a chip that Hernandez usually would have after a season like 2009, but he does not. Bad break for him, good break for the Mariners.

The Baseball Writers Association of America Is Full of Tools

First of all, I have to congratulate Bartolo Colon on winning the AL Cy Young Award and having a great season. However, members of the Baseball Writers Association Of America (BBWAA) just proved they are a bunch of tools by voting him the Cy Young winner. There were two more deserving candidates, Johan Santana and Mariano Rivera. Take a look at these numbers:

			Colon			Santana			Rivera
W			21			16			7*
ERA			3.48			2.88			1.38
AVG			.254			.210			.177
OBP			.291			.250			.235
SLG			.407			.345			.230
K/9			6.35			9.25			9.19
K/BB			3.65			5.29			4.44

*It is incredible that Rivera had 7 wins considering he is a closer and converted 43 of 47 save chances.

Johan Santana and Mariano Rivera have better numbers than Colon in EVERY SINGLE CATEGORY except one: wins. I mean come on, wins? Wins? That's it? Offense has as much to do with a pitcher getting a victory as the pitcher's pitching does. Good pitchers generally win more games but there are much better numbers available for quantitative analysis. Another statistic as common as wins, ERA, indicates a pitcher's talent much better than wins (though if you want numbers that really quantify a pitcher's talent look at OBP, SLG, K/9, and K/BB). As good as Colon was, Johan Santana and Mariano Rivera were even better in 2005.

However, what bugs me even more is that 6 of the 28 members of the BBWAA didn't even list Mariano Rivera on their ballots. In other words, six "baseball experts" didn't think that Rivera was even one of the three best pitchers in the American League! What's even worse is that all of them probably left him off their ballots only because he is a relief pitcher. That would have been fine 20-25 years ago when bullpens were simply collections of want-to-be starters who weren't good enough to crack the rotation. Now bullpens are specialized and a premium closer, like Mariano Rivera, is just as skilled as a starter. In my opinion Mariano Rivera should have won the AL Cy Young not only because his numbers were jaw-dropping this year, but also because he has been the best closer in baseball for a decade and he is arguably the best closer of all-time. That is really hard for a Yankee hater like me to say, but it is the truth.

So, to those six pathetic excuses for experts that didn't even put Rivera on their ballot, I advise that you get out of your Model T Ford, throw away your pocket watch, and get with the times. Baseball has changed, so don't penalize closers just because they come out of the bullpen. As for the BBWAA members who did put Rivera on their ballot but gave Colon their first place vote, I'd like to ask what exactly made Colon better in their minds. And, if anyone voted Bartolo Colon first and didn't put Mariano Rivera on their ballot, I hope a monkey throws feces in their face. What a bunch of tools.