Wednesday, October 15, 2014

BBA General Chapter Official Ballot - Finis

Last week, the General Chapter of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance compiled its official ballot for the Willie Mays Award and Connie Mack Award that goes respectively to the best rookies in each league and the best managers. Today, the chapter finishes the job and selects a ballot for the Goose Gossage Award, the Walter Johnson Award and the Stan Musial Award that goes to the best relievers, best pitchers and the most valuable players respectively in each league. The ballot will then be added to others from around the alliance to come up with the winners of the BBA awards.
This is my third or fourth year compiling these as president of the General Chapter. Our chapter is thus named because our chapter writers cover the sport generally and not just one team or one area of expertise. It's a great group of writers and it has been my honor to read and feature these writers. This ballot will be my last official act as chapter president as I have stepped down. It is time for someone else with fresher ideas and more energy to take over.
All three of these award votes were interesting. Well, they were for the most part. The Stan Musial Award in the American League and the Walter Johnson Award in the National League were duh votes and there was no doubt of the outcome. The rest were like the Wild West with votes all over the place and some real close races.
So let's get to the ballot! The Goose Gossage Award portion of the ballot requires the top three places. The Walter Johnson Award requires five places and the Stan Musial requires ten. Let's start with the Goose Gossage Award:
American League:
  1. Wade Davis - 30 pts
  2. Dellin Betances - 29 pts
  3. Greg Holland - 19 pts
Others in order: Zach Britton (11), Sean Doolittle (8), Jake McGee (5), Andrew Miller (4), Fernando Rodney (3), Huston Street (2)
That was a very close race! Betances had one more first place vote but Davis was on more ballots.
National League:
  1. Craig Kimbrel  - 36 pts.
  2. Aroldis Chapman - 31 pts
  3. Kenley Jansen - 9 pts
Others in order: Tony Watson (8), Jonathan Papelbon (6), Mark Melancon (5), Drew Storen and Tyler Clippard (3), Trevor Rosenthal and Steve Cishek (2) and Hector Rondon (1).
The Walter Johnson Award
National League:
  1. Clayton Kershaw - 83 pts.
  2. Adam Wainwright - 53 pts.
  3. Johnny Cueto - 46 pts.
  4. Jordan Zimmermann - 24 pts.
  5. Stephen Strasburg - 12 pts.
Others in order: Madison Bumgarner (11), Cole Hamels (8), Jake Arrieta (7), Doug Fister (5), Zack Greinke (3).
Clayton Kershaw got a first place vote from every writer except one who voted him third.
American League
  1. Felix Hernandez - 81 pts
  2. Corey Kluber - 79 pts.
  3. Chris Sale - 42 pts
  4. Jon Lester - 21 pts.
  5. David Price - 14 pts.
Others in order: Phil Hughes (12), Max Scherzer (8), Dallas Keuchel (5), Garrett Richards (2), Sonny Gray (1).
Both King Felix and Kluber were on every ballot. Hernandez received more first place votes.
The Stan Musial Award
American League
  1. Mike Trout - 150 pts   Received every first place vote!
  2. Michael Brantley - 91 pts
  3. Jose Bautista - 90 pts
  4. Jose Abreu - 67 pts
  5. Victor Martinez - 66 pts
  6. Jose Altuve - 57 pts
  7. Robinson Cano - 38 pts
  8. Alex Gordon - 33 pts
  9. Miguel Cabrera - 29 pts
  10. Felix Hernandez - 23 pts
National League
  1. Andrew McCutchen - 156 pts
  2. Giancarlo Stanton - 132 pts
  3. Clayton Kershaw - 109 pts
  4. Jonathan Lucroy - 87 pts
  5. Anthony Rendon - 71 pts
  6. Buster Posey - 68 pts
  7. Yasiel Puig - 34 pts
  8. Anthony Rizzo, 29 pts
  9. Carlos Gomez - 29 pts
  10. Josh Harrison - 28 pts
Kershaw received six first place votes but was left off of five ballots.
The Baseball Bloggers Alliance will announce the winners of the Goose Gossage Award on October 20, the Walter Johnson Awards on October 22 and the Stan Musial Awards on October 24.
Much thanks to all of our writers who participated.

3 comments:

forged said...

The results were interesting to read through.

Is the fact that David Robertson not on any of the ballots for AL Relievers an indication that Yankees shouldn't do anything more than a Qualifying Offer?

William J. Tasker said...

A qualifying offer is the only move I would make concerning Robertson.

BaseballSisco said...

Guess mine was sent to your email too late. Sorry about that. I had Victor Martinez with a first place vote. Oh well.