Stepping briefly out of the DMB Historic Replay time machine, something different this way comes. (Apologies to Robt. Heinlein)As a proud card carrying member of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance, one of my duties is to cast votes for the post season awards. As per the BBA rules if you are a general baseball blog, rather than a blog that focuses on a particular team, you can vote on either AL or NL awards, so being an ardent Yankee fan since 1968, and having watched well over 100 Yankee games this season, I will obviously be voting on the AL awards, with an obvious Yankees bias. Hey, I had a dog named Murcer, I can’t help let the pinstriped bias bleed through.
MANAGER OF THE YEAR:
Leading contenders are Jim Leyland(Detroit), Ron Gardenhire(Minn), Mike Scioscia(LAA),Ron Washington,(Texas), Joe Girardi(NY). Don Wakamatsu(Seattle)
Honorable Mention: Jim Leyland’s Detroit Tigers had a nice season, 1st place from May to October. But when crunch time hit they couldn’t get it done.
Joe Girardi-(What????, Where’s the Yankee bias??) The Yankees have a lot of quality players and should have made the playoffs this year, as well as last year. I’ve watched Joe Girardi do some strange things this season(Like bringing in Damaso Marte in game 2 of the ALDS??) And the Yankees still managed to win 103 games. They probably could have won 108. So Girardi gets only honorable mention from this Yankee fan.
Mike Scioscia- Another great season for the Angels, and they’re taking care of business against the Red Sox. But the rally monkey and the thunder stix just aggravate me.
3rd Place: Don Wakamatsu- Did anybody expect Seattle to play so well before the start of the season. Maybe just Wakamatsu.
2nd Place: Ron Washington- Texas really had a good season. Nolan Ryan wants his pitchers capable of throwing 120 pitches per start, I hate the pitch count and the 6 inning pitcher. Next season they could make some noise.
1st Place and AL Manager of the Year- Ron Gardenhire The Twins went 17-4 down the stretch to finally catch the Tigers. That’s pretty impressive. The Twins are loaded with big name stars, Joe Mauer and……..well there’s????…….ahh????….Joe Mauer…..and……Oh yea…Justin Morneau. The Twins have Mauer and Morneau and a bunch of young talented ball players that have been coached how to play the game well, both offensively, and defensively. (Except for some mental hiccups in the 1st 2 games of the ALDS) They should contend for the next couple of seasons.
Congratulations Ron Gardenhire
AL Rookie Of The Year
Honorable Mention: Brett Gardner(NYY) .270-3-23 Showing some Yankee loyalty, but Gardner was a key member of the Yankees. He was disruptive on the base paths with 26 stolen bases and without a midseason injury he would have put up more numbers. He also played a very strong centerfield.
Nolan Reimold (Balt) .279-15-45 Good power leading all AL rookies with 15 home runs.
Rick Porcello(Det) 14-9, 3.96 Strong rookie season, and showed his stuff in the final game against the Twins.
3rd Place: Elvis Andrus(Tex) .267-6-40 A strong rookie season at the shortstop position. His 33 stolen bases were good for 6th and the best among all rookies.
2nd Place: Jeff Nieman(TB) 13-6 3.94 His 2 shutouts really impressed me, and were good for 3rd behind Greinke and Halladay.
1st Place: Andrew Bailey(Oak) 6-3, 1.84 26 saves The closer for any ML team is an incredibly tough role both physically and mentally and Bailey really shined in this role. I expect to see more from him in the future.
Cy Young and MVP votes will be cast next week.
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