So, here we are. After two articles that ended up being much longer than I anticipated we are finally at the end. It’s time to me to defend my choices and explain why I voted for the five candidates that I did for the Baseball Blogger’s Alliance virtual Hall of Fame.
In the first blog in this series, I talked about my voting criteria and the players who belonged in the …

The Baseball Writers of America Monday announced their Rookies of the Year.  In some regards, it seemed to solidify the difference between the old guard and the new guard represented by the Baseball Bloggers Alliance.
I am not one of those that condemns the BBWAA as a hide-bound organization that has a membership made up of their heads in the sand.  I know the BBWAA is a quality organization and has …

It isn’t the managers’ fault. In order to make a truly informed decisions regarding the defensive awards, one would need to watch many, many games. And one would have to watch every team with equal interest and enthusiasm. Even then, one would still have to rely on a wide variety of statistical metrics to clarify and support one’s observations. And, at the end of hundreds of hours of game tape …

ITM’s three writers scrambled this evening to meet the AL MVP voting deadline.  We still have differences in the exact order of the top ten, but the list below represents a little bit of compromised on all sides.  Perhaps the biggest difficulty was keeping Jason Bay off the list, and listing two Yankees ahead of Youk…..our attempt at “fair and balanced”.
1. Joe Mauer
2. Mark Texeira
3. Kendry Morales
4. Miggy Cabrera
5. Derek Jeter
6. …

I had hoped to spend more time on this, but that didn’t happen. So all I have is a list, with a few notes.
1. Joe Mauer, Twins
2. Ben Zobrist, Rays
3. Zack Greinke, Royals
4. Mark Teixeira, Yankees
5. Kevin Youkilis, Red Sox
6. Miguel Cabrera, Tigers
…

You guys saw Part 1, right? If you didn’t, here’s a recap:
10. Chris Carpenter, RHP, St. Louis Cardinals (6.08 WAR)
9. Prince Fielder, 1B, Milwaukee Brewers (5.93 WAR)
8. Dan Haren, RHP, Arizona Diamondbacks (6.25 WAR)
7. Javier Vazquez, RHP, Atlanta Braves (6.34 WAR)
6. Adrian Gonzalez, 1B, San Diego Padres (6.34 WAR)
Now here’s the conclusion of my BBA ballot, rounding out #5 all the way to #1.

Congratulations to Zack Greinke of the Kansas City Royals and Tim Lincecum of the San Francisco Giants for winning the BBA’s award for the AL and NL Cy Young awards respectively. This is a great year to debunk the myth of the pitcher win-loss record, and I’m happy that our group’s voters saw that these two pitchers were simply amazing and deserved their awards.
As for the MVP award, this season …

As a member of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance in the general baseball category I have for your perusal, my votes for the American League MVP.
10. Jason Bay(BOST)- .261-36-119 (Some Red Sox love from a Yankee fan)
9. Aaron Hill(TOR)- .286-36-108
8. Ichiro(SEA)- .352-11-46 (Could be higher, but only 88 runs scored, with 225 hits and 26 stolen bases……How is that possible?)
7. Justin Morneau(MINN)- .274-30-100
6. Alex Rodriguez(NYY)- .286-30-100
5. Kendry Morales(LAA)- .306-34-108
4. Miguel Cabrera(DET)- .324-34-103
3. …

The Tribe Daily’s AL MVP ballot submission.

My duties as a member of the BBA include casting votes for all the major annual awards, and no award in all of sports is more major than the coveted title of MVP.
The BBA voting is set-up essentially like the “real” voting:

Votes are made for the top 10 candidates in a weighted vote (ie. first place votes get 10 pts, second place 9 pts, and so on).
MVP is awarded for …

I never knew.
MVP voting has always been interesting to me, nice to see who wins, interesting to see what the rationale for the voters was (if they share).  Beyond that, though, I’d never given it a lot of thought.
Then, this year, I am one of the official ballots (Mike over at Stan Musial’s Stance is the other) for the St. Louis chapter of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance.  Which means that …

The Baseball Bloggers Alliance, a group of 89 bloggers from across Major League Baseball, announced today that Kansas City Royals pitcher Zack Greinke and San Francisco hurler Tim Lincecum had won the Cy Young balloting among its members.
Greinke, who was unanimously selected across the nineteen blogs that voted for the American League winner, fashioned a dominating 2.16 ERA with 242 strikeouts while putting up 16 wins for a Royals squad …

The MVP is the one award I believe should take into account team success, as well as individual numbers. This isn’t to say that Ryan Braun and Adam Lind aren’t legitimate candidates just because they played on losing teams, merely that when they are compared to men with similar statistics on winning teams, they fall slightly behind.

I also believe that the MVP award should go to a position player. Not …

1. Zach Greinke, Royals
2.16 ERA – lowest in the AL since Pedro’s 1.74 in 2000
203 ERA+ – 32nd best season of all-time
2.42 FiP (Fielding Independent Pitching) – lowest in AL
1.073 WHIP – lowest in AL
Per 9 IP: 2nd fewest hits, 5th fewest BB, 1st fewest HR, 3rd most K
33 starts – 1 fewer than Felix/CC; 2 fewer than Verlander
5th in IP – 0.2 fewer than CC
6 complete games; 3 shutouts
In …

(Story re-posted from Stan Musial’s Stance)
One of the cool things that has happened to me over the four years of blogging is the chance to interact with other passionate fans of baseball. The Baseball Bloggers Alliance (BBA)  gives me the chance to interact with bloggers from across Major League Baseball, in addition to the knowledgeable Cardinal bloggers you’re used to me discussing.
The BBA is leveraging that knowledge to suggest winners of the …

(Originally posted at Marlin Maniac)
First off, congratulations to the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Andrew McCutchen and the Oakland Athletics’ Andrew Bailey for winning the BBA’s inaugural NL and AL Rookie of the Year awards respectively. I would not be surprised if it ended that way in real life either, though I think a certain Oakland A’s teammate (cough…Brett Anderson…cough) was more deserving.
Due to a lack of time on my part and a …

Originally posted at raisethejollyroger.com
Well…definitely no Pirate-fan bias to influence me on this one (it may or may not have in the ROY voting). This funky thing called the [CY Young Predictor by ESPN] narrows it down for me…and I’ll look closely at the numbers to decide who gets my vote. Wainwright and Carpenter are in the hunt, as is Lincecum (of course). After that, we have a bunch of closers …

The Cy Young Award ballot submission for the Tribe Daily, as well as an update on the Cleveland Indians managerial search.

Much to my surprise and glee, the BBA Rookie of the Year in the NL went to Andrew McCutchen. The BBA voters weren’t at all swayed by Chris Coghlan’s high batting average or the gaudy ERA of J.A. Happ, resoundingly supporting McCutchen, who garnered twelve of the twenty first-place votes and 65 total points. Tommy Hanson finished second with 50 points and Happ third with 27 points. Let’s hope the …

Thursday October 15, 2009
NL Rookie of the Year Award
As I spoke about earlier this week, the Baseball Bloggers Alliance is doing their own version of the BBWAA end of season awards.
We have chosen as a community of bloggers to vote using the same criteria as the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA). The BBWAA has two writers for each team vote on the awards. We want to give the fans …