Corey Kluber: BBA Walter Johnson Award Winner

Some decisions in life are easy, some are not. Brushing your teeth in the morning is an easy decision because rotted teeth are gross, and nobody likes rotted teeth. Therefore, you get up, every morning, squeeze some Crest onto a toothbrush and scrub scrub scrub. Showering is an easy decision. Nobody wants to smell you, not even you. See, easy decisions. There were a lot of decisions like this that we at Off Base Percentage encountered while filling out the ballots for the BBA Awards. There were also some not as easy decisions in our way. One of them being the Walter Johnson Award for the American League. This was not a get up and brush your teeth decision. This was a "Do I want steak or chicken tonight?" decision.

2013 BBA Award Ballot

“Recently I made a chair. When I was finished, I thought it was a good chair. I submitted it to the Indiana Fine Woodworking Association who felt it merited consideration for an award. It’s been a real whirlwind.” - Ron Swanson

I imagine this is how Mike Trout feels around award season. But then the BBWAA gives his award to Miguel Cabrera because the Tigers' back deck didn't collapse when it rained like the Angels' season did. See, in this metaphor baseball is woodworking or... Just go ask Ken Tremendous what point I was trying to make. He writes gooder words than me.

Around this time last year, I submitted my ballot for the BBA (Baseball Bloggers Alliance) and resisted the temptation to vote Mike Trout for every award including Homecoming Queen and best rapper since Biggie. Trout did take home the BBA's Stan Musial for best player and Willie Mays for best rookie. Of course, Miguel Cabrera and his Triple Crown trounced Trout in the BBWAA's voting despite the youngster's historic season. One year later, does Mike Trout face the same fate? You betcha.

AL Stan Musial (top player)
1. Mike Trout
Trout followed the greatest season ever by a 20-year-old with the greatest season ever by a 21-year-old. He improved his walk rate and decreased his strikeout rate and set a new record for the amount of times I just say "Mike Trout" to random people in a year by 250. I have the first recognized case of Trout Tourette. Anyway, Trout led baseball in fWAR again by more than two wins. This year he beat out Andrew McCutchen 10.4 to 8.2 and was the best player in baseball despite an underwhelming defensive season according to advanced metrics.
2. Miggy Cabrera
He's the best hitter in baseball when healthy. And the Tigers make the playoffs. And Topps still prints RBI numbers. So, all of the BBWAA's old school criteria is met. Hand that man another MVP.
3. Josh Donaldson
.301/.384/.499 with good defense and baserunning that did not resemble a sleepy puppy. That gets you a 7.7 fWAR and a top five MVP vote.
4. Chris Davis
5. Evan Longoria
6. Robinson Cano
7. Manny Machado
8. Max Scherzer
9. Felix Hernandez
10. Adrian Beltre

NL Stan Musial
1. Andrew McCutchen
Cutch was second to Trout in fWAR and has a similar skill set. Cutch also has the luxury of not having to get his dress shirts with a customized neck size. Shoulders. Shoulders is Mike Trout's neck size.
2. Yadier Molina
Molina missed time but he's probably being underrated by Wins Above Replacement for his defense. Points deducted for only finishing third in the Molina family pie eating contest. Bengie came in first and second.
3. Clayton Kershaw
4. Carlos Gomez
CarGo 2.0 now with less injuries!
5. Paul Goldschmidt
6. Matt Carpenter
7. Adam Wainwright
8. Joey Votto
9. Troy Tulowitzki
10. Matt Harvey

AL Walter Johnson
1. Max Scherzer
21 wins and a 2.74 FIP. He has something for everyone.
2. Felix Hernandez
3. Yu Darvish
4. Anibal Sanchez
5. Chris Sale

NL Walter Johnson
1. Clayton Kershaw
2. Adam Wainwright
3. Matt Harvey
4. Cliff Lee
5. Jose Fernandez

AL Willie Mays (top rookie)
1. Wil Myers
2. Jose Iglesias
3. Brad Miller

NL Willie Mays
1. Jose Fernandez
2. Yasiel Puig
3. Julio Teheran
3B. Shelby Miller
3C. Gerrit Cole
And that's without Hyun-Jin Ryu. The NL was loaded with rookies.

AL Connie Mack (top manager)
I more or less throw some names into a hat and pick three. Is this Jim Riggleman's year?!?!
1. Joe Maddon
I don't put his name in the hat because he's awesome.
2. John Farrell
3. Terry Francona

NL Connie Mack
1. Clint Hurdle
Hahaha. I really don't put much thought into these. Nor should I.
2. Mike Matheny?
3. Don Mattingly?

AL Goose Gossage (top reliever)
1. Koji Uehara
2. Greg Holland
3. Drew Smyly

NL Goose Gossage
1. Craig Kembrel
2. Kenley Jansen
3. Trevor Rosenthal

AL Awards Roundup

You know that moment when you feel like you've been kicked in the stomach? Nothing actually touches you, but all the air just escapes your body. Yeah, the MVP voting in the AL felt just like that. At least most of the voting went as it should in the Junior Circuit, well almost most.

NL Awards Roundup

The BBWAA finished up it's major award announcements this week, culminating with the MVP awards being handed out on Thursday. I'll rant about the American League later, for now, the National League.

How To Be Comeback Player of the Year

AL Comeback Player of the year. Joe Nathan? Nope. Kendrys Morales? Negative. Fernando Rodney won the MLB's voting and Adam Dunn took home the Sporting News' hardware. Of which, neither player actually had to "comeback" from, well, anything.

Let's start with Fernando Rodney who also won the Fireman of the Year award. Rodney was as lights out as you could possibly be this year. posting a 0.77 ERA and converting 48 of 48 save opportunities. This season was a far cry from the previous two seasons he spent in Anaheim, the last of which he was relegated to mop up duty. However, that is where it should end. Reliever of the Year. All he had to come back from after the last two years was just being bad at baseball, but he did have an amazing year, so I'll buy it.

Adam Dunn on the other hand, has absolutely no business winning the Sporting News' Comeback Player of the Year award. Dunn was terrible in his first season with the White Sox last year posting a .159/.292/.277 slash line. Somewhere, Mario Mendoza is laughing at you Adam. Adam Dunn's 2012 line, .204/.333/.468 with 41 HR and 96 RBI's. Damn you RBI's. Shiny counting stats win again. Apparently the voters failed to notice that the Big Donkey led the league in strikeouts with 222 (which is also his career high). For contrast, Kendrys Morlaes' slash line was .273/.320/.467. Oh yeah, and Morales had to come back from a career threatening leg injury, not that that matters or anything. 

At least the National League voters got it right with Buster Posey taking home both the MLB and Sporting News awards. After getting nuked at the plate last year, some didn't think he could come back as a catcher. Not only did he come back as a catcher, but he is also right in the thick of the MVP race in the NL. Well done Buster, well done. It's just too bad the two different players won in the AL who did not embody the idea of overcoming adversity to actually come back. 

My prediction for next year; Justin Smoak in the AL, because Jacoby Ellsbury set the "Coming back while still arbitration eligible" precedent. Xavier Nady in the NL, because someone has to actually deserve it.

2012 BBA Award Ballot

It's time once again for the BBA (Baseball Bloggers Alliance) award balloting. The baseball award season is great because arguing about stuff is fun. The awards themselves aren't as important as we make them appear with the never ending coverage. Sure, a few MVPs will look good on your Hall of Fame resume or a CY Young will get you that bonus to restock the jet ski fleet at your other beach house.

But the voting matters more now than ever due to the Twitter era. The awards have become about the newfangled stat nerds (or sabermetric friendly crowd) and the old school baseball, "hey kids, RBI are cool" gang getting together for a 140 character or less battle to the death. Or something like that.

In order to show how serious I take the BBA ballot, I will not vote Mike Trout for every award even if he deserves it.

AL Stan Musial (top player)
1. Mike Trout
In the past 20 years, only Mike Trout (10.7 rWAR in 2012) and Barry Bonds (11.6 in 2001 and 2002) have had a 10.5 or higher Baseball-Reference Wins Above Replacement. Trout also broke records left and right for being too good too young.
2. Miguel Cabrera
The Triple Crown will probably win Miggy the MVP. You win this round, RBI.
3. Robinson Cano
4.Adrian Beltre
I wonder if people will notice him when he gets into the Hall of Fame.
5. Justin Verlander
6. Joe Mauer
Led baseball in OBP.
7. Edwin Encarnancion
8. David Price
9. Josh Hamilton
10. Austin Jackson

NL Stan Musial
1. Buster Posey
2. Ryan Braun
Had a better 7.9 fWAR in 2012 than his 7.6 fWAR in 2011.
3. Andrew McCuthcen
The Pirates blew his chance to win but McCutchen is a monster.
4. Chase Headley
He's a Padre.
5. Yadier Molina
I have no problem with Molina finishing higher. The youngest Molina is clearly the best Molina and Christmas is now a little awkward.
6. David Wright
The Mets are four games away from being mathematically eliminated in 2013.
7. R.A. Dickey
Too many Mets.
8. Aramis Ramirez
9. Clayton Kershaw
10. Matt Holliday

AL Walter Johnson (top pitcher)
1. Justin Verlander
2. David Price
3. Jered Weaver
4. Felix Hernandez
5. Chris Sale
Or Yu Darvish.

NL Walter Johnson
1. R.A. Dickey
The most fascinating pitcher in baseball. Brought sexy back to the knuckleball.
2. Clayton Kershaw
3. Gio Gonzalez
4. Cliff Lee
He's so good and went 6-9. Pitcher wins are silly.
5. Johnny Cueto

AL Willie Mays (top rookie)
1. Mike Trout
The BBA should change the name of this award. This should be..what's more than unanimous?
2. Yu Darvish
3. Yoenis Cespedes

NL Willie Mays
1. Bryce Harper
Harper and Trout have ruined us for all future rookies. Both were better than advertised.
2. Wade Miley
3. Norichika Aoki

AL Goose Gossage (top reliever)
1. Fernando Rodney
Dogs and cats living together...mass hysteria.
2. Greg Holland
3. Darren O'Day

NL Goose Gossage
1. Craig Kimbrel
2. Aroldis Chapman
3.Kenley Jansen

AL Connie Mack (top manager)
I still don't really understand how to measure this one. It's easier to pick out a manger who is bad at his job than find one who is especially good at his.
1. Buck Showalter
2. Bob Melvin
3. Joe Maddon

NL Connie Mack
1. Davey Johnson
Jim Riggleman was so close!
2. Dusty Baker
3. Some other NL manager
3. Don Mattingly?

More to come on the end of season hardware after I'm wrong about everything. Everything except Mike Trout.

BBA AL Connie Mack Award Ballot 2011

After a full year of writing nonsense, the Baseball Blogger Alliance has yet to kick us out and still encourages us to vote on stuff. And not just things we know like "how awesome does that dog look wearing a hat." Which, of course, the answer is always "very." First up is the Connie Mack award for manager of the year.

1. Joe Maddon, Tampa Bay
I think Maddon is one of the smartest managers in baseball despite his time in Anaheim when Mike Scioscia would smack him with a ruler every time he read something about sabermetrics. Maddon has his share of goofs but, for the most part, he helps his team win games instead of blowing them. It doesn't hurt that he's backed by one of the smarter organizations in baseball. With a full year of Desmond Jennings and Matt Moore next season, Maddon might want to get comfortable in this spot.

2. Joe Girardi, New York
Resident Yankee enthusiast, Derwood, pitched Girardi for top manager. I'm sure he was making a reasonable argument but all I heard was a pencil scratching Derek Jeter into the leadoff spot.

3. Phillip Seymore Hoffman, Hollywood
20 wins in a row and he had to deal with Brad Pitt and the nerd from Superbad?

3. Jim Leyland, Detroit
Jose Valverde didn't blow a save all season long. That's just good bullpen management.

3. Terry Francona, Boston
I had Francona as my top manager last year. And sure, they didn't make the playoffs again and had an epic collapse but I still think he's a great manager. He won't be unemployed for very long unless John Lackey is his publicist. Francona taught Jacoby Ellsbury to hit 30 home runs. Prove me wrong. Despite the end of the season debacle, let's not forget they rebounded from a 0-53 start this year.

Celebrating The Baseball Bloggers Alliance

While Off Base was just born on May 30, 2010, we could not be prouder members of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance. And as soon as our esteemed founder Daniel Shoptaw declared December 10th BBA Day, we decided to honor his creation the only way we knew how. Pure nonsense. So I tracked down the MLB headquarters in New York...



And then I sent some of my minions to stage a protest until Major League Baseball recognizes the BBA as the literary force it is. My demands were one press credential to a game of my choosing, a link to the BBA on the MLB.com homepage, three hot dogs and one of those Baskin Robbins sundaes in an Angels helmet...



The results were less than satisfactory. For all of our trouble, we received a stern talking to and a coupon for 35% off of a Fudgie the Whale from Carvel.

Occasionally, I'll stray from the nonsense to write some actual baseball content around here. I couldn't be more grateful to Daniel for starting the BBA to create a haven for all of us baseball nerds to get together and share our opinions on our beloved pastime. I've been blogging about sports for several years now. I started Monkeys Throwing Darts years ago and it had some relative success thanks to the ridiculousness known as the Lingerie Football League. But baseball has always been my true passion and the BBA provides a fantastic support system.

In creating the BBA, Shoptaw has not only given baseball bloggers a venue to gain a greater audience but has created a structure similar to the BBWAA. The BBA was created in April of 2009 but didn't start gaining momentum until September of that year. It now boasts over 230 member blogs ranging from team specific sites to general baseball to fantasy and history.

The BBA votes on the same major awards that the BBWAA does even though Shoptaw was politely asked told to alter the names of said awards in order to not conflict with those of the BBWAA. Surprisingly, the BBA and BBWAA have only differed in the 2009 NL ROY and the 2010 AL MOY awards in the two years of the BBA's existence. A feat that I believe reflects the continuing influence of the blogosphere on the mainstream media. But I do have a pretty high opinion of ourselves.

The BBA also has a weekly radio show on Blog Talk Radio that I somehow fell backasswards into hosting one week. I have not been asked to return even though I felt my 43 minute House of Pain remix of Take Me Out To The Ballgame was groundbreaking.

There's even an App for that. An iPhone app for the BBA was recently released and it is pretty impressive. Julian from Splashing Pumpkins did an amazing job spearheading the project and you should definitely go get the app now. Don't forget to bookmark us! It also begs the question... Where's your app, BBWAA?

I'd love to go on and on about the BBA because we are a proud member and I believe it is still just in its infancy. This is how great institutions are built. Shoptaw has put together an impressive group of intelligent, passionate baseball writers and the future is bright for the BBA. But, if you'll excuse me, I have a BBA Hall of Fame ballot to fill out and these 14 open tabs of Fangraphs aren't going to read themselves.

Want more? Here's an interview with Daniel Shoptaw about the BBA.

Delmon Young's MVP Candidacy; A Timeline

While I think the BBWAA did an outstanding job in choosing the winners of this year's regular season awards, I can always find something to complain about. Today's object of my disfection is your 2010 10th place finisher in the AL MVP voting, Delmon Young. Once upon on time, Young was the first pick overall by the Tampa Bay Rays in 2003. Times were simpler back then. Old School made me pee a little in the movie theater, The O.C. was just getting started, Outkast's Hey Ya wasn't overplayed yet and it wasn't creepy that I was dating an 18-year-old.

But the times, they were a changin. In 2007, Young played all 162 games for the Rays and was basically a replacement level player. He hit 13 home runs and a .288/.316/.408 line while playing some pretty good right field but was terrifying in center. Meanwhile, Hollywood crapped out some triquels for us in Spider-Man 3, Shrek The Third and Rush Hour 3. The future looked bleak, my friends.

In fact, the Rays would ship off their former top prospect to Minnesota for Matt Garza before the 2008 season. While things picked up for Hollywood in 2008 (Dark Night, The Wrestler), Young was regressing at an alarming pace. Young hit 10 homers and respectable-ish .290/.336/.405 while wondering the Metrodome outfield like a drunken hobo searching for the cans of beer with a sip left in them. His 2008 -19.4 UZR was slightly better than my -26.5 URR (Ultimate Relationship Rating) after I was dumped by a girl for her ex-boyfriend who was recently released from prison. It was a rough year for us both.

2009 was even worse. I moved back to New Orleans, developed a drinking problem, engaged in a highly dysfunctional relationship and lost what seemed like seven hours of my life watching Avatar. Young only managed to make it to the field for 108 games. And that was the highlight of his season. He did pop 12 homers but barely broke a .300 OBP and continued to butcher left field like he was selling deli meat.

Which brings us to Young's top ten finish in AL MVP voting in 2010. In full disclosure, I think it's absurd that Young finished tenth and even received a fourth place vote. But Young did seem to turn the corner a little bit at the plate. Young cracked 21 homers and hit .298/.333/.493 good for his career high 2.1 WAR. That 2.1 WAR was good for 45th in the league, inline with Brandon Inge and Marco Scuturo. Thanks to the new stadium, Young did improve his fielding to a near blind-man level.

Young wasn't the most valuable outfielder on the Twins (that would be the underrated Denard Span) but every once in a while, you can fall back-asswards into appreciation despite some pretty average work. So if my timeline is matching up with Young's, you should expect to see my nonsensical ramblings in some form of mainstream media in the not too distant future. True story.

Josh Hamilton Pops The Schweppes

The voters from the BBWAA capped a shockingly good award season by handing the American League MVP to Josh Hamilton today. It appears the hard work of basement dwelling math nerds is finally wearing the mainstream media down. Hamilton was the best player in the AL and perhaps all of baseball despite missing the last month of the season.

Hamilton's feel good story has been well documented from being the first overall pick in 1999 to washing out of baseball in 2001 due to drug and alcohol addiction to his Phoenix-esque rise from the ashes in 2007. Hamilton was able to shake off his demons, except for a spring training wagon fall in 2009, to become one of the game's top players. Which brings us to his amazing 2010 season.

In a mere 133 games, Hamilton managed to out fWAR (Fangraphs Wins Above Replacement) all of baseball including NL MVP Joey Votto and the all around awesomeness of Albert Pujols. It helps, of course, that Hamilton played good defense in center and great defense in left field instead of manning first base. Hamilton hit 32 home runs and a .359/.411/.633 line while taking the Rangers to the AL West crown.

He collected 22 of the 28 first place votes leaving Miguel Cabrera and Robinson in a distant second and third respectively. I had Hamilton first and Cabrera second in my BBA ballot so I don't have much to complain about, at least in this post.

Congratulations, Josh. The next round of ginger ale is on me. Um, so if you have, like, a Pay-Pal, let me know and I can send you the $4.

Ryan Zimmerman Gets Chase Utley'd

The BBWAA released the outcome of the voting for the National League MVP earlier today and Joey Votto ran away with the award. Votto grabbed 31 of the 32 first place votes while Albert Pujols vultured the remaining top vote to prevent the sweep. Both hard slugging first basemen were deserving of the award so it's not worth dissecting how close the two really were despite the wide margin of victory. Besides, Rob Neyer already did that.

Instead, I'll use this space to complain about Ryan Zimmerman's 16th place finish. I may have written a few words in the past about the lack of MVP support that Chase Utley has received over his career. I mean, Utley has been the second best player in the NL since, roughly, 2005 but the highest he's ever finished in MVP voting is 7th. Hell, Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard have even won MVPs when Utley was a more worthy candidate. I could go on but there's some pretty ominous wording in this restraining order. (Can't resist; Utley finished with the 14th best fWAR and received zero MVP votes this season) Okay, on to Zimmerman and his Utley treatment.

I had Zimmerman third on my BBA ballot which might have been a tad high in retrospect but I wouldn't have had him lower than 5th-ish. How could I be so far off from the people who get paid to write about baseball? What do they know that I'm missing? Let's go to a little Twitter conversation with Fox Sports' own miniature baseball insider Ken Rosenthal.



First I'd like to take a moment to reflect on how polite I was. I was surprisingly calm for something I so vehemently disagree with. Contending team? That's it? Really? Strap on the nerd boots and let's go to the stats...

Ryan Zimmerman
142 G, 25 HR, .307 AVG, .388 OBP, .510 SLG, 13.9 UZR, 7.2 fWAR (Fangraph's WAR)

Scott Rolen
132 G, 20 HR, .285 AVG, .358 OBP, .497 SLG, 10.6 UZR, 5.0 fWAR

In Rosenthal's eyes, playing for a contending team negates the fact that Zimmerman was worth TWO more wins than Rolen. That is a significant gap even with the 10 extra games Zimmerman played. Rolen only finished two spots and eight points ahead of Zimmerman in the final tally but it still hurts my brain.

I might put more stock in WAR than I should but Fangraphs loved Zimmerman this season. His 7.2 WAR was only one tenth of a point behind Albert Pujols and two tenths behind Joey Votto. That would make him the third most valuable in the National League for the 2010 season. Yet, like Chase Utley before him, he was almost ignored in MVP voting. Why?

Much of Zimmerman's value is tied to his brilliant defense at third base. While there aren't any perfect metrics for defense, the nerds in basements have been making big strides in understanding defense and it's value. But, I guess it's still easier for the mainstream media to give votes to a terrible fielding first baseman who hits 31 home runs and strikes out over 150 times (Ryan Howard received a 2nd and 3rd place vote).

Still, 16th place is absurd. And so begins my crusade to get Ryan Zimmerman more MVP respect. Don't hold your breath, Ryan, it didn't help Chase any.

More fun with the NL MVP results
*Troy Tulowitzki finished 5th; five voters left him off of their ballots.
*Martin Prado finished 9th because why not.
*Brian Wilson finished well ahead of Adam Wainwright, Ubaldo Jimenez and Josh Johnson.
*Jimenez received one fourth place vote and that's it.
*Carlos Ruiz (Chooch!) finished ahead of Brian McCann.
*Buster Posey finished 11th including one third place vote. Not a bad year.

BBA Announces Hamilton, Votto Win Stan Musial Award

HAMILTON, VOTTO TAKE HOME STAN MUSIAL AWARD

The Baseball Bloggers Alliance concluded their award season today by naming the best player in each league for 2010. When all the votes were tallied, two men were comfortably ahead.

Texas outfielder Josh Hamilton, who hit 32 home runs and fashioned an OPS of 1.044 while leading the Rangers into the playoffs, won the award in the American League. Hamilton received sixteen first place votes and 261 points overall, which put him ahead of his nearest competitor, Detroit first baseman Miguel Cabrera, by roughly 70 points.

In the National League, helping Cincinnati to an unexpected divisional title paid off for first baseman Joey Votto. After a season where he cracked 37 home runs and posted a 1.024 OPS, Votto also received sixteen first-place votes toward his total of 252 points. He also denied St. Louis first baseman Albert Pujols the chance to win back-to-back BBA awards. Pujols was selected as MVP by the BBA in 2009, but placed second with 197 points in this year’s voting.

Winners of other Alliance awards also received votes in the Musial balloting. In the American League, Walter Johnson winner Felix Hernandez received 21 points, while Goose Gossage selection Rafael Soriano had a single mention. On the senior circuit, Walter Johnson winner Roy Halladay placed fourth in the voting with 101 points.

The complete voting results are as follows (first place votes in parenthesis):

American League
Josh Hamilton, Texas (16) 261
Miguel Cabrera, Detroit (4) 188
Robinson Cano, New York 158
Jose Bautista, Toronto (1) 146
Adrian Beltre, Boston 107
Evan Longoria, Tampa Bay (1) 102
Paul Konerko, Chicago 65
Carl Crawford, Tampa Bay 56
Joe Mauer, Minnesota 50
Shin-Soo Choo, Cleveland 44
Felix Hernandez, Seattle 21
Vladimir Guerrero, Texas 13
Justin Morneau, Minnesota 12
Delmon Young, Minnesota 10
Cliff Lee, Seattle/Texas 8
CC Sabathia, New York 8
Alex Rodriguez, New York 7
Clay Buchholz, Boston 4
Mark Teixeria, New York 3
Jon Lester, Boston 2
Ichiro Suzuki, Seattle 2
Nick Swisher, New York 2
Jim Thome, Minnesota 2
Kevin Youkilis, Boston 2
Brett Gardner, New York 1
David Ortiz, Boston 1
Rafael Soriano, Tampa Bay 1

National League
Joey Votto, Cincinnati (16) 252
Albert Pujols, St. Louis (3) 197
Carlos Gonzalez, Colorado (1) 118
Roy Halladay, Philadelphia (1) 101
Adrian Gonzalez, San Diego 98
Troy Tulowitski, Colorado 98
Ryan Zimmerman, Washington 93
Matt Holliday, St. Louis 84
Aubrey Huff, San Francisco 32
Adam Wainwright, St. Louis 17
Ubaldo Jimenez, Colorado 16
Josh Johnson, Florida 16
Dan Uggla, Florida 16
Jayson Werth, Philadelphia 16
Ryan Braun, Milwaukee 13
Prince Fielder, Milwaukee 10
Ryan Howard, Philadelphia 9
Martin Prado, Atlanta 7
Jason Heyward, Atlanta 6
Rickie Weeks, Milwaukee 5
David Wright, New York 5
Adam Dunn, Washington 4
Kelly Johnson, Arizona 4
Andres Torres, 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 233 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.

Ballots are posted on the respective blogs and for this award, were tabulated on a 13-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 point scale for first through tenth 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
Camden Crazies (Baltimore)*
The Bottom Line (Boston)*
The Tribe Daily (Cleveland)*
Motor City Bengals (Detroit)
Switch Hitting Pitchers (Detroit)
One Royal Way (Kansas City)*
Twinkie Talk (Minnesota)
Seth Speaks (Minnesota)
Bronx Baseball Daily (New York)*
Contract Year (Oakland)
Rise of the Rays (Tampa Bay)
Infield Fly (Toronto)
The Blue Jay Hunter (Toronto)
Advanced Fantasy Baseball (Fantasy)*
Victoria Seals Baseball Blog (Other)*
Misc. Baseball (History)*
Blogging From The Bleachers (General)*

National League
Blog Red Machine (Cincinnati)
Marlin Maniac (Florida)
Marlins Diehards (Florida)
Feeling Dodger Blue (Los Angeles)
The Eddie Kranepool Society (New York)*
Dugger’s Corner (Philadelphia)
Where Have You Gone, Andy Van Slyke? (Pittsburgh)*
The Outfield Ivy (St. Louis)
Pitchers Hit Eighth (St. Louis)
Friar Forecast (San Diego)*
22gigantes (San Francisco)*
Advanced Fantasy Baseball (Fantasy)*
Victoria Seals Baseball Blog (Other)*
Misc. Baseball (History)*
Ron Kaplan’s Baseball Bookshelf (Miscellaneous)*
Blogging From The Bleachers (General)*


Prior Winners: 2009: Joe Mauer, Minnesota; Albert Pujols, St. Louis

The official website of the BBA is located at www.baseballbloggersalliance.com. The BBA can be found on Twitter by the handle @baseballblogs and by the hashmark #bbba. Members of the BBA may be heard at Blog Talk Radio every Tuesday night with their call-in show, BBA Baseball Talk, which may also be downloaded as a podcast from iTunes. For more information, contact Daniel Shoptaw at founder@baseballbloggersalliance.com.