2011 Willie Mays Award Ballot

[Note: Dave and I are members of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance, and along with Michael Jong of Marlin Maniac we comprise the Florida/Miami chapter of the BBA. As BBA members, we have been asked to vote for the BBA's end-of-year awards through our blog. This is our ballot for the NL Willie Mays Award, given to the best rookie.]

1. Craig Kimbrel, RP, Braves
2. Vance Woorley, SP, Phillies
3. Lucas Duda, 1B/OF, Mets

Yikes, a trio of players from our NL East rivals. Deciphering the rookie crop was a bit difficult. In fact some of the other candidates were from the Nationals. It seems all the decent rookies were in our division.

Craig Kimbrel gets our first place vote in a landslide. Blown save in game 162 aside, he was dominant. He finished the year with 46 saves and an absurd strikeout rate of nearly 15 per 9 innings. He was nearly unhittable (.176 BAA) and posted a nifty 1.52 FIP. Just an absolute beast. Except perhaps he was overworked and couldn't come through when Atlanta needed him most. For shame.

Vance Woorley finished 11-3 with a very nice 3.01 ERA in 25 games (21 starts). His slightly higher FIP suggest he was perhaps a bit lucky, but will forgive him for giving up 10 long balls considering he plays in Philly's bandbox. A nice season from the rook, and more than okay for the Phillies fifth starter.

Lucas Duda was a bright spot for the Mets and didn't play like his last name suggests. He was way down the leaderboard in WAR, but mainly because of his fielding. We give him the third place vote for his work at the plate, namely a .368 wOBA. He played 100 games and hit 10 homers with 50 RBI. With a pretty good BB/K ratio he looks like a mainstay in their lineup.