2011 Goose Gossage Award Ballot

[Note: Ted 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 Goose Gossage Award, given to the best relief pitcher.]

1. Craig Kimbrell, Braves
2. John Axford, Brewers
3. Joel Hanrahan, Pirates

We gave Kimbrell our vote for NL ROY, and he certainly deserves the nod in the Goose Gossage race as well. His 14.84 K/9 rate is outright otherworldly (among MLB pitchers with at least 60 IP, the next best K/9 was 13.50 - David Robertson of the Yankees). His 3.2 WAR far outpaces all other NL relievers as well. If you're more into the traditional reliever stats, we point to his league-leading 46 saves (tied with John Axford of Milwaukee).

But the save statistic is useless, so instead look at his FIP of 1.52 (which is basically ERA with defense and other factors out of the pitcher's control stripped out). He was tops in the NL, with only one reliever within 0.5 of him.

Axford tied Kimbrel with 46 saves and posted an excellent 10.51 K/9, but his 1.9 WAR and 2.41 FIP were well behind Kimbrel's. Hanrahan did not amass as many strikeouts as either (8.00 K/9), but his 2.0 WAR and 2.18 FIP were stellar. He may have been the beneficiary of some good luck, though, as his 0.13 HR/9 and .282 BABIP were two of the lowest among qualifying NL relievers.

Read more...

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.

Read more...

Our NL All-Star Selections

As a member of the Baseball Bloggers Association, we've been asked to make an all-star ballot to submit. Other blogs/chapters will be doing the same and soon the BBA will reveal their selections for the 2011 All-Star Game. Below is our National League ballot.

Catcher: Brian McCann, Atlanta. McCann has been an ironman behind the plate, racking up the most games played and plate appearances. And his production is leads the league too. He's hitting .300 with 13 home runs and sports a lofty 2.8 WAR

First Base: Prince Fielder, Milwaukee. The big vegetarian is at it again. Production in all aspects of hitting. He's tied for the NL lead in home runs with 21, hitting .306 with a .428 OBP

Second Base: Rickie Weeks, Milwaukee. We'll make it an all-Brewers right side of the infield. Rickie has 13 home runs and is slugging .505

Shortstop: Jose Reyes, New York. Pains us to do it, but Jose is having an incredible year and tied for the league lead with a 4.3 WAR. He's second in the league with 27 stolen bases.

Third Base: Chase Headley, San Diego. This was probably the toughest to call. Many good candidates but no true superstar. Chase gets the nod for having the second best batting average among third basemen (behind Greg Dobbs!) and leads in weighted runs created.

Outfield: Matt Kemp, Los Angeles. The lone bright spot for the Dodgers this year, Matt is also tied for the league in home runs and has hit .329 and stolen 21 bases.

Outfield: Matt Holiday, St. Louis. Holliday has missed some time this year but still has more than 50 games under his belt and his hitting .335 with 9 home runs. Amongst outfielders he is second in weighted runs created, trailing only Matt Kemp.

Outfield: Ryan Bruan, Milwaukee. Another Brewers power hitter for the lineup. Braun is doing it all again this year hitting over .300 with 15 home runs and 16 stolen bases.

Starting Pitcher, Roy Halladay, Philadelphia. Is there any other pitcher you'd want? Doc is a horse on the mound once again leading the league in innings pitched. He sports a 2.51 ERA and also leads the league in strikeouts.

Read more...

BBA Award Roundup

The BBA announced this year's crop of awards winners over the past few weeks (see my ballots here, here, here, and here). In most cases, Ted and I ended up voting with the crowd, so in this case I will praise the wisdom of crowds. Onto the NL winners...

Connie Mack Award

1. Bud Black, San Diego (9) 53
2. Dusty Baker, Cincinnati (7) 51
3. Bobby Cox, Atlanta (2) 33
4. Bruce Bochy, San Francisco (3) 29
5. Charlie Manuel, Philadelphia (1) 27
6. Brad Mills, Houston 3
7. Mike Quade, Chicago 2

We might have mentioned this one or two times, but we are not very enthusiastic about giving managers credit for anything. So we didn't vote in this one. Sue us.

Willie Mays Award

1. Buster Posey, San Francisco (15) 103
2. Jason Heyward, Atlanta (10) 86
3. Jaime Garcia, St. Louis 20
4. Starlin Castro, Chicago 7
5. Ike Davis, New York 7
6. Gaby Sanchez, Florida (1) 6
7. Tyler Colvin, Chicago 2
8. Mike Stanton, Florida 2
9. Neil Walker, Pittsburgh 2

I'm baffled that Gaby got a first place vote, but not so much that I'm willing to look up the culprit. We liked Heyward, but Posey was a fine choice. We weren't alone in our choice, though.

Goose Gossage Award

1. Brian Wilson, San Francisco (17) 104
2. Heath Bell, San Diego (2) 52
3. Carlos Marmol, Chicago (5) 41
4. Billy Wagner, Atlanta 19
5. Arthur Rhodes, Cincinnati (1) 5
6. Hong-Chih Kuo, Los Angeles 2
7. Matt Belisle, Colorado 1
8. Jonny Venters, Atlanta 1
   

Apparently, Ted and I were the only bloggers enamored with Venters, though plenty shared our appreciation of Certified Ninja Brian Wilson.

Walter Johnson Award

1. Roy Halladay, Philadelphia (19) 133
2. Adam Wainwright, St. Louis 66
3. Ubaldo Jimenez, Colorado 52
4. Josh Johnson, Florida 43
5. Tim Hudson, Atlanta 16
6. Tim Lincecum, San Francisco 7
7. Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles 2
8. Mat Latos, San Diego 2
9. Heath Bell, San Diego 1
10. Yovani Gallardo, Milwaukee 1

Halladay was the unanimous choice among the NL bloggers, and deservedly so. Our guy Josh Johnson pulled in a respectable fourth-place finish, not bad for a guy on a team no one watches, amirite?

Stan Musial Award

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

Our 1-2 choice of Votto-Pujols was popular, though we apparently undervalued Carlos Gonzalez. We didn't include pitchers on our ballot, because we're the kind of people who prefer to keep pitching and non-pitching awards separate.

The BBA also gave awards for the American League, but we don't have voting rights for AL awards, so we'll just link to the results here. At some point, we will post our Marlins awards. I promise...

Read more...

Stan Musial Award

One last BBA vote, this time for the Stan Musial Award, given to the best player in each league. As with our other ballots, we are only voting for the NL award. We are supposed to select ten nominees, which seems excessive to me, but I don't make the rules. On to the ballot.

1. Joey Votto, Cincinnati
2. Albert Pujols, St. Louis
3. Adrian Gonzalez, San Diego
4. Ryan Zimmerman, Washington
5. Jason Heyward, Atlanta
6. Matt Holliday, St. Louis
7. Kelly Johnson, Arizona
   
8. Dan Uggla, Florida
9. Troy Tulowitzki, Colorado
10. Rickie Weeks, Milwaukee

It was a tough choice between Votto and Pujols, but Votto's slight edge in WAR (via Fangraphs) gives him the edge. Votto was a bit luckier this year, with a .361 BABIP compared to Pujols' .297, but his defense was superior to Pujols (according to UZR/150, 2.2 for Votto versus 1.1 for Pujols). Apart from those two stats and Pujols' lower K/9, their numbers are practically identical (click to enlarge images):

Read more...

Walter Johnson Award

Happy Friday everyone. It is time for another postseason awards ballot as part of our duties to the BBA. Today's ballot is for the Walter Johnson Award, which if you couldn't tell is given to the best pitcher in each league.

Dave and I tried very hard to justify giving Josh Johnson a first place vote. The numbers (in many areas) gave us a solid case. Of course we know JJ did win the ERA title with a 2.30 mark. If you delve into the more advanced stats, courtesy of FanGraphs, there's even more of a case to be made. In the illustrious WAR category, JJ's 6.3 trailed only Roy Hallday (6.6). He also finished with a high BABIP of .308% and a FIP of 2.41 (lead the NL) which highlights the fact the defense behind him didn't do him any favors. Combine that with the weak run support and diabolical bullpen and he finished with just 11 wins.

But that's not the reason he didn't receive our first place vote. Ultimately it came down to the fact Josh Johnson only threw 183 2/3 innings, and Roy Halladay was able to put up very similar numbers while logging a massive 250 2/3 IP. This is the Walter Johnson Award after all, named after a player he threw 300+ innings in nine consecutive years (different era, I know). So Doc gets the nod. The full ballot:

1. Roy Halladay
2. Josh Johnson
3. Adam Wainwright
4. Tim Lincecum
5. Yovani Gallardo

UPDATE: Marlin Maniac's ballot

Read more...

Goose

Round 3 of the BBA postseason awards is upon us (we skipped Round 1 - manager of the year, because we are both lazy and indifferent toward managers). Today we vote for the Goose Gossage Award, given to the top relief pitcher. Needless to say, there will not be any Marlins anywhere near this award, lest they give up a game-tying home run to the trophy in a simulated scrimmage. Below is the ballot.

1. Brian Wilson, San Francisco
2. Heath Bell, San Diego
3. Jonny Venters, Atlanta

Wilson's numbers carried the day, as the righty posted 48 saves (if you're into that sort of thing) with a 2.7 WAR (second only to Carlos Marmol, who for the record notched just over 6 BB/9, disqualifying him for the Goose Gossage Award in our eyes). Bell's numbers were very close, but as with the Willie Mays Award, WAR breaks the tie. Finally, Venters is not a classic Goose Gossage candidate, since he is not a closer. But, his K/9 and FIP are only marginally worse than teammate Billy Wagner, whose absurdly low .265 BABIP suggests he had a very lucky year. Venters' 1.7 WAR is nothing to dismiss for a setup man, as well.

See also:
Michael Jong's ballot
Willie Mays ballot

Read more...

BBA Willie Mays Award

[Note: Ted 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.]

This year's NL rookies were a veritable bumper crop, with much hype heading into the season. All three of our vote-getters were heralded heading into Spring Training, and all three have so far lived up to expectations. Here's our ballot:

1. Jason Heyward, OF, Atlanta
2. Buster Posey, C, San Francisco
3. Mike Stanton, OF, Florida

If you were to go purely on WAR (which isn't an unreasonable move), Heyward wins in a landslide, with 5.0 WAR compared to Posey's 3.9 and Stanton's 2.7 (and Marlins fans clamoring for Gaby Sanchez, please note that his WAR came in at 2.4 despite playing in 51 more games than Stanton, who also out-OPSed Sanchez .833 to .789). Posey did equaled Heyward's 18 home runs in 180 fewer plate appearances, but Heyward had a way better OBP (mostly because he walked at over twice the rate of Posey). And believe me, Ted and I did not like having to choose between a Brave and a Seminole.

You can read Michael's ballot at Marlin Maniac.

Read more...