Victoria Seals Baseball Blog: 2010 MLB Awards

As regular readers of our blog will know, we at the Victoria Seals Baseball Blog (VSBB) cast ballots for the Baseball Bloggers Alliance’s end-of-year Major League Baseball awards. These awards are similar to those given out by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA), although the Baseball Bloggers Alliance (BBA) has one additional category: The Goose Gossage Award for the top reliever in each league.

When voting started, I was interested in seeing how much difference there would be between the awards given out by the bloggers versus the traditional journalists. After compiling the results, I was taken aback by what I saw:

Award	BBWAA (Journalists)	BBA (Bloggers)
NL Manager of Year / Connie Mack Award	Bud Black, SD	Bud Black, SD
AL Manager of Year / Connie Mack Award	Ron Gardenhire, MIN	Ron Washington, TEX
NL Rookie of the Year / Willie Mays Award	Buster Posey, SF	Buster Posey, SF
AL Rookie of the Year / Willie Mays Award	Neftali Feliz, TEX	Neftali Feliz, TEX
NL Goose Gossage Award	N/A	Brian Wilson, SF
AL Goose Gossage Award	N/A	Rafael Soriano, TB
NL Cy Young Award / Walter Johnson Award	Roy Halladay, PHI	Roy Halladay, PHI
AL Cy Young Award / Walter Johnson Award	Felix Hernandex, SEA	Felix Hernandex, SEA
NL MVP / Stan Musial Award	Joey Votto, CIN	Joey Votto, CIN
AL MVP / Stan Musial Award	Josh Hamilton, TEX	Josh Hamilton, TEX

Surprisingly, there isn’t much difference between the awards handed out by the journalists and the bloggers. Of the eight awards in common between the two organizations, seven had identical winners. The only difference was in the AL Manager of the Year where the bloggers gave it to Ron Washington over Ron Gardenhire by a slim 74-67 vote, but the journalists gave it to Gardenhire over Washington by wide margin (108 to 81). Even in this category, I wouldn’t classify the difference as radical by any stretch.

I must admit that I was surprised to see the BBWAA award the AL Cy Young to Felix Hernandez, who only sported a 13-12 record thanks to the punch-less Seattle Mariners offense. Of course, Hernandez deserved the award buy compiling a league-leading 2.27 ERA in addition to a 1.06 WHIP and 232 strikeouts in 249 2/3 innings. But many times in baseball history, the baseball writers have given the Cy Young Award to a pitcher with an impressive won-loss record over a pitcher with better underlying statistics. The most recent example is from 2005, when the AL Cy Young went to Bartolo Colon (21-8, 3.48 ERA, 1.16 WHIP) and Johan Santana (16-7, 2.87 ERA, 0.97 WHIP) of the Twins finished third in voting.

Based on Hernandez’s win, I think it’s safe to declare that the BBWAA’s over-emphasis on wins is (thankfully) over. A major reason why this has happened is the turnover of BBWAA members in recent years. ESPN writers such as Rob Neyer, Keith Law, Jim Caple and Jayson Stark have been added as members and they are all well-versed in modern Sabermetrics. Nobody has to explain to them why pitching wins is an over-rated statistics.

In fact, many members of the mainstream media are finally getting on board the Sabermetric bandwagon. The Associated Press article announcing Hernandez’s win even mentioned the granddaddy of Sabermetric measures – Wins Above Replacement. It’s enough to make a geek break into tears of joy.

Of course, we shouldn’t get carried away praising the BBWAA for its recent modernization kick. Earlier today, the BBWAA rejected a motion by Jayson Stark to add an award honouring the best reliever in each league. The reason given? The award would always end up going to the reliever with the most saves! Although the Baseball Bloggers Alliance has inaugurated the Goose Gossage Award, the journalists couldn’t find it in their heart to add a new award to recognize the great work of hurlers such as Brian Wilson and Rafael Soriano. Keep trying Mr. Stark. We’re sure another BBWAA breakthrough can’t be far off.