Tuesday, November 22, 2011

BBWAA vs. BBA Awards - who chose better?

Now that all major awards have been handed out by the BBWAA (and the Baseball Blogger's Alliance (BBA) had already announced their awards ahead of time), it's time to compare and see how well they matched, and where they differed who had the better selection.  I previously posted the BBA selections, and links to the Boston Chapter's vote as well as my personal input into that vote on the awards tracker post.  Feel free to look through the links there for reasonings behind my picks.   Here, without further commentary, are the final results for each award.  For the most part, the Bloggers' awards match the real ones with a few slight differences.  I would be interested in readers' opinions of whether the BBA totally missed the boat, or if they replaced the BBWAA membership votes and gave it to a bunch of guys (and gals) blogging from their mom's basement, if the real awards would be more meaningful.   Please comment below and/or shoot me a line on twitter @rsn_alberta.


(*) indicates unanimous selection

MVP Award: (BBA - Stan Musial Player of the Year award)
American League
BBWAA:
1. Justin Verlander
2. Jacoby Ellsbury
3. Jose Bautista
4. Curtis Granderson
5. Miguel Cabrera
BBA:
1. Bautista
2. Ellsbury
3. Cabrera
4. Granderson
5. Verlander

National League
BBWAA:
1. Ryan Braun
2. Matt Kemp
3. Prince Fielder
4. Justin Upton
5. Albert Pujols
BBA 
1. Kemp (*)
2. Braun
3. Fielder
4. Upton
5. Pujols

American League
BBWAA:
1. Justin Verlander (*)
2. Jered Weaver
3. James Shields
4. CC Sabathia
5. Jose Valverde
BBA:
1. Verlander (*)
2. Weaver
3. Sabathia
4. Shields
5. Dan Haren

National League
BBWAA:
1. Clayton Kershaw
2. Roy Halladay
3. Cliff Lee
4. Ian Kennedy
5. Cole Hamels
BBA:
1. Kershaw
2. Halladay
3. Lee
4. Kennedy
5. Hamels

Rookie of The Year Award: (BBA - Willie Mays Award)
American League
BBWAA:
1. Jeremy Hellickson
2. Mark Trumbo
3. Eric Hosmer
4. Ivan Nova
5.Michael Pineda
BBA:
1. Hellickson
2. Hosmer
3. Trumbo
4. Pineda
5. Desmond Jennings

National League
BBWAA:
1. Craig Kimbrel (*)
2. Freddie Freeman
3. Vance Worley
4. Wilson Ramos
5. Josh Collmenter
BBA
1. Kimbrel
2. Freeman
3. Danny Espinosa
4. Worley
5. Ramos

Manager of The Year Award: (BBA - Connie Mack Award)
American League
BBWAA:
1. Joe Maddon
2. Jim Leyland
3. Ron Washington
BBA:
1. Maddon
2. Leyland
3. Washington

National League
BBWAA:
1. Kirk Gibson
2. Ron Roenicke
3. Tony LaRussa
BBA:
1. Gibson
2. Roenicke
3. LaRussa

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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousNovember 23, 2011 at 5:45 AM

    Ruben, I thunk it's clear that the BBA did a better job with these awards, but much of the credit should go to the founders for keeping the word "valuable" out of the award titles. Bloggers didn't have to make ridiculous adjustments to a player's "value" based on the performance of his teammates.

    The BBWAA, on the other hand, picked the second best hitter and pitcher (in my opinion) in the NL, and made a somewhat defensible choice for AL MVP. At least there were no Justin Morneaus this year (though Ryan Howard did get some fourth place votes and Mixhael Young showed up on a bunch if ballots).

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  2. Ruben LipszycNovember 23, 2011 at 12:14 PM

    Good point. I've been defending Verlander's selection as MVP on twitter lately, and thought I had picked him too. I was surprised when I looked back at my ballot and saw I had Bautista as the Stan Musial award winner, but that was precisely because that award is for "best player" and not MVP.

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