The folks at Baseball Prospectus are hosting the Internet Baseball Awards. The following is my ballot.
AL MVP
Name | Your Ranking |
Joe Mauer | 1 |
Derek Jeter | 2 |
Zack Greinke | 3 |
Felix Hernandez | 4 |
Roy Halladay | 5 |
Mark Teixeira | 6 |
Ben Zobrist | 7 |
Miguel Cabrera | 8 |
Adam Lind | 9 |
Evan Longoria | 10 |
You can argue about the down-ballot choices - arguably, Jason Bartlett, Justin Verlander, Kevin Youkilis or Kendry Morales could reasonably be in the top 10. But I'm strongly convinced that I got the top 2 correct, and pretty comfortable with the triumvirate of starting pitchers following. I wonder if Mauer will be able to sustain his power (and stay healthy).
AL Cy Young
Name | Your Ranking |
Zack Greinke | 1 |
Felix Hernandez | 2 |
Roy Halladay | 3 |
Justin Verlander | 4 |
CC Sabathia | 5 |
The notable omission is Jon Lester - it was a coin flip between him and Sabathia, but I gave Sabathia the nod because of a marginally tougher ballpark.
AL ROY
Name | Your Ranking |
Elvis Andrus | 1 |
Andrew Bailey | 2 |
Rick Porcello | 3 |
Jeff Niemann | 4 |
Gordon Beckham | 5 |
Nolan Reimold and Ricky Romero are the difficult omissions.
AL Manager of the Year
Name | Your Ranking |
Mike Scioscia | 1 |
Ron Washington | 2 |
NL MVP
Name | Your Ranking |
Albert Pujols | 1 |
Hanley Ramirez | 2 |
Chase Utley | 3 |
Tim Lincecum | 4 |
Prince Fielder | 5 |
Troy Tulowitzki | 6 |
Adam Wainwright | 7 |
Pablo Sandoval | 8 |
Chris Carpenter | 9 |
Ryan Braun | 10 |
The easiest award of the bunch, though it wasn't all that hard to select Mauer and Greinke for their respective awards.
NL Cy Young
Name | Your Ranking |
Tim Lincecum | 1 |
Adam Wainwright | 2 |
Chris Carpenter | 3 |
Javier Vazquez | 4 |
Dan Haren | 5 |
Conversely, this was the toughest of the "Big 4" awards. There's really not that much separating Lincecum from Wainwright and Carpenter, and the next tier of pitchers doesn't stop with Vazquez and Haren, but also includes Jair Jurrjens, Matt Cain, Josh Johnson and Ubaldo Jimenez. Alas, we're only allowed to slot the top 5. I gave Lincecum the edge because of his strikeouts, and because I think the defense behind him was inferior.
NL ROY
Name | Your Ranking |
Andrew McCutchen | 1 |
Tommy Hanson | 2 |
Randy Wells | 3 |
Chris Coghlan | 4 |
Garrett Jones | 5 |
Should it matter what you think that player might become when you're voting for ROY? If so, arguably Hanson should get the nod, and Matt Wieters deserves more mention in the AL. If you wanted to put J.A. Happ, Casey McGehee, or Seth Smith (I don't think Carlos Gonzalez was eligible, because of his time with the A's last year), I wouldn't fight you too much.
NL Manager of the Year
Name | Your Ranking |
Jim Tracy | 1 |
Tony La Russa | 2 |
Charlie Manuel | 3 |
Like the players, managerial performance in the playoffs doesn't change my vote.