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My IBA Ballot

The folks at Baseball Prospectus are hosting the Internet Baseball Awards. The following is my ballot.

AL MVP

NameYour Ranking
Joe Mauer1
Derek Jeter2
Zack Greinke3
Felix Hernandez4
Roy Halladay5
Mark Teixeira6
Ben Zobrist7
Miguel Cabrera8
Adam Lind9
Evan Longoria10

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

NameYour Ranking
Zack Greinke1
Felix Hernandez2
Roy Halladay3
Justin Verlander4
CC Sabathia5

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

NameYour Ranking
Elvis Andrus1
Andrew Bailey2
Rick Porcello3
Jeff Niemann4
Gordon Beckham5

Nolan Reimold and Ricky Romero are the difficult omissions.

AL Manager of the Year

NameYour Ranking
Mike Scioscia1
Ron Washington2

NL MVP

NameYour Ranking
Albert Pujols1
Hanley Ramirez2
Chase Utley3
Tim Lincecum4
Prince Fielder5
Troy Tulowitzki6
Adam Wainwright7
Pablo Sandoval8
Chris Carpenter9
Ryan Braun10

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

NameYour Ranking
Tim Lincecum1
Adam Wainwright2
Chris Carpenter3
Javier Vazquez4
Dan Haren5

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

NameYour Ranking
Andrew McCutchen1
Tommy Hanson2
Randy Wells3
Chris Coghlan4
Garrett Jones5

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

NameYour Ranking
Jim Tracy1
Tony La Russa2
Charlie Manuel3

Like the players, managerial performance in the playoffs doesn't change my vote.