SB Nation - Matt Wieters

Spotlight on Matt Wieters Facts

Stacey — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:00:16 -0000

Orioles fans know that there hasn't been much to get excited about regarding their team in sometime. Non-Orioles fans might have known that too if it came to their attention, but the O's have been largely forgotten by the baseball community over the past decade. Forgotten, that is, until they drafted a young man from Georgia Tech by the name of Matt Wieters. Before playing a day in professional baseball, Wieters was being dubbed "Mauer with Power" and projected to be one of the greatest catchers of all time. The hype was overwhelming and Matt Wieters was practically a legend when he stepped onto the field at Camden Yards on May 29th, 2009. What other rookie gets a standing ovation for fielding a bunt and has to step out of the batters box in his first career at-bat to acknowledge the screaming fans?

Making the most of this once in a lifetime hysteria, Daniel Moroz and Ian Oland created the Matt Wieters Facts website. You all know it. You all love it (unless you're birdman). Developed in the style of the Chuck Norris facts that make some people (including me) groan, the site took off. It gained attention from national media and, in my opinion, transcended its Chuck Norris-like beginnings thanks to the wit and brilliance of not only Ian and Daniel, but of the fans who contributed their own facts.

Two of my favorites:

Matt Wieters Can And Does Assume The Double Play.

Matt Wieters' At Bat Music Is A Moment Of Silence. For The Pitcher.

Daniel and Ian took some time to give us the juicy details on Matt Wieters Facts:

I mean, wow. This got pretty big, didn't it? How did it get started?

Daniel Moroz: I noticed that every time someone wrote a story about Wieters about whether or not to bring him up, they would always say something ridiculous about how good he's going to be, something really hyperbolic, and the comment sections often just devolved into these kinds of humorous comments. So I decided to gather all these together and put them on a blog for comedic reading. Well, people liked it and started linking to it and at one point, Baseball America interviewed Wieters, and they asked him if he had seen this site (he said he hadn't), which resulted in a lot of hits. I showed Ian, and he - being a talented graphic designer and noting the potential in the site - decided to redesign it to bring the appearance up on par with the content.

The site was really about the fans and their submissions though - giving them something to be excited about with regards to the Orioles. When it was announced that Wieters was being called up, things really exploded as we were being mentioned and linked to in every other story about him. I don't remember seeing that level of enthusiasm from the fan-base for quite a while. It was pretty awesome.

Ian Oland: When I first saw Matt Wieters Facts in its infant stages - which at that point was a collection of facts Daniel had put together in this hideous orange and black blogger template he did himself - I couldn't stop laughing. The facts were hilarious, and the site's design was pretty bad. Like bad, bad. Sorry Daniel!

When he told me that the site got a lot more hits than the Frost King Baseball Blog he used to write to pretty religiously, I kinda knew something was brewing out there and that the interest in Wieters was ungodly high. So it didn't really surprise me at all when Baseball America asked Wieters about the site. But I still definitely had that "OMG, this is really happening to my best friend right now" feeling and really wanted to help him make the site even more of a success.

I had seen Matt Wieters' first professional game in my hometown of Frederick a few years ago, and that game he hit two homeruns from both sides of the plate and just looked like a future superstar. So if anyone was worth hundreds of hours of my time, it was him. He had been gracious to sign an autograph for me in Frederick after that first game, and I really ended up following his career closely. He's such a humble guy; he definitely deserves all the attention.

So after I designed the site, got it functional, and made the Hall of Fame Postcard of him, I initially was shocked to see how many Forums linked to our site and commented so positively. It made me feel so good that I could contribute something to the Orioles fanbase that made everyone so happy. Because let's face it, it's been a long 15 years of despair. We all needed something to get excited about.

When the major websites - Big League Stew, Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, LA Times, etc - linked to our site, it really made me feel fortunate. And then when he debuted, and the radio stations talked about our facts, ESPN referenced the site on SportsCenter, and Keith Law contacted us, I think I was just overjoyed. It's been a great ride and it's given me a ton of confidence in my ability. And hopefully now, people visit Daniel's professional Orioles Blog "Camden Crazies" and really take him seriously as a blogger. He is extremely talented and people are lucky he spends his time on the Orioles. He's a gifted writer.

Have you ever been out and seen someone wearing a MWF shirt? Because that would be awesome.

Daniel Moroz: When we had MWF Day at the Yard we so a few people, but I've never been out and about and seen that. Small sample size though. We did get a picture sent over from Keith Law (of ESPN) with him in his "Sliced Bread" shirt. He's the one who came up with the "Sliced Bread Is Actually The Best Thing Since Matt Wieters" fact, and he actually contacted us about it when he realized we put it up on the site and made a shirt of it. He was very cool about it, and the image of him in the shirt holding a piece of bread is quite amusing. Personally speaking, talking to him (via email) was probably the most exciting part about all of this for me.

Ian Oland: The first time I saw somebody in one of our Matt Wieters Facts shirts was actually via a photograph from one of our biggest fans, Timmy Anderson. Way back when, we actually ran a contest where the first person who got the Hall Of Fame Postcard I designed signed by Matt Wieters with photographic evidence would win a free t-shirt. So he got me the photo and I sent him a free shirt. Awesome right? Well, a few weeks later, Timmy met Wieters again, but this time wearing the shirt I had sent him previously. So he sent that to me and I put it up on our Facebook Fan Page (please join!!) in the photos section. Later, when I went to "Matt Wieters Facts Day" at the yard with Daniel, i saw maybe 10 or 12 people wearing our shirts. I was taken aback. As an artist, there's no greater compliment.

Lately, we've also had other fans buying shirts and sending us photos in them via email (mattwietersfacts@yahoo.com). That's been awesome. If there's anyone else out there who has photos of themselves in one of our shirts, please email us it over!

What is your favorite Matt Wieters Fact?

Daniel Moroz: I'm partial to "Matt Wieters Sometimes Impatiently Homers From The On Deck Circle". I really like the addition of the adverb "impatiently" for some reason.

Ian Oland: My favorite - since I'm more of a vulgar, unrefined individual - is "Matt Wieters went to the US Virgin Islands on Vacation. They are now referred to as "The Islands."

Also another favorite is: "Matt Wieters picked himself to be the best man at his wedding. It was his only option." They are all great though. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the site over the last year!

Interview with Derek Carty from The Hardball Times-Part 3

raygu — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:00:20 -0000

Here is part 3 of the 4-part interview with Derek Carty from The Hardball Times:

Fake Teams: When evaluating hitters before a draft, I like to look at their previous year's stats and decide if the hitter can improve upon those stats or not. How do you evaluate hitters when preparing for a draft?

Derek Carty: My approach is a bit different and comprehensive, but here's the general gist of it. I look at a lot of different things for hitters. For power, I've created a statistic using HitTracker data which I call True Home Runs (or tHR). What this aims to do is take some of the luck out of home runs. You'll often hear people say something like "a home run is a home run", but that couldn't be further from the truth. A guy who pounds a 500-foot home run is much more likely to hit more home runs than a guy who squeaks one over a 320 foot fence, ceteris paribas. He's stronger, and if he can hit the long ones, he's only guaranteed to hit some short ones. tHR first neutralizes park and weather (obvious influencers ) and also accounts for the distance of home runs (not so obvious but very important influencer). The logic behind doing this might not be readily apparent, so you can read more in-depth explanations here and here (the articles are older and from the preliminary stages of development, but the logic is still relevant).

For batting average, I'll focus on the three things that it is comprised of: how often the batter puts the ball in play (strikeout rate), how often those balls clear the fence (home run rate), and how often the remaining balls in play fall for hits (BABIP). Strikeout rate is a very stable stat, so not much needs to be altered with it. For the HR component I'll use tHR and for BABIP I'll use xBABIP. This is not the xBABIP that some refer to, calculated as LD%+.120. I've found this to be worse than actual BABIP in predictive ability and should always be ignored for these purposes. Instead, I like using the xBABIP created by Chris Dutton and Peter Bendix, which I've found to be very predictive (relatively speaking). In fact, I'm actually working with Dutton now on further improving the formula. That work should be published later in the off-season.

As I mentioned earlier, I'm also currently working on a form of CAPS for hitters, which I suppose will be called CABS (Context Adjusted Batting Statistics), so that'll be thrown into my evaluations. Eventually, it'll all boil down to my projection system spitting out a projection for every hitter, which will encompass all of the concepts I've described above and a few more. For some hitters, I'll probably supplement these projections with my scouting perspective as with the pitchers.

More after the jump:

Fake Teams: I have won a few NL-only 5x5 leagues by drafting just middle relievers and closers and focusing on drafting hitters early. Other than your LABR draft strategy, what other draft strategies have you used, and how successful were they?

Derek Carty: I believe it's crucial to create your strategies based on the specifics of the league: the settings, the opponents, and what you know about your own tendencies within the context of these things. In some leagues, I'll refuse to draft closers until the end. In others, I'll take a pair of them early. In some, I'll embrace risky players. In others, I'll play it safe for the first half of the draft or longer. There are some general rules for these things (i.e. the shallower the league, the easier it is to take risks) but every league truly is different and must be evaluated individually.

As one example from this season, I played in an expert league run by KFFL with some heavy competition (partnered up with fellow-THT writer Eriq Gardner, though he replaced Victor Wang after the draft, who left THTF to do some work for MLB clubs). It was a 12-team mixed Yahoo! League. We focused on hitters early, taking mostly guys with good health records and stable skill sets with just one pitcher in the single-digit rounds, then grabbed several SPs in the early teens (including Javy Vazquez - in 12-team mixed leagues, I've found that there's a treasure trove of good pitchers to be had in this area). After that we went for some high-upside guys (like Matt Wieters and Nyjer Morgan) or undervalued guys (like Cody Ross and J.D. Drew), and eventually took a couple of closer candidates towards the end.

One smaller strategy we really looked to employ focused on deliberately getting a few injury risk players. I feel that the market does not value these players properly, leaving excess value ripe for the picking. I explained last year that if you combine the stats of a high-skill, injury-prone player with those of a replacement level player (when he's injured), you end up with a stat line well-worth the reduced cost of the so-called "injury risk" player. This is a strategy that will only work in shallower leagues like this one, though, because the static production of the replacement level players is much higher than it will be in deep leagues. In an AL/NL-only league, this would fail miserably because replacement level is someone like Juan Castro. In KFFL, we looked to use it with Chase Utley (whose status was unknown at draft time), Chipper Jones, Rich Harden, Matt Wieters, J.D. Drew, and a couple others. We were also very active on the waiver wire (over 200 transactions), keeping several rotating bench spots and streaming extra hitters on Mondays and Thursdays and elite relievers on the other days. We didn't start this until June, though, which likely cost us the league. We ultimately finished 3^rd, though it was very close and we were in 1^st just a few days before the end of the season.

Orioles considering oft-injured Ben Sheets, others?

Eli Greenspan — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 19:03:51 -0000

More photos » by Nam Y Huh - AP

Browse more photos »

MASN.com is reporting that the Orioles will consider adding a "high risk, high reward" pitcher like Ben Sheets. The Orioles have several young players that very well could make the Orioles a contender sooner than expected.

With Matt Wieters, Nick Markakis, Adam Jones, and veteran Brian Roberts, the Orioles are poised to put up better offensive numbers than they did last season, which should benefit pitchers Brian Matusz, Chris Tillman, and Brad Bergeson.

The Orioles still have Nolan Reimold and Felix Pie, who both went on impressive streaks during the season. Still, inconsistency is a big issue.

Before adding a pitcher like Ben Sheets, who may only be able to give you 5-6 innings per start, improving the bullpen is important to making the investment worthwhile. The Orioles were 28th in the league in bullpen ERA (4.83), and could use an experienced closer to hold leads or to keep games close.

Guys like LaTroy Hawkins, Kevin Gregg, Scott Eye, or Juan Rincon would improve the inefficiencies in the bullpen.

Thanksgiving in Birdland - 2009

Stacey — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 20:00:14 -0000

There are a lot of things to be thankful for in Birdland this year. More than any year in recent history, I'd say. After years of futility, years of floundering, the Orioles are almost respectable again. They're not there yet, but it's close. I can feel it. To get there the Orioles need to show marked improvement from the teams over the past decade and they also need to prove they can compete with the rest of the teams in the AL East. Will it ever happen? I'm certain part one will. Part two is currently a mystery. But the pieces are starting to come together.

This team is getting younger, and it's getting better. Chris Tillman (21). Brian Matusz (22). Brad Bergesen (23). Adam Jones (23). Matt Wieters (23). Felix Pie (24). Nick Markakis (25). Nolan Reimold (25). That's a hell of a core, and that doesn't even take into account the young guys still in the minors. There could be injuries, there could be busts, but that is potentially the nucleus of a championship team. There are a lot of pieces that need to be added to it, of course, but it's there.

The Orioles used to be the worst kind of bad team, because not only were they bad, they were old and expensive too. That is no longer the case. Melvin Mora and his $8M/year are gone. So is Jamie Walker ($4.5M). Danys Baez (>$7M), gone. Ditto Aubrey Huff ($8M). After reaching a payroll of over $93M in 2007 that resulted in a paltry 69 wins, the 2010 Orioles currently have obligated less than half of that.

It's easy to look at where the Orioles are now and who is ahead of them in the division and feel discouraged. But another viewpoint is this: the Orioles have a young team that's full of talent and they have money to spend. They have a GM in Andy MacPhail who has proven that he's capable of showing patience, making big trades, identifying potential high-reward players, and sticking to his plan. How he'll handle Free Agents signings (impact FAs, not players like Mark Hendrickson) remains to be seen, but MacPhail has done so many things right so far that there is reason to believe in him.

Catch me any other day and I'll have a little more cynicism and a lot more doubt about the future of the Orioles. But it's the time of year to give thanks, so let's put that other stuff on the shelf for today and thank Wieters for the direction this team has taken.

The Changing of the O's

Stacey — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:12:47 -0000

2007 - Pre-MacPhail. 2010 - Based solely on current players. How much have we improved, really? Discuss. Is it fair to say that the only position where the 2010 Orioles are worse off than the 2007 Orioles is shortstop?

All lineups are based on who played that most games at that position in each year.

2007 Baltimore Orioles	2008 Baltimore Orioles	2009 Baltimore Orioles	2010 Baltimore Orioles
C: Ramon Hernandez	C: Ramon Hernandez	C: Matt Wieters	C: Matt Wieters
1B: Kevin Millar	1B: Kevin Millar	1B: Aubrey Huff	1B: Luke Scott
2B: Brian Roberts	2B: Brian Roberts	2B: Brian Roberts	2B: Brian Roberts
3B: Melvin Mora	3B: Melvin Mora	3B: Melvin Mora	3B: Ty Wigginton
SS: Miguel Tejada	SS: Juan Castro	SS: Cesar Izturis	SS: Cesar Izturis
LF: Jay Payton	LF: Luke Scott	LF: Nolan Reimold	LF: Felix Pie
CF: Corey Patterson	CF: Adam Jones	CF: Adam Jones	CF: Adam Jones
RF: Nick Markakis	RF: Nick Markakis	RF: Nick Markakis	RF: Nick Markakis
DH: Aubrey Huff	DH: Aubrey Huff	DH: Luke Scott	DH: Nolan Reimold

It wasn't all bad in '09: Best Offensive Performances by the Orioles

Stacey — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:11:25 -0000

More photos » by Chris O'Meara - AP

In 2010 the top 7 offensive performances by an Oriole will all be by Matt Wieters. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Browse more photos »

Baseball-Reference.com just revamped their Play Index tool and I've been messing around with it to learn all the new features. They've added some good stuff, so far my favorite is that you can do a search on how many times a player did something in his career. Last summer when Brian Roberts hit his 50th double, I was really interested to see how many players had more than one 50 double season. This new feature wasn't available so I had to do a search on 50 or more doubles and sort by name. Not anymore!

Anyway, I was doing some searches on the 2009 Orioles and it got me wondering who had the best individual performance at the plate this year. The first thing that came to my mind was the cycle by Felix Pie, followed by Luke Scott's monster day at the plate on Matt Wieters Day. It's obviously subjective, but after doing some searching on B-R.com, I've come up with a short list of finalists.

Luke Scott - July 11th @ Seattle. LUUUKE drove in two runs in the first inning off of Erik Bedard, then socked it to the Mariners bullpen with a two run triple in the 6th and a 3 run homer in the 7th. His final line: 3-4, 3B, HR, 2 R, 7 RBI. GameThread and recap.
Ty Wigginton - June 14th vs Atlanta. Wiggy had three hits including two home runs to lead the O's in an 11-2 butt kicking of the Braves. His line: 3-4, 4 R, 3 RBI, BB, 2 HR. GameThread and recap.
Matt Wieters - September 15th @ TB. Your personal Savior had the best game of his young career on this night. After falling behind the Rays 5-0, the offense staged a comeback led by Wieters who went 3-5 with a HR, a 2B, a BB, 2 R, and 5 RBI. GameThread and recap.
Felix Pie - August 14th vs Los Angeles/Anaheim. You all know the game. Felix hit for the cycle, saving the triple for last. He ended the game with 4 hits, 3 runs, and 4 RBI. He also made Mike Scioscia look like a tool by apologizing for being too excited. GameThread and recap.
Brian Roberts - Sept 12th @ New York. This game is better known as the night Brian Matusz mopped the floor with the Yankees, but Brian Bob had a pretty big night himself. With two runs already scored in the top of the 2nd inning, Roberts launched a grand slam off of A.J. Burnett. He'd add 2 more hits on the night, including his 51st 2B of the year to end the night 3-4 with 1 R, 4 RBI, 2B, HR. GameThread and recap.
Adam Jones - May 12th vs Tampa Bay. Dr. Jones only had two hits on the night but he made them count as he homered in back-to-back innings. The O's won 7-5 with Adam going 2-4 with 2 R, 4 RBI, and 2 HR. GameThread and recap.
Luke Scott - May 29th vs Detroit. I didn't really want to list any players twice but how could I leave this one out? Since coming to the American League, Luke Scott has made the Tigers miserable. On this, Matt Wieters Night, Luke continued his assault with 3 hits, 2 of which were HR (one being a grand slam), 5 RBI, 2 R, and a BB for good measure. GameThread and recap.

There are probably a number of other good individual performances, but the list was getting a little long, and that game where Nicky hit the grand slam was so awful I didn't want to look at the recap. So what do you say? Who of the above had the greatest offensive night of '09 for the O's?

Poll

What was the greatest night for an Orioles hitter?

Luke Scott vs the Mariners (3-4, HR, 3B, 2 R, 7 RBI)

51 votes

Ty Wigginton vs the Braves (3-4, 2 HR, BB, 4 R, 3 RBI)

2 votes

Matt Wieters vs. the Rays (3-4, HR, 2B, BB, 2 R, 5 RBI)

11 votes

Felix Pie vs the Angels (4-4, 1B, 2B, 3B, HR, 3 R, 4 RBI)

71 votes

Brian Roberts vs the Yankees (3-4, Grand Slam, 2B, BB, 1 R, 4 RBI)

14 votes

Adam Jones vs the Rays (2 HR in consecutive innings, 2 R, 4 RBI)

6 votes

Luke Scott vs the Tigers (3-3, 2 HR, BB, 2 R, 5 RBI)

22 votes

Others - explain in the comments.

1 votes

178 votes | Poll has closed

A boatload of postseason awards

KLSnow — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:41:50 -0000

Because I've been away for a few days I've fallen behind on a couple of things, including the unveiling of the SBN and IBWAA postseason awards. My apologies. Let's start with the SBN Awards:

If you read any of the other SBN baseball sites, you may have seen some of these, but if you don't, they're new to you. Two BCB writers contributed to each of the NL awards: I had one vote, and TheJay had the other. I'll publish my ballot below the results, and leave it up to TheJay to decide if he wants to post his.

SBN NL Manager of the Year:

Rk	Manager	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Jim Tracy	Colorado Rockies	24	1	2	125
2	Tony LaRussa	St. Louis Cardinals	3	7	10	46
3	Fredi Gonzalez	Florida Marlins	2	6	5	33
4	Joe Torre	Los Angeles Dodgers	-	9	2	29
5	Charlie Manuel	Philadelphia Phillies	-	3	5	14
6	Bruce Bochy	San Francisco Giants	1	1	1	9
7	Bobby Cox	Atlanta Braves	-	1	4	7
8	Bud Black	San Diego Padres	-	1	1	4
9	John Russell	Pittsburgh Pirates	-	1	-	3

My ballot:
1. Jim Tracy
2. Fredi Gonzalez
3. Joe Torre

I have no other comment on this award, except this side note: Nine of sixteen NL Managers received at least one vote, meaning more NL managers were acknowledged than not, and yet Ken Macha didn't appear on a single ballot.

SBN NL Rookie of the Year:

Rk	Player	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Tommy Hanson	Atlanta Braves	9	9	6	78
2	J.A. Happ	Philadelphia Phillies	6	9	7	64
3	Andrew McCutchen	Pittsburgh Pirates	8	3	5	54
4	Chris Coghlan	Florida Marlins	7	5	4	54
5	Dexter Fowler	Colorado Rockies	-	3	1	10
6	Randy Wells	Chicago Cubs	-	-	6	6
7	Garrett Jones	Pittsburgh Pirates	1	-	-	5
8	Casey McGehee	Milwaukee Brewers	-	1	2	5
9	Seth Smith	Colorado Rockies	-	1	-	3

My ballot:
1. Tommy Hanson
2. J.A. Happ
3. Casey McGehee

It was a tough year to be an NL Rookie - McGehee's performance might have rated higher in other years, but this season he was overshadowed by a bunch of high-impact players.

SBN NL Cy Young:

Rk	Player	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Tim Lincecum	San Francisco Giants	18	13	-	129
2	Chris Carpenter	St. Louis Cardinals	9	4	7	64
3	Adam Wainwright	St. Louis Cardinals	4	4	10	42
4	Javier Vazquez	Atlanta Braves	-	5	7	22
5	Dan Haren	Arizona Diamondbacks	-	3	4	13
6	Ubaldo Jimenez	Colorado Rockies	-	1	1	4
7	Cliff Lee	Philadephia Phillies	-	-	1	1
8	Jair Jurrjens	Atlanta Braves	-	-	1	1

My ballot:
1. Tim Lincecum
2. Javier Vazquez
3. Adam Wainwright
4. Chris Carpenter
5. Dan Haren

The SBN ballot only asked for three pitchers, but I also voted in the IBWAA awards, which required five. The IBWAA completed their slate of awards today, naming their MVP and Cy Young Award winners for both leagues. Here are their results:

IBWAA NL Manager of the Year:

1. Jim Tracy, Colorado Rockies
2. Joe Torre, Los Angeles Dodgers
3 (tie). Bruce Bochy, San Francisco Giants
3 (tie). Fredi Gonzalez, Florida Marlins

IBWAA NL Rookie of the Year:

1. Tommy Hanson, Atlanta Braves
2. Chris Coghlan, Florida Marlins
3. J.A. Happ, Philadelphia Phillies

IBWAA NL Comeback Player of the Year:

1. Chris Carpenter, St. Louis Cardinals
2. Troy Tulowitzski, Colorado Rockies
3. Rafael Furcal, Los Angeles Dodgers

IBWAA NL Executive of the Year:

1. Dan O'Dowd, Colorado Rockies
2. John Mozeliak, St. Louis Cardinals
3. Ned Colletti, Los Angeles Dodgers

IBWAA NL Cy Young:

1. Chris Carpenter, St. Louis Cardinals
2. Adam Wainwright, St. Louis Cardinals
3. Tim Lincecum, San Francisco Giants
4. Josh Johnson, Florida Marlins
5. Javier Vazquez, Atlanta Braves

IBWAA NL Most Valuable Player:

1. Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals
2. Ryan Howard, Philadelphia Phillies
3. Hanley Ramirez, Florida Marlins
4. (tie) Prince Fielder, Milwaukee Brewers
4. (tie) Troy Tulowitzki, Colorado Rockies
6. Tim Lincecum, San Francisco Giants
7. Chase Utley, Philadelphia Phillies
8. Andre Ethier, Los Angeles Dodgers
9. Chris Carpenter, St. Louis Cardinals
10. Ryan Braun, Milwaukee Brewers

The SBN MVP award balloting will be unveiled tomorrow. Follow the jump for the AL awards for both SBN and the IBWAA.

IBWAA Cy Young and MVP Awards have yet to be announced.

Meanwhile, in the AL:

SBN AL Manager of the Year:

Rk	Manager	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Mike Scioscia	Los Angeles Angels	9	8	3	72
2	Ron Gardenhire	Minnesota Twins	9	5	1	61
3	Don Wakamatsu	Seattle Mariners	6	3	8	47
4	Joe Girardi	New York Yankees	2	4	2	24
5	Ron Washington	Texas Rangers	1	4	4	21
6	Terry Francona	Boston Red Sox	1	1	3	11
7	Jim Leyland	Detroit Tigers	-	2	4	10
8	Joe Maddon	Tampa Bay Rays	-	1	1	4
9	Ozzie Guillen	Chicago White Sox	-	-	1	1
10	Trey Hillman	Kansas City Royals	-	-	1	1

SBN AL Rookie of the Year:

Rk	Player	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Elvis Andrus	Texas Rangers	6	9	6	63
2	Andrew Bailey	Oakland Athletics	11	1	3	61
3	Jeff Niemann	Tampa Bay Rays	3	5	3	33
4	Rick Porcello	Detroit Tigers	2	7	2	33
5	Brett Anderson	Oakland Athletics	5	1	3	31
6	Gordon Beckham	Chicago White Sox	1	2	8	19
7	Nolan Reimold	Baltimore Orioles	1	-	1	6
8	Matt Wieters	Baltimore Orioles	-	1	3	6
9	Brad Bergesen	Baltimore Orioles	-	1	-	3
10	Ricky Romero	Toronto Blue Jays	-	1	-	3
11	Travis Snider	Toronto Blue Jays	-	1	-	3

SBN AL Cy Young:

Rk	Player	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Zack Greinke	Kansas City Royals	28	1	-	143
2	Felix Hernandez	Seattle Mariners	-	17	6	57
3	Justin Verlander	Detroit Tigers	-	8	9	33
4	Roy Halladay	Toronto Blue Jays	1	2	11	22
5	C.C. Sabathia	New York Yankees	-	1	2	5
6	Jon Lester	Boston Red Sox	-	-	1	1

IBWAA AL Manager of the Year:
1. Ron Gardenhire, Minnesota Twins
2. Mike Scioscia, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
3. Joe Girardi (New York Yankees)

IBWAA AL Rookie of the Year:
1. Elvis Andrus, Texas Rangers
2. Andrew Bailey, Oakland Athletics
3. Jeff Niemann, Tampa Bay Rays

IBWAA AL Comeback Player of the Year:
1. Aaron Hill, Toronto Blue Jays
2. Russell Branyan, Seattle Mariners
3. Justin Verlander, Detroit Tigers

IBWAA AL Executive of the Year:
1. Brian Cashman, New York Yankees
2. Tony Reagins, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
3. Jon Daniels, Texas Rangers

IBWAA AL Cy Young:
1. Zack Greinke, Kansas City Royals
2. Felix Hernandez, Seattle Mariners
3. CC Sabathia, New York Yankees
4. Justin Verlander, Detroit Tigers
5. Roy Halladay, Toronto Blue Jays

IBWAA AL Most Valuable Player:
1. Joe Mauer, Minnesota Twins
2. Mark Teixeira, New York Yankees
3. Derek Jeter, New York Yankees
4. Kendry Morales, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
5. Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers
6. Zack Greinke, Kansas City Royals
7. Evan Longoria, Tampa Bay Rays
8. Ichiro Suzuki, Seattle Mariners
9. (tie) Carl Crawford, Tampa Bay Rays
9. (tie) Kevin Youkilis, Boston Red Sox

SB Nation Awards: 2009 American League Rookie of the Year

Jesse — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:16:21 -0000

Next round of the year's awards!

Rk	Player	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Elvis Andrus	Texas Rangers	6	9	6	63
2	Andrew Bailey	Oakland Athletics	11	1	3	61
3	Jeff Niemann	Tampa Bay Rays	3	5	3	33
4	Rick Porcello	Detroit Tigers	2	7	2	33
5	Brett Anderson	Oakland Athletics	5	1	3	31
6	Gordon Beckham	Chicago White Sox	1	2	8	19
7	Nolan Reimold	Baltimore Orioles	1	-	1	6
8	Matt Wieters	Baltimore Orioles	-	1	3	6
9	Brad Bergesen	Baltimore Orioles	-	1	-	3
10	Ricky Romero	Toronto Blue Jays	-	1	-	3
11	Travis Snider	Toronto Blue Jays	-	1	-	3

I feel pretty good about these results too because, if I remember correctly, I voted pretty closely here too. I want to say I went Andrus-Bailey-Porcello. Beckham's year was underwhelming, Wieters was disappointing considering the hype and, as the tally shows, there were really only two choices for top pick.

My only question: RICK PORCELLO IS JUST 20 YEARS OLD!

Okay, so it's not a question...

Poll

Of the top five, who would get your vote for AL Rookie of the Year?

Elvis Andrus, SS, 20 yrs, 541 PA, 17 2B, 6 HR, 33/39 SB, .267/.329/.373

57 votes

Andrew Bailey, CL, 25 yrs, 83.1 IP, 91 K, 1.84 ERA, 0.88 WHIP

58 votes

Jeff Niemann, SP, 26 yrs, 30 GS, 180.2 IP, 125 K, 3.94 ERA, 1.35 ERA

9 votes

Rick Porcello, SP, 20 yrs, 31 GS, 170.2 IP, 89 K, 3.96 ERA, 1.34 WHIP

69 votes

Brett Anderson, SP, 21 yrs, 30 GS, 175.1 IP, 150 K, 4.06 ERA, 1.28 WHIP

17 votes

210 votes | Poll has closed

SBN Awards: Rookie of the Year awarded to Elvis Andrus and Tommy Hanson

Stacey — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:00:39 -0000

More photos » by Tony Gutierrez - AP

Elvis Andrus, SBN's AL Rookie of the Year. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

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Below are the results for Rookie of the Year as voted by the SBN baseball writers. Elvis Andrus, the slick fielding shortstop from Texas, narrowly beat A's pitcher Andrew Bailey in the American League and Braves starting pitcher Tommy Hanson solidly won in the National League.

My votes in this category were as follows: Elvis Andrus, Brad Bergesen (the only one to give our boy a vote!), and Gordon Beckham. duck was even more of a homer than me as his votes were for Nolan Reimold, Matt Wieters, and Elvis Andrus.

Andrus wasn't too mighty with the bat, hitting just .267/.329/.373, but his fielding was so impressive that he ended 2009 with a WAR of 3.0.

My vote for Brad Bergesen was a sentimental one, for sure, but I do think he deserves the recognition. Despite not throwing a pitch after July 30th (thanks a LOT, Billy Butler), Bergesen still ended the season with a WAR of 2.3. There's no doubt in my mind that if 3E1N hadn't gotten in the way of the Butler line drive that he'd be much closer to the top of this list, if not number one.

Rk	Player	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Elvis Andrus	Texas Rangers	6	9	6	63
2	Andrew Bailey	Oakland Athletics	11	1	3	61
3	Jeff Niemann	Tampa Bay Rays	3	5	3	33
4	Rick Porcello	Detroit Tigers	2	7	2	33
5	Brett Anderson	Oakland Athletics	5	1	3	31
6	Gordon Beckham	Chicago White Sox	1	2	8	19
7	Nolan Reimold	Baltimore Orioles	1	-	1	6
8	Matt Wieters	Baltimore Orioles	-	1	3	6
9	Brad Bergesen	Baltimore Orioles	-	1	-	3
10	Ricky Romero	Toronto Blue Jays	-	1	-	3
11	Travis Snider	Toronto Blue Jays	-	1	-	3

Check out the National League list below the jump. The results for Cy Young voting will be posted tomorrow.

Rk	Player	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Tommy Hanson	Atlanta Braves	9	9	6	78
2	J.A. Happ	Philadelphia Phillies	6	9	7	64
3	Andrew McCutchen	Pittsburgh Pirates	8	3	5	54
4	Chris Coghlan	Florida Marlins	7	5	4	54
5	Dexter Fowler	Colorado Rockies	-	3	1	10
6	Randy Wells	Chicago Cubs	-	-	6	6
7	Garrett Jones	Pittsburgh Pirates	1	-	-	5
8	Casey McGehee	Milwaukee Brewers	-	1	2	5
9	Seth Smith	Colorado Rockies	-	1	-	3

2009 SBNation Awards: Rookie Of The Year

Al — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:00:40 -0000

by Nam Y. Huh - AP

Randy Wells had a fine rookie year and finished sixth in SBN rookie balloting.

View full size photo »

Count me as one of those surprised at the SBN Rookie of the Year balloting. Neither J.A. Happ nor Chris Coghlan, the two players named at the top of the BCB ballots, won. Tommy Hanson is a deserving recipient, no doubt, but I was sure that Happ was going to win. The third-place vote I gave Randy Wells is, admittely, a homer pick.

The AL balloting, for which BCB had no vote, was very close, with only two points separating the top two. If I did have a vote for the AL ROY, it would have gone to Gordon Beckham.

BCB ballots:

Al: 1) J.A. Happ 2) Tommy Hanson 3) Randy Wells      
Mike: 1) Chris Coghlan 2) J.A. Happ 3) Tommy Hanson

National League

Rk	Player	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Tommy Hanson	Atlanta Braves	9	9	6	78
2	J.A. Happ	Philadelphia Phillies	6	9	7	64
3	Andrew McCutchen	Pittsburgh Pirates	8	3	5	54
4	Chris Coghlan	Florida Marlins	7	5	4	54
5	Dexter Fowler	Colorado Rockies	-	3	1	10
6	Randy Wells	Chicago Cubs	-	-	6	6
7	Garrett Jones	Pittsburgh Pirates	1	-	-	5
8	Casey McGehee	Milwaukee Brewers	-	1	2	5
9	Seth Smith	Colorado Rockies	-	1	-	3

American League

Rk	Player	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Elvis Andrus	Texas Rangers	6	9	6	63
2	Andrew Bailey	Oakland Athletics	11	1	3	61
3	Jeff Niemann	Tampa Bay Rays	3	5	3	33
4	Rick Porcello	Detroit Tigers	2	7	2	33
5	Brett Anderson	Oakland Athletics	5	1	3	31
6	Gordon Beckham	Chicago White Sox	1	2	8	19
7	Nolan Reimold	Baltimore Orioles	1	-	1	6
8	Matt Wieters	Baltimore Orioles	-	1	3	6
9	Brad Bergesen	Baltimore Orioles	-	1	-	3
10	Ricky Romero	Toronto Blue Jays	-	1	-	3
11	Travis Snider	Toronto Blue Jays	-	1	-	3