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November 8, 2014

Internet Baseball Awards

The 2014 Internet Baseball Award Winners

by Craig Goldstein

We are here today to announce the winners of the 2014 Greg Spira Memorial Internet Baseball Awards, an annual tradition unlike many others.

At the end of every season the Baseball Writers’ Association of America announces the winners of their MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year, and Manager of the Year awards. It's the time of year in which the feats of those who awed us throughout the season are told and retold, packaged and repackaged, hyped and then hyped some more. The greatest players' greatest seasons are seared into our brains like the sweet charred deliciousness they are.

In that spirit, or perhaps the opposite of it: Prior to revealing the voting in each category, I am including a moment from each winner’s career in which things were not so… glamorous. I could tell you this is because there’s something about the incongruity of putting (one of) the lowest moments of someone’s career next to what is likely their crowning achievement (the season, not the IBA necessarily), but the reality is that I’m a petty man-child who wants people brought down to my level.

So enjoy the videos, the GIFs, the pictures, but also: Enjoy the results of your voting. We're proud to have a process that delivers satisfying, democratic results every year. The further into the past a baseball season sinks, the more we remember each year as "The One When [Awesome Player] Did [Awesome Thing]." Votes like these, awards like these, really are the punctuation of a season. Punctuation is important. Punctuation is what makes this sentence so exciting!

AL Player of the Year
It’s Mike Trout. You knew it was going to be Mike Trout because you internet nerds love him, even though Miggy should have won again. His team played in more playoff games and YES THAT MATTERS. Also, you are all “Trout is so much better on defense, though.” Yeah, well:

I want a slow motion GIF of that as my desktop background.

Rank

Name

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Ballots

Points

1

Mike Trout

511

26

5

4

2

0

0

0

0

0

548

7468

2

Michael Brantley

2

88

85

74

43

29

20

15

7

6

369

2566

3

Corey Kluber

2

79

69

50

41

31

27

17

9

5

330

2224

4

Jose Abreu

10

49

52

48

51

32

31

34

25

28

360

2103

5

Felix Hernandez

3

29

60

67

45

48

30

18

12

10

322

1970

6

Josh Donaldson

2

63

42

39

52

27

27

21

18

10

301

1868

7

Victor Martinez

8

65

44

35

38

25

26

16

15

17

289

1846

8

Jose Bautista

3

29

31

43

40

38

36

32

15

9

276

1561

9

Alex Gordon

1

27

31

35

44

35

27

16

18

11

245

1392

10

Jose Altuve

11

23

25

29

31

23

28

26

27

23

246

1332

11

Robinson Cano

0

20

27

24

34

33

26

21

22

16

223

1160

12

Miguel Cabrera

2

28

33

21

28

18

17

14

22

18

201

1121

13

Nelson Cruz

3

10

19

28

13

16

8

11

6

16

130

731

14

Adrian Beltre

0

5

10

21

21

18

17

22

30

11

155

693

15

Chris Sale

0

1

2

12

18

13

18

30

13

11

118

481

16

Adam Jones

0

7

9

7

11

8

5

11

8

6

72

365

17

Kyle Seager

0

7

6

5

7

3

3

3

4

7

45

239

18

Jon Lester

1

0

0

3

0

4

4

4

2

5

23

92

19

David Price

1

0

1

1

0

4

3

4

4

4

22

85

20

J.D. Martinez

0

0

1

1

7

2

2

0

3

1

17

82

21

Max Scherzer

0

0

2

2

3

2

1

1

5

3

19

78

22

David Ortiz

0

0

1

1

3

2

0

3

1

5

16

59

23

Edwin Encarnacion

0

0

0

1

3

1

4

1

2

4

16

57

24

Ian Kinsler

0

0

0

1

3

0

4

0

3

4

15

51

25

Albert Pujols

0

0

1

1

1

1

1

2

1

2

10

40

25

Ben Zobrist

0

0

0

1

0

1

2

2

5

4

15

40

27

Dellin Betances

0

1

0

0

1

1

1

1

4

4

13

39

28

Steve Pearce

0

0

0

0

1

2

1

3

2

2

11

35

29

Masahiro Tanaka

0

0

0

1

0

0

2

2

2

1

8

26

30

Jacoby Ellsbury

0

0

1

0

1

1

0

1

1

0

5

24

30

Brett Gardner

0

1

0

1

0

0

1

0

2

0

5

24

32

Brock Holt

0

0

1

1

1

0

0

0

1

0

4

23

32

Wade Davis

0

0

0

0

2

0

1

1

1

2

7

23

34

Phil Hughes

0

0

0

0

0

0

2

0

5

4

11

22

35

Andrew Miller

1

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

2

21

35

Salvador Perez

0

0

1

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

3

21

35

Sonny Gray

0

0

1

0

1

1

0

0

1

0

4

21

35

Garrett Richards

0

0

0

0

3

0

0

0

1

1

5

21

39

Yoenis Cespedes

0

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

2

17

40

Lorenzo Cain

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

1

0

0

3

16

AL Pitcher of the Year
Corey Kluber edged Felix Hernandez for the IBA's top pitching prize. Let’s go to Corey to see how he’s handling the news:

Energetic as always.

Rank

Name

1

2

3

4

5

Ballots

Points

1

Corey Kluber

317

146

23

2

3

491

4316

2

Felix Hernandez

177

275

36

10

5

503

3910

3

Chris Sale

21

49

244

59

31

404

1981

4

Jon Lester

4

6

59

100

66

235

743

5

Max Scherzer

1

17

37

87

66

208

641

6

David Price

0

10

57

67

59

193

615

7

Phil Hughes

0

3

27

45

48

123

339

8

Garrett Richards

0

4

7

11

14

36

110

9

Dellin Betances

1

1

9

9

18

38

107

10

Wade Davis

0

1

1

12

11

25

59

11

Masahiro Tanaka

0

1

4

5

9

19

51

12

Sonny Gray

0

1

3

6

7

17

47

13

James Shields

0

2

2

5

7

16

46

14

Greg Holland

0

0

2

9

5

16

42

15

Yu Darvish

0

2

1

3

6

12

34

AL Rookie of the Year
Jose Abreu was an unknown to most of us a year before his big-league debut, but he certainly made himself known to this phone box.

Rank

Name

1

2

3

4

5

Ballots

Points

1

Jose Abreu

488

8

1

0

0

497

4941

2

Masahiro Tanaka

2

118

90

52

23

285

1475

3

Dellin Betances

3

90

85

52

44

274

1285

4

Collin McHugh

2

72

60

48

28

210

996

5

Yordano Ventura

3

55

70

42

25

195

916

6

Marcus Stroman

1

23

33

36

34

127

478

7

Matt Shoemaker

0

31

26

26

22

105

447

8

Daniel Santana

1

30

16

26

22

95

400

9

Kevin Kiermaier

1

20

25

11

20

77

328

10

George Springer

1

13

20

20

20

74

281

AL Manager of the Year
Buck Showalter.

Enough said.

Rank

Name

1

2

3

Ballots

Points

1

Buck Showalter

349

60

19

428

1944

2

Mike Scioscia

31

122

58

211

579

3

Ned Yost

24

52

36

112

312

4

Bob Melvin

13

53

39

105

263

5

Terry Francona

9

53

57

119

261

6

Lloyd McClendon

13

46

55

114

258

7

Joe Girardi

7

47

30

84

206

8

Joe Maddon

13

16

23

52

136

9

Brad Ausmus

1

6

18

25

41

10

Bo Porter

1

5

6

12

26


NL Player of the Year
It’s not often that pitchers win MVPs, and while Kershaw is poised to do so this year, he’s already won MVP in our minds and souls. But not in the playoffs. Never the playoffs. MadBum4Lyfe. It’s really difficult to find footage of Kershaw doing bad things or even just falling down like an oaf, even if he is mostly a gangledoof. To that end, this is what I could find:

He threw the pitch that started that whole fiasco, so it’s his fault. Also that part at the end of the play where he tries to get Hanley’s throw but fails miserably. He must reflect on the four to six moments of miserable failure in his life often.

Rank

Name

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Ballots

Points

1

Clayton Kershaw

300

100

50

9

5

4

1

0

1

0

470

5619

2

Andrew McCutchen

122

206

113

34

12

3

2

0

0

0

492

4799

3

Giancarlo Stanton

68

138

165

61

47

17

2

2

1

0

501

4324

4

Jonathan Lucroy

22

37

64

103

66

29

22

10

12

5

370

2562

5

Anthony Rendon

5

15

36

92

66

48

37

19

9

10

337

2006

6

Buster Posey

7

11

29

71

81

54

38

31

10

4

336

1951

7

Yasiel Puig

1

3

16

16

28

31

28

28

26

21

198

873

8

Carlos Gomez

1

3

4

20

21

36

42

26

13

7

173

798

9

Anthony Rizzo

0

3

7

21

28

19

26

35

31

22

192

786

10

Adam Wainwright

0

3

6

10

23

22

17

21

16

19

137

575

11

Johnny Cueto

0

1

5

17

15

16

21

17

12

6

110

503

12

Troy Tulowitzki

1

0

5

13

11

13

5

12

6

15

81

359

13

Josh Harrison

1

0

5

5

11

12

9

13

14

22

92

340

14

Russell Martin

0

0

0

6

14

13

15

8

9

13

78

306

15

Adrian Gonzalez

0

0

7

5

10

14

10

3

3

3

55

279

16

Jason Heyward

0

0

1

5

9

7

9

8

9

9

57

219

17

Madison Bumgarner

1

1

3

8

5

8

4

3

4

7

44

213

18

Hunter Pence

1

1

1

3

6

6

6

3

13

3

43

180

19

Paul Goldschmidt

0

2

1

5

6

2

1

4

3

7

31

136

20

Justin Upton

0

0

1

2

5

5

2

4

6

4

29

113

21

Justin Morneau

0

0

1

2

8

3

2

2

4

3

25

110

21

Todd Frazier

0

2

0

0

7

3

3

2

6

5

28

110

23

Jordan Zimmermann

0

0

1

1

4

3

3

5

6

8

31

101

24

Matt Kemp

0

1

2

1

2

1

3

3

4

2

19

80

25

Jhonny Peralta

0

0

0

1

2

1

2

7

7

8

28

75

26

Yadier Molina

0

1

2

1

1

3

1

3

3

1

16

73

27

Denard Span

0

0

0

1

3

1

2

6

5

1

19

67

28

Jayson Werth

0

0

2

1

1

2

2

2

2

7

19

64

29

Dee Gordon

1

1

0

1

1

0

4

1

3

1

13

62

30

Cole Hamels

0

1

0

0

5

1

1

0

3

4

15

58

31

Freddie Freeman

0

0

0

0

4

3

1

1

2

1

12

51

32

Craig Kimbrel

0

1

1

1

0

3

1

1

1

0

9

48

32

Jacob deGrom

0

0

1

1

3

0

2

1

2

0

10

48

34

Jake Arrieta

1

0

0

3

0

0

2

0

1

0

7

45

34

Aroldis Chapman

0

0

0

0

1

5

1

2

1

2

12

45

36

Ian Desmond

0

0

0

0

2

2

1

2

2

3

12

39

37

Stephen Strasburg

0

0

0

1

1

2

1

1

3

0

9

36

38

Corey Dickerson

0

1

0

0

2

0

1

2

1

2

9

35

38

Zack Greinke

0

0

0

0

2

0

3

2

2

1

10

35

40

Lucas Duda

0

0

0

0

2

2

0

1

3

1

9

32


NL Pitcher of the Year
So, again with the difficult-to-find Kershaw moments, but here’s him attempting to knock an apple off Jimmy Kimmel’s head.

Not even close. I bet the hitters are embarrassed they let this guy get them out.

Rank

Name

1

2

3

4

5

Ballots

Points

1

Clayton Kershaw

504

6

1

0

0

511

5087

2

Adam Wainwright

0

165

186

56

27

434

2280

3

Johnny Cueto

1

194

97

49

31

372

2031

4

Jordan Zimmermann

0

71

55

65

58

249

1025

5

Madison Bumgarner

4

29

54

70

52

209

775

6

Stephen Strasburg

0

9

21

43

37

110

334

7

Cole Hamels

0

12

18

30

33

93

297

8

Zack Greinke

1

7

18

40

26

92

295

9

Jake Arrieta

1

4

26

28

37

96

289

10

Aroldis Chapman

0

5

4

16

22

47

125

11

Jacob deGrom

0

2

7

3

8

20

66

12

Doug Fister

0

2

4

7

9

22

64

13

Craig Kimbrel

0

3

5

4

2

14

60

14

Julio Teheran

0

0

4

8

4

16

48

15

Bartolo Colon

1

0

1

1

0

3

18


NL Rookie of the Year
Jacob deGrom beats out Billy Hamilton rather handily, which is the right outcome. Not an insult to Hamilton’s season, but deGrom was the better player. Both represented quite well. If there's a surprise, it's the support for Ender Inciarte over some of the other options. Nevertheless, you’re here for deGrom doing something stupid or goofy and I’m sorry to say I can’t deliver. When I tell you that this here internet does not want to make deGrom look bad, I meant it. The best I can offer is this:

The camo is bad, the hair is bad, and worst of all—he’s playing for the Mets. Huge gaffe on his part. I’m still laughing.

Rank

Name

1

2

3

4

5

Ballots

Points

1

Jacob deGrom

355

86

16

3

0

460

4241

2

Billy Hamilton

98

259

62

10

4

433

3137

3

Ender Inciarte

9

19

70

40

14

152

707

4

Kolten Wong

4

16

75

36

43

174

678

5

Ken Giles

2

25

62

24

18

131

595

6

Travis d'Arnaud

4

22

37

26

16

105

473

7

Joe Panik

4

10

32

16

14

76

332

8

Kyle Hendricks

4

8

19

18

13

62

258

9

Jorge Soler

1

8

11

7

12

39

154

10

Tyler Matzek

0

5

8

21

14

48

152


NL Manager of the Year
And the NL MoY goes to the purplest one of them all.

Rank

Name

1

2

3

Ballots

Points

1

Clint Hurdle

129

132

44

305

1085

2

Bruce Bochy

144

97

55

296

1066

3

Matt Williams

78

54

62

194

614

4

Mike Matheny

36

62

45

143

411

5

Don Mattingly

36

38

44

118

338

6

Mike Redmond

24

36

32

92

260

7

Bud Black

4

15

9

28

74

8

Rick Renteria

2

9

12

23

49

9

Ron Roenicke

1

7

21

29

47

10

Terry Collins

4

3

11

18

40


Thank you for indulging me on my petty whims, as I attempted to give these players/managers their due, along with a dose of humility. And thank you for voting in the IBAs if you did so. It’s a community effort and we appreciate the time and thought that you put into your ballot, except for those of you who voted for Scott Atchison. Stop that.

Now, in the spirit of democracy, go into the comments and complain about how people voted.

Craig Goldstein is an author of Baseball Prospectus. 
Click here to see Craig's other articles. You can contact Craig by clicking here

Related Content:  Internet Baseball Awards

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