For full results to this year's IBA voting, look here. For NL Wrap-up, look here.
It's that time of year when we announce the winners of the 19thannual Internet Baseball Awards. More than 1,000 baseball fans from cyberspace participated in this effort to honor those players and managers whose performances in 2010 were most deserving. Today we'll announce the winners of the American League voting, which featured tight races for Manager of the Year and Rookie of the Year and runaway winners in the Player of the Year and Pitcher of the Year voting. The point system for the balloting was as follows:
- Player of the Year ballots: 14 points for first-place votes, nine points for second-place votes, eight points for third-place votes, etc., down to one point for a 10th-place vote.
- Pitcher of the Year ballots: 10 points for first-place votes, seven points for second-place votes, five points for third-place votes, three points for fourth-place, and one point for fifth-place votes. This point system we use differs from the BBWAA point system for historical reasons.
- Rookie of the Year ballots: 10 points for first-place votes, seven points for second-place votes, five points for third-place votes, three points for fourth-place, and one point for fifth-place votes. This is a longer ballot than the BBWAA uses and (obviously) a different point system.
- Manager of the Year ballots: Five points for first-place votes, three points for second-place votes, and one point for third-place votes.
Player of the Year
Despite missing virtually all of September, Josh Hamilton easily outdistanced the rest of the league in the race for the 2010 Internet AL Player of the Year award. The combination of Hamilton’s prodigious production during the first five months of the season (he led the AL in slugging percentage and OPS) and the fact that his Rangers had virtually sealed the AL West title by September 1 led voters to discount his long absence from the Texas lineup late in the season due to broken ribs. Hamilton’s only previous appearance in Internet Player of the Year voting was in 2008, when he finished eighth.
Two other players—Miguel Cabrera and Robinson Cano—received more than 100 first-place votes and five more—Evan Longoria, Jose Bautista, Adrian Beltre, Joe Mauer, and Carl Crawford—received more than 10.
Cabrera’s second-place finish, his highest ever, marked the fifth time in six years he has finished in the top 10. On the other hand, Cano’s third-place finish was by far his the highest; his previous best was 32nd in 2006. Longoria’s fourth-place finish followed 10th– and 11th-place finishes the two previous seasons.
Bautista’s shocking 54-home run season earned him fifth place. He had never shown up in the voting before.
Beltre’s sixth-place finish marked the first time he had finished in the top 50 since 2004, when he was third in the Internet NL Player of the Year voting.
Last year’s winner, Mauer, finished seventh. Felix Hernandez, in eighth, finished the highest of any pitcher. The highest-placing reliever was, as usual, Mariano Rivera, who was 21st. In 36th, Rangers closer Neftali Perez was the highest-placing rookie.
Only two players in the top 22—Shin-Soo Choo and Hernandez—played on teams that finished below .500.
Pitcher of the Year
Hernandez may not have gotten much support from the Mariners' offense in 2010, but he got more than enough support from voters to win the Internet American League Pitcher of the Year. The Seattle right-hander captured more than 80 percent of first-place votes, easily outdistancing all other pitchers. By leading the league in innings pitched, with 249
The rest of the first-place votes were split primarily three ways between CC Sabathia, David Price, and Cliff Lee. Sabathia won a very close race for second place over Price with Lee coming in fourth. The highest-ranking reliever was Rivera in 11th place.
Sabathia has made himself at home in the top 10. Since finishing 12th in 2006, he was the AL winner in 2007, third in National League voting in 2008 (while also finishing 16th in the AL), and fifth last season. Lee, like Sabathia, is a previous winner (2008) and had Pitcher of the Year support in both leagues in 2009 (finishing ninth in the NL and 17th in the AL). Price finished 14th in the Internet AL Rookie of the Year balloting in 2009 but did not receive any Pitcher of the Year votes.
Jon Lester’s fifth-place finish marked his third consecutive year in the top 10; he finished third in 2008 and seventh in 2009.
Francisco Liriano, who finished eighth, had one previous top-10 finish—fifth in 2006—as did Justin Verlander, this year’s ninth-place finisher, who finished just ahead of Liriano (fourth) that same year..
All the pitchers in the top 10 except Hernandez finished the season playing for teams that won at least 80 games.
Rookie of the Year
The American League’s 2010 rookie class was nowhere near as spectacular as that of the NL, but the race for the Internet Rookie of the Year was just as tight. In the end, the award went to Feliz, who edged out Tigers center fielder Austin Jackson. Feliz actually appeared on one less ballot than Jackson but won as a result of getting 45 percent more first-place votes.
Rays right-handed starter Wade Davis and Orioles left-handed starter Brian Matusz finished in a virtual tie for third and fourth place, while Twins third baseman Danny Valencia, Rays catcher John Jaso, Indians catcher Carlos Santana, and Tigers outfielder Brennan Boesch rounded out the top eight.
Manager of the Year
The Rangers' Ron Washington won the Internet Manager of the Year voting for the first time in his four seasons after finishing third in 2009. Washington edged the Twins' Ron Gardenhire. Washington was named on 72 percent of the ballots and received 32 percent of the first-place votes, while Gardenhire, who now has five second-place finishes to his credit, appeared on 63 percent of the ballots and was placed first on 27 percent.
Two other managers received more than 100 first-place votes—the Rays' Joe Maddon (who won in 2008) and the Red Sox' Terry Francona, while Buck Showalter, Cito Gaston, and Joe Girardi also received significant support.
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http://www.baseballprospectus.com/other/iba2010/iba_results.txt
I'm a Yankee fan, and even I can't fathom Jeter's *5* GGs!
In 2008 Cliff Lee was 22-3 on the god awful Indians. Good pitchers win games. Also Felix stats are even better than what they should be because he pitches in one of the best pitchers parks in baseball. Guys like Sabathia have to pitch in the the new Yankee Stadium where pop-flys become HRs.
I can't tell if this is a troll. You seem to understand that Wins and Losses aren't a good metric for determining whether a pitcher had a good season, but you don't seem truly convinced that they can actually be "misleading" to that degree.
To help you in this regard (or to amuse you, if you are indeed a troll), I went back and checked the box scores for the 12 games where Hernandez was "credited" with the loss for his team.
In 4 of those 12 games where he got the loss, he really didn't pitch well. He gave up 25 earned runs in just 20-1/3 innings. Ouch. Definitely deserves the loss here.
In 1 of the 12 losses, he went 6-1/3 innings and gave up 4 earned (Sept 11). Well, he actually gave up 2 earned runs through 6, and then he allowed two guys on after just one out in the 7th, at which point he was relieved. Tori Hunter then doubled off the relief pitcher and plated those runs. But those are the breaks. Loss goes to Hernandez.
In the other 7 games with an "L" next to his name, he threw 6 or more innings and gave up 3 or fewer runs, for a Quality Start. Six of those were games where he went 7 innings, which I believe is unofficially called a Super-Quality Start. So, he threw a "Super-Quality Start" six times, and his team couldn't produce enough runs to even keep the game tied long enough to get the game to the bullpen.
So, of the 12 Losses in Hernandez' record in 2010, 4 were his and his alone, 1 he can thank his bullpen for, and 6 or 7 he can definitely thank his offense for. Like the game on September 13, where he threw 8 innings of 2 hit ball, but got the loss anyway.
And, since that "Win" stat can also be a bit misleading, I went back and checked the 9 games where Hernandez got a 'no decision.' In those 9 games, he gave up 14 runs. Over 65 total innings (that's a 1.94 ERA). In those 9 games, he threw 9 Quality Starts, and 7 Super-Quality Starts. In those 9 games, he got credited for 0 Wins.
So, I'm just saying, the W-L record doesn't exactly tell the whole story. If his offense gave him some more support in half of those Quality Start losses, and if his bullpen helped him out a bit more in half of those Quality Start no-decisions, he could easily have been 21-9.
And, with just that little bit of support from his teammates, you'd be saying, well hot-dang, why would anyone vote for Clay Buchholz over Felix, when he pitched 75 fewer innings and struck out 112 fewer players!
Are you really going to deny the best pitcher in baseball the Cy Young award because his teammates let him down?
And so, the question for you to consider is not how the Cy Young Award used to be given. The question from this day forward is whether you want to reward the pitcher who actually pitched the best over the course of the season.
Or, should we change the award description: "to be awarded to the pitcher who had a pretty darned good season for a competitive team who supported him more often then not by scoring runs when he was on the mound."
The fact is these awards are given for the results players produce. Wins are the biggest impact a pitcher can have on their team and that is why it is coveted. I realize their is luck involved, but there also is a lot of luck in the game of baseball and many of the stats. There is a reason why there are some pitchers are awful consistently while their peripherals say they are much better.
Why on earth would you cite the tradition of the BBWAA votes as justification for a pattern of voting the exact same way for these alternate awards? The whole point of the IBAs is to shake off the weight of the historic voting patterns established by the BBWAA.
More than 80% of the baseball fans who voted online this year felt that Felix was deserving of the AL Cy Young award. Since the voting takes place here at BP, you can assume that many of these voters are familiar with these advanced metrics. And, it is perfectly reasonable for you to disagree, as almost 20% of the voters did.
Side question: Some pitchers pump up there team when they pitch through their charisma and enthusiasm. If a pitcher can generate more out of his team while he is pitching should that be contributed to him? and the reverse too, if a team hates the pitcher do they not want to win for him?
Also I would like to know if there has ever been an article on the physical presence of pitchers. Like if a teams continues to hit bad while a certain pitcher pitches or hit better. I understand that the Ace usually face another Ace so stats can be skewed but it feels possible that something could be there.
As a fan, I love pitchers who work fast as the game has way more flow. Watching Roy Halladay is a treat, and it doesn't cost me 4+ hours like those *epic* Yankees-Red Sox tilts. I just thank God that a) Rafael Betancourt is a reliever, and b) he never faced Mike Hargrove. Watching Betancourt pitch is like being in the dentist's chair; time has no meaning and you feel like you are in some alternate universe.
I sure hope he has a great personality to make up for all that...Cue the negative ratings