DC-IBWA Awards and analysis

As you have probably seen by now, the DC Internet Baseball Writers Association has released its awards for the 2009 season. Below you will find the winners along with my picks and analysis:

THE AWARDS

Goose Goslin Most Valuable Player

Player most valuable to the success of the Washington Nationals:

1st: Ryan Zimmerman (92 points, 16 first place votes)

2nd: Adam Dunn (41 points, one first place vote)

3rd: Nyjer Morgan (25 points, three first place votes)

Others: John Lannan (19), Josh Willingham (3)

My top 3 were Zimmerman, Lannan, Morgan. Dunn was just too below-average defensively for me to vote for him above 3, but it was a toss-up between him and Morgan. Morgan's D put him over the top.

Walter Johnson Starting Pitcher of the Year

Excellent performance as a starting pitcher

1st: John Lannan (96 points, 18 first place votes)

2nd: Jordan Zimmermann (42 points, two first place votes)

3rd: Craig Stammen (22 points)

Others: J.D. Martin (6), Garrett Mock (4), Livan Hernandez (3), Ross Detwiler (2)

I had Lannan followed by Zimmermann followed by Detwiler. I felt like Detwiler pitched better than Stammen and Martin but was unlucky (as was Mock). I am surprised Martis didn't even get one third place vote, given the lack of a frontrunner amongst the guys behind Lannan and Zimmermann.

Frederick "Firpo" Marberry Relief Pitcher of the Year

Excellent performance as a relief pitcher

1st: Tyler Clippard (80 points, 13 first place votes)

2nd: Mike MacDougal (55 points, six first place votes)

3rd: Sean Burnett (29 points, one first place vote)

Others: Jason Bergmann (6), Joe Beimel (5), Ron Villone (3),Saul Rivera (1)

I had Clippard, Burnett and Beimel. MacDougal was just too miserable to watch at some points for me to even think about voting for him. He was the closer, but that doesn't mean he was a particularly good reliever. I guess since he was 20/21 in saves I should have given him a little more props....but I'll stick stick with the legend of Joe Beimel.

Sam Rice Hitter of the Year

Excellence in all-around hitting, situational hitting and baserunning

1st: Ryan Zimmerman (81 points, 14 first place votes)

2nd: Adam Dunn (39 points, two first place votes)

3rd: Nyjer Morgan (26 points, three first place votes)

Others: Josh Willingham (14), Nick Johnson (9, one first place vote), Cristian Guzman (6)

I picked Zimmerman, Willingham and Morgan. Again, it was a toss-up between Dunn and Morgan, but I feel that Morgan was a more complete offensive player than Dunn. It was tough given Dunn's toying with a semi-high batting average, but I settled on Morgan in the end.

Frank Howard Slugger of the Year

Excellence in power hitting

1st: Adam Dunn (100 points, 20 first place votes)

2nd: Ryan Zimmerman (46 points)

3rd: Josh Willingham (27 points)

Dunn, Zimmerman, Willingham. No debate from me here...and it looks like this one was completely unanimous?

Joe Judge Defensive Player of the Year

Excellence in fielding

1st: Ryan Zimmerman (88 points, 14 first place votes)

2nd: Nyjer Morgan (69 points, six first place votes)

3rd: Willie Harris (12 points)

Others: Alberto Gonzalez, Elijah Dukes, Nick Johnson (3), Wil Nieves (1)

I picked these guys in this order as well. There was a large drop-off between Zimmerman/Morgan and the rest, but I feel that Willie did an excellent job playing a bunch of positions, excelling in some and being average in others, but being stable.

Mickey Vernon Comeback Player of the Year

Player who overcame biggest obstacle in the preceding season to contribute on the field

1st: Nick Johnson (50 points, 10 first place votes)

2nd: Mike MacDougal (20 points, one first place vote)

3rd: Ryan Zimmerman (18 points, three first place votes)

Others: Jason Bergmann (16), Josh Bard (9), Ron Villone (8), Josh Willingham (7), Mike Morse (7), Justin Maxwell (5), J.D. Martin (4), Nyjer Morgan, Livan Hernandez, Ross Detwiler, Elijah Dukes (3),

Adam Dunn, Ian Desmond, Jorge Padilla, Sean Burnett, Garrett Mock (1)

It looks like just about the whole team got at least one vote here! I voted for Zimmerman, Willingham, Martin. Zim had a rough 2008 (not awful, but not great), Willingham came back from a lot of early season adversity and Martin survived six seasons in Cleveland and a bunch of surgeries to finally reach the majors. Johnson is a feel-good pick, but he's not a Nat anymore so I felt that I should recognize current Nats who deserve it just as much.

Josh Gibson Humanitarian Player of the Year

Player who meritoriously gave of himself to the community

1st: John Lannan (72 points, 12 first place votes)

2nd: Ryan Zimmerman (44 points, four first place votes)

3rd: Wil Nieves (21 points, three first place votes)

Others: Josh Willingham (9), Nyjer Morgan, Willie Harris, Elijah Dukes (3), Tyler Clippard (1)

I only voted for Zimmerman here because I simply did not know of any other player's community/humanitarian involvements.

Minor League Player of the Year

Minor league player most destined for big league success

1st: Derek Norris (54 points, nine first place votes)

2nd: Ian Desmond (53 points, nine first place votes)

3rd: Drew Storen (41 points, two first place votes)

Others: Bradley Meyers (16), Chris Marrero (7), Mike Morse (4), Daniel Espinosa (2), Ross Detwiler, Jorge Padilla (1).

I went Norris, Meyers, Storen. Norris and Meyers both saw their values skyrocket in 2009 and Storen proved to be worth more than Aaron Stinkin' Crow.

A little bit of self-promotion

I'm proud to say I've been given a "Kick Ass Blogger Award" thanks to the Scholastic Scribe.



Once a "Kick Ass Blogger" is awarded, said blogger gets to award 5 "Kick Ass Blogger" awards. So without further ado, step up and claim your prizes:

Nationals Farm Authority is by far the Most Valuable Blog of the Natsmosphere. I don't think I really have to go into detail, but Brian Oliver is pretty much my hero.

Fire Jim Bowden is probably the Most Improved Blog. I'll admit, I was skeptical at first, Steven, but posts like this, this and this make me sure that FJB isn't just going to be a temporary blog that will stop when Bowden is canned. Keep it going, Steven, you're doing some great work.

Nationals Fanboy Looser is probably my favorite all-around blog. Mike Harris brings communications experience (or at least I think he does) and combines it with his far-reaching sports knowledge for a very enjoyable read.

I really like Hendo's Hutch because Hendo and I seem to be on the same page a lot. Hendo rarely lets his emotions get the best of them and provides great insights.

Last, but certainly not least is The Nationals Enquirer. I appreciate the Enquirer so much more now that I'm away from school because it gives a ton of information on every game. And there's some pretty funny stuff there, too.

There are a ton of other great blogs out there (Japers' Rink, Get Rich Quickly, Nationals Journal, (the former) Capitol Punishment just to name a few) but these are the 5 that I automatically read every morning.

April and May Awards

I'm going to retroactively name Nationals' team awards for the months of April and May and then name them for every month for the rest of the year.

APRIL AWARDS
Cy Young Award
With a 2.64 ERA in his 5 starts, John Lannan takes the cake here. Lannan went 2-2 over those 5 starts and allowed a .239 batting average against. He had quality starts in 4 of his 5 games. The runner up is Tim Redding, who went 3-2 over the month with a 3.55 ERA in 6 starts.

Rolaids Relief Award
Sadly, I have to give this to Luis Ayala, as he is one of the two relievers (who threw more than like 4 innings) to have an ERA under 4. When your best reliever has an ERA of 3, it obviously was a rough month. Ayala's peripherals were actually pretty awful (8 K/7 BB over 15 IP, .268 batting average against), so it wasn't too difficult to imagine his implosion of late. The Tums Relief Award (aka the runner up) goes to Jon Rauch. While Colome and Hanrahan had better ERA's (3.68 and 4.30, respecitvely, to Rauch's 4.38), Rauch had a better WHIP (1.38 to both Colome and Hanrahan's 1.64) and a better K/BB ratio (11 K/2 BB to Colome's 17/12 and Hanrahan's 19/11).

Hank Aaron Award
It's gotta be Cristian Guzman. It's sad that over a month's time, the best hitter on your team hit .294/.322/.450. Guz led the team in hits with 32 (6 more than the next best, Zimmerman) and triples (2), was second to Lastings Milledge in doubles (8 to 7) and was tied for second on the team in HR (2), behind Nick Johnson's sadly pace setting 4. He led the team in runs (13) and was 4th in RBI (8). Nick Johnson gets the runner up, because he had a higher OPS. Too bad Johnson only had a .218 batting average.

Rookie of the Year
Lannan takes the cake again. No others to consider.

Gold Glove
Nick Johnson gets the win. Month-by-month fielding stats are impossible to find, but April is the month he played in most and he has a 1.000 fld% on the year. He saved a ton (thank you BRN for permanently removing the word "numerous" from my vocabulary) of errant throws from Flop, Zimmerman and Guz as well. No runner up, because it's impossible to find April fielding stats.

Most Valuable Player
I'll give it to Nick Johnson becuase he got the runner up for the Hank Aaron and won the Gold Glove. The runner up goes to Cristian Guzman.

Least Valuable Player
It's a tossup between Jason Bergmann (11.68 ERA in 12 and 1/3 innings pitched) and Austin Kearns (.161/.278/.247 in 93 AB's). We'll give it to Kearns because he had a more sustained period of suckiness.

MAY AWARDS
Cy Young Award
Jon Rauch and Jason Bergmann compete for this award for May, as Rauch was spectacular (0.63 ERA in 14 and 1/3 innings, 7/7 saves), and Bergmann rebounded from his runner up in May's LVP award with a 1.30 ERA in 4 starts. Since Rauch's success was over a longer period of time (Bergmann was in the minors for part of the month), We'll give Rauch the win and Bergmann the runner up.

Rolaids Relief Award
Rauch runs away with it, with Joel Hanrahan getting the runner up, with a 2.66 ERA and 21 strikeouts in 20 and 2/3 innings pitched.

Hank Aaron Award
It's down to Ryan Zimmerman and Cristian Guzman. I'll give it to Guzman again because his numbers have less holes in them. Zim did hit .289/.319/.511, while Guzman hit .316/.339/.487. Zim's K/BB ratio was pretty bad (15 K to 3 BB) whereas Guzman's was even (4 K to 4 BB).

Rookie of the Year
Goes to John Lannan again by default, although Kory Casto gets the runner up.
Gold Glove
It has to go to Elijah Dukes. He has only 1 error for the year, and he's been very impressive in RF over the last month or so. Jesus Flores gets the runner up.

Most Valuable Player
Has to be Guzman. He hit well and fielded well enough. Runner up goes to Zimmerman again. Jesus Flores would be in the running if he had more at bats.

Least Valuable Player
Give it to Luis Ayala (6.19 ERA in 16 innings), Jesus Colome (10.13 ERA in 8 innings) AND Felipe Lopez (.234/.297/.318)! YUCK!

OV=MVP!

Not that it is a huge surprise, but the Caps did pretty well at the NHL Awards shindig tonight, with Caps winning 3 out of the 4 awards they were nominated for.

Ovechkin won both the Hart (MVP) and the Pearson (most outstanding player as voted by the players themselves). Here's what the AP article had to say:

Ovechkin capped off a special season Thursday night by capturing the NHL’s two most prestigious individual awards. He won the Hart Trophy as league MVP and the Lester B. Pearson Award as the players’ choice for the most outstanding player.

According to Japers' Rink, Ovechkin got all but 6 of the 134 first place votes for the Hart and just about doubled the point total of second place finisher Evgeni Malkin (1313 to 659).

Bruce "Gabby" Boudreau won the Jack Adams Award as the NHL's top coach this year, narrowly defeating the Montreal Canadiens' head honcho Guy Carbonneauin total points 208 to 196, getting 31 of the 74 first place votes in the process.

Nicklas Backstrom got second in the Calder (Rookie of the Year) to Chicago's Patrick Kane, losing by 206 points (1078-872).

It was a good night for Washington DC hockey, especially when Ovechkin said this:

“I think I’m the happiest 22-year-old guy on the planet,” Ovechkin said. “I want to win everything, so next year maybe the Stanley Cup.”

“Next year I think we will be much better, and I can’t wait to see it start,” he said. “We love what we’re doing. We never give up, we believe in each other, we believe in the coach, we believe in everybody."

We believe in you too, Ovie!