BBA Player Awards

The Baseball Bloggers Alliance, also known as the BBA is a collection of Baseball blogs/sites that are unified together under one internet roof with the purpose of encouraging collaboration, cooporation, and communication, among Baseball writers across the internet. Lasorda’s Lair is a proud member of the BBA. At the end of each season, the BBA has their own awards in which they vote on the postseason awards. Each site gets one vote per editor, and can vote for both the National, and American leagues.

Today I will be casting my vote for the National League. I will be doing so with no bias whatsoever. No I’m not going to be voting for all Dodgers, as tempting as that sounds. There are five awards in each league. These aren’t exactly the same awards as MLB, but very similar. The awards are for the best manager, top reliever, top starting pitcher, best player, and top rookie. Here are my choices for the annual BBA postseason player awards.

Clayton Kershaw-Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Connie Mack award for best manager of the year– Clint Hurdle Pittsburgh

I thought that Hurdle deserved it the most, and Don Mattingly should receive some votes, as should Mike Matheny, but Hurdle deserves the prize. Hurdle led the Pirates to their first winning season, and postseason birth in 21 years. The Pirates finished with a 94-68 record, and claimed the top wild card spot in the National League. The Bucs were able to beat the Reds in the NL Wild Card game, but lost to the Cardinals in the NLDS in five games.

The Willie Mays Award for the top rookie of the year– Jose Fernandez– Miami

This was a tough one. You had Fernandez, and Harvey, Yasiel Puig, and Hyun-jin Ryu, and Evan Gattis all with great rookie campaigns. The top rookies were Fernandez, Harvey, and Puig. It was real close between Harvey,and Fernandez, but in the end I chose Fernandez. While Harvey had less walks, and a few more whiffs, Fernandez had a better HWIP, less hits and runs allowed, and a lower hits per nine rate. Fernandez finished the season with a 12-6 record, 2.19 ERA, and 187 whiffs in 172.2 innings pitched. The 21 year old Cuban right hander posted a 0.9 WHIP in 28 starts for a 100 loss team.

The Goose Gossage Award-Top Reliever of the year–Craig Kimbrel-Atlanta

This has to go to Craig Kimbrel. I love Kenley Jansen, and he was great this year, but Kimbrel was just a little bit tougher. Kimbrel finished with 50 saves, and a 1.21 ERA. The right hander allowed just ten runs the entire season, and whiffed 98 in 68 games. Kimbrel is definitely a closer extraordinaire.

The Walter Johnson Award-Top Starting Pitcher– Clayton Kershaw-Dodgers

This one is a no-brainer. Clayton Kershaw, is really all I have to say. Once again, he was the most dominating pitcher in all of Baseball. He finished 2013 with a 16-9 record, and a MLB best 1.83 ERA. He posted a career low 0.915 WHIP, and whiffed 232 in 236 innings. Kershaw the league in ERA, whiffs, WHIP, and ERA+. This will be Kershaw’s second cy young award.

The Stan Musial Awd-Top Player of the year– Paul Goldschmidt-Arizona

This was a tough one, but I had to give it to Goldschmidt. Honorable mentions go out to Andrew McCutchen, and Freddie Freeman. I really hate Goldschmidt, but I have to admit, he had the best year, so I have to give this to him. You see, I told you I was being impartial. Goldschmidt led the league in home runs (36), RBI (125), OPS (.952), and slugging (.551).

That’s all for this year’s BBA player awards, we’ll see you next year.