BBA Selects Kimbrel, Valverde For Goose Gossage Award

In earlier voting this postseason by the Baseball Bloggers Alliance, Atlanta Braves closer Craig Kimbrel won the Willie Mays Award for top rookie handily while the American League race for that award was much tighter. With the Goose Gossage Award, handed out to the best reliever, Kimbrel got to see how the other half lives, at least somewhat.

Kimbrel beat Milwaukee’s John Axford by 13 points in the votes submitted by the National League voters of the Alliance, accumulating 78 points and garnering 12 first place votes. Axford, on the other hand, received 65 points on the strength of seven first place selections. Kimbrel’s bullpen teammate Johnny Venters was a very distant third with nine total points.

The race in the American League was a little more anti-climatic as Detroit closer Jose Valverde gained 13 first place votes on his way to a league-leading 74 point total. Two New York Yankees followed him in the voting, with Mariano Rivera receiving four first place votes and 56 total points while David Robertson gained 39 points for third.

The complete voting results are as follows (first place votes in parenthesis):

American League
Jose Valverde, Detroit (13) 74
Mariano Rivera, New York (4) 56
David Robertson, New York (3) 39
Jonathan Papelbon, Boston (1) 21
Koji Uehara, Texas (1) 6
Alfredo Acevas, Boston (1) 5
Neftali Feliz, Texas 2
Greg Holland, Kansas City 2
Chris Perez, Cleveland 2
Brandon League, Seattle 1
Vinnie Pestano, Cleveland 1

National League
Craig Kimbrel, Atlanta (12) 78
John Axford, Milwaukee (7) 65
Johnny Venters, Atlanta (1) 9
Joel Hanrahan, Pittsburgh 8
JJ Putz, Arizona 7
Sean Marshall, Chicago 6
Heath Bell, San Diego 3
Tyler Clippard, Washington 3
Sergio Romo, San Francisco 1

The Baseball Bloggers Alliance was formed in the fall of 2009 to encourage cooperation and collaboration between baseball bloggers of all major league teams as well as those that follow baseball more generally. As of this writing, the organization consists of 316 blogs spanning all 30 major league squads as well as general baseball writing.

The BBA is organized under a similar structure as the Baseball Writers of America, where blogs that follow the same team are combined into “chapters” and only two votes from the chapter on an award are counted. The blog chapters that are focused on general baseball were allowed two votes as well, which they could use both on the same league or split between the two leagues.

Chapters generally followed one of two methods when casting their ballot. Either representatives of the chapter were given the ballots for voting or a “group ballot” was posted, accounting for both of their votes.

Notably, though the Alliance’s awards come out well before their official counterparts, the BBA selections have matched those of the Baseball Writers of America in all but two instances in the past two years. This, of course, does not include the Goose Gossage Award that is exclusive to the BBA.

Ballots are posted on the respective blogs and for this award, were tabulated on a 5-3-1 point scale for first through third place. In the interest of transparency, links are given below for the ballots. Chapter affiliation is in parenthesis. Those chapters that decided on the group method are noted with an asterisk.

American League
Baltimore Sports and Life (Baltimore)
Baseball Is My Boyfriend (Texas)*
Baseball North (Toronto)
Boston Red Thoughts (Boston)*
Contract Year (Oakland)*
The Flagrant Fan (General)
Kings of Kauffman (Kansas City)*
Lady At The Bat (New York)
Misc. Baseball (History)
Motor City Bengals (Detroit)
North Dakota Twins Fan (Minnesota)
The Rays Rant (Tampa Bay)
Seattle Mariners Musings (Seattle)
Seedlings To Stars (Other)
Some Thoughts On Baseball (Toronto)
Tigers Amateur Analysis (Detroit)
The Tribe Daily (Cleveland)*
Twins On Twins (Minnesota)

National League
Appy Astros (Houston)
Blog Red Machine (Cincinnati)
Cincinnati Reds Blog (Cincinnati)
Dugger Sports (Philadelphia)
The Eddie Kranepool Society (New York)*
The Flagrant Fan (General)
Misc. Baseball (History)
On The Outside Corner (St. Louis)
Phils Baseball (Philadelphia)
Prose and Ivy (Chicago)*
Raise The Jolly Roger (Pittsburgh)
RJ’s Fro (San Diego)
Rockies Woman (Colorado)
22 Gigantes (San Francisco)
Victoria Seals Baseball Blog (Other)
Websoulsurfer (San Diego)
Where Have You Gone, Andy Van Slyke? (Pittsburgh)

Prior Winners: 2010: Rafael Soriano, Tampa Bay; Brian Wilson, San Francisco

The official website of the BBA is located atbaseballbloggersalliance.wordpress.com. The BBA can be found on Twitter by the handle @baseballblogs and by the hashmark #bbba. For more information, contact Daniel Shoptaw at founder@baseballbloggersalliance.com.

Worst WPA plays of the first half:

3. -53% WPA • Matt Holliday home run vs. Greg Holland

June 18 • Royals 4 @ Cardinals 5

Greg Holland has been nothing short of fantastic this year, but he shows up on this list for yielding a two-run homer to Matt Holliday that put the Cards ahead for good in the game.

2. -66% WPA • Torii Hunter home run vs. Joakim Soria

May 30 • Angels 10 @ Royals 8

In Soria’s third and final blown save of the first half, he squandered a one run lead with a single to Bobby Abreu followed by a two run shot by Hunter

1. -68% WPA • Carlos Quentin double vs. Joakim Soria

April 6 • White Sox 10 @ Royals 7

Heading into the top of the 9th, the Royals lead 6-3 and bring in Mr. Automatic, Joakim Soria. Soria retires the first two batters, at which point the Royals win expectancy rounds up to 100%. The game is over. But then Juan Pierre singles…and Gordon Beckham walks…and Alex Rios singles…and Paul Konerko singles….and in the biggest WPA swing of the Royals first half, Carlos Quentin hits a two-run double to give the White Sox the lead and a staggering 68% increase in win expectancy for the Sox.

Best WPA plays of the first half:

3. +44% WPA • Eric Hosmer home run vs. Neftali Feliz

May 18 • Rangers 5 @ Royals 4

I would not expect to see a Royals loss in this list, but here it is. The Royals trailed by a run in the top of the ninth when Hos hit his third career dinger to tie things up, but KC dropped the game in the 11th.

2. +47% • Melky Cabrera single vs. Chris Perez

April 21 • Indians 2 @ Royals 3

This hit finished off a nightmare ninth inning for Indians hurler Chris Perez and a walk off win for the Royals.

1. +52% WPA • Wilson Betemit double vs. Fernando Rodney

April 3 • Angels 9 @ Royals 12

This was the fourth game of the season and one of many big plays in a crazy opening week. Betemit’s double scored two runs to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth; ironically, Matt Traenor’s walk-off homer in the 11th was not quite as big of a play by WPA (+39%).

The St. Louis Cardinals called up Matt Carpenter and Mark Hamilton before Friday night’s tilt against the Chicago Cubs. That pushes the number of Minor League call-ups to four this week alone. The active 25-man roster now contains 16 players who were drafted/signed and developed by the Cardinals, and a couple others (Mitchell Boggs, Kyle McClellan) figure to be back in short order. And the Cards remain in first place, having just lost their first series since mid-April.

The bad news, of course, is that this influx is partially necessary because of injuries to key players like Adam Wainwright before the season started and Nick Punto, Matt Holliday, Gerald Laird, and David Freese currently. But those four will return at some point this season, and the experience their Baby Bird replacements gain now will only serve them and the franchise well.

The knock on the Cards’ farm system has always been that aside from guys like Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina, and Colby Rasmus, the Minor League ranks lacked true star-producing power. Recently, players like Brett Wallace and Chris Perez had to be moved elsewhere—sometimes, as in the case of Wallace, multiple times—before they could make the leap to Major League success. And there are some high-ceiling bright spots in the system now; Shelby Miller, Carlos Martinez, and Zack Cox come to mind. But everyone else projected as a role player, or a back-of-the-rotation/bullpen pitcher.

Surprisingly enough, those were exactly the types of players the Cardinals have needed in 2011. It never seemed right that baseball people would rank the Cards’ farm system in the lower third of Major League Baseball, but then the Memphis Redbirds would win their league championship. Something didn’t add up. And now it seems the answer is clear: even though the Cardinals’ Minor Leaguers lacked star power and name recognition, they still have Major League skills and know how to win as a team.

Obviously not every call-up this season has been crazy good, and it’s probably unrealistic to expect Allen Craig to continue to hit around .350 with a .970-ish OPS for four more months. But this team, as a whole, continues to battle adversity while numerous veteran stars are on the DL and a couple more (Pujols, Chris Carpenter, Ryan Franklin) continue to search for their groove more than two months into the season.

And perhaps some of the success of these players can be attributed to the environment. They have been thrust into a situation of being on a Major League team in first place in the division with a couple of teams in hot pursuit. Not exactly getting called up to the Baltimore Orioles in September, is it? That’s not to say prospects affiliated with bad teams dog it when they get the call-up. But coming into a situation where they are playing for a team in contention certainly ratchets up the stakes a bit.

As summer weather bears down on Cardinal Nation, the baseball mentality will heat up in parallel. It will be interesting to see what, if any, moves the front office makes as the trade deadline approaches. Because it goes without saying this Cardinals team has needs, and the blockbuster trade always captivates the fan base. But no one should be ashamed of this franchise’s minor league depth. What they lack in star power and name recognition, they make up for with the ability to win. And that bodes well for the St. Louis Cardinals both now and in the future.

Chris Reed also writes for InsideSTL Mondays and Bird Brained whenever he wants. Follow him on Twitter @birdbrained.

The excellent website, Royals Treatment, provides I-70 Baseball with series previews this season for the Kansas City Royals games. Kansas City travels to Texas to take on the defending American League Champion Texas Rangers in The Ballpark In Arlington.

The Melk-man delivered again with a clutch game-tying & go-ahead RBI single off astound Indians closer Chris Perez on Thursday night inching the Royals that much closer to the division lead. They now travel deep into Texas for a series with the reigning AL Champion Rangers! :

Fri. Apr. 22. 7:05 pm CT - Jeff Francis (0-1, 3.00) v. Derek Holland (2-1, 3.66)

Sat. Apr. 23. 7:05 pm CT – Kyle Davies (1-1, 7.20) v. Alexi Ogando (2-0, 2.33)

Sun. Apr. 24. 2:05 pm CT – Bruce Chen (3-0, 2.42) v. C.J. Wilson (2-0, 3.08)

This series features a pair of tremendous left-handed pitching duels, sandwiched around a date with an elite rookie Rangers flamethrower in Ogando. The ball flies out of The Ballpark at Arlington so regardless of who’s on the mound, plentiful amounts of runs should still be put on the board.

You can read the remainder of the series preview by clicking here.