LINEUPS FOR THE 83^rd ALL-STAR GAME ANNOUNCED

Aces Verlander of the Tigers and Cain of the Giants Earn Starting Honors

KANSAS CITY, MO – The 2012 All-Star Game managers, Tony La Russa and Ron Washington of the Texas Rangers, have announced their starting lineups for the 83^rd Midsummer Classic, to be played on Tuesday at Kauffman Stadium.  The lineups were announced at this afternoon’s 2012 All-Star Game Press Conference.

La Russa’s National League lineup will be:

Washington’s American League lineup will be:

Cain, now a three-time N.L. All-Star, threw the first perfect game in Giants franchise history and the 22^nd of all-time on June 13^th against the Houston Astros.  His 14 strikeouts were tied for the most ever in a perfect game, matching Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax.  The eighth-year hurler, who has a 3.29 career ERA, threw 21.1 innings without allowing an earned run in the 2010 Postseason, helping lift the Giants to the city of San Francisco’s first World Series Championship.  Cain became the sixth pitcher in Major League history to make three starts in a Postseason without allowing an earned run.  His streak of 21.1 innings without allowing an earned run to start his Postseason career is the sixth longest in Major League history.  The durable right-hander has made at least 31 starts in each full season of his career (2006-2011).

Verlander, now a five-time A.L. All-Star, was both the 2011 American League Most Valuable Player and the 2011 A.L. Cy Young Award winner after going 24-5 with a 2.40 ERA, becoming the 10^th pitcher of all-time to win both in the same season and the first since Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley in 1992.  The Old Dominion product was also the A.L. Rookie of the Year in 2006, when he helped Detroit reach the World Series for the first time since 1984.  Verlander becomes the first pitcher ever to win an MVP, a Cy Young, the Rookie of the Year Award and to start an All-Star Game in his career.  Don Newcombe won the three awards but never started the Midsummer Classic in his four All-Star appearances.  Verlander owns a career record of 116-62 with a 3.45 ERA and has thrown two no-hitters in his career.  The Virginia native will become the seventh different Tigers pitcher to start the All-Star Game (10^th overall).

The 2012 All-Star Game will be played at Kauffman Stadium on Tuesday, July 10^th.  The 83^rd All-Star Game will be televised nationally by FOX Sports; in Canada by Rogers Sportsnet and RDS; and worldwide by partners in more than 200 countries via MLB International’s independent feed.  Pregame ceremonies will begin at 8:00 p.m. (ET)/7:00 p.m. (CT).  ESPN Radio and ESPN Radio Deportes will provide exclusive national radio coverage of the All-Star Game.  MLB Network, MLB.com and SiriusXM also will provide comprehensive All-Star Week coverage.

For more information, please visit allstargame.com or royals.com/2012.

ROYALS SIGN OUTFIELDER Alex Gordon TO A MULTI-YEAR CONTRACT
Four-Year Guaranteed Contract Also Includes Player Option for 2016

SURPRISE, AZ (March 30, 2012) — The Kansas City Royals today announced the club has reached an agreement on a multi-year contract with outfielder Alex Gordon.  The contract includes four guaranteed years through the 2015 season, then a player option for the 2016 campaign.  Consistent with club policy, financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The 28-year-old Gordon won both the Les Milgram Royals Player of the Year as well as his first Rawlings Gold Glove Award in 2011.  He batted .303 (185-for-611) with 45 doubles, four triples, 23 home runs, 87 RBI and 101 runs scored in 151 games for Kansas City.  Gordon was one of five players in the Major Leagues to post a greater than .300 average, 45 or more doubles and 20 or more home runs, joining the Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera, the Red Sox’ Jacoby Ellsbury and Adrian Gonzalez, and the Yankees’ Robinson Cano.  In his first full season as a full-time outfielder, he led the Majors with 20 outfield assists, also setting a single-season franchise record.

The Royals’ first-round selection (second overall) in 2005 out of the University of Nebraska, Gordon and his wife, Jamie, reside in Lincoln, Neb., with their one-year-old son, Max.

2011 Greatness In Baseball Yearly Award Winners Named
Freese Takes Two of World Series Champion Cardinals’ Four GIBBYs

NEW YORK & SECAUCUS, December 16, 2011 – The winners of the 2011 Greatness in Baseball Yearly (GIBBY) Awards were unveiled tonight on MLB Network and MLB.com during a show hosted by MLB Network’s Greg Amsinger and Mitch Williams. David Freese of the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals was the only multiple award winner, as he earned Postseason MVP and top Postseason Moment for his dramatic game-tying, ninth-inning triple in Game 6 of the 2011 World Series.

In addition to the Cardinals, four other Clubs claimed multiple GIBBY winners, including the Arizona Diamondbacks (Kirk Gibson, Manager of the Year; Ian Kennedy, Breakout Player of the Year); Detroit Tigers (Justin Verlander, Starting Pitcher of the Year; Jose Valverde, Closer of the Year); New York Yankees (David Robertson, Setup Man of the Year; Robinson Cano, Wow Factor of the Year; Derek Jeter, Performance of the Year); and Tampa Bay Rays (Dan Johnson, Moment of the Year; Evan Longoria, Walk-Off of the Year).

This year’s winners of the GIBBY Awards – the ultimate trophies honoring the best players and must-see moments from the 2011 Major League Baseball season – were determined through a comprehensive six-week voting process (Oct. 29-Dec. 4) that included national and local media members, Major League Club front office personnel, former Major League players and online fan balloting at MLB.com. Over the past four seasons, fans have cast more than 40 million online votes for the 19 categories, none of which were restricted to individual League affiliation. A complete list of 2011 winners and highlights can be found at MLB.com/GIBBYs.

QUOTES FROM THE 2011 GIBBY AWARDS SHOW
GIBSON – “I’d like to thank all the fans and everybody who voted for me for Manager of the Year. It’s an exceptional honor for me, being a rookie manager. … It’s exemplary of why we all get up and play the game hard with dedication, and do it the right way every day.”

KENNEDY – “I’d like to thank everyone who voted for me for this award. It’s an honor. Every one of those guys is deserving and had great years. I’d like to thank my teammates for putting me in this position to win this award.”

JOHN MOZELIAK (Executive of the Year) – “I’d like to thank everyone who voted for me on this award. It’s a great honor, and I take a lot of pride in being recognized in this. … There are so many great people who work in our front office who deserve credit for this award. I’m honored and humbled by this. I also want to recognize our ownership that gives us so much support throughout the year.”

Ben Revere (Play of the Year) – “I just want to say thank you to the fans who voted for me, to the Minnesota Twins faithful, and to MLB.com and MLB Network for allowing me to accept this honor.”

ROBERTSON – “This is a huge honor. This is one of those things I didn’t expect to win.”

ROYALS OUTFIELDER ALEX GORDON NAMED

2011 LES MILGRAM PLAYER OF THE YEAR

photo by Minda Haas

Kansas City, MO (November 2, 2011) – The Kansas City Royals have announced that outfielder Alex Gordon has been named the 2011 Les Milgram Player of the Year. The award was voted on by the Kansas City Chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA).

Gordon, 27, was a standout both offensively and defensively for the Royals in 2011 to earn his first career Les Milgram Player of Year. Last night, he won his first career Rawlings Gold Glove in his first full season in left field.

Offensively, Gordon set career highs in every category, batting .303 with 45 doubles, four triples, 23 home runs, 87 RBI, 101 runs scored and 17 stolen bases. Gordon ranked 10^th in the American League in batting while placing tied for sixth in the Majors in doubles, tied for sixth in the league in extra-base hits (72), eighth in hits and total bases (307), 10^th in runs and tied for 10^th in multi-hit games (50). He was one of five players in baseball with at least a .300 average, 45 doubles and 20 home runs, joining the Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera, the Red Sox’ Jacoby Ellsbury and Adrian Gonzalez, and the Yankees’ Robinson Cano.

Defensively, the Royals’ first round selection (second overall) in 2005 led the Majors and set a Royals record with 20 outfield assists. He became the fifth outfielder in the Majors since 1969 to post at least 20 outfield assists while committing three errors or less. The Gold Glove was the 19^th all-time in franchise history and the first since second baseman Mark Grudzielanek in 2006.

The Royals announced yesterday that first baseman Eric Hosmer won the 2011 Joe Burke Special Achievement award. The 2011 Bruce Rice Pitcher of the Year will be revealed tomorrow.

KEMP UNANIMOUS PICK FOR NL Stan Musial AWARD
Bautista holds off Ellsbury in American League

There were some outstanding performances this year in Major League Baseball. However, one clearly stood out from the pack.

Los Angeles Dodger outfielder Matt Kemp was named the National League Stan Musial Award winner for 2011 in voting held by the Baseball Bloggers Alliance. Kemp received all 15 first place votes and completely dominated the rest of the voting field like he did in putting up almost a 40 HR/40 SB season for the Dodgers this year.

Coming in a distant second was Milwaukee outfielder Ryan Braun, who garnered most of the second place votes from the group. Braun’s teammate, first baseman Prince Fielder, came in third.

Interestingly enough, even though Los Angeles pitcher Clayton Kershaw outpointed Philadelphia hurler Roy Halladay in the BBA’s Walter Johnson Award voting for best pitcher, Halladay received more points for the Stan Musial Award.

Over in the American League, there were more ballots cast, perhaps due to a more intriguing race. When the dust had settled, though, Toronto’s Jose Bautista had held off Boston’s Jacoby Ellsbury by a handful of points.

Bautista received eleven of the 22 first place votes and 225 total points, while Ellsbury received five first place selections and 200 points overall. Detroit Tiger first baseman Miguel Cabrera came in third with 183 points and three first place nods. He was followed by two of his Detroit teammates, including Walter Johnson Award winner Justin Verlander.

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

American League
Jose Bautista, Toronto (11) 225
Jacoby Ellsbury, Boston (5) 200
Miguel Cabrera, Detroit (3) 183
Curtis Granderson, Detroit (1) 135
Justin Verlander, Detroit (2) 126
Adrian Gonzalez, Boston 109
Dustin Pedroia, Boston 68
Robinson Cano, New York 55
Ian Kinsler, Texas 35
Michael Young, Texas 28
Evan Longoria, Tampa Bay 25
Alex Gordon, Kansas City 20
CC Sabathia, New York 13
Paul Konerko, Chicago 12
Adrian Beltre, Texas 10
Alex Avila, Detroit 8
Jered Weaver, Los Angeles of Anaheim 6
Ben Zobrist, Tampa Bay 6
Mike Napoli, Texas 4
James Shields, Tampa Bay 3
Victor Martinez, Cleveland 2
David Oritz, Boston 2
Melky Cabrera, Kansas City 1

National League
Matt Kemp, Los Angeles (15) 195
Ryan Braun, Milwaukee 134
Prince Fielder, Milwaukee 83
Joey Votto, Cincinnati 79
Justin Upton, Arizona 77
Roy Halladay, Philadelphia 49
Troy Tulowitski, Colorado 49
Albert Pujols, St. Louis 46
Jose Reyes, New York 42
Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles 31
Lance Berkman, St. Louis 28
Dan Uggla, Atlanta 14
Pablo Sandoval, San Francisco 13
Cliff Lee, Philadelphia 11
Hunter Pence, Philadelphia 6
Michael Morse, Washington 5
Brandon Phillips, Cincinnati 3
Ian Kennedy, Arizona 2
Andrew McCutchen, Pittsburgh 2
Carlos Gonzalez, Colorado 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 13-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 point scale for first through tenth 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
Advanced Fantasy Baseball (Fantasy)
Baltimore Life and Sports (Baltimore)
The Bat Shatters (Minnesota)
The Blue Jay Hunter (Toronto)
Boston Red Thoughts (Boston)*
Camden Crazies (Baltimore)
Contract Year (Oakland)*
Detroit Tigers Scorecard Blog (Detroit)
The Flagrant Fan (General)
Kings of Kauffman (Kansas City)*
Lady At The Bat (New York)
Misc. Baseball (History)
The Next Level Ballplayer (Other)
Seattle Mariners Musings (Seattle)
Some Thoughts On Baseball (Toronto)
Tigers Amateur Analysis (Detroit)
The Tribe Daily (Cleveland)*
Twins On Twins (Minnesota)

National League
Advanced Fantasy Baseball (Fantasy)
Appy Astros (Houston)
Blog Red Machine (Cincinnati)
Cincinnati Reds Blog (Cincinnati)
Dugger Sports (Philadelphia)
The Flagrant Fan (General)
Fungoes (St. Louis)
Misc. Baseball (History)
The Next Level Ballplayer (Other)
North Side Notch (Pittsburgh)
Phils Baseball (Philadelphia)
Rockies Woman (Colorado)
22 Gigantes (San Francisco)
Where Have You Gone, Andy Van Slyke? (Pittsburgh)

Prior Winners: 2010: Josh Hamilton, Texas; Joey Votto, Cincinnati
2009: Joe Mauer, Minnesota; Albert Pujols, St. Louis

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.

This graphic was designed by Lorena O’Neal, you can check out more of
her work here.

Source:http://www.sportsmanagementcolleges.net

Outfielders Jose Bautista of the Toronto Blue Jays and Matt Kemp from the Los Angeles Dodgers led their respective leagues in balloting for Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game as conducted by members of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance and announced today.

Bautista, who has an American League-leading 1.133 OPS to go along with his 24 home runs, was named on 50 ballots, not including one ballot that placed him at third base. Bautista was joined in the outfield by Curtis Granderson of the New York Yankees, who received 48 votes, and Jacoby Ellsbury of the Boston Red Sox, who tallied 23 votes.

There were few close races in the AL voting by the BBA. The tightest was at third base, where Yankee Alex Rodriguez outpolled Adrian Beltre of the Texas Rangers 30-16. All other races were decided by at least twenty votes save the nod for starting pitcher. Detroit Tigers ace Justin Verlander won that 16-6 over Jered Weaver of the Los Angeles Angels, but many bloggers did not designate a specific starter so fewer votes were cast in that category.

Other American League nods were to Tigers catcher Alex Avila, first baseman Adrian Gonzalez of the Boston Red Sox, Yankee second baseman Robinson Cano, and shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera of the Cleveland Indians. Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz was selected at that position.

Over in the National League, Kemp’s stellar first half–he sits second in batting average, first in home runs, second in RBI and has 21 stolen bases to boot–earned him mention on 54 ballots. Accompanying him in the outfield was Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers and Lance Berkman of the St. Louis Cardinals.

As in the junior circuit, the closest race in the NL was at the hot corner. Philadelphia Phillies third baseman Placido Polanco edged out Chase Headley of the San Diego Padres 21-14, with Atlanta Brave Chipper Jones receiving 10 votes.

The other races were not a contest, as Braves catcher Brian McCann, Brewers first baseman Prince Fielder and second baseman Rickie Weeks, and New York Mets shortstop Jose Reyes all won their slots by at least 25 votes.

Starting the contest for the NL was Roy Halladay, who easily outpolled his Philadelphia teammate Cole Hamels for the honor.

The Baseball Bloggers Alliance was formed in 2009 with the purpose of encouraging collaboration and communication among bloggers from across baseball. As a secondary goal, they vote on various awards throughout the year. In January, they recommended Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven for the Baseball Hall of Fame and in March, they created a new award to honor the top internet writer and then named it after the first recipient, Sports Illustrated’s Joe Posnanski. You can find the BBA at their website or on Facebook. You can follow the Alliance at @baseballblogs on Twitter or via the hashtag #BBBA.