Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - 2003 Internet Baseball Awards

2003 Internet Baseball Awards

The real 2003 individual awards - the ones voted on by all the fans, not some small group of ancient writers - have been announced. These are the 2003 Internet Baseball Awards.

Despite requiring that people register with Baseball Prospectus in order to vote (BOOOOOOOO...), the IBAs still drew over 1,600 voters this year, once again giving a good cross-section of MLB's hard-core fandom around the world. None of the votes was a tremendous surprise, and only one was really close, but as always the fans have done a far better job than we will see from any other source this year. It goes to show you... you can get some pretty stifling groupthink from 30 writers, or from ten guys around a table deciding the Sporting News awards or whatever, but it's awfully hard to poll 1,600 people and claim you didn't get a fair shot.

The winners:

AL Most Valuable Player Alex Rodriguez
AL Cy Young Award Roy Halladay
AL Rookie of the Year Angel Berroa
AL Manager of the Year Tony Peña

NL Most Valuable Player Barry Bonds
NL Cy Young Award Mark Prior
NL Rookie of the Year Brandon Webb
NL Manager of the Year Jack McKeon

A number of Blue Jays appeared in the voting... Carlos Delgado finished 2nd in the AL MVP race, with Roy Halladay finishing 10th and Vernon Wells 13th. First-half Jay Shannon Stewart was 17th. Meanwhile, Cory Lidle (in 62nd place) appears to have got a couple of Bizarro World votes. Kelvim Escobar finished 85th and Greg Myers 96th.

In the AL Cy Young race, Roy Halladay was the well-deserved winner, with 746 first-place votes to 392 for Pedro Martinez. A wag appears to have marked his ballot for Kelvim Escobar, Aquilino Lopez, Jason Kershner, Trever Miller, and Cliff Politte.

Two Jays finished well in the AL Rookie of the Year voting, as Reed Johnson and Aquilino Lopez finished 9th and 10th respectively. Jason Kershner even appeared on three ballots, while someone in Mark Hendrickson's family appears to have voted as well - even his mother could put him no higher than third, though.

Finally, Carlos Tosca came 7th in AL Manager of the Year balloting, appearing on 239 ballots.

Warm Batter's Box ongratulations to all the winners, especially Roy Halladay.

Posted by Craig B on Friday, October 24 2003 @ 03:11 AM EDT.

2003 Internet Baseball Awards | 22 comments | Create New Account

The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.

Pistol - Friday, October 24 2003 @ 03:16 PM EDT (#87157) #

I too no longer pay attention to the baseball writers, especially the AL voters. Plus, it's nice to get a vote.

I think I voted for all the winners (although it's possible I voted Schmidt over Prior).

Did the Batter Box major & minor league POTY award ever get announced?

Coach - Friday, October 24 2003 @ 03:16 PM EDT (#87158) #

My thread was first, Craig, but yours is better. :)

Craig B - Friday, October 24 2003 @ 03:28 PM EDT (#87159) #

CRAP! Sorry Coach, just noticed it now.

Pepper Moffatt - Friday, October 24 2003 @ 03:50 PM EDT (#87160) #

http://economics.about.com
You could always change one of them to a thread about the 6 year free agents list on Baseball America. There's some interesting names in there.

No Termel Sledge, though. Sorry Craig.

Mike

Coach - Friday, October 24 2003 @ 03:53 PM EDT (#87161) #

Great minds think alike, Craig, but we didn't need two, so I closed the other post.

The surprise to me wasn't Bonds beating Pujols, but the margin of victory. I thought they would each get about 700 first-place votes, but Barry was over 1,200 and Albert under 200.

Let's hope the writers agree with us and Doc gets the Cy Young hardware he so richly deserves.

_Ryan - Friday, October 24 2003 @ 04:01 PM EDT (#87162) #

From the other thread before it was closed:

Someone voted for ex-Jay Alex Gonzalez as NL MVP, and Pete Munro got a Cy Young vote.

That was me on both of those. Ryan Freel (the only Blue Jay ever named Ryan) was also my choice for the Rookie of the Year, and I was one of the four jokers who gave Jeff Torborg a vote for Manager of the Year.

Yes, they were silly choices, but not much worse than the ones the real BBWAA voters often make.

_Spicol - Friday, October 24 2003 @ 04:16 PM EDT (#87163) #

You could always change one of them to a thread about the 6 year free agents list on Baseball America.

I just skimmed the list. Brad Clontz caught my eye. Brent Butler.

_Zwick - Friday, October 24 2003 @ 04:17 PM EDT (#87164) #

How is Jeff Torborg getting 4 first place votes for NL manager of the year?

Pepper Moffatt - Friday, October 24 2003 @ 04:21 PM EDT (#87165) #

http://economics.about.com

I just skimmed the list. Brad Clontz caught my eye. Brent Butler.

Me too. Travis Driskill would be an interesting follow up to Josh Towers on the steal-an-Oriole trend.

Esix Snead is one of the "interesting names", but I don't think the Jays will be picking him up.

Mike

_Steve Z - Friday, October 24 2003 @ 04:28 PM EDT (#87166) #

Is that the Juan Guzman, on the Orioles' list??!

Craig B - Friday, October 24 2003 @ 04:36 PM EDT (#87167) #

Steve, that's him. He was playing all the way down in the Sally League this year, with Delmarva, and actually did pretty well, but at 36...

_Mike B - Friday, October 24 2003 @ 04:55 PM EDT (#87168) #

How about the Jays trying to re-sign Thurman and Jimmy Alvarez? I sort of understand not having Alvarez on the 40-man, particularly if Adams, Sequea and Rich are in Syracuse next year. However, to me Thurman has just shown too much potential to be discarded so hastily. Surely he's worthy of a spot on the 40-man roster. I'm sure by leaving Thurman off of the 40-man, we're going to see a situation like last year where the Jays lost Lyon (who proved tradeable by Boston before Pittsburgh sent him back) and Ford (who didn't embarrass himself as a rule V'er and surely has a lot of potential for Milwaukee). Oh, by the way, Ford and Lyon were left exposed due to the necessity to protect Diegomar "don't steal my wallet, Coco" Markwell who can be seen on this year's 6 year FA list.

Gitz - Friday, October 24 2003 @ 04:59 PM EDT (#87169) #

Craig, I think we should qualify this a bit: the people who voted on these awards are people who elected to vote; it is no less scientific than 30 writers who are reguired to vote, even if the sample size goes up to 1600. Plus, the group is hardly random. Prospectus draws a fairly erudite crowd (which makes me wonder why I paid up). I think it's fair to say the "average fan" was left out of this ballot, as well.

Whatever the case, it's hard to argue with any of the winners, even though I prefer Hudson over Halladay, but that is perhaps sentiment more than anything. It's awfully close between Roy, EL, and Huddy.

_Donkit R.K. - Friday, October 24 2003 @ 05:21 PM EDT (#87170) #

I agree wholeheartedly with the results, except the AL MVP. I don't have a clear cut pick for the award, but I can't be brought to pick a guy from a non playoff team, that didn't at least contend for a spot in October. My vote, if I had to, would come down to Posada and Boone.

Pistol - Friday, October 24 2003 @ 06:37 PM EDT (#87171) #

Yes, they were silly choices, but not much worse than the ones the real BBWAA voters often make

That's the standard you want to hold yourself to?

The way I look at, if you don't like the BBWAA voting you should make a point of really voting how you think it should be.

_Ryan - Friday, October 24 2003 @ 06:44 PM EDT (#87172) #

I usually take the Internet Baseball Awards seriously (with the occasional fun pick at the bottom of my ballot), but this year I decided to be a total crackpot when it came to the N.L. voting. My choices in the A.L. were more realistic.

Thomas - Friday, October 24 2003 @ 10:10 PM EDT (#87173) #

I still believe Gagne deserves the Cy, but I know not many in the community do.

There are a few interesting names on the six-year minor league FA list. A few former legitimate prospects like Brad Baisley and Steve Lomasney have completely fallen by the wayside, and aren't worth our time, but someone will probably sign them based on the name.

There are some guys worht signing. I'd like to see Thurman, Bowles and Alvarez back, to name three. I'm suprised to see Thurman let go like that when he's only 24.

Billy Sylvester and Eric Cammack are two guys that strike out a lot of batters, have control problems and don't give up many hits. Mike Bacsik could be worth taking a flyer on. Matt Montgomery pitched pretty well at AA Norwich and decently at AAA Fresno, and Josue Matos had a really good year at AA last year for Seattle and he's 26, but again, potentially worth taking a chance on.

Those are just a few names that pop out at me when I scanned the lsit.

_Jurgen - Saturday, October 25 2003 @ 02:36 AM EDT (#87174) #

I still think Pujols is the MVP. But apparently only me, Robert Dudek, and 193 other people agree.

_Jurgen - Saturday, October 25 2003 @ 02:41 AM EDT (#87175) #

Fortunately, that's still more than the number of people who think Dusty Baker in the Manager of the Year.

I only hope there isn't much overlap.

_peteski - Saturday, October 25 2003 @ 02:34 PM EDT (#87176) #

How does Gagne not get the NL Cy Young award? I know Prior and Schmidt did very well, but Gagne was rediculous. He had a 1.20 ERA, which is over a run better than Schmidt's 2.34 and Prior's 2.43. His 0.69 WHIP was much better than Schmidt's 0.95 and Prior's 1.10. And of course, he didn't blow a save all year and had that nonsensical strikeouts per nine innings ratio of 14.98. I understand that he had much less innings, but if Schmidt's or Prior's ratios were even close to Gagne's I would understand, but Gagne's stats are far and away better. If you were ever going to give a Cy to a reliever then you have to give it to Gagne, and it seems unfair to say that a reliever should never win it.

Mike Green - Wednesday, October 29 2003 @ 10:53 AM EST (#87177) #

Baseball Prospectus just posted its writer's ballots: http://premium.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=2438. No real surprises, and I concur completely with the consensus.

I found Clay Davenport's explanation for selecting Todd Helton over Albert Pujols (for 2nd in the MVP race) interesting even if I disagree. Can't say that I agree that Helton's defence is that overwhelmingly good, but his comments about Pujols' defence may very well be right. FYI, Robert and Jurgen.

Craig B - Wednesday, October 29 2003 @ 11:23 AM EST (#87178) #

Clay Davenport's explanation for selecting Todd Helton over Albert Pujols (for 2nd in the MVP race) interesting

However good Helton's defense has been in the past, I thought he had a noticeable decline this year. I think the back is causing him some problems in the field. And he made a lot of errors. But if, in fact, Helton's defense was as good as it has been in the past, I think calling him an MVP is quite defensible. That's why we take a vote!

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