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Colorado Rockies This Year in Baseball awards
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Tulo was nominated twice. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
MLB.com has a list of various awards that they are looking to the fan to vote on, they call it “This Year in Baseball Awards”. The Rockies make a few appearances among these awards and the fans are going to have to work overtime to get the Rockies the awards.
Here are the various awards. I will touch on who I would vote for and which Rockies are in the running, if any.
Best Hitter: Has to be Albert Pujols. Plain and simple, he was the best hitter in baseball this year, hands down.
Best Starting Pitcher: I give my vote to Zack Greinke. Lowest ERA among all the starters listed, third in K’s and fourth in WHIP. He racked up 16 wins on an awful Kansas City team and I think his first 35 or so innings of 2009 were run free.
Rookie of the Year: This is a tough category, but I give my vote to Gordon Beckham on the south side of Chicago. No Dexter Fowler or Carlos Gonzalez for the Rockies fans to vote for. An argument could be made for J.A. Happ, Tommy Hanson and Rick Porcello too, all very good first year pitchers.
Manager of the Year: Has to be Jim Tracy, has to be. I don’t even think there is a close second. Joe Girardi? Terry Francona? Mike Scioscia? Joe Torre? Teams that all were expected to be good and the manager just didn’t get in the way too much. Tracy on the other hand took a team in the dumps and took them to the playoffs.
Top Closer: Very surprised to not see Huston Street here. He had a very worthy year, much better than ex-Rockie Brian Fuentes and his seven blow saves and ERA just under 4.00. Of the limited options provided I give my vote to Mariano Rivera. He just keeps plugging away.
Top Setup Man: What a boring category. I can’t believe they actually list “Holds” as a stat. Pitcher X enters the game with a one run lead and he proceeds to load the bases without recording an out and gets pulled for pitcher Y. Pitcher Y gives up a base hit and two runs score. Pitcher X still gets a hold because he left the game with his team still in the lead. Horrid stat. I just know I wouldn’t vote for Carlos Marmol, he was horrid this year.
Top Defensive Player: Troy Tulowitzki makes the list and he gets my vote. Call me a homer. I would certainly sit and listen to arguments for Yadier Molina, Michael Bourn and Jacoby Ellsbury though. Molina is in a class by himself and Bourn and Ellsbury cover so much ground in the outfield it seems like nothing drops around them unless it is in the seats. After watching Tulo all year and the range and gun he carries to the field, he gets my vote.
Where as the Top Setup Man is boring, these next few are fun.
Top Performance: Mark Buehrle gets my vote for his game of perfection. Tulo makes this list too, with his 5-for-5 game and the cycle on August 10th. However, I still think it should have been a double with an error charges to Alfonso Soriano. I find it hard to vote against a pitcher who faced the minimum 27 batters in a nine inning game.
Top Play: There are some really good options like Carl Crawford’s robbery of Brad Hawpe in the All Star game or the Angels middle infield making an acrobatic play or Eric Bruntlett’s triple play. Out of all of these I vote for Joe Mauer and his deke against the Yankees to get the runner at the plate. That was simply amazing.
Top Moment: Derek Jeter? Please, so he has more hits than Rusty Staub, Al Oliver and Tony Perez, big deal. Call me in 2011 when he gets his 3000th. Randy Johnson winning 300 is a big deal as it might be the last time we ever see it, but Ernie Harwell’s farewell speech takes it for me. The guy, even at his age, sounds perfect. He has the perfect voice and has seen more baseball than any of us can dream. He gets my vote.
Top Oddity: Take your pick, they are all pretty funny. I personally like the bees at Petco, I like when mother nature interferes (unless Randy Johnson is involved).
Top Exec: Are Rockies fans ready to vote for Dan O’Dowd? Now is your chance!
Unsung Star: Ubaldo Jimenez makes an appearance and he gets my vote. The only other player on this list on a playoff team is Jayson Werth. Count me as one of those idiots that needs an MVP to come from a playoff team. To me, to be valuable or unsung, your team needs to have been successful. You can be the best player in the league and your team not make the playoffs, but if you are truly valuable your team makes the playoffs. Jimenez gets my vote, although Werth is making one heck of a statement this postseason. Of course, postseason has its own category so his play in October and November should not count (good luck telling Philly fans that).
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