Baseball Bloggers Alliance - 2016 National League Awards

Every season I am entrusted with  a vote towards the the Baseball Bloggers Alliance annual awards.  As a Boston Chapter member, in past years I only voted for the AL awards. You can see how I voted previously here (and here, here, and here). But this year I get to have a say in the National League as well,  which I will share with you today.  In my next post, I will reveal my AL ballot along with fuller explanations for why I voted for whom I did.

The final results should be posted soon on the BBA site.

Connie Mack Award (Manager of the Year)

1. Dave Roberts

2. Dusty Baker

3. Don Mattingly

Couple of surprises there for me. Not for Roberts, he was a clear winner. But I've never cared much for Dusty Baker and he took the Nationals to an easy division crown after they missed the wildcard by 14 games last season. He must have done something right. And Mattingly? When he was in LA, I thought sharing a city with Mike Scioscia was the only way he wasn't the worst baseball manager in whatever town he managed. His bullpen mismanagement, his love for the sacrifice bunt and his whininess at any perceived slight against him was very grating and made it easy for me to continue to dislike this former Yankee. But the way he kept the Marlins together in the wake of the Jose Fernandez tragedy, and the way he handled that whole situation made me see him in a whole different light. Also, the fact that he took a team 20 games under .500 and had them within striking distance of the division as late as August didn't hurt his cause.   Also, whitter, Joe Maddon?  His job wasn't that difficult, I'm fairly sure even Mike Scioscia could have led the Cubs to Central title: 

Willie Mays Award (Rookie of the Year)

1. Corey Seager

2. Trea Turner

3. Kenta Maeda

Again an easy choice for #1. A great season for Rookies in both circuits, and it was tough to leave Trevor Story off the ballot, but I could only pick the top three.

Goose Gossage Award (Reliever of the Year)

1. Kenley Jansen

2. Jeurys Familia

3. Mark Melancon

4. Seung-hwan Oh 

5. Tyler Thornburg

Walter Johnson Award (Pitcher of the Year)

1. Max Scherzer

2. Johnny Cueto

3. Clayton Kershaw

4. Kyle Hendricks

5. Jose Fernandez

Again, tough to leave off guys such as Lester, Bumgarner, Syndergaard and Martinez. There have been years where any of those guys could have been runaway winners with the seasons they had.  And for those of you who think I shouldn't have given Fernandez a vote?  I don't want to hear about it. Feel free to leave him off your ballot. 

Stan Musial Award (Player of the Year)

1. Kris Bryant

2 Daniel Murphy

3. Joey Votto

4. Freddie Freeman

5. Max Scherzer

6. Nolan Arenado

7. Corey Seager

8. Johnny Cueto

9. Clayton Kershaw

10T. Madison Bumgarner

10T. Noah Syndergaard

I had a tie at the bottom for two guys who I didn't have room for on the pitcher ballot, but I think both were instrumental in getting their teams to the playoffs, so wanted to recognize them for that.