The BBA Award voting has just came to a conclusion and the results are out. If you want to know more about the BBA and its awards, read my earlier post. Here are the 5 American League BBA Awards:

The Connie Mack Award (Manager of the Year):

Joe Maddon, Tampa Bay (22) 113 (My 1st place vote)
Jim Leyland, Detroit 48 (My 3rd place vote)
Ron Washington, Texas (3) 37
Mike Scioscia, Los Angeles of Anaheim 13 (My 2nd place vote)
Joe Girardi, New York 9
Manny Acta, Cleveland 5
John Farrell, Toronto 1

This one was one of the three awards I thought was a no-brainer, along with the Walter Johnson Award and the Willie Mays Award. Joe Maddon had another unbelievable season as the Rays skipper, and lead the team to their historic comeback. He’s been talked about on sports sites everywhere including mine (article here and here), and most have agreed that he is the best manager in all of baseball. He was just awarded the top AL manager by Sporting News a few days ago. It’s nice to see Maddon get some good recognition here, and hopefully he will take home his second Manager of the Year Award in the coming weeks. For my Connie Mack Award article, click here.

 The Willie Mays Award (Rookie of the Year):

Jeremy Hellickson, Tampa Bay (8) 67 (My 1st place vote) 
Eric Hosmer, Kansas City (9) 67 (My second place vote)
Mark Trumbo, Los Angeles of Anaheim (3) 27
Michael Pineda, Seattle (3) 23
Desmond Jennings, Tampa Bay 7
Ivan Nova, New York 7 (My 3rd place vote)
Brett Lawrie, Toronto (1) 5
Dustin Ackley, Seattle 4
Zach Britton, Baltimore 3
Alexi Ogando, Texas 3
Jordan Walden, Los Angeles of Anaheim 2
Chris Sale, Chicago 1

Overall, I would have to say I am satisfied with the result of this voting. It was at least a sigh of relief to see the much deserving Hellickson tie for first. I was convinced the whole season that Hellickson was deserving of the ROY Award and was favoring Hosmer as the runner-up. Jeremy was recently acknowledged as Baseball America’s Rookie of the Year, rating him the best rookie in all of baseball. It wasn’t ideal to see Hellboy not the sole winner in this one, but it was still good to see him and Hosmer stand as the one-two in the voting. I was also very happy to see Desmond Jennings get recognition with 7 votes, after the boost he gave the Rays since his call-up. For my Willie Mays Award blog post, click here.

The Goose Gossage Award (Top Relief Pitcher):

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

The 1-2-3 order was identical to my voting on the Goose Gossage Award. Valverde was the obvious choice for winner on this one after the incredible season he had. Not really much to be said on this award, click here for my Goose Gossage Award post.

The Walter Johnson Award (Cy Young Award):

Justin Verlander, Detroit (21) 147 (My 1st place vote)
Jered Weaver, Los Angeles of Anaheim 67 (My 2nd place vote)
CC Sabathia, New York 58
James Shields, Tampa Bay 40 (My 3rd place vote)
Dan Haren, Los Angeles of Anaheim 20
CJ Wilson, Texas 9
Josh Beckett, Boston 6
Ricky Romero, Toronto 5
Felix Hernandez, Seattle 2
Doug Fister, Detroit 1
Brandon McCarthy, Oakland 1
David Price, Tampa Bay 1

This result may have been the most disappointing out of all of them. Verlander was the obvious winner and Weaver was the sure runner-up, but I strongly disagree with Sabathia being in he top three. Apparently Shields’ better ERA and 11 CG (yes I meant 11) wasn’t good enough to get him front of C.C. I don’t want to take anything away from Sabathia, he had another great season, but Shields frankly just had a better year. To read a full argument, click here to see my Walter Johnson Award post.

The Stan Musial Award (MVP)

Jose Bautista, Toronto (11) 225 (My fifth vote)
Jacoby Ellsbury, Boston (5) 200 (My third vote)
Miguel Cabrera, Detroit (3) 183 (My FIRST vote)
Curtis Granderson, Detroit (1) 135 (My fourth vote)
Justin Verlander, Detroit (2) 126
Adrian Gonzalez, Boston 109 (My second vote)
Dustin Pedroia, Boston 68
Robinson Cano, New York 55 (My eighth vote)
Ian Kinsler, Texas 35
Michael Young, Texas 28 (My sixth vote)
Evan Longoria, Tampa Bay 25 (My tenth vote)
Alex Gordon, Kansas City 20
CC Sabathia, New York 13
Paul Konerko, Chicago 12 (My ninth vote)
Adrian Beltre, Texas 10 (My seventh vote)
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

Even though the winner of the voting was ranked number 5 in my ballot, I’m still not disappointed to see Jose Bautista get the award. I was also relieved to see the top 3 as Bautista, Ellsbury, and Miguel Cabrera. There are some parts of the results I strongly disagree with though. For example, Ian Kinsler finishing ahead of teammates Adrian Beltre and Michael Young. Young had an average .58 points higher than Kinsler as well as more RBI’s. I also thought that Dustin Pedroia was overrated in this voting, finishing ahead of Cano and Young. Overall, these results could of been much worse and it will be interesting to see how similar this will be to the MVP results. Click here for my Stan Musial Award post.