When the Milwaukee chapter of the BBWAA came out with their annual postseason awards earlier this week, the response in the Brewers Blogosphere was generally the same: “What the hell??” While these awards certainly don’t mean anything, I think a lot of people felt that certain players weren’t being appreciated or getting the recognition they deserved. Disciples of Uecker respectfully disagreed with the BBWAA picking Casey McGehee as team MVP, while Miller Park Drunk penned an epic takedown of the process (and the Miwaukee Journal-Sentinel, while he was at it).
I was planning on writing something similar, but the topic was already well-covered. I tweeted that if we got everyone blogging about the Brewers together, McGehee probably wouldn’t get a single first place vote for team MVP. The idea seemed to be well-received, so out went the e-mails to just about every Brewers blog I could think of (and then some more, thanks to Kyle from Brew Crew Ball). I asked them to send me their picks for the same awards the Milwaukee BBWAA used… even the dumb ones like “Unsung Hero” and “Good Guy.” The end result? A total of 20 ballots (plus mine), sensible picks, and some awesome responses.
I don’t have a good name for these awards, but it worked out so well I’m thinking maybe we should take the BBWAA acronym as our own — Brewers Blog Writer Association of Awesomeness works for me. The complete list of participants, results, and comments after the jump.
Blogs represented:
Miller Park Drunk
In-Between Hops
Disciples of Uecker
View From Bernie’s Chalet
Brewerfan.net
The Bucky Channel
Pocket Doppler
Bernie’s Crew
Brew Crew Ball
Wisconsin Sports Tap
Hang With ‘Em Brewers
Winners (point total determined using a 5-3-1 system)
Team MVP: Rickie Weeks (95 points, 18 of 21 first place votes)
Best Pitcher: Yovani Gallardo (84 points, 15 of 21 first place votes)
Best Newcomer: John Axford (95 points, 19 of 20 first place votes)
Unsung Hero: Kameron Loe (37 points, 6 of 21 first place votes)
Good Guy: Trevor Hoffman (36 points, 7 of 21 first place votes)
For the full breakdown of the votes, as well as everyone’s ballot, you can look at the Google Docs spreadsheet.
Some of the highlights:
– Not only did Casey McGehee not get a first place vote, but he only appeared on three ballots for team MVP.
– Joe Inglett getting a third place vote for Best Pitcher. He should’ve gotten more support, what with his perfect ERA and all.
– One of the best Brewers fake Twitter accounts out there, @JohnAxfordStach, picking up a first place vote for Unsung Hero. Also getting votes in that category: Ken Macha’s Bullpen Management, Marcus Hanel, Adam Stern (for constantly keeping his bag packed early in the year), and The Doorman.
– Jack Moore using all three of his Good Guy award slots for George Kottaras. I counted them all, because Kottaras is awesome.
– Scott of In-Between Hops using his Good Guy slots on Anthony Witrado, Tom Haudricourt, and Michael Hunt for providing us all of the comedy this year.
– The combined entry of Don’t Care/Who Cares/Meh/Seriously, they vote on this, what is this a high school yearbook? coming in with a strong 6th place finish in the Good Guy voting.
I want to thank everyone for taking part in this. It was a lot of work, but I wouldn’t mind doing it again if there’s interest in the future. To everyone else, go check out these blogs if you have the time. There aren’t a ton of us blogging about the Brewers, but there’s some really great content out there.
So, did we get it right? Are we wrong? Are you Anthony Witrado and just want people to stop picking on you? Feel free to comment — you don’t have to register, and while comments have to be approved (to keep spambots out), everything will be approved.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
