BBA: Willie Mays (ROY) Award Announced

POSEY, FELIZ WIN TWO-MAN RACES FOR WILLIE MAYS AWARD

The battle for the Willie Mays Award, given by the Baseball Bloggers Alliance to the top rookie in each division, turned out to be a two-man affair in both leagues, with Texas Rangers closer Neftali Feliz and San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey finishing solidly ahead of their closest competition, Detroit Tigers outfielder Austin Jackson and Atlanta Braves outfielder Jason Heyward, respectively.

Feliz posted a 2.73 ERA and a 0.88 WHIP while tallying 40 saves and helping Texas into the postseason for the first time since 1999.  Feliz only blew three save opportunities while fashioning a 3.94 strikeout to walk ratio.

Feliz garnered eighteen first-place votes and 102 points overall, finishing 22 points ahead of Jackson, who received six nods at the top of the ballot.

Posey did not begin the season in the major leagues, but did so much with his time in San Francisco that voters selected him as the National League’s top rookie.  Posey hit .305 and slugged .505 in just 108 games, tallying 18 home runs and 67 RBI after his callup at the end of May.  Posey’s offense helped San Francisco make up ground and eventually pass San Diego for the divisional crown.

Posey received 103 total points, including fifteen first-place selections, to outpace Heyward by 17 points.  Heyward received ten first-place votes for his work in helping Atlanta secure the National League Wild Card.

The complete voting results are as follows (first place votes in parenthesis):

Neftali Feliz, Texas (18) 102

Austin Jackson, Detroit (6) 78

Danny Valencia, Minnesota 16

Brian Matusz, Baltimore (1) 12

Brennan Boesch, Detroit 11

Wade Davis, TB 3

John Jaso, TB 3

A couple minor points: Fellow Twins blogger Andrew Kneeland of Twins Target was the only person to give Matusz a first place vote, so that’s kind of cool. For the record, my ballot (which I’ll explain further sometime next month probably would have been 1. Jackson 2. Valencia 3. Jaso