Minnesota Twins writer for Puckett's Pond shares awards ballot

Every year, baseball writers vote on awards. Puckett’s Pond’s own Benjamin Chase shares his votes, including some Minnesota Twins

The Minnesota Twins may not figure prominently in the discussion of a number of awards this fall, but after a breakthrough 2017 that saw the team earn a playoff berth after a 100-loss season in 2016, the team should get some recognition in the voting for sure.

What many fans know about are the BBWAA (Baseball Writers Association of America) awards, tied in with Major League Baseball and announced after the World Series is done. However, many online journalists have struggled to get recognized by the BBWAA for many years, and that led to the formation of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA). The IBWAA and BBWAA does have quite a bit of crossover now, but one of the benefits is that once you are a member of the iBWAA, you can immediately vote in awards, no waiting period like in the BBWAA. Our Benjamin Chase has been an IBWAA member for a number of years now, and he’s chosen to share his awards ballot with us!

MVP awards

My two winners were Jose Altuve and Giancarlo Stanton. The only Twins player who finished in my top 10 was Brian Dozier, who I had 7th. The MVP vote is the one in the American League where I had the decision between Jose Altuve and Aaron Judge at the very top. Mike Trout was a very close 3rd, but definitely 3rd behind those two. Behind that, I had Jose Ramirez fourth with shorstops Andrelton Simmons and Francisco Lindor 5th and 6th. Behind Dozier, I had Corey Kluber, Mookie Betts, and George Springer.

Cy Young awards

My two winners were Corey Kluber and Max Scherzer. Once again, this was much closer in the American League than in the National League, but a definite top 2. Sale’s struggles in his final few starts sealed the deal for me. I had Sale 2nd, Luis Severino 3rd, Craig Kimbrel 4th, and then the Minnesota Twins “ace” Ervin Santana 5th.

Rookie of the Year awards

This is probably the easiest voting to do, as Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger were the clear winners. In the American League, I had two Oakland Athletics in the other two slots I had available on this award, with Matt Chapman 2nd and Matt Olson 3rd. Trevor Hildenberger probably would be my top Twins rookie, but he’d have been significantly down the ranks in a very strong AL rookie class.

Manager of the Year awards

So, this is where things differ between two lists I have. I debated heavily on my 3rd position in the American League, and one was sent in, but I have two saved copies with the same exact name in two different places, so I honestly don’t know which one was sent!

My two winners were pretty clear, for me, at least. Terry Francona took my American League award while Dave Roberts took the National League honor. The American League vote allotted me 3 spots, and 2nd place on both was Houston manager A.J. Hinch. It’s third place where it differs, and that was a real debate for me, whether to go with Joe Girardi or the Twins’ Paul Molitor for my 3rd spot. Molitor was on one saved ballot, Girardi was on the other – every other spot is exactly the same other than that!

Next: Twins top 100 prospects complete list

Reliever of the Year awards

The two winners for this award were pretty clear to me. Craig Kimbrell of Boston was my AL choice and Kenley Jansen of the Dodgers was my NL choice. I did not have a Twins reliever nominated, and I’m not sure who would have ranked highest for me among Hildenberger, Matt Belisle, and Taylor Rogers. Minnesota native Brad Hand of the Padres was my 3rd ranked NL reliever.

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Minnesota Twins blog writer submits end of year awards votes

By Benjamin Chase | Oct 17, 2017