So now that I’ve posted my End of the Year Award winners,
I thought I’d take my readers through my thought process, see the others I
considered for each award and explain why I chose who I chose. And I’ll finish with my Goose Gossage Award
winners.
This one was a little goofy. I made my picks, copied it off of Microsoft Word (like I
always do) and pasted it into my blog.
Then, when I went back to the Word document to work on the breakdown, I
thought that I forgot to post my Goose Gossage Award winners. In reality, they were just one page up
and I didn’t see them. I scrolled
down looking for them, and found my initial stat breakdown. I copied that, inadvertently copying
the wrong AL pitcher to go with my correct NL guy and quickly tried to post it
on the blog before the deadline to post awards passed. In doing so I falied to notice two
things:
1.
I actually had posted my Goose Gossage Award
winners with the rest of my award winners
2.
And that I copied the top name in both sections
of my stat breakdowns, not realizing that both top guys weren’t the winners I
chose. They just happened to be
the guys whose stats I looked at first.
The NL guy was correct. But
the AL guy was wrong.
I apologize for any confusion. But I hope I cleared it up. And now I’ll clear up my thinking so you can see why I chose
the guys I chose.
The race in the AL was a little easier than the NL one. I considered three guys, but one rose
above the rest pretty easily. The
pitchers I considered were Jim Johnson of the Orioles, Rafael Soriano of the
Yankees and Fernando Rodney of the Rays.
And in typing that sentence I now notice that all of them are from AL
East teams. What do you know?
Johnson had to be the best story and biggest surprise. He actually led the league in Saves
with 51. And while his 2.49 ERA
and 1.02 WHIP were pretty good, they weren’t nearly as dominant as the other
guys he was up against. Closers
have tougher numbers standards.
And in one inning, you’d have liked to see a lower ERA and a miniscule
BAA. Johnson’s was 220. That’s not bad for a starter, but
pretty middle of the road for a closer.
I think he had a fantastic year, but the number of Saves isn’t the only
thing that matters in this race.
And other than that one stat, he didn’t dominate.
The second man on this list is in the running for the
situation he stepped into in addition to his strong numbers. Rafael Soriano of the Yankees was asked
to do the impossible: replace
Mariano Rivera, the greatest closer of all time. Luckily he got to do it in New York where the fans are known
for their patience and level headedness….wait. Even though he didn’t spend the whole season as a closer, he
was still third in the league with 42 Saves. In addition, he was pretty dominant with 69 Ks in 67 IP and
a 217 BAA. His ERA was solid
(2.26) but his WHIP was too high at 1.17.
In the end though, his numbers were very good as the closer. Better than when he was a middle
reliever. And he came into an
impossible situation and played very well. He played well enough to almost take the award in my
opinion, but there was one other guy who rose above the rest.
And that man was Fernando Rodney of the Rays. I liked the other guys a lot, but this
one wasn’t too close. Rodeny was
second in the league with 48 Saves.
But that isn’t what got the job for him. He was also asked to step into the closer role after Kyle
Farnsworth got hurt in Tampa. He
then held the job and completely shut the door on opponents. His ERA was 0.60. That’s not a typo. It was 0.60. His WHIP was actually higher than his ERA, coming in at a
very strong 0.78. he held hitters
to a 167 AVG against him (BAA) and was overpowering with 76 Ks in 74 IP. His name was next to ‘dominance’ in the
dictionary this season. Rodney ran
away with this one. And he was my
AL Goose Gossage Award winner.
The NL was much tougher, though I only considered two
guys. Both guys will get a lot of
votes and either is worthy of the award.
It’s kind of like another MVP situation, where both guys were so good
that you can’t imagine either losing.
The two guys I considered were Aroldis Chapman of the Reds and Craig
Kimbrel of the Braves.
Chapman was tied for second in the NL with 38 Saves. What makes that even more impressive is
that he was not the closer when the season started. He was just the highest paid, most impressive middle
reliever in baseball. Then the
Reds thought, “Hey, why don’t we let the guy who throws 105 MPH take a crack at
the 9th inning?” They
couldn’t be happier that they had that brainstorm. Chapman was completely dominant. In 71 IP, he struck out
122. 122! That’s the best strikeout rate in baseball. Add to that a fantastic 1.51 ERA, 0.81
WHIP and 141 BAA and you have one of the most dominant closers in the game. He was so good that it was almost
impossible for him to lose this award.
But through no fault of his own (because he almost couldn’t have played
any better) there was another pitcher with the same dominant streak who won the
award in my eyes.
And that was Craig Kimbrel of the Atlanta Braves. Kimbrel was tied for first in the
league with 42 Saves. And while he
didn’t quite have the strikeout rate of Chapman, he was probably the second
best in the bigs, with 116 Ks in 62 IP.
That’s still a phenomenal rate.
So if Chapman’s K rate was slightly better, why did Kimbrel get my vote? Because Kimbrel was better in every
other statistical category. Both
were dominant in every way. The
only area where Chapman was better was with the Ks, but Kimbrel was almost as
good. And, again, strikeouts are
probably the least important statistic to a pitcher. Kimbrel had a fantastic 1.01 ERA to go with a 0.65 WHIP and
a miniscule 126 BAA. Both pitcher’s
were incredibly good and either is more than deserving of the award. But I had to go with Kimbrel as my NL
Winner of the Goose Gossage Award.
Okay so that’s the last of the awards breakdowns. I’d love to hear what you think. Share some of your picks with me. And I’ll post the BBA’s final awards
tally as soon as it’s all up. Until
then you can keep up with me by liking my Facebook page here. It’s October! Love the playoffs!
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