:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/22688139/20120627_ajl_aa3_054.0.jpg)
Every year, the bloggers behind the assorted SBN MLB team sites vote on awards similar to those handed out by the BBWAA. There can be up to two ballots per site, with each league's blogs only voting for that league. The results were announced on Tuesday. One thing that I find interesting is how these awards end up differing from, or being the same as, the BBWAA awards.
The awards given out are Best Rookie (Rookie of the Year), Best Pitcher (Cy Young) and Best Player (MVP). For Best Player, the ballot had ten places, with 14 points for first place, nine points for second place, eight points for third place, and so on. Best Pitcher had five places, with seven points for first, four for second, and so on. Best Rookie had three places, with five points for first, three points for second, and one point for third.
Below the results, you will find the full ballots of Stacey Folkemer and myself.
AL BEST PLAYER
| Player | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | Points |
| Mike Trout | 35 | 2 | 2 | 524 | |||||||
| Miguel Cabrera | 4 | 28 | 6 | 1 | 362 | ||||||
| Josh Donaldson | 6 | 19 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 298 | ||||
| Chris Davis | 2 | 10 | 15 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 270 | ||||
| Evan Longoria | 7 | 13 | 10 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 198 | ||||
| Robinson Cano | 5 | 9 | 12 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 175 | ||||
| Max Scherzer | 1 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 107 | |||
| Manny Machado | 1 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 9 | 3 | 1 | 100 | |||
| Adrian Beltre | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 39 | ||||
| Jacoby Ellsbury | 1 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 36 |
Before I get into anything else, I'd just like to note that neither Stacey nor I were the biggest homers for Davis and Machado, as you will see when you get to our ballots at the bottom.
Trout wins handily, as he should, because was the best player in the league. Trout also won with the SBN bloggers last year, but that availed him naught with the BBWAA. Davis is edged by Donaldson for third place with the bloggers. Donaldson had a late-season surge, whereas Davis did not; the Oakland third baseman actually ended the season with a higher Fangraphs Wins Above Replacement (7.7) than did second-place finisher Cabrera (7.6).
There is a significant drop-off after Machado to the rest of the pack.
Others receiving votes, with their point totals in parentheses: Dustin Pedroia (31), Jason Kipnis (26), Anibal Sanchez (23), Chris Sale (19), Ben Zobrist (18), Yu Darvish (12), David Ortiz (12), Shane Victorino (11), Felix Hernandez (10), Billy Butler (5), Joe Mauer (5), Carlos Santana (4), Eric Hosmer (3), Hisashi Iwakuma (3), Edwin Encarnacion (3), Adam Jones (2), Nelson Cruz (2), James Shields (2), Jose Bautista (1).
AL BEST PITCHER
| Player | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | Points |
| Max Scherzer | 32 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 249 | |
| Yu Darvish | 4 | 6 | 11 | 6 | 8 | 105 |
| Chris Sale | 3 | 8 | 4 | 11 | 9 | 96 |
| Anibal Sanchez | 14 | 7 | 4 | 8 | 93 | |
| Felix Hernandez | 6 | 10 | 9 | 3 | 75 |
Others receiving votes: Hisashi Iwakuma (31), Justin Verlander (8), Bartolo Colon (5), James Shields (1).
Scherzer carries the award in a walk, which will probably be the case with the BBWAA awards as well. From my perspective, I spent significant time scouring the numbers to try to vote for anyone other than Scherzer in first place, because I was feeling contrarian. However, he was just too good, and even without wanting to vote for him in a fit of rebelliousness, I just had to.
Disagreement abounds as to where the rest of the top tier of pitchers should belong on the ballot, with votes scattered among the other aces in each place.
AL BEST ROOKIE
| Player | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Points |
| Wil Myers | 33 | 5 | 1 | 181 |
| Jose Iglesias | 2 | 17 | 5 | 66 |
| Chris Archer | 3 | 2 | 15 | 36 |
| David Lough | 1 | 2 | 4 | 15 |
| Martin Perez | 3 | 5 | 14 |
Others receiving votes: Danny Farquhar (13), Dan Straily (12), Brad Miller (8), Sonny Gray (3), Cody Allen (1), Jarred Cosart (1), Nick Franklin (1).
This would have been a challenging ballot for me if I had to name five players, but with it just being three, the top three seemed to be no-brainers. That more players ended up on a three-person Rookie ballot than ended up on a five-person Pitcher ballot is amusing to me.
Myers needs no superlatives; he's already earned them all in his rookie campaign. Iglesias was one of the best fielders in baseball in the non-Machado division, and Archer turned in a phenomenal season and proved the Rays continue to turn out great pitching talent.
The National League winners are:
Best Player: Andrew McCutchen
Best Pitcher: Clayton Kershaw
Best Rookie: Jose Fernandez
If anyone has any questions about how the NL down-ballot went, I'll be happy to look them up and answer them for you. I just didn't feel like doing tables for them.
CAMDEN CHAT BALLOTS
Mark Brown:
Best Player: Trout, Cabrera, Davis, Donaldson, Cano, Longoria, Scherzer, Machado, Ellsbury, Zobrist
Best Pitcher: Scherzer, Darvish, Iwakuma, Hernandez, Sale
Best Rookie: Myers, Iglesias, Archer
Stacey Folkemer:
Best Player: Trout, Cabrera, Donaldson, Davis, Longoria, Machado, Scherzer, Sale, Cano, Pedroia
Best Pitcher: Scherzer, Sale, Sanchez, Darvish, Iwakuma
Best Rookie: Myers, Lough, Archer
What do you think about how we voted? Do you think the SBN bloggers as a whole picked the right players in the right places? Step up and take your licks!