This Year In Baseball Awards

The fans from across the country have voted for the 2008 This Year In Baseball Awards. Here are the winners, and my take on the winners.

Best Hitter

Winner: Albert Pujols

My take: Totally agree with this one. No arguments here. Any questions? Just visit the old MVP article.

Best Starter

Winner: Tim Lincecum

My take: Lincecum had a great year, well deserving of the National League Cy Young, but it probably should of went to Cliff Lee, for best starter.

Rookie

Winner: Evan Longoria

My take: Agree

Manager

Winner: Charlie Manuel

My take: Agree, but you can't go wrong with Joe Maddon as well as a few others.

Closer

Winner: Brad Lidge

My take: I would of given the award to Mariano Rivera. Yes, there is the debate that Lidge was perfect in save opportunities, however, like wins, saves are irrelevant as the team has to be up no more than 3 runs to be put in a save situation. Rivera blew just 1 save, as Lidge blew one. However, Lidge was more at a risk to blow a save than Rivera.

Rivera: 6-5, 39/40, 70+ IP, 1.40 ERA, 0.67 WHIP, 77 SO, 6 BB

Lidge: 2-0, 41/41, 69+ IP, 1.95 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 92 SO, 35 BB

The WHIP and walks are a huge factor. Lidge allowed many baserunners, while Rivera had a limited number of baserunners. Statistically, Rivera was better.

Set up

Winner: Hong-Chih-Kuo

My take: I would of probably gave it to Brad Ziegler.

Defense

Winner: Orlando Cabrera

My take: I would of probably gave it to any of the other nominees before Cabrera, but I'm not exactly sure who I'd give it to.

These rest are more opinionated things, as they can't really be measured. It's just who the voter think is best, so it can go anyway. All of these topics are voted by the fans, so really in most cases all of them are just voted on popularity.

Performance

Winner: Jon Lester's no hitter

My take: Agree

Play

Winner: Gabe Kapler falls into stands after robbing a homerun.

My take: Agree, but after looking at the nominees, all the plays were great, but I thought there were some better plays this year that could of been nominated for best play.

Moment

Winner: Derek Jeter honoring fans at Yankee Stadium closing

My take: I'd probably go with Ken Griffey Jr.'s 600th homerun. I would even go with Ryan Braun's grand slam. Those were my top moments of the nominees, although Jeter's was memorable for the New York Yankees and around baseball

Oddity

Winner: Johnny Damon, ball sits on top of fence.

My take: Agree, Michael Cuddyer's catch off his head was pretty good too.

Executive

Winner: Pat Gillick

My take: Agree

Postseason moment:

Winner: Chase Utley nails runner at home plate

My take: Clinching the World Series topped Utley's play, although that was one great play.