Minnesota Twins

End of year awards are fun. That is really all they are, but fun is fun. So I thought I might share my award winners and have some fun. My 5th grade gym teacher always said, "if you had fun, you won." So, I win. Fun = Won.

We'll start with the most fun award and move down the list.

NL Cy Young Award - R.A. Dickey

He lead the league in Batters Faced. Need I say more?

Yes? Ok. ...

At the conclusion of every season, the members of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance (BBA) are asked to submit their ballots for the top awards across baseball. Each of these awards is named in honor of a player that epitomized the role in Major League Baseball. Over the course of the week, I will release my ballots for each award and I will post the official announcements from the BBA with the combined votes of all member blogs.

Below is the list of awards that have been announced and the others that will be announced in the coming days. The links lead to my choices for each.
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Five spots in next year's rotation. One guy locked in.

It's hard to look at the daunting uncertainty in Minnesota's rotation as a good thing, but there are some fringe benefits to the situation. One is that it may be easier for Terry Ryan to lure in pitchers who are left without a seat and forced to sign minor-league contracts when the music stops on this offseason's free agent class.
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Each year in our Offseason Handbook, we put together a list of all the upcoming free agents at every position. Beyond the write-ups and statistical breakdowns for each player, we estimate the contract we expect them to get, so that armchair GMs can fit prospective acquisitions into their budgets.

This is an aspect of the publication that we take very seriously. In fact, every year, we set aside a day for the entire editorial staff to get together and reach a consensus on each what each free agent might get. This process takes several hours and invariably leads to numerous fisticuffs, but the end result is a fair measure of accuracy. ...

Originally posted at k-bro's baseball blog

An INFIELD FLY is a fair fly ball (not including a line drive nor an attempted bunt) which can be caught by an infielder with ordinary effort, when first and second, or first, second and third bases are occupied, before two are out. The pitcher, catcher and any outfielder who stations himself in the infield on the play shall be considered infielders for the purpose of this rule.
When it seems apparent that a batted ball will be an Infield Fly, the umpire shall immediately declare Infield Fly for the benefit of the runners. If the ball is near the baselines, the umpire shall declare Infield Fly, if Fair.

The ball is alive and runners may advance at the risk of the ball being caught, or retouch and advance after the ball is touched, the same as on any fly ball. If the hit becomes a foul ball, it is treated the same as any foul.

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On Monday, ESPN's Mark Simon wrote an article naming Mike Trout as the "Defensive Player of the Year" for MLB. Throughout the season, he and a team of twelve voters had picked out the best defensive player for every month and their overall choice for the year was Mr. Trout. This got me to thinking about who would come out on top for the Twins if the same award had to be given to a player on the roster for Minnesota. There are some good defensive players on the Twins and it's fun to try and pick out the player with the best year behind a lackluster pitching staff. ...