For full results of this year's AL IBA voting, look here.
Awards
- American League Player of the Year
- American League Pitcher of the Year
- American League Rookie of the Year
- American League Manager of the Year
American League Player of the Year
The most compelling media storyline of this year's awards seasons is the race between Miguel Cabrera and Mike Trout for the BBWAA MVP award.
If Cabrera wins, it won't be the first time that the BBWAA will have chosen the veteran slugger over a rookie campaign for the ages. In 1996, Juan Gonzalez edged Alex Rodriguez for the BBWAA American League Most Valuable Player award. Baseball Prospectus' all-in-one value stat WARP had Gonzalez tied for 39th in the AL with a 3.7 WARP in 1996, well behind Alex Rodriguez' league-leading 8.6. One narrative at the time concerned Rodriguez' youth. Rodriguez had displayed a potent combination of average and power while playing a premium defensive position, all in his age-20 season. He could have been reasonably expected to go on to win MVP awards in the future, and indeed he did, three times.
Rodriguez was 21 years, three months, and 19 days old when he won the 1996 Internet Baseball Awards AL Player of the Year going away. (Gonzalez, who took home the BBWAA hardware twice, never won an IBA POY award.) But Rodriguez is now the second-youngest IBA AL POY in history, as Internet Baseball Awards voters have voted Mike Trout 2012 American League Player of the Year. Trout wins the award at 21 years, three months, and one day of age.
Trout made a huge difference for the Angels in 2012. He spent most of the season at a premium defensive position, and by all accounts he played the position well. He was also a dangerous baserunner, racking up 8.7 runs on the bases and 49 stolen bases at a high rate of success.
Trout received nearly three times the first-place votes that Miguel Cabrera, 2012's Triple Crown winner and the second-place finisher, did. But he wins by less than Rodriguez won in 1996.
|
Name |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
B |
P |
|
|
1 |
Mike Trout |
472 |
140 |
22 |
3 |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
643 |
8095 |
|
2 |
Miguel Cabrera |
166 |
357 |
94 |
21 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
642 |
6459 |
|
3 |
1 |
87 |
207 |
118 |
53 |
21 |
8 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
499 |
3745 |
|
|
4 |
4 |
32 |
99 |
120 |
111 |
38 |
21 |
14 |
8 |
3 |
450 |
2977 |
|
|
5 |
3 |
19 |
88 |
140 |
105 |
42 |
19 |
4 |
6 |
1 |
427 |
2838 |
|
|
6 |
1 |
3 |
46 |
49 |
68 |
38 |
27 |
33 |
20 |
16 |
301 |
1613 |
|
|
7 |
1 |
1 |
12 |
30 |
39 |
39 |
23 |
20 |
11 |
12 |
188 |
944 |
|
|
8 |
0 |
2 |
12 |
16 |
29 |
20 |
27 |
21 |
18 |
26 |
171 |
733 |
|
|
9 |
0 |
2 |
17 |
22 |
22 |
18 |
12 |
22 |
9 |
8 |
132 |
670 |
|
|
10 |
0 |
2 |
8 |
10 |
16 |
34 |
27 |
24 |
21 |
10 |
152 |
650 |
|
| 78 |
TOTAL |
654 |
654 |
654 |
654 |
654 |
432 |
361 |
321 |
272 |
240 |
4896 |
34127 |
All Internet Baseball Awards American League Player of the Year results
American League Pitcher of the Year
Number of search results:
"Justin Verlander" + "best pitcher in the world" 253,000
"Felix Hernandez" + "best pitcher in the world" 169,000
"Jered Weaver" + "best pitcher in the world" 121,000
"David Price" + "best pitcher in the world" 118,000
"Chris Sale" + "best pitcher in the world" 28,200
Justin Verlander was at the helm of a pennant-winning rotation and had another strong season en route to a commanding victory among the Internet Baseball Awards voters. Verlander repeats as Internet Baseball Award Pitcher of the Year winner, the first time that has happened since Johan Santana's three-year run from 2004 through 2006. Verlander's 4.8 WARP led all American League pitchers in 2012. David Price had a better ERA than Verlander, but he finished a distant second in IBA Pitcher of the Year balloting. Felix Hernandez, 2010's IBA Pitcher of the Year winner, rounds out the top three.
|
Rnk |
Name |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
B |
P |
|
1 |
Justin Verlander |
490 |
87 |
30 |
2 |
1 |
610 |
5666 |
|
2 |
David Price |
87 |
248 |
133 |
30 |
12 |
510 |
3373 |
|
3 |
Felix Hernandez |
15 |
144 |
137 |
103 |
44 |
443 |
2196 |
|
4 |
Jered Weaver |
13 |
55 |
83 |
68 |
66 |
285 |
1200 |
|
5 |
Chris Sale |
3 |
28 |
101 |
132 |
72 |
336 |
1199 |
|
6 |
0 |
11 |
38 |
38 |
63 |
150 |
444 |
|
|
7 |
2 |
12 |
20 |
46 |
46 |
126 |
388 |
|
|
8 |
1 |
19 |
22 |
26 |
33 |
101 |
364 |
|
|
9 |
1 |
5 |
20 |
33 |
46 |
105 |
290 |
|
|
10 |
2 |
4 |
5 |
7 |
10 |
28 |
104 |
|
|
36 |
TOTAL |
619 |
619 |
619 |
535 |
463 |
2855 |
15686 |
All Internet Baseball Awards American League Pitcher of the Year results
American League Rookie of the Year
Leading an outstanding crop of rookie-status American League players, Mike Trout added the Internet Baseball Awards Rookie of the Year award to his Player of the Year award. Trout hit 1.5 times his age in home runs, if you round with a generous nature, and he finished well ahead of second-place finisher and fellow AL West outfielder Yoenis Cespedes.
Cespedes has had a remarkable journey, starting with his signing with Oakland as a free agent in February and ending by leading the surprising Athletics to a playoff berth. Cespedes also crashed the IBA AL POY top 10 along with Trout, finishing ninth in the voting.
Third-place finisher Yu Darvish finished ninth in IBA Pitcher of the Year voting. Most rookie leaders don't get that kind of respect across the Player of the Year and Pitcher of the Year balloting.
|
Rnk |
Name |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
B |
P |
|
1 |
Mike Trout |
579 |
5 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
585 |
5830 |
|
2 |
Yoenis Cespedes |
8 |
294 |
176 |
31 |
6 |
515 |
3117 |
|
3 |
Yu Darvish |
4 |
229 |
205 |
41 |
4 |
483 |
2795 |
|
4 |
1 |
24 |
74 |
136 |
49 |
284 |
1005 |
|
|
5 |
0 |
6 |
30 |
74 |
49 |
159 |
463 |
|
|
6 |
0 |
5 |
15 |
19 |
34 |
73 |
201 |
|
|
7 |
0 |
2 |
15 |
22 |
23 |
62 |
178 |
|
|
8 |
0 |
4 |
10 |
17 |
43 |
74 |
172 |
|
|
9 |
0 |
7 |
14 |
10 |
16 |
47 |
165 |
|
|
10 |
0 |
1 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
28 |
84 |
|
|
55 |
TOTAL |
594 |
594 |
594 |
413 |
321 |
2516 |
14628 |
All Internet Baseball Awards American League Rookie of the Year results
American League Manager of the Year
Against long odds, Buck Showalter managed the Baltimore Orioles to an ALDS Game Five in his second full season with the team. In light of a payroll lagging behind the league average, intense competition in the megabucks American League East, and a new (old) general manager in Dan Duquette, the Orioles weren't expected to contend for anything. Showalter, traditionally a popular manager among the more statistically-inclined voting base of the Internet Baseball Awards, was rewarded for his steady hand with the Internet Baseball Awards Manager of the Year award in 2012. This is Showalter's second Manager of the Year award—he also won in 2004 with the Texas Rangers.
|
Rnk |
Name |
1 |
2 |
3 |
B |
P |
|
1 |
Buck Showalter |
345 |
170 |
16 |
531 |
2251 |
|
2 |
179 |
215 |
21 |
415 |
1561 |
|
|
3 |
Joe Maddon |
24 |
60 |
122 |
206 |
422 |
|
4 |
8 |
51 |
143 |
202 |
336 |
|
|
5 |
Jim Leyland |
15 |
50 |
89 |
154 |
314 |
|
14 |
TOTAL |
578 |
578 |
451 |
1607 |
5075 |
All Internet Baseball Awards American League Manager of the Year results
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I don't disagree with your point that the best way to get MOTY is to manage a surprise contender.
Without looking, then, can anyone guess which one manager who did manage in-season last year received no votes at all?
One tired, overwrought preseason prediction that hundreds of pundits eagerly put forth was how bad the Tigers were going to be with MC moving to 3B. Any of us can check out the 3 strong fielding metrics: They don't show a disaster. As a KC resident, I had never seen MC play 3B until 2012, and he was much better than the alarmists hooted last spring. Verlander and Scherzer seemed not to mind. And yeah, I know it's anecdotal. Still, I think there's a lot to be gained from actually going to the park and watching ball instead of pontificating from a cellar or garret.
Plus this, an argument I've not seen anywhere, but a salient point in the Tigers' season and in my vote. Moving from 1B to 3B WAS WHAT THE TIGERS NEEDED after Victor went down and they signed Fielder. MC did that, happily, without the drama that has surrounded similar position changes. The Tigers come to town, and out strides MC, big smile on his face, easy does it. Umpires glad to see him, opposing basemen charmed when he's on, just a good-natured guy whose attitude seems to settle over a team. That's value, subjective as it is.
We didn't get to see non-division foe Trout as much here, but I'll never forget watching MC those last four games of the year with the batting title on the line. WOW. That's the subjective sum. So many aspects of baseball confer value for a team. I wish all of you could have been here to see those games.
Just a tough, tough choice for me and for anyone UNLESS they rely only on metrics. Nothing against Trout or the "strictly stats" adherents. Not at all.
Also, stating that poor but better than expected defense is flatly wrong as ironhorse eloquently explained. It was something the tigers needed him to do and he did it, and while no one would say he was great there, he performed adequately, something no one expected him to do, and that performance allowed them to avoid giving another year of at bats to branding inge a brilliant third baseman but useless as a hitter.
Just because a team spends equal time on offense and defense doesn't make the two skills equally important. In inge versus cabrera you have the perfect comparison of the best hitter and worst fielder vs the best fielder and worst hitter and the step down from inge to cabrera defensively is dwarfed by what cabrera bring to the plate offensively. For that matter, the difference in total value offensive, defensive, and intangibles between cabrera and inge dwarfs the parrallel difference between trout and the next angel corner of who would have replaced them. Warp is fine for assessing comparative talent but an mvp calculation the more relevent factor is wins above the player who actually would replace him. In cabreras case that player is a replacement level player. In trouts case the gap is significantly smaller.
The trout vs cabrera debate is not just warp vs old school stats, there's also a bias towards the young, new, and fast paced over the big, slow and steady but solid and reliable. Warp is preferred because its a new stat that allegedly covers everything while batting average homers and rbis are outdated stats. Similarly trout is young new and flashy while cabrera is big slow and been around for awhile.
While trout adds base stealing and speed to power, the sum of all those tools doesn't produce as many runs as cabreras power without speed. If you add the total of runs scored and runs batted in and subtract homers ( to avoid double counting) cabrera comes out ahead. Ratio stats may be better for comparing talent because they equalize games played, the player who plays more games and produces more runs is more valuable. For these reasons, I conclude that trout is the more talented player, but cabrera is the more valuable one.
Yes it does, like 20 runs more -- Trout VORP: 76.6, Cabrera VORP: 59.4. Think the position adjustment is too kind to Trout? Trout TAv: .357, Cabrera TAv: .332, and that's before ANY position adjustment or defense. Also, I'm not sure if this is included in VORP and TAv or not, but Trout's speed advantage manifests not only in base stealing but in base *running* -- scoring from first, going first-to-third on singles, etc. Over the season that adds up to many extra runs (Trout: 8.7, Cabrera: -5.5).
If you want to argue that Cabrera was more "valuable" due to the particulars of his team context, fine. But relative to MLB as a whole, even disregarding defense, Cabrera had an awesome, MVP caliber season worthy of praise and song......and Trout crushed it.
He wasn't really. Trout had 5.5 WPA to Cabrera's 4.8 and that's not counting defense and baserunning. It's not at all close.
I really don't see a case for Cabrera over Trout under any view of the game, except the view of naked partisanship or disproportionate valuing of RBIs or something. I think Cabrera over Trout would be just as bad as if voters had given the 1990 AL MVP to Cecil Fielder over Ricky Henderson or as bad as the actual 1996 voting.
I don't know why one would characterize Trout as merely a stathead candidate. He's also a WebGem candidate. He's also the "check out his team's record when he was in the starting line-up compared to when he wasn't" candidate. Trout also is the unexpected surprise candidate and the more complete player candidate. There may be lots of reasons why the IBA voters preferred Trout on the whole.
And it's a bit much to call a player "selfless" who was arrested in a drunken stupor the morning of what was essentially an elimination game. I usually ignore character issues but it's strange to consider Cabrera a person of high character given past behavior.