Internet Baseball Awards: 2004 American League Winners

For complete results, click here.

It's time to announce the American League winners of the 13th annual Internet Baseball Awards. More than 1,500 cyberspace baseball fans participated in this effort to honor those players and managers whose performance in 2004 were most deserving of honors.

The point system for the balloting was as follows:

• Player of the Year ballots: 14 points for first-place votes, nine points for second-place votes, eight points for third-place votes, etc., down to one point for a tenth-place vote.

• Pitcher of the Year ballots: 10 points for first-place votes, seven points for second-place votes, five points for third-place votes, three points for fourth-place, and one point for fifth-place votes. (This is the one award where our point system differs from the BBWAA point system, because we use a longer ballot.)

• Rookie of the Year ballots: five points for first-place votes, three points for second-place votes, and one point for third-place votes.

• Manager of the Year ballots: five points for first-place votes, three points for second-place votes, and one point for third-place votes.

And now, the results from the American League:

American League Player of the Year

Rk Name             1    2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9  10     B      P
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 1 V. Guerrero    978  310  95  36  22  15   4   2   0   1  1463  17724
 2 M. Ramirez     189  388 332 211  96  76  42  18  12  19  1383  11492
 3 J. Santana     173  292 225 175 136  73  51  23  15   5  1168   9564
 4 G. Sheffield    88  209 287 239 161  80  56  30  33  20  1203   8848
 5 D. Ortiz        14   70 131 185 179 126 106  77  51  39   978   5669
 6 M. Tejada       18   43  79 137 121 116  84  80  63  32   773   4270
 7 I. Suzuki       21   33  85 119 118  88  98  91  89  74   816   4169
 8 C. Guillen       7   39  55  70  78  78  68  68  48  56   567   2865
 9 M. Mora          6   34  51  65  80  58  77  66  52  34   523   2667
10 C. Schilling     3   21  40  62  90  89  77  70  64  28   544   2644

Complete results for AL Player of the Year

Vladimir Guerrero's strong first half and dominant September carried him to the 2004 Internet AL Player of the Year Award. Despite the presence of numerous strong candidates in the race, Guerrero received almost two-thirds of the first-place votes. His Player of the Year victory is Guerrero's first Internet balloting win; his previous highest finish was 2nd place in the 2002 NL Player of the Year voting. Manny Ramirez finished second, his highest ranking in Internet Player of the Year voting over the course of his career. Ramirez has now finished in the top ten in Internet AL Player of the Year voting in seven consecutive years; he finished 3rd in 2003, 7th in 2002, 8th in 2001, 7th in 2000, 4th in 1999 and 10th in 1998.

Johan Santana finished 3rd, the highest finish for a pitcher in Internet AL Player of the Year voting since Pedro Martinez won the 1998 Internet AL award. Gary Sheffield finished fourth, matching his third highest finish in Internet Player of the Year voting–he previously finished fourth in the 1996 NL Player of the Year voting, finished third in last year's Internet NL MVP voting and finished second in the 1992 Internet NL voting. Alex Rodriguez's 11th-place finish marks the seventh straight year he's finished in the top eleven. David Ortiz improved on last year's seventh-place finish with a fifth-place finish this year. But the biggest improvement came from eighth-place Carlos Guillen, who didn't get mentioned on a single ballot the last two years and had previously received only one vote in his career. Mariano Rivera was the highest placing relief pitcher, in twelfth place. Eight of the top twelve finishers were on playoff teams.

American League Pitcher of the Year

Rk Name             1     2     3     4     5       B       P
-------------------------------------------------------------
 1 J. Santana    1364    56     6     0     0    1426   14062
 2 C. Schilling    57  1258    98     6     1    1420    9885
 3 M. Rivera       10    71   524   145    66     816    3718
 4 B. Radke         0     7   306   138    60     511    2053
 5 P. Martinez      0     7   145   171   102     425    1389

Complete results for AL Pitcher of the Year

Johan Santana completely overwhelmed the rest of the 2004 AL Internet Pitcher of the Year Award field, receiving just under 95% of the first place votes in the most dominating Internet Pitcher of the Year win since 1999. Santana allowed only 156 hits and 54 walks while striking out 265 batters in 228 innings this season. He finished ninth last year, and twenty-sixth in 2002. Curt Schilling finished second in an Internet Pitcher of the Year balloting for the third time in four years. Mariano Rivera was the highest finishing relief pitcher in third place, equaling his second-highest finish in Internet AL Pitcher of the Year voting; he previously finished 3rd in 1999 and 2nd in 1996. Brad Radke was fourth, his highest finish ever and only the third time he's placed in the top ten. Pedro Martinez finished fifth, marking the eighth straight time he's finished in the top eleven in his league. The top finisher not from a playoff team was Indians starter Jake Westbrook, who finished seventh; no Oakland Athletic finished in the top four for the first time since 1999.

American League Rookie of the Year

Rk Name            1     2     3     B     P
--------------------------------------------
 1 B. Crosby     884   223    47  1154  5136
 2 Z. Greinke    220   396   136   752  2424
 3 S. Takatsu     49   189   156   394   968

Complete results for AL Rookie of the Year

For the second straight year and the fifth time in Internet voting history, a shortstop finished on top in the Internet AL Rookie of the Year voting. Bobby Crosby is the shortstop who follows in the footsteps of last year's winner, Angel Berroa, and elite past winners such as Nomar Garciaparra, Derek Jeter, and, well, Pat Listach. Crosby's offensive numbers, including a .319 OBP and a .426 SLG, were rather low for a Rookie of the Year, but he ably filled the shortstop position for the Oakland Athletics after it was vacated at the end of 2003 by Miguel Tejada.

Royals starter Zack Greinke finished a strong second place in the voting after throwing 145 innings with an ERA of 3.97. Greinke had unusually good control of the strike zone for a rookie, walking only 26 while striking out 100. White Sox reliever Shingo Takatsu finished third after finishing with 19 saves in 20 opportunities. The rest of the votes were spread mostly among an unusually large group of seven other players who each appeared on more than 150 ballots, including Red Sox third baseman Kevin Youkilis, Mariners starter Robert Madritsch, Athletics reliever Justin Duchscherer, Orioles starter Daniel Cabrera, Twins catcher Joe Mauer, Devil Rays shortstop B.J. Upton, Blue Jays right fielder Alexis Rios, and Royals center fielder David DeJesus.

American League Manager of the Year

Rk Name            1     2     3     B     P
--------------------------------------------
 1 B. Showalter  777   193    68  1038  4532
 2 M. Scioscia   167   341   192   700  2050
 3 R. Gardenhire 143   220   167   530  1542

Complete results for AL Manager of the Year

Buck Showalter was the winner of the 2004 Internet AL Manager of the Year award after leading the Texas Rangers to 28 more wins than they had in the 2003 season, the second-biggest jump in the major leagues this season (the biggest jump was the 29-game improvement by the Detroit Tigers, whose manager Alan Trammell finished fifth in the voting.). The 2004 Rangers allowed 175 fewer runs and scored 34 more than the 2003 edition. Mike Scioscia finished second in the balloting after the Angels rebounded to the AL West crown this season. Scioscia finished last in the voting in 2003 after winning the top spot in 2002. Ron Gardenhire followed up his victory in the 2003 AL Manger balloting with a third-place finish this year after leading the Twins to their second straight AL Central title. Joe Torre finished fourth, marking the sixth time in seven years he has finished among the top five.

We'll announce the National League winners next week.

To see past winners, check out the IBA history page.