Thursday, October 13, 2011

2011 Goose Gossage Awards

The Victoria Seals Baseball Blog (VSBB) is a proud member of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance (BBA). This year, the VSBB has the honour of casting the Other Baseball Chapter ballot for a number of the awards given to players and managers in both the National and American Leagues

On Sunday, we posted our ballot for the Willie Mays Award, presented to the top rookie in each league. Today we reveal our National League ballot for the Goose Gossage Award, which will be presented to the league's top relief pitcher. The Other Baseball Chapter’s American League ballot for the Goose Gossage Award was cast by Wally Fish at Seedlings to Stars.

Closer Craig Kimbrel of the Atlanta Braves gets our vote as the top reliever in the National League. Kimbrel saved 46 games in his rookie campaign, tied with John Axford of the Milwaukee Brewers for the league lead. He also struck out an incredible 14.8 batters per nine innings pitched, while posting a 2.10 ERA and a nifty 1.04 WHIP.

Second on our ballot is Sean Marshall of the Chicago Cubs. Marshall only notched five saves in 2011, since he spent the year as the setup man for Carlos Marmol. However, he appeared in a whopping 78 games for the Cubs and finished third in the league with 34 holds. Marshall had a 2.26 ERA and a WHIP of 1.10, but his most impressive statistic is the number of home runs he gave up during the season: ONE. That’s right, Sean Marshall gave up 0.12 homers per nine innings in spite of the fact that 40 of his appearances were at Wrigley Field.

We gave the nod to Sergio Romo of the San Francisco Giants for the third spot on our ballot. Romo was the setup man for closer Brian Wilson and he had a spectacular year. Romo appeared in 65 games and sported a stunning 1.50 ERA and 0.71 WHIP. He also struck out 13.1 batters per nine innings and only walked 0.9 hitters per nine – a strikeout to walks ratio of 14:1!!

Honourable mention goes to my favourite Canadian hurler, John Axford, who saved 46 games in 48 opportunities.

Our NL Goose Gossage Award ballot is:
  1. Craig Kimbrel, Atlanta Braves
  2. Sean Marshall, Chicago Cubs
  3. Sergio Romo, San Francisco Giants