New York Yankees Chapter of BBA Announces AL Rookie of the Year Selection

The other day you might have noticed a post on the Yankees Chapter of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance that announced our vote for the winner of the Manager of the Year Award, or the Connie Mack Award. Today we are presenting the Rookie of the Year, or Willie Mays Award.

The Willie Mays Award is our version of the Rookie of the Year Award. We named it after Mays because he won the ROY in his rookie season as a 20 year old when he smacked 20 homers and put up a 120 OPS+ in his first season and went on to have one of the greatest major league careers ever.

The BBA is comprised of nearly 300 baseball blogs and will shortly announce the winners, but first the votes must be cast. As president of the Yankees chapter, I have collected and will announce the votes of the Yankees blogs that are members of the BBA. There are 13 eligible Yankee blogs that vote, and our final decision counts as two votes in the overall BBA voting for each award.

Eligible Yankees Blogs That Voted

• Bronx Baseball Daily
• Subway Squawkers
• Yanks Go Yard
• Lady At The Bat
• lenNY’s Yankees Blog
• Double G Sports
• It’s About The Money
• The Chuck Knoblog

Voting Results

• 1st Place: Neftali Feliz, Texas Rangers
• 2nd Place: Austin Jackson, Detroit Tigers
• 3rd Place: Danny Valencia, Minnesota Twins

Also receiving votes were Brian Matusz of the Orioles, Wade Davis of the Rays and Dusty Hughes of the Royals.

I sense a reluctance in Yankee bloggers to vote for former Yankee prospect Austin Jackson. It might be to see a former Yankee thrive outside of New York. Feliz is certainly deserving though, and we may have voted for him due to our love for closers thanks to Mariano Rivera.

Valencia just snuck in there to take third place over Matusz. Valencia’s numbers were actually better than Jackson’s, and his contributions were vital to his team making the playoffs, but he did not play as much this season as he was only a midseason call-up.

Coming up we have the Goose Gossage Award (top reliever), the Walter Johnson Award (top pitcher) and the Stan Musial Award (top hitter) that we will announce in the next few days. Be sure to check back for those.

Related Stories

• October 5, 2010 -- Talkin Twins with Over The Baggy
• August 12, 2010 -- Austin Jackson and BABIP
• February 27, 2010 -- Former Yankees in Pictures
• February 1, 2010 -- Minor League Monday: February 1st, 2010