GIBBY Awards 2014: Full List of Winners Announced

The film industry has the MTV Movie Awards, and Major League Baseball has the Greatness in Baseball Yearly Awards. It's always nice to provide a change of pace from the more stuffy, old-fashioned award seasons.

Every year, fans and writers argue over who the best players were in the previous season. The whole process almost always turns sour and/or too self-important, much like the Oscars.

That's not the case with the GIBBYs tradition, which serves as a more carefree and inclusive ceremony.

Whereas members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America decide the Most Valuable Player, Cy Young and Rookie of the Year Awards, the GIBBYs compile votes from fans, writers, broadcasters, former players, front-office members and the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).

In the grand scheme of things, the GIBBYs don't define legacies or validate a player's Hall of Fame candidacy. But they're a fun way to close out the season and celebrate some of the game's top stars and recall the more memorable moments.

You can see a full list of winners below.

Award	Player	Team	Position
Most Valuable Major Leaguer	Clayton Kershaw	Los Angeles Dodgers	SP
Everyday Player of the Year	Mike Trout	Los Angeles Angels	CF
Starting Pitcher of the Year	Clayton Kershaw	Los Angeles Dodgers	SP
Rookie of the Year	Jose Abreu	Chicago White Sox	1B
Closer of the Year	Greg Holland	Kansas City Royals	RP
Setup Man of the Year	Wade Davis	Kansas City Royals	RP
Defensive Player of the Year	Andrelton Simmons	Atlanta Braves	SS
Breakout Everyday Player of the Year	Jose Altuve	Houston Astros	2B
Breakout Pitcher of the Year	Corey Kluber	Cleveland Indians	SP
Bounceback Player of the Year	Johnny Cueto	Cincinnati Reds	SP
Manager of the Year	Bruce Bochy	San Francisco Giants	---
Executive of the Year	Dayton Moore	Kansas City Royals	---
Postseason MVP	Madison Bumgarner	San Francisco Giants	SP

Award	Moment
Play of the Year	Steven Souza Jr. saves Jordan Zimmermann's no-hitter with a diving catch.
Outfield Throw of the Year	Yoenis Cespedes' outfield assist from left-field corner vs. Los Angeles Angels on June 10.
Moment of the Year	Derek Jeter drives home winning run in final home game.
Storyline of the Year	Expansion and success of instant replay.
Hitting Performance of the Year	Lonnie Chisenhall goes 5-5 with 3 HRs and 9 RBIs on June 9 against Texas Rangers.
Pitching Performance of the Year	Clayton Kershaw's no-hitter against Colorado Rockies on June 18.
Oddity of the Year	Milwaukee Brewers score three runs on wild pitch against Colorado Rockies.
Walk-Off of the Year	Derek Jeter drives home winning run in final home game.
Cut4 Topic of the Year	Boy hands foul ball to girl sitting behind him at Red Sox-Blue Jays game on Sept. 5.
Postseason Play	Joe Panik makes diving stop and executes glove flip to begin double play in Game 7 of World Series.
Postseason Walk-Off	Travis Ishikawa walk-off HR in Game 5 of NLCS.
Postseason Storyline	Royals come back to win AL Wild Card and spark World Series run.

Analysis

USA TODAY Sports

As expected, the state of California was represented well, with Mike Trout winning "Everyday Player of the Year," Clayton Kershaw earning "Most Valuable Major Leaguer" and "Starting Pitcher of the Year" and the World Series-winning San Francisco Giants collecting a total of four awards among their players, management and team moments.

It speaks volumes about Trout's ability that he had quite possibly the worst season of his career—excluding his brief 2011 campaign—but still managed to be the unanimous American League MVP.

While the 23-year-old set career highs in home runs (36) and runs batted in (111), he also set career lows in wins above replacement (7.9), batting average (.287) and on-base percentage (.377).

Trout wound up getting overshadowed by a guy who plays about 45 minutes away.

Kershaw was the individual star of the night, just as he was during the regular season. In total, he won three GIBBYs:

Even in this pitcher-dominated era, Kershaw's 2014 campaign was otherworldly. He led the majors in wins (21), earned run average (1.77), adjusted ERA (197), complete games (6) and fielding independent pitching (1.81).

Back in September, ESPN.com's David Schoenfield listed the 26-year-old's Cy Young-winning season as the 15th-best from a starting pitcher over the last 50 years. To put that in perspective, Pedro Martinez in 2000 and Randy Johnson in 2001 are the only other pitchers from this millennium to crack the list.

Winning a GIBBY isn't exactly the highest honor Kershaw can receive, but it's more affirmation of how great he's playing right now.

One of the more coveted GIBBYs in the "Must C Plays" category was "Play of the Year." Washington Nationals outfielder Steven Souza Jr. took home the award for his diving catch to preserve Jordan Zimmermann's no-hitter on the final out of the game.

The Nats congratulated the 25-year-old:

The MLB Network crew interviewed Souza about the play during the awards show.

Between the difficulty of the catch and the circumstances surrounding the play, Souza was a deserving winner. Fans are unlikely to see a no-hitter end that dramatically for some time.

Note: All stats are courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.