IBWAA SELECTS ABREU, deGROM IN ROOKIE OF THE YEAR VOTE

Los Angeles – The Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) announced the winners in the Rookie of the Year category Monday, with the Chicago White Sox’ Jose Abreu winning the group’s American League award, and Jacob deGrom, of the New York Mets, being selected in the National League.

 

Election results are as follows:

 

AL Rookie

 

1^st Place:                  Jose Abreu, Chicago White Sox
2^nd Place:                 Masahiro Tanaka, New York Yankees
3^rd Place:                  Dellin Betances, New York Yankees

 

NL Rookie

 

1^st Place:                  Jacob deGrom, New York Mets
2^nd Place:                 Billy Hamilton, Cincinnati Reds
3^rd Place:                  Ender Inciarte, Arizona Diamondbacks

 

Abreu received 154 of 158 first-place votes and a total of 782 points. Tanaka received one first-place vote, with a total of 135 points, and Betances garnered 103 points.

 

deGrom received 105 first-place votes, with 633 points. Hamilton received 45 first-place votes and 503 points. Inciarte received two first-place votes, with 46 points.

 

Ballot tabulations by Brian Wittig & Associates, using the Borda Method.

 

Below is the remaining IBWAA Awards announcement schedule:

 

Manager, Tuesday, November 11, 2014, 11:00 a.m. PST.

Cy Young, Wednesday, November 12, 2014, 11:00 a.m. PST.

MVP, Thursday, November 13, 2014, 11:00 a.m. PST.

 

The IBWAA was established July 4, 2009 to organize and promote the growing online baseball media, and to serve as a digital alternative to the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA). Voting for full season awards takes place in September of each year, with selections being announced in November. The IBWAA also holds a Hall of Fame election in December of each year, with results being announced the following January.

 

In 2010, the IBWAA began voting in its own relief pitcher category, establishing the Rollie Fingers American League Relief Pitcher of the Year and the Hoyt Wilhelm National League Relief Pitcher of the Year Awards.

Among others, IBWAA members include Jim Bowden, Jim Caple, Mike Petriello, David Schoenfield, Mark A. Simon andDan Szymborski, ESPN.com; Kevin Baxter Los Angeles Times; Tim Brown, Yahoo! Sports; Craig Calcaterra, NBC Sports Hardball Talk; Bill Chuck, GammonsDaily.com; Derrick Goold, St. Louis Post-Dispatch; King Kaufman, Bleacher Report; Kevin Kennedy, Kostya Kennedy, Sports Illustrated; Jonah Keri, Grantland; Vlae Kershner, SFGate.com; Chuck Culpepper and Will Leitch, Sports on Earth; Jill Painter Lopez, FoxSportsWest.com, Bruce Markusen, Hardball Times; Ross Newhan; Dayn Perry and Matt Snyder, CBSSports.com; Mark Purdy, San Jose Mercury News; Eno Sarris and Wendy Thurm, FanGraphs; Tom Hoffarth and J.P. Hoornstra Los Angeles Daily News; Pedro Moura, Orange County Register; Neil Payne, FiveThirtyEight.com, Tracy Ringolsby, MLB.com, Ken Rosenthal, FoxSports.com, Dan Schlossberg, USA Today and Jesse Spector, Sporting News.

 

Association membership is open to any and all Internet baseball writers, with a yearly fee of $20, or $35 lifetime. Discounts for groups and scholarships are available. Members must be 18 years of age to apply.

For more information please visit www.ibwaa.com.

Contact:

 

Howard Cole
Founding Director, IBWAAbaseballsavvy@aol.com

TGP Daily Poll: Predicting The Rookies of the Year

The BBWAA announces their vote for the American League and National League Rookies of the Year tomorrow. I predict that Jose Abreu (CHW) and Jacob DeGrom (NYM) take home the awards.

Vote in our poll!

Betances' Thoughts on His 2014 Success

Anybody who watched him pitch this season would say Yankees' Right-hander Dellin Betances was pretty good.

So naturally, the AL Rookie of the Year finalist had to explain why he thinks he had so much success in the team's bullpen this year. Betances, 26, is coming off a record-setting campaign in which he struck out 135 hitters in 90 innings of the work, the most in franchise history.

"There's a different mentality out of the bullpen," Betances recently told MLB.com's Bryan Hoch. "You're only going to face the guys once; as a starter, you face them two or three times. It's definitely a little different."

And for Betances, that difference was no doubt a positive one. He had a 5-0 record and a 1.40 ERA to go along with the aforementioned numbers, even recorded six K's in a row May 15 against the Mets. 

"I was trying to throw an extra pitch because I couldn't throw my curveball for strikes [in 2012]," Betances said of his infamous slurve. "I worked with [catching prospect Peter O'Brien], just kept throwing it. I went to the [Arizona] Fall League and it felt good. I was like, 'Man, this could be a good pitch to throw.'"

He was right to think that, as just one other Yankee reliever ever as fanned 130 batters in a season. His name: Mariano Rivera.