{"id":9800,"date":"2014-10-01T14:04:08","date_gmt":"2014-10-01T18:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=9800"},"modified":"2014-10-01T14:04:08","modified_gmt":"2014-10-01T18:04:08","slug":"dc-ibwaa-2014-poll-results-and-my-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=9800","title":{"rendered":"DC-IBWAA 2014 Poll results and my vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

Each year, David Nichols<\/strong> of the District Sports Page<\/a> blog does a great job getting all the Nats bloggers to participate in pre-season and post-season polls, voting on awards for the team for the year.<\/p>\n

For 2014, here’s his post-season awards<\/a> as voted on by us nerd bloggers.\u00a0 2013’s post-season poll results and my post here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here’s how I voted and why.<\/p>\n

2014 DC-Internet Baseball Writers Association
\n<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

POST-SEASON ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS BALLOT<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\u00a0<\/b>AWARD<\/b><\/td>\n<\/td>\nFIRST <\/b>(5 POINTS)<\/b><\/td>\nSECOND <\/b>(3 points)<\/b><\/td>\nTHIRD <\/b>(1 point)<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Goose Goslin\u00a0Most Valuable Player<\/b>
\n<\/i>Player most valuable to the success of the Washington Nationals<\/i><\/td>\n		<\/td>\nRendon<\/td>\nWerth<\/td>\nLaRoche<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Walter Johnson Starting Pitcher of the Year<\/b>
\n<\/i>Excellent performance as a\u00a0starting pitcher<\/i><\/td>\n		<\/td>\nZimmermann<\/td>\nFister<\/td>\nRoark<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Frederick<\/b> “Firpo” Marberry Relief Pitcher of the Year<\/b>
\n<\/i>Excellent performance as a relief pitcher<\/i><\/td>\n		<\/td>\nStoren<\/td>\nClippard<\/td>\nSoriano<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sam Rice\u00a0Hitter of the Year<\/b>
\n<\/i>Excellence in all-around hitting, situational hitting and baserunning<\/i><\/td>\n		<\/td>\nRendon<\/td>\nSpan<\/td>\nWerth<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Frank Howard\u00a0Slugger of the Year<\/b>
\n<\/i>Excellence in power hitting<\/i><\/td>\n		<\/td>\nLaRoche<\/td>\nDesmond<\/td>\nRendon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Joe Judge Defensive Player of the Year
\n<\/b>Excellence in fielding
\n<\/i><\/td>\n		<\/td>\nRendon<\/td>\nHarper<\/td>\nSpan<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mickey Vernon\u00a0Comeback Player of the Year<\/b>
\n<\/i>Player who overcame biggest obstacle in the preceding season\u00a0to contribute on the field<\/i><\/td>\n		<\/td>\nStoren<\/td>\nRoark<\/td>\nBarrett<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Josh Gibson\u00a0Humanitarian Player of the Year<\/b>Player who meritoriously gave of himself to the community<\/i><\/td>\n<\/td>\nZimmerman<\/td>\nDesmond<\/td>\nRamos<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Minor League Player of the Year <\/b>Minor league player most destined for big league success<\/i><\/td>\n<\/td>\nSouza<\/td>\nTaylor<\/td>\nGiolito<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Award by Award:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Team MVP<\/span>: Have to go with Rendon<\/strong>; easily leads the team in WAR (by a nearly 3-win margin in bWAR over Werth\/Span<\/strong> in second place).\u00a0\u00a0 Werth continues to steadily hold on to his skills and contribute well into his mid 30s, while LaRoche<\/strong> put up a great contract year performance.<\/li>\n
  • Starter of the Year<\/span>: No argument here: Zimmermann<\/strong> was the best starter on the year.\u00a0 Fister<\/strong>‘s advanced stats don’t like him (his FIP is above 4.00) but he gets results.\u00a0 And Roark<\/strong> remains the best “found gold” the Nats have had in terms of prospect matriculation since the likes of Brad Peacock<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
  • Reliever of the Year<\/span>: Storen<\/strong>‘s great bounce back\u00a0 year has to put him in the lead, followed closely behind by Clippard<\/strong>.\u00a0 Still think the Soriano<\/strong> acquisition was worth it?\u00a0 I have him 3rd here just by virtue of his first half … and because the rest of the relievers were either long guys (Stammen, Detwiler<\/strong>), matchup loogies (Blevins, Thornton<\/strong>) or guys who spent more time in AAA than the majors (Barrett, Treinen<\/strong>).<\/li>\n
  • Hitter of the Year<\/span>: Rendon, Werth obvious top 3 guys, but I like what Span<\/strong>‘s done this year in terms of jacking his average up.\u00a0 Another classic contract year performance.<\/li>\n
  • Slugger of the year<\/span>: I just went with the team leaders in homers 1-2-3.\u00a0 You would have thought that Harper<\/strong> would be here by now.<\/li>\n
  • Defender of the year<\/span>: looking at the various advanced stats, I ended up with Rendon for his excellent work at 2B and 3B, then Harper (an excellent UZR\/150 in left on the year).\u00a0 Span has a negative UZR\/150 in center on the year, but passes the eye test.\u00a0 I’ll be curious to see how he ends up looking in the other defensive metrics.\u00a0 So he gets 3rd place essentially because there’s not another regular who has a positive UZR\/150 on the team.<\/li>\n
  • Comeback player<\/span>: Storen makes the most sense … his comeback has been two years in the making.\u00a0 Roark isn’t really a comeback guy as much as he’s a “making the most of his chances guy.”\u00a0 Neither is Barrett honestly; but there’s not a good example of someone who was hurt or really came out of nowhere to make this team better.<\/li>\n
  • Humanitarian<\/span>: Honestly I only know of two guys on the Nats who actively do humanitarian\/charity stuff and that’s Zimmerman and Desmond<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
  • Minor League Player of the Year<\/span>.\u00a0 As discussed in the comments of another post recently, for me “Minor League Player of the Year” is a completely different list than the subtitle offered of “Minor league player most destined for big league success.”\u00a0 <\/i>POTY for me this year went Souza, Taylor and Giolito, while the top 3 prospects in our system probably are Giolito, Cole<\/strong> and Taylor.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Additional Questions<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

    1) Of the players on the current active\u00a0roster (or DL), which players do you think will not<\/i><\/b> be part of the organization next season<\/span>?<\/p>\n

    Pitchers: Blevins, Mattheus, Ohlendorf, Soriano, Detwiler<\/p>\n

    Out-field players: Solano, Cabrera, LaRoche, Frandsen, Span, Hairston, Schierholz<\/p>\n

    I’m guessing the team declines Soriano’s option, non-tenders Ohlendorf, Mattheus and Detwiler, and DFAs Blevins after his poor season.<\/p>\n

    Of the positional players, the team won’t exercise its options on LaRoche or Span, will have to end up DFA-ing Solano (and perhaps others; I havn’t done my options analysis yet) due to having no more options, and will let veteran FAs Frandsen, Hairston and Schierholz hit free agency.\u00a0 I think Cabrera is going to command too much money for the team to realistically consider him.<\/p>\n

    2) Will Ian Desmond or Jordan Zimmermann sign a contract extension before they hit the free agent market<\/span>?<\/p>\n

    No.\u00a0 Both will go to FA.\u00a0 Desmond to the Yankees to be the next Derek Jeter<\/strong><\/span>, Zimmermann to highest bidder.<\/p>\n

    3) Who was the biggest pleasant surprise on this year’s team<\/span>?<\/p>\n

    Rendon\u2019s advancement and central role on the team.<\/p>\n

    4) Who was the biggest disappointment<\/span>?<\/p>\n

    Zimmerman\u2019s continued inability to stay healthy.\u00a0 A close second is Harper’s injury riddled season and struggles.<\/p>\n

    5) Who is your favorite professional Nats writer?<\/span><\/p>\n

    Mark Zuckerman <\/strong>#1.\u00a0 After him, i’ll go with Adam Kilgore<\/strong> 2nd and Byron Kerr<\/strong> third.<\/p>\n

    6) Which is your favorite non-professional Nats blog or writer?<\/span><\/p>\n

    Luke Erickson<\/strong>; sorry to see him take a step back.\u00a0 My #2 probably is NatsGM Ryan Sullivan<\/strong>, #3 Luigi de Guzman<\/strong> of Natsradamus (when he infrequently posts).<\/p>\n

    \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Each year, David Nichols of the District Sports Page blog does a great job getting all the Nats bloggers to participate in pre-season and post-season polls, voting on awards for the team for the year. For 2014, here’s his post-season awards as voted on by us nerd bloggers.\u00a0 2013’s post-season poll results and my post […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[916,111,184,17,185,2370,1693,35,164,265,98,482,354,241,52,114,115,2123,234,461,43,2384,852,1625,850,301,2589,708,1956,1398,51,1554,1611,36,1328,77,128,147],"class_list":["post-9800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-natsgeneral","tag-aaron-barrett","tag-adam-kilgore","tag-adam-laroche","tag-aj-cole","tag-anthony-rendon","tag-asdrubal-cabrera","tag-blake-treinen","tag-brad-peacock","tag-bryce-harper","tag-byron-kerr","tag-craig-stammen","tag-denard-span","tag-derek-jeter","tag-doug-fister","tag-drew-storen","tag-ian-desmond","tag-jayson-werth","tag-jerry-blevins","tag-jerry-hairston","tag-jhonatan-solano","tag-jordan-zimmermann","tag-kevin-frandsen","tag-lucas-giolito","tag-luigi-de-guzman","tag-luke-erickson","tag-mark-zuckerman","tag-matt-thornton","tag-michael-taylor","tag-nate-schierholz","tag-rafael-soriano","tag-ross-detwiler","tag-ross-ohlendorf","tag-ryan-sullivan","tag-ryan-zimmerman","tag-steven-souza","tag-tanner-roark","tag-tyler-clippard","tag-wilson-ramos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9800"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9842,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9800\/revisions\/9842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}