RON WASHINGTON AND BUD BLACK WIN CONNIE MACK AWARD

Ron Washington of the Texas Rangers and Bud Black of the San Diego Padres were named winners of the Connie Mack Award by the Baseball Bloggers Alliance, noting them as the best managers in their respective leagues for 2010.

Washington, who weathered a drug controversy in spring training, led Texas to their fifth divisional title since 1994 and their first since 1999. While the voting was based on his regular season accomplishments, Washington also guided his team to their first ever postseason series victory when they eliminated the Tampa Bay Rays in five games in the American League Divisional Series.

Washington received ten first place votes in route to accumulating 74 total points. He edged out Minnesota Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, who received 67 points.

In the National League, Black’s guidance of a Padres team almost universally expected to finish last to first place most of the summer helped him edge Dusty Baker of the Cincinnati Reds by the slimmest of margins. The fact that the Padres fell just short of the playoffs while the Reds won the NL Central helped lead to the tight race. Black garnered nine first place selections and 53 total points to Baker’s seven first place nods and 51 total points.

The complete voting results are as follows (first place votes in parenthesis):

American League

Ron Washington, Texas (10) 74

Ron Gardenhire, Minnesota (7) 67

Joe Maddon, Tampa Bay (4) 35

Terry Francona, Boston (3) 20

Cito Gaston, Toronto 9

Buck Showalter, Baltimore 9

Joe Girardi, New York 2

National League

Bud Black, San Diego (9) 53

Dusty Baker, Cincinnati (7) 51

Bobby Cox, Atlanta (2) 33

Bruce Bochy, San Francisco (3) 29

Charlie Manuel, Philadelphia (1) 27

Brad Mills, Houston 3

Mike Quade, Chicago 2

The Baseball Bloggers Alliance was formed in the fall of 2009 to encourage cooperation and collaboration between baseball bloggers of all major league teams as well as those that follow baseball more generally. As of this writing, the organization consists of 224 blogs spanning all 30 major league squads as well as general baseball writing.

The BBA is organized under a similar structure as the Baseball Writers of America, where blogs that follow the same team are combined into “chapters” and only two votes from the chapter on an award are counted. The blog chapters that are focused on general baseball were allowed two votes as well, which they could use both on the same league or split between the two leagues.

Chapters generally followed one of two methods when casting their ballot. Either representatives of the chapter were given the ballots for voting or a “group ballot” was posted, accounting for both of their votes.

Ballots are posted on the respective blogs and tabulated on a 5-3-1 point scale for first, second and third. In the interest of transparency, links are given below for the ballots. Chapter affiliation is in parenthesis. Those chapters that decided on the group method are noted with an asterisk.

American League

Camden Crazies (Baltimore)*

Boston Red Thoughts (Boston)*

Toeing The Rubber (Boston)*

The Tribe Daily (Cleveland)*

Motor City Bengals (Detroit)

Switch Hitting Pitchers (Detroit)

One Royal Way (Kansas City)

Seth Speaks (Minnesota)

Bronx Baseball Daily (New York)*

Contract Year (Oakland)

Jeff’s Mariners Fan Blog (Seattle)

Rise of the Rays (Tampa Bay)

Baseball Is My Boyfriend (Texas)*

The Blue Jay Hunter (Toronto)

500 Level Fan (Toronto)

Advanced Fantasy Baseball (Fantasy)*

Misc. Baseball (History)*

Victoria Seals Baseball Blog (Other)*

Blogging From The Bleachers (General)*

National League

Prose and Ivy (Chicago)*

Cincinnati Reds Blog (Cincinnati)

Astros County (Houston)

Feeling Dodger Blue (Los Angeles)

Bernie’s Crew (Milwaukee)*

Brewers Bar (Milwaukee)*

The Eddie Kranepool Society (New York)*

Dugger’s Corner (Philadelphia)

Where Have You Gone, Andy Van Slyke? (Pittsburgh)*

i70 Baseball (St. Louis)

The Outfield Ivy (St. Louis)

Friar Forecast (San Diego)*

Advanced Fantasy Baseball (Fantasy)*

Misc. Baseball (History)*

Victoria Seals Baseball Blog (Other)*

Blogging From The Bleachers (General)*

Ron Kaplan’s Baseball Bookshelf (Miscellaneous)*

Prior Winners

2009: Mike Scioscia, Los Angeles of Anaheim; Jim Tracy, Colorado

The official website of the BBA is located at www.baseballbloggersalliance.com. The BBA can be found on Twitter by the handle @baseballblogs and by the hashmark #bbba. Members of the BBA may be heard at Blog Talk Radio every Tuesday night with their call-in show, BBA Baseball Talk, which may also be downloaded as a podcast from iTunes. For more information, contact Daniel Shoptaw at founder@baseballbloggersalliance.com.

BBA Connie Mack Award Nominations (Fantasy Chapter)

The Baseball Bloggers Alliance gives out annual awards to the consensus Manager of the Year (The Connie Mack Award), Rookie of the Year (Willie Mays Award), Reliever of the Year (The Goose Gossage Award), Pitcher of the Year (The Walter Johnson Award), and the Most Valuable Player (The Stan Musial Award). Each Chapter in the BBA has two ballots to vote for each award. I am proud to present the Fantasy Chapter's Nominations:

The American League Connie Mack Award Nominations:

1. Ron Washington, Texas Rangers

2. Ron Gardenhire, Minnesota Twins

3. Cito Gaston, Toronto Blue Jays

The National League Connie Mack Award Nominations:

1. Dusty Baker, Cincinnati Reds

2. Bud Black, San Diego Padres

3. Bruce Bochy, San Francisco Giants

Please check out these articles for more thoughts on how the Fantasy Chapter votes were formed:

BleacherGM

http://bleachergm.blogspot.com/2010/10/connie-mack-award-manager-of-year.html

The Sporting Hippeaux

http://thesportinghippeaux.blogspot.com/2010/10/bba-ballot-nl-connie-mack-award.html

Colorado Springs Fantasy Baseball Addict

http://cosfba.blogspot.com/2010/10/2010-fantasy-baseball-awards-10092010.html

The Ten Step, Non-Wussy Guide to Re-Building Your Fantasy Team

The season is over.

You are probably ready to spend the month of October lazing on the couch, drinking Jack 'n Cokes and studying the Belmont Sportsbook but mostly forgetting your disappointing fantasy season. That is not a bad plan but you may want to slot in some time for building your 2011 Championship team.

I have stated on more than one occasion that I think re-building is for the Pittsburgh Pirates and other wussies. You should play to win. Your fantasy team does not require a five-year, two-year or even one-year re-building plan. All it really takes is a willingness to work on your keepers during the off-season and devoting more energy than your rivals to having a great draft.

The deeper your fantasy league the more difficult it is to recover from a down season. However it can be done without sacrificing your chance at winning in any given season. If you are committed to winning, following these steps will keep you in the money year after year without ever re-building. But be aware, this is not a one-day plan it is an off-season plan. It should be enacted over the course of the entire off-season.

1. Investigate What Went Wrong (and Right) - You can not successfully move on from a disappointing season without calculating where it is you went wrong. While doing this it is important not to get too caught up in the player names. Instead examine your process and the types of players you acquired in the last draft, your waiver and FAAB Transactions and your trades. Was it your process or the result of the process that fell apart. If you drafted 17 sleepers than you did not have a good process. Was your team hit hard by injuries? If so it may have just been bad luck. However, if your roster was filled with the traditionally injury prone and others coming off bad injuries it might be your process that needs work. Also look at what you did right and try to remember what you were thinking when you made those decisions. Was it just luck? Take your time with this. Spend a week or two just looking at your team and thinking about how you put it together.
   
2. Inventory and Value Your Resources - Now that you are more aware of what happened and why you need to value what you potentially own going into next season. Rotowire.com is a great place to get dollar values for free. It is a bit pricey but BaseballHQ.com is my favorite source. If money is an issue they frequently have free trials and special discounts. But in addition to collecting early dollar values you also want to make an accounting of draft picks, minor leaguers you may own and any other potential assets to your team building. Again, you should take your time. Look up every player on your roster. Measure their strengths and weaknesses while looking for trends that may portend increased value in the near future.
3. Contrast and Compare - Measuring your keepers and assets against those of the other teams in your league is essential. You need to know how you stack up against the competition, without this knowledge you'll be just flailing in the dark when it comes to building your championship team. Remember you are building a team meant to beat other teams not just putting together a roster of favorites. Do not skip the teams at the bottom of the standings, these are the teams that probably made dump deals to put them in contention in 2011 - your primary competition in some cases.
4. List Your Needs - Now that you are more intimately familiar with both your own team and those of your rivals you are in a much better position to make a list of your team's needs. It is impossible to go into your draft with a completed roster so you will obviously not be able to fill every need. However, some needs are more glaring than others. Perhaps your team is hitter heavy and you could use a few quality arms going into the draft. Or perhaps you need to acquire some speed to make up ground on your steals hoarding league mates. You cannot put together a winning strategy or have a truly great draft without knowing your needs going into it. Take your time and do it right. Do quick but careful projections for all of your players (don't skip anyone) and measure the results against the season totals of the top three teams. If you have this done before the end of the World Series you will be in excellent shape.
5. Look for Potentially Undervalued Talents - With your list of needs in hand go through the rosters of every other team in the league. Look for undervalued players that may fit your needs. These are players that can be acquired for very little, such as a late draft pick, a scrub minor leaguer or over-priced veteran or anything extra you have to give up. The players you want are players with mediocre or worse numbers but with upside. It could be a young player that had a difficult season before adjusting at the end. It could be an at-value veteran player that lost time to injuries or was traded to a team that used him off the bench. Keep in mind the ideas and plans of the MLB teams. The closer you are to their thinking the easier this will be. The key is having reason to believe they will see their value rebound in 2011 and that they can be cheaply acquired. Make a list of these players and the teams holding their rights.
6. Check Your Timing and Then Go Value Shopping - If you have reached this point in the offseason and you still do not know if the New York Yankees will beat the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series (or if they'll even advance past the Minnesota Twins) you need to slow down. Relax, you have some time to kill. Watch some football, bet on baseball, do some drinking, these are all great pastimes in moderation. When the Baseball Writers have finished announcing their awards and the Hot Stove is heating up this will be your moment to strike. Before making a single offers, rank your list of undervalued players from best to least and starting at the top begin making offers. Be casual about it, you don't want to stress out the owners that went into off-season mode as soon as the calender flipped to October.
7. Re-Value Your Roster - When the Hot Stove starts to cool, the NFL Playoffs are at the Superbowl Party planning stages, Fantasy Magazines are popping up in the 7-11 and the Greek Grocery on the corner, it is time to re-value your roster. What you should notice is that the values and projections you noted in October and November have changed as MLB teams re-formed. Projections and dollar values should be a cinch to find. It is probably better to understand the consensus opinion on your players than to follow any individual set that you did not create yourself. Any excess picks or players that you can not fit on your keeper list should be considered trade bait.
8. Trade Quantity for Quality (or Vice Versa) - If you feel you have a strong roster of players now is the time to start trading your excess of riches to upgrade to the very best keepers. For example, you might have a roster with two A keepers, seven B keepers and three C keepers. In this case you would probably want to package one or two B's with a C or two and try to acquire another A-level keeper. However if you have two A-level keepers and not much else you should try to do the reverse. Trade an A for two B's and two C's if possible. The object is to build as much talent into your roster as possible. Those A-level keepers may be great but if you go into the draft with nothing else you will have a difficult time putting a top level roster together in most leagues.
9. Re-List Your Needs and Look at Options - Hopefully you have been able to make a great trade or two and your keeper list is strong. Either way you need to look at your roster and make an honest assessment. List the needs that are priorities in the draft. And do not just say you need speed or power. Calculate how many steals or homers or RBI or Saves you need to place in the top three or better in every category (I always aim to win every category but that makes it a bit more risky). Compare your needs to the players available in the draft and use projected values to slot them into your roster. Try to have three or four options for every roster slot. I spend a ton of time on this and it is worth it. You end up with a very solid idea of the talent available and how much of it you can fit onto your team. I'll be writing more about this process in the weeks to come.
   
10. Study Up, Make Lists, Pack Up and Have a Good Draft - In the week or two before your draft, when you are done trading and your keeper list is submitted, you have nothing to do but make lists. Make as many or as few lists as you are comfortable using at the draft. List your options for each roster slot. Try different salary combinations until you hit on your favorite and most doable strategy. Be prepared with a few alternatives. Don't do any serious drinking in the days leading up to your draft. Make a list of everything you will need at the draft and pack those items. At the draft relax and follow your plan and winning should come easily.

Baseball Bloggers Alliance Announces New Award Names

Baseball Bloggers Alliance Announces New Award Names

Changes reflect appreciation for history of the game

The Baseball Bloggers Alliance (BBA) recently announced the renaming of their annual postseason awards to comply with the wishes of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA), thereby avoiding confusion between the two organizations. This allowed the BBA an opportunity to recognize some of the legendary greats of the game, naming their highest honors after them.

“Earlier in the year, the BBA reached an agreement with former Yankee reliever Goose Gossage to name our newest award, recognizing the best relief pitcher in each league, after him,” said Daniel Shoptaw, founder and president of the Alliance. “It only seemed fitting, then, that we rename the rest of our awards after other legends of the game.”

The five awards are given to a player in each league: The Connie Mack Award, given to the top manager; the Willie Mays Award, for the top rookie; the Goose Gossage award, mentioned above; the Walter Johnson Award, which would be analogous to the BBWAA’s Cy Young Award; and the Stan Musial Award, awarded to the most valuable player in each league.

According to Shoptaw, “These names are synonymous with quality, achievement, and dedication. These names have not only stood the test of time, but have been strengthened by it.”

The schedule for the announcement of these awards is as follows:
Connie Mack Award: October 14
Willie Mays Award: October 18
Goose Gossage Award: October 21
Walter Johnson Award: October 25
Stan Musial Award: October 28
The Baseball Bloggers Alliance was founded in 2009 and numbers 222 blogs covering all major league teams and various other aspects of baseball, as well as blogs and sites that are affiliated as Friends of the BBA. The official website of the BBA is located at www.baseballbloggersalliance.com. The BBA can be found on Twitter by the handle @baseballblogs and by the hashmark #bbba. Members of the BBA may be heard at Blog Talk Radio every Tuesday night with their call-in show, BBA Baseball Talk, which may also be downloaded as a podcast from iTunes.

Computer Problems

Apologies for those checking in the last couple of weeks. My computer crapped out on me, a Fan Error, and it took me a while to get up and running again. Unfortunately, I don't have one of those fantasy internet phones. I'm also between jobs again so no work computers to borrow. My brother the IT guy just finished installing the new fan less than an hour ago. I'll get to the e-mails and comments as soon as possible. Please feel free to e-mail me again if you're still in need of help.

Mark Prior Signs with Texas Rangers

This according to the latest Newberg Report:

According to at least one local report, the Rangers have signed righthander Mark Prior to a minor league contract for 2011. The 29-year-old ex-ace hasn’t pitched in a major or minor league game since 2006. He’d last suited up for the Orange County Flyers of the independent Golden Baseball League.

The Rangers have announced that Prior will report to Oklahoma City, where he could pitch in relief right away. The RedHawks lead their division by two games with four to play.

I went to the official Orange County Flyers website to see how he had done in the GBL. Apparently he was appropriately overwhelming to the indie-league batters. He was working under former major league pitcher, Paul Abbott.

Prior worked with Abbott, an 11-year MLB veteran in his first year as Flyers manager, during his time with Orange County on developing the proper tools to come out of the bullpen. Last week, Prior pitched on back-to-back days for the first time in his professional career. On Tuesday, he threw a scoreless 8th inning for Orange County with two strikeouts against Na Koa Ikaika Maui, the team the Flyers will face in the first round of the playoffs starting next week. Prior signed with Orange County on August 3, throwing a 1-2-3 inning of relief in his Flyers debut against the Victoria Seals. He struck out five consecutive batters in his next outing. In his 11 innings of work, Prior allowed one unearned run on five hits with five walks and 22 strikeouts with opponents batting .143 against him.

“It’s a great day for Mark Prior, getting back into affiliated baseball,” said Abbott. “He came here to face competitive baseball and see if his arm would hold up, and he passed that initial test. Now he’s ready for the next step. He was a true professional while he was here. He was a Flyer, he was one of the guys, and he’s going to be missed.”

If he can stay healthy it looks like Mark prior may actually make a comeback. Good for him. This is someone fantasy owners should definitely keep an eye on.

Difference Makers

I've been away from the keyboard lately but I haven't lost interest in my fantasy teams. In fact in my 12 team H2H keeper, my squad (Donkey Punch!) has come on strong in recent weeks and has clawed its way back into contention with only four days left in the regular season. In what's the tightest finish that I've seen in this league, 3 1/2 games separate the top five teams (top six make the playoffs) and a half game currently separating the top three! With my transactions nearly maxed out and numerous players (Nick Swisher, Angel Pagan and Jim Thome) suffering from day-to-day injuries, I have to chose my moves very wisely. The regular season winner gets a prize and the top two get a bye for the first round of the playoffs but I can't leave myself without options for the playoffs, so I'll have to stand pat this week.

With that said, fantasy players know that campaigns are not won in the early rounds of a draft. In fact, sometimes the season is won from the waiver wires, as the season winds down to its end. So who are some of the position players who could be difference makers as we head down the stretch?

Neil Walker, 2B, Pittsburgh Pirates

Pittsburgh Pirates second baseman Neil Walker has been one of the hottest hitters in the game lately. After five inauspicious seasons in the minors, it seems like the former first round pick seems to finally putting it all together at the age of 24. In the last two weeks, Walker has been absolutely raking, going 20/54 with 4 HR/9R/15RBI/.370 BA/.384 OBP. With a BABIP of .366 in his 342 PA with the big club, it's not likely that those numbers will last, but fantasy owners may as well enjoy the ride while it lasts. Owned in only 28% of Yahoo leagues, there's no reason why Walker shouldn't be helping more teams make their playoff push.

Freddy Sanchez, 2B, San Francisco Giants

You know what you're going to get out of a healthy Freddy Sanchez - batting average. While the veteran second baseman hasn't disappointed lately in the 17% of Yahoo leagues where he's rostered, he's also scored a lot of runs for the Giants, in their quest to overcome the faltering Padres out West. Sanchez has been slapping balls all over the place in the last two weeks, banging out a 11 R/1 HR/6 RBI/.481 BA/.491 OBP line. Of course he doesn't hit for much pop and is made of glass, but steady Freddy can be the difference between you winning or losing in batting average this week.

Roger Bernadina, OF, Washington Nationals

With the Nationals losing Josh Willingham for the season and Nyjer Morgan facing a suspension for hulking out last night, Roger Bernadina's sure to see every day reps in the D.C. outfield. The 26 year old has enjoyed surprising success in his first significant Major League playing time, showing solid power to go along with his base-stealing prowess. He was sitting against lefties, but I think he'll see steadier time from here on out. I'll refer back to a piece I wrote in June about Bernadina and add that he's definitely rosterable in 12-team mixed leagues now, in spite of the 96% of Yahoo leagues where he's not rostered. Over the last two weeks he's been the 27th most valuable player in my 6x6 format with 11 R/3 HR/ 9 RBI/ 4 SB/.268 BA/.311 OBP. He won't hit for great average but he should continue to deliver plenty of slam and legs at a time when cheap power/speed combinations are hard to come by.

Daric Barton, 1B, Oakland Athletics

Daric Barton has always been know for his patience at the plate. Now it seems like the Oakland Athletics first baseman has suddenly decided to get the bat off of his shoulders. Coming into action today, Barton has swung a hot stick, bashing out a line of 11 R/3 HR/7 RBI/2 SB/.425 BA/.586 OBP in the last two weeks. Of course his hot hitting could cool off at any time, but Barton gets on base and if that's what you need, he could be an asset if you're thin at corner infield. As hot as he's been, Barton is only owned in 9% of Yahoo leagues so there's a good chance he's around to lend a hand.