Last year, I joined the Internet Baseball Writers Association, a group of... well, internet baseball writers. As noted by IBWAA founding director Howard Cole:
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. Among others, IBWAA members include Jim Bowden, Jim Caple, Mike Petriello, David Schoenfield, Mark A. Simon and Dan 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.
I'm honored to be part of this group and to participate in the postseason awards voting for the first time. Here are the first, second and third-place finishers in the IBWAA Reliever of the Year voting for 2014:
AL Relief Pitcher
1st Place: Greg Holland, Kansas City Royals
2nd Place: Dellin Betances, New York Yankees
3rd Place: Wade Davis, Kansas City Royals
NL Relief Pitcher
1st Place: Craig Kimbrel, Atlanta Braves
2nd Place: Aroldis Chapman, Cincinnati Reds
3rd Place: Kenley Jansen, Los Angeles Dodgers
My ballot:
AL: Fernando Rodney, Greg Holland, Dellin Betances
NL: Craig Kimbrel, Francisco Rodriguez, Pat Neshek
"Reliever of the Year" is a category that the Baseball Writers Association of America doesn't vote for; I think it's a great idea, because in general, barring some kind of freakishly outstanding relief season, a reliever is rarely if ever going to win the Cy Young Award. Here's the rest of the schedule for the IBWAA award announcements:
Rookie: Monday, November 10, 2014
Manager: Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Cy Young: Wednesday, November 12, 2014
MVP: Thursday, November 13, 2014
All four announcements will be made at 1 p.m. CT on the date indicated; I'll have a post here with the winners soon after. The BBWAA awards are also coming out on the same dates at the same times, so it will be interesting to see the differences, if any, between the two votes.