tonight, on December 6, the 2014 GIBBY winners were announced in an awards special on MLB Network. back on October 30, Michael was nominated for 3 Greatness in Baseball Yearly Awards, in the categories of every day player of the year, breakout every day player of the year, and most valuable major leaguer. unfortunately, he lost out on all of them, though he was a finalist for breakout hitter (one of four). ultimately, Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels was named every day player of the year, Jose Altuve of the Houston Astros was named breakout every day player of the year, and Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers was named MVML for 2014.
fans had the ability to vote as much as they wanted for 23 days, and their vote counted for 20% of the final decision. the winners were also determined by votes from 4 other outlets--media, front-office personnel, MLB alumni, and the Society for American Baseball Research--each counting for 20% overall as well.
i had a feeling that winning one GIBBY award would be tough for Michael, let alone a potential 3. there were 10 A-List players in each of his 3 categories. plus, these awards took postseason performances into consideration, so Michael winning anything was really a long shot. or was it?
while he finished in 10th place in the every day player of the year category,
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| screenshot cropped from mlb.com |
he was the runner up with 24.7% of the final vote in the breakout every day player of the year category.
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| screenshot cropped from mlb.com |
sigh. i'm admittedly appalled that Michael only received 1.4% of the vote for best every day hitter. winner Mike Trout smoked him there with 31.5%. but the real kicker here is how close Michael actually was to winning the GIBBY for breakout hitter. he lost to Altuve by 1.1%. 1.1%! the other finalists (J.D. Martinez and Anthony Rendon) weren't nearly as close. with just a few more votes, Michael literally might have won that category. and honestly, knowing that, i'm taking it hard. if only i'd voted more times and/or on more days, i could have made the difference, flipped the results, and gotten Michael a GIBBY. i truly feel like that's on me and i feel badly about it. =(
as for the most valuable major league GIBBY award, that category was strictly limited to the top 3 vote getters after fan voting concluded, and Michael did not place in the top 3. that doesn't bother me much because he did finish 3rd for BBWAA's AL MVP Award this year. =D
in the end, regardless of him not being honored with any GIBBY, Michael still had an unforgettable 2014 and i am very, very proud of everything he accomplished.
oh and btw, Indians' starting pitcher Corey Kluber won a GIBBY for breakout pitcher of the year, and 3rd baseman Lonnie Chisenhall won one for Must C hitting performance of the year. congratulations to them!
the rest of the GIBBY winners can be found here.
and this concludes my Brantley blogs for 2014! i'm seriously kind of sad LOL
so now there is only one baseball awards reveal show left before the 2014 year can officially come to a close, and that is for MLB Network's 2nd Annual Social Media Awards. obviously, Michael is not nominated for any of those because he is not on social media. however, Indians' pitcher Trevor Bauer is nominated in the Socially Savvy Rookie category. there's 1 day left to vote for him, and you can vote through facebook and twitter here. the winners will be announced on Sunday, December 14 at 8 pm EST on MLB Network. good luck to Trevor.
idk about you all, but i am so ready for the 2015 baseball season to get underway. Go Brantley! Go Tribe! =D
