What Is The Single Worst Awards Season Ballot Of 2015?
Now that the MLB award season is done and most of the shouting has died down, it’s time to vote on which journalist submitted the single most egregious ballot of 2015.
Every vote on every ballot for every award is eligible for this prestigious contest. From No. 1 in the American League Manager of the Year to No. 10 in the National League Most Valuable Player.
If you need more background, click on the header of each section to see the final vote totals and each voters ballot.
Now, read to the end and vote! (Also, feel free to nominate your own in the comments.)
George A. King III of the New York Post gave Kendrys Morales a fourth place vote, the only ballot that included the Royals designated hitter. Morales put up a .290/.362/.485 slash line with 22 home runs (2.1 WAR). A perfectly lovely season, but fourth most valuable in the American League?
John McGrath of the Tacoma News Tribune gave Brian Dozier a 10th place vote, despite Dozier having a .236/.307/.444 slash line and an OPS+ of 101 (and a WAR of 3.4).
Nominee: George King
This one is easy. Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch gave Cardinals closer Trevor Rosenthal a sixth-place vote on his ballot, the only voter to included Rosenthal.
Nominee: Hummel
Yankees setup man Dellin Betances received a fifth place vote from Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News. Betances had a hell of a season in the Yankees bullpen, but better than all but four pitchers in the American League?
Martin Fennelly of the Tampa Tribune and at-large voter Shi Davidi left Sonny Gray off of their ballots altogether, in favor of Shawn Tolleson and Andrew Miller (Fennelly)
Nominees: Fennelly and Davidi
This vote generated the most debate overall, what with Jake Arrieta, Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw all being historically great in 2015. But one ballot really stood out …
Hal McCoy of the Dayton Daily News voted Kershaw fifth. Really.
One other note: Mel Antonen of Sports Illustrated voting John Lackey fifth. Not that egregious, but certainly an outlier.
Nominee: Hal McCoy
American League Manager of the Year
Two voters placed Joe Girardi at the top of the manager of the year ballots: Mel Antonen of Sports Illustrated and Bruce Levine of CBS Chicago. They were apparently impressed that Girardi could manage a $214 million team to 87 wins and a second place finish.
No other nominees are being considered.
Nominees: Antonen, Levine
National League Manager of the Year
Jack McCaffery of the Delaware County (PA) Daily Times thought Don Mattingly did the third best job managing a National League team in 2015. Dodgers owners seemed to disagree, firing Donnie Baseball at year’s end.
Paul Daugherty of the Cincinnati Enquirer, Chris Jenkins of the San Diego Union-Tribune and at-large voter Jay Paris all left Cardinals manager Mike Matheny off of their ballots.
This is a close call, but we are going to go with …
Nominees: Daugherty, Jenkins and Paris.
American League Rookie of the Year
In a season with Francisco Lindor, Carlos Correa and Miguel Sano making their debuts, Hideo Kizaki of the Jiji Press gave Billy Burns a second place vote and Eddie Rosario a third place vote.
We are accepting no other nominations.
Nominee: Kizaki
National League Rookie of the Year
With a unanimous winner in Kris Bryant, the rest of the ballots weren’t all that controversial – though Gene Collier of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette voted Justin Bour second and Stephen Piscotty third ahead of Matt Duffy and hometown hero Jung Ho Kang.
Nominee: Collier
Now, it is your chance to vote: Which writer had the single most egregious ballot of the 2015 MLB award season?
Ball Eight 
The Morales pick was not *that* egregious if the standard is value to the team. Now Lorenzo Cain is a 5 tool player and should go ahead, but having Morales hitting behind him certainly didn’t hurt. He filled a huge hole by replacing Billy Butler and beat all expectations.
It should be pretty hard for a DH to win the MVP because defense should matter. Donaldson and Trout finished ahead of Cain and they are also plus defenders, and had even better overall protection (Donaldson had – well – most of the lineup and Trout had Pujols)
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We picked him for the MVP category the sole reason King had him fourth on his ballot. That’s incredibly high.
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Rick Hummel argues that Rosenthal is the MVP for the Cardinals. Cardinals were the best regular season team. Is it so egregious that the MVP of best team in baseball receives one sixth place MVP vote?
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