IBWAA Names Bryant, Correa Rookies of the Year, Official Awards Announced Monday Evening

In what should be the most obvious announcement of the awards season, Kris Bryant was named NL Rookie of the Year by the collection of online awesomeness that is the IBWAA. We all knew this was coming, so the revelation had about as much suspense as opening Christmas gifts my kids have already told me about.

1st Place: Kris Bryant, Chicago Cubs – 864 points
2
nd Place: Matt Duffy, San Francisco Giants – 368
3rd Place
: Jung Ho Kang, Pittsburgh Pirates – 166

The IBWAA email detailed the specifics of the voting thusly:

Bryant received 167 first-place votes (92.78%) and 864 points while being named on 178 of 180 ballots (98.89%). Others receiving first-place votes include Matt Duffy (8), Jung Ho Kang (3), Joc Pederson (1) and Noah Syndergaard (1).

Looks like I may need to direct a few digital “WTF” glares in the direction of 7.22% of my IBWAA colleagues out there. Well, maybe not the folks who didn’t have Bryant #1, but what about the two who didn’t list him among the top 3 at all? Who are these people? The guy only put up one of the best rookie seasons in the history of baseball. As in, like, ever.

I’m honestly pretty upset about this and think it should be grounds for expulsion from membership. I’d be interested to hear from those who didn’t vote for Bryant, just to learn what rationale they used. Would they justify a contrary vote by saying they knew Bryant would win anyway? I mean, that’s why I didn’t vote for Randal Grichuk. I was initially planning to list the Cardinal rookie on all three lines of my ballot but was told that was not allowed, so I left him off in an act of defiance. Seriously though, I had Duffy and Jung-Ho Kang as my 2nd and 3rd choices.

But enough of my whining, on with the show. The AL race was significantly more interesting and is the one I’ve really been looking forward too. Francisco Lindor, Carlos Correa, and Miguel Sano were the finalists, not to mention integral pieces of my championship-winning fantasy baseball team.

1st Place: Carlos Correa, Houston Astros – 711 points
2
nd Place: Francisco Lindor, Cleveland Indians – 511
3rd PlaceMiguel Sano, Minnesota Twins – 172

Correa received 105 first-place votes (58.66%) and 711 points while being named on 171 of 180 ballots (95%). Others receiving first-place votes include Francisco Lindor (57), Miguel Sano (7) and Billy Burns (4).

Looks pretty good to me. The official announcements of the BBWAA voting will take place at 6pm EST on MLB Network.

 

Among approximately 400 others, IBWAA members include Jim Bowden, Jim Caple, David Schoenfield and Mark A. Simon of ESPN.com; 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; Will Leitch, Sports on Earth; Bruce Markusen, Hardball Times; Ross Newhan; Dayn Perry and Matt Snyder, CBSSports.com; Mark Purdy, San Jose Mercury News; Tom Hoffarth and J.P. Hoornstra Los Angeles Daily News; Pedro Moura, Orange County Register; Tracy Ringolsby, MLB.com; Ken Rosenthal, FoxSports.com; Eno Sarris, FanGraphs; Dan Schlossberg, USA Today; Jesse Spector, Sporting News and Wendy Thurm.

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