BBA Announces 2012 Stan Musial Award Winners

The Baseball Bloggers Alliance (BBA) announced the recipients of this year's Stan Musial Award earlier this week.  The official BBA announcement can be read here.

Our official ballot for the Stan Musial Award can be seen here.

The Stan Musial Award is the final award handed out by the BBA.  It is annually given to the most outstanding player in each league, as voted on by card carrying members of the BBA.

NL Stan Musial Award Winner - Buster Posey

In the National League, Buster Posey won the award by a fair margin - taking home 70% of the BBA vote and we voted for Posey so we're definitely ok with this one.  Posey led the league in batting average (.336) and on-base percentage (.408) while finishing second in slugging percentage (.549)... very impressive, to say the least.  Playing half of his season in a pitcher friendly park, Posey smacked 24 home runs and drove in 103 runs, hitting a blistering .340 with runners in scoring position.  Plus, Posey is a catcher... and a good one at that... so he likely has a leg up on the other candidates in that he has the ability to impact the game, defensively, on every pitch.  He led his team to a World Series victory and if he didn't win the MVP award it would be shocking, to say the least.

AL Stan Musial Award Winner - Mike Trout

The BBA conglomerate chose Mike Trout over Miguel Cabrera as the American League's premier player in 2012.  While our ballot had Cabrera ahead of Trout, we recognized the fact that Trout was arguably a better all around player in 2012 - especially considering the advanced metrics that have become mainstream in recent years - so we weren't shocked by the announcement.  We chose Cabrera because he did something that hasn't been done in 47 years by winning the Triple Crown and because his reputation has elevated to the point where he is widely regarded as the premier hitter in baseball over the past five years (certainly the best without an MVP award).  Cabrera's team also made it to the World Series and that wouldn't have happened if he had not agreed to a move to third base (a position he was supposedly to slow to play).  But the BBA is forward thinking - a lot of Sabermetricians-in-training and Billy Beane Armchair GM's - so it wasn't a surprise that the vote swayed towards Trout and we respect the BBA vote.  Trout led the league in a lot of traditional categories, including runs scored and stolen bases, while excelling in virtually every facet of the game.  If Mike Trout has a chink in his armor, we haven't seen it yet.  He missed becoming the third player in baseball history to hit 30 HR and steal 50 bases in a season by one stolen base.  From an advanced metric standpoint, he led the league in adjusted OPS+, overall WAR and defensive WAR. He was a fine choice and we congratulate Mike Trout on the well deserved award.

In my opinion, this year's AL MVP selection is especially intriguing because it clearly pits the traditional baseball writers against the new age baseball writers.  This is a decision that will be heavily debated for years to come.  You can typically find our blog somewhere in the middle...

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