1. Cardinal Player of the Year
- Matt Holliday
- Albert Pujols
- Brendan Ryan
- Write-in: __________
Is it really necessary for me to write this one up? Mang raked again this season, carried the team through the first half. Will he seek the dollars or the championships in seasons beyond 2011? Or both?
- Chris Carpenter
- Ryan Franklin
- Adam Wainwright
- Write-in: __________
Ugh, what an awful decision to make. Well, Franklin can be eliminated. After all, he didn’t even appear on Keith Law’s Cy Young ballot (zing!). Wainwright gets the nod here for my money, regardless of your measuring metrics. Took the ball every fifth day (or less)? Check. Pitched a whole bunch of innings? Check. Lots of strikeouts? Check. Great ERA? Check. Wins? Well, if Burwell thinks they’re important…. CHECK. Carpenter was pretty sick too, and likely more dominant during his injury-reduced number of starts. Waino just got it done, even when he didn’t have his sharpest stuff, he won. Besides, this voting mechanism doesn’t require me to explain.
- July 24 at Phillies
- September 6 at Brewers
- September 26 at Rockies
- Write-in: ____________
- Ryan Franklin
- Brendan Ryan
- Skip Schumaker
- Write-in: _____________
Starting 2010 shortstop anyone? Even Tony can’t keep Boog down after his 2009 breakout, right? Right?!?!
- Rick Ankiel
- Khalil Greene
- Kyle Lohse
- Write-in: _____________
It’s apparently not available by link anywhere anymore (thankfully?!), but I predicted before the season that Khalil Greene would lead the 2010 Cardinals in home runs. Oops.
- Mitchell Boggs
- Blake Hawksworth
- Colby Rasmus
- Write-in: ____________
Lots of respect is due to Hawksworth and the performance he turned in for 2010, all but assuring himself a slot in the 2010 pitching staff. However, no rookie contributed as much on a daily basis as Rasmus, and under the weight of great expectations from Cardinal Nation, he was able to turn in a really respectable season (even somewhat under the radar, if such a highly anticipated rookie can do so, given Pujols and then the Holliday circus). We look forward to Colby’s growth as a big-leaguer.
- Khalil Greene
- Trever Miller
- Dennys Reyes
- Write-in: ____________
Well, it couldn’t be Greene after the earlier admission, right? Actually, Miller had an excellent season following a ‘did they or didn’t they sign him?’ courtship in the off-season. The lesser hyped of the LOOGY signings after Dennys Reyes was brought on board, Miller outperformed his counterpart by a “large” margin.
- Mark DeRosa
- Matt Holliday
- John Smoltz
- Write-in: _________
Next.
- Allen Craig
- Daryl Jones
- Shelby Miller
- Write-in: __________
What’s that? The Cardinals have a legit number one starting pitcher prospect? And he’s signed and already working in the system? Next.
- Write-in: Fungoes
Um, you know this guy is affiliated with the Worldwide Leader, right? 🙂 Pip routinely educates me (and I’d guess many others) on the finer intricacies of baseball and the statistical analysis of said sport. It contributes to my enjoyment of not only watching, analyzing, and writing about baseball – but also to my respect and interest in what he has to say on a daily basis. Kudos Pip.
11. Best Team Blog^
- Write-in: Future Redbirds
For crying out loud, these guys are almost the sole source of many Cardinal bloggers to the minor leagues. Future Redbirds, The Cardinal Nation Blog, and on occasion Whiteyball (and I say on occasion, because Dustin is doing a lot of his contributing on the minors over at Scout and TCNB). So maybe I should vote for all three of those sites? FR gets the nod this year – great work gents.
12. Best Media Blog
- Bird Land
- Cardinal Beat
- Obviously, You’re Not a Golfer
- Write-in: __________
No legit way to choose between these, particularly since one of them inevitably detracts from the writer’s ability to contribute at the other. Does that make sense? Vote 1/3 for each. Yes, I’m copping out.
13. Best UCB Project
- Progressive Game Blog
- Roundtables
- Top 7 Prospects
- Write-in: ____________
I love the roundtables. Wish we could do one every month on the topics of the day.
- Write-in: C70 At The Bat
Daniel writes stuff that I aspire to write one day. No blowing smoke here. The guy sits down the morning after a game, writes what he thinks, and instantly commands respect because it’s really difficult to debate what he’s saying, positive or negative. Regardless of opinion, there is always the tone in his writing that the next day will be better. The Cardinals will win because they will have patched the weakness in the previous night’s outcome (or more importantly, have read his blog!). Cheers Daniel, I applaud your writing and attitude as a fan.
- Write-in: Red State, Blue State
I hope this is allowed, because while not a 100% Cardinal blog, one of the writers is pro-Cards, the other is a Tigers fan (oops, sorry ’bout 2006). Jeff is a laugh-riot and an asset to the Cardinal fan-dom. Hope you guys will read this blog.
16. Rookie Blog of the Year
- The McBrayer-Baseball Blog
- St. Louis Sports Scene
- Write-in: ____________
Steve Sommer was a breath of fresh air coming onto the Cardinal blog scene, providing incredible insight and analysis into MLB’s PitchFX numbers and many other statistical analyses of the Cardinals and MLB as a whole. Steve has since paired with Erik Manning (of just about every baseball site you can find these days) over at Play a Hard Nine and I look forward to reading more great stuff there.
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*Individual blogs are blogs that are written in whole (or, at least 90%) by one person. Examples would be this blog, Fungoes, Stan Musial’s Stance.
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Oh yeah, and my favorite UCB Radio guest has been all of them. We’ve got to keep them coming back, right? 🙂
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Great post – one which made me laugh and I’m going to check out those other blogs. Thanks.
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