Atlanta Braves Morning Chop – November 1!
2014 Fielding Bible Award winners announced
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The Fielding Bible Awards are back. And they have an interesting wrinkle this time around.
If you aren’t familiar with the Fielding Bible Awards, just think of them as an alternative to the traditional Rawlings Gold Glove Awards. Voted on by a 12-person panel consisting of some familiar names, including Bill James, Joe Posnanski, Brian Kenny, Rob Neyer, and others, the award aims to identify who was the best defensive player at each position for each season.
The big change this year is the introduction of the multi-position award, which recognizes a brilliant defensive player who plays multiple positions. In order to qualify, a player must have played at least 600 innings across all positions and played no more than 70 percent of those innings at any one position.
SS – Andrelton Simmons, Braves
RF – Jason Heyward, Braves
[ Editor’s notes:
1. The full ballot of voters’ choices/results – wow! transparency in the process!! – can be seen here.
2. Yes, this was a “no league distinctions” award, so Jason and Andrelton win this for all of baseball.
3. You may have noted that Justin Upton was a finalist for the Gold Glove award… that less-than-stellar fielding award that gives out gilded mitts for fielding… “and stuff”. Justin was (correctly, IMHO) not even in the top ten on this ballot. In fact, he was down there with Matt Holliday in votes… which is just about right.
4. Both Simmons and Heyward were unanimous selections. Awesome!!
Me thinks these awards could shortly become THE fielding awards – forcing Rawlings to reconsider its own sponsorship, perhaps? ]
Yankees to Extend Qualifying Offer to David Robertson
The Yankees will extend a qualifying offer to closer David Robertson, Jack Curry of the YES Network tweets. They hope to keep him, Curry writes, citing a source. …
Even given the qualifying offer, he’ll be the most desirable player on the closer market, particularly given his relative youth — he’ll be 30 in April. MLBTR’s Steve Adams predicted that Robertson would receive a four-year, $52MM deal this offseason.
[ Editor’s note: Holy smokes!! How good does Kimbrel’s contract look now? Robertson now stands to get $15.3m if he accepts that deal – and that projection is for 4 years x $13m per. Craig Kimbrel, by contrast, is set to make $9m/$11m/$13m through 2017 with a team option of $13m in 2018. ]
Nationals Exercise Denard Span‘s Option; Decline LaRoche, Soriano
Oct 3, 2014; Washington Nationals center fielder Denard Span. Mandatory Credit: H.Darr Beiser-USA TODAY Sports
The Nationals have exercised center fielder Denard Span‘s $9MM option, Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post reports on Twitter. Span, 30, will now enter his final season of team control before hitting the market after the year.
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The team announced the move on Span while also announcing that it has declined its club option on reliever Rafael Soriano and the team end of a mutual option for first baseman Adam LaRoche.
Neither of those moves surprised, either. Soriano struggled in the second half and lost his closer job, and never was really in contention to have his $14MM tab paid. LaRoche, meanwhile, will get a $2MM buyout. While it may have made sense to exercise the $15MM option in other circumstances, Washington is expected to shift Ryan Zimmerman over to first.
[ Editor’s note: the off-season is still very young, of course, but overall I would have to think that these moves do not improve the Nationals (though they bring Span back – of course). Good luck to our old friend Adam on latching on with another club. That should happen, albeit at a lower rate. ]
Arizona Fall League Stars Game Tonight
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MLB Network – 8:00 pm Eastern time
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Daniel Castrois the lone Braves’ participant – playing for the West club)
Meanwhile, Peoria banged out 14 hits in an 8-3 victory over Surprise last night, scoring both early and late in the rout. They improve to 8-12-2… and are actually now only 1 game out of 1st place in this 6-team, 2 division league.
Kyle Wren actually got to play (CF and LF), going 1/4 with 2 K. Edward Salcedo notched a (typical) 1/4 as well (hitting… yep, .250) with a run, RBI, walk, and a strikeout.
Brandon Cunniff closed it out in the ninth – being aced out of a save opportunity thanks to the 3-run 8th by Peoria – with a strikeout and a hit allowed. His AZ ERA drops to 2.79.