As a part of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance there is the participation in the end of year awards voting. As a practice run I am going to do a vote for who should get the awards based on the first half of the season. (Note: I write for a national league blog so I vote for the national league only).
My choices will be spread through out the All-Star Break as follows:
Monday: Rookie of the Year Award and Manager of the Year Award
Tuesday: Goose Gossage Award (Reliever of the Year) and Pitcher of the Year award
Wednesday: Most Valuable Player Award
The Goose Gossage Award (Relievers):


1) – Cubs, There is one number to know when looking at Marmol and that is his K/9 which sits at a ridiculous 17.04. He has 77 strikeouts in 40 innings averaging almost 2 per inning which boggles the mind. His other numbers are nice too, the 1.99 ERA, 2.02 FIP, and 2.57 xFIP. This is one of the statistically great first halves of any reliever.
2) – Giants, While not as dominate in the K's as Mamol Wilson is not having a season to sneeze at and has gotten a well deserved All-Star nod. He is improved in every sector if his game from last season posting a K rate of 12.39, an ERA of 1.98 that is backed up with a FIP of 2.05 and xFIP of 2.86. To top it off he has been used in numerous high leverage situations and has a NL leading WPA of 2.68.
3) – Padres, One of the closers that really just feels lights out when he comes in. Bell is having a fantastic year for the 1st place Padres. He has put up great numbers and is on pace to have a career year.

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