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 Gosagge Award (reliever of the year) and Pitcher of the Year award
Wednesday: Most Valuable Player Award
Manager of the Year:

1) Bud Black – Padres, Not many people expected the Padres to be in this situation. I count myself as one of these people, I keep waiting for them to return to earth and back to the cellar the NL West. This is looking less and less likely. Bud Black a tip of the hat.
2) Bobby Cox – Braves, Cox always seems to do get the Braves to play well and in his last season it shouldn't be any different. What else can I say, he seems to be a good motivator and manages his teams personalities really well. Plus he has some red ass in him which is always a plus.
3) Dusty Baker – Reds, It was a struggle to fill this last position but I finally went with old Dusty. The reason for my reservation is that it seems that every season that the Red's were on the cusp of breaking out but just couldn't do it and now that they have I feel that it was more inevitable then anything that can be attributed to Baker.
Giants fans be aware, Bruce Bochy would need to change drastically to get close to making my ballot. I am not his biggest fan, not by a long shot.

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