MLB announces trendy new awards program in which fans have a say
Major League Baseball has created a new brand of year-end awards, with the goal of merging traditional honors for the game’s best players with modern awards that are hip and social-media savvy.
And fans will have a say in the winners.
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This new program is called the Esurance MLB Awards. It’s not trying to make the existing, time-tested and ubiquitous awards such as MVP and Cy Young obsolete. Those awards, along with Rookie of the Year and Manager of the Year, are voted on and handed out by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America and that won’t change. Rather, the goal is to complement those awards with something more contemporary.
Think of the difference between the Oscars and the MTV Movie Awards.
These MLB Awards feature 24 categories such as Best Major Leaguer and Best Everyday Player along with Best Social Media Personality, Best Trending Topic and Best Fan Catch. The majority of the winners will be announced during a “multi-platform special” to air on MLB Network on Nov. 20.
The foundation these are built on is MLB’s GIBBY Awards (the Greatness in Baseball Yearly Awards, which started in 2010) and MLB Network’s own awards, both of which have been combined into this new effort. Last year in the GIBBYs, for instance, Clayton Kershaw won the Best Major Leaguer award (their version of the MVP) while Mike Trout won Best Everyday Player (only for position players). One big difference in these awards: There are no AL- and NL-specific awards.
“The Esurance MLB Awards will recognize the ways today’s Major League players make an impact both on the field and through fan engagement,” said Noah Garden, MLB executive vice president of business in a press release. “This awards platform with Esurance takes a fun look at how fans consume, enjoy and appreciate baseball in 2015.”
Winners will be decided by five groups of voters: fans who cast their ballots online, baseball media members, front-office personnel, former players and Society of Baseball Research members. That’s a broad group that represents a variety of people often left out of awards voting.
[Watch this: Fan tries to rip a foul ball out of Adrian Gonzalez’ glove]
Voting in some categories begins immediately at MLB.com/Awards. The nominees for Best Major Leaguer (their equivalent of the MVP), Best Everyday Player, Best Starting Pitcher and Best Rookie will be announced Tuesday. The nominees for best Best Defensive Player, Best Bounceback Player and Best Breakout Player will be announced next week.
Nominees for the rest of these categories will be announced Oct. 6, unless where noted:
• Best Social Media Personality
• Best Play, Offense
• Best Play, Defense
• Best Moment
• Best Performance
• Best Social Media Post
• Best Celebrity Fan
• Best Fan Catch
• Best MLB Interview
• Best Call – TV
• Best call – Radio
• Best Player-Fan Interaction
• Best Video Board Moment
• Best Trending Topic
• Best Manager (announced Oct. 8)
• Best Executive (announced Oct. 8)
• Best Major Leaguer, Postseason (announced after World Series)
Voting runs until Nov. 13 at 11:59 p.m. ET.
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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz
