![\"\"](\"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/BBA.png\" "\\"BBA\\"")
<\/a>Kimbrel beat Milwaukee’s John Axford by 13 points in the votes submitted by the National League voters of the Alliance, accumulating 78 points and garnering 12 first place votes. Axford, on the other hand, received 65 points on the strength of seven first place selections. Kimbrel’s bullpen teammate Johnny Venters was a very distant third with nine total points.<\/p>\nThe race in the American League was a little more anti-climatic as Detroit closer Jose Valverde gained 13 first place votes on his way to a league-leading 74 point total. Two New York Yankees followed him in the voting, with Mariano Rivera receiving four first place votes and 56 total points while David Robertson gained 39 points for third.<\/p>\n
The complete voting results are as follows (first place votes in parenthesis):<\/p>\n
American League
\nJose Valverde, Detroit (13) 74
\nMariano Rivera, New York (4) 56
\nDavid Robertson, New York (3) 39
\nJonathan Papelbon, Boston (1) 21
\nKoji Uehara, Texas (1) 6
\nAlfredo Acevas, Boston (1) 5
\nNeftali Feliz, Texas 2
\nGreg Holland, Kansas City 2
\nChris Perez, Cleveland 2
\nBrandon League, Seattle 1
\nVinnie Pestano, Cleveland 1<\/p>\n
National League
\nCraig Kimbrel, Atlanta (12) 78
\nJohn Axford, Milwaukee (7) 65
\nJohnny Venters, Atlanta (1) 9
\nJoel Hanrahan, Pittsburgh 8
\nJJ Putz, Arizona 7
\nSean Marshall, Chicago 6
\nHeath Bell, San Diego 3
\nTyler Clippard, Washington 3
\nSergio Romo, San Francisco 1<\/p>\n
The Baseball Bloggers Alliance was formed in the fall of 2009 to encourage cooperation and collaboration between baseball bloggers of all major league teams as well as those that follow baseball more generally. As of this writing, the organization consists of 316 blogs<\/a> spanning all 30 major league squads as well as general baseball writing.<\/p>\n The BBA is organized under a similar structure as the Baseball Writers of America, where blogs that follow the same team are combined into “chapters” and only two votes from the chapter on an award are counted. The blog chapters that are focused on general baseball were allowed two votes as well, which they could use both on the same league or split between the two leagues.<\/p>\n Chapters generally followed one of two methods when casting their ballot. Either representatives of the chapter were given the ballots for voting or a “group ballot” was posted, accounting for both of their votes.<\/p>\n Notably, though the Alliance’s awards come out well before their official counterparts, the BBA selections have matched those of the Baseball Writers of America in all but two instances in the past two years. This, of course, does not include the Goose Gossage Award that is exclusive to the BBA.<\/p>\n Ballots are posted on the respective blogs and for this award, were tabulated on a 5-3-1 point scale for first through third place. In the interest of transparency, links are given below for the ballots. Chapter affiliation is in parenthesis. Those chapters that decided on the group method are noted with an asterisk.<\/p>\n American League National League Prior Winners: 2010: Rafael Soriano, Tampa Bay; Brian Wilson, San Francisco<\/p>\n
\nBaltimore Sports and Life<\/a> (Baltimore)
\nBaseball Is My Boyfriend<\/a> (Texas)*
\nBaseball North<\/a> (Toronto)
\nBoston Red Thoughts<\/a> (Boston)*
\nContract Year<\/a> (Oakland)*
\nThe Flagrant Fan<\/a> (General)
\nKings of Kauffman<\/a> (Kansas City)*
\nLady At The Bat<\/a> (New York)
\nMisc. Baseball<\/a> (History)
\nMotor City Bengals<\/a> (Detroit)
\nNorth Dakota Twins Fan<\/a> (Minnesota)
\nThe Rays Rant<\/a> (Tampa Bay)
\nSeattle Mariners Musings<\/a> (Seattle)
\nSeedlings To Stars<\/a> (Other)
\nSome Thoughts On Baseball<\/a> (Toronto)
\nTigers Amateur Analysis<\/a> (Detroit)
\nThe Tribe Daily<\/a> (Cleveland)*
\nTwins On Twins<\/a> (Minnesota)<\/p>\n
\nAppy Astros<\/a> (Houston)
\nBlog Red Machine<\/a> (Cincinnati)
\nCincinnati Reds Blog<\/a> (Cincinnati)
\nDugger Sports<\/a> (Philadelphia)
\nThe Eddie Kranepool Society<\/a> (New York)*
\nThe Flagrant Fan<\/a> (General)
\nMisc. Baseball<\/a> (History)
\nOn The Outside Corner<\/a> (St. Louis)
\nPhils Baseball<\/a> (Philadelphia)
\nProse and Ivy<\/a> (Chicago)*
\nRaise The Jolly Roger<\/a> (Pittsburgh)
\nRJ’s Fro<\/a> (San Diego)
\nRockies Woman<\/a> (Colorado)
\n22 Gigantes<\/a> (San Francisco)
\nVictoria Seals Baseball Blog<\/a> (Other)
\nWebsoulsurfer<\/a> (San Diego)
\nWhere Have You Gone, Andy Van Slyke?<\/a> (Pittsburgh)<\/p>\n