It’s award season in baseball, and as is the case with any award, there’s an opportunity to celebrate the winners. Buster Posey, for example, won the 2010 NL Rookie of the Year, and a lot of people are happy for him, and for all that he accomplished.
Buster Posey, Jason Heyward Each Left Off NL Rookie Of The Year Ballot
But on the other hand, the award season is also a time for controversy and criticism. One can choose to focus on the winner, or one can choose to focus on the flawed process, and 2010 saw its flawed process lead to both Posey and Jason Heyward getting left off of one ballot each.
Posey received 20 first-place votes, nine second-place votes, and two third-place votes. Heyward’s breakdown, meanwhile, was 9/20/2. Add those up and you get 31 votes for Posey and 31 votes for Heyward. However, there were 32 NL ballots, meaning either one voter thought neither was worthy of consideration, or two voters thought one of them wasn’t worthy of consideration.
In the end, it didn’t make a difference, as Posey and Heyward ran away with the whole thing, but it speaks to the troubles in the system. There’s no reason why Posey and Heyward shouldn’t have received unanimous votes.
One could also choose to complain about Marlins first baseman Gaby Sanchez picking up a pair of first-place votes, as that’s almost equally silly.
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