2018 BDBL Awards Released, Sale wins Cy Young
The BDBL Front Office announced the results on the annual post-season awards and the Outlaws landed several players at the top of the lists.
With 19 of 20 first place votes, Chris Sale was nearly unanimously named as the Ozzie League Cy Young. The person that got the other first place vote, was Flagstaff’s own Zach Grienke who ended up second in voting.
“It’s no secret that the 1-2 punch from those two at the top of our rotation was a huge reason for our success last year,” Outlaws GM Greg Newgard said. “They went a combined 47-10 with an ERA around a 2.70 and 569 strikeouts. That’s a hell of a front end.”
Overall, it was the most successful year for award for the franchise as six different players got votes across all three categories: MVP, Cy Young and Babe Ruth.
In addition to the pitching accolades, slugger Aaron Judge racked up a couple of 2nd place finishes in the OL MVP and Babe Ruth races. Judge racked up four firsts and nine seconds in the MVP, losing out to Joplin’s Charlie Blackmon who nabbed 11 firsts. In the best hitter award, the race was much closer and both players got nine first place votes, but Blackmon edged Judge there as well with an extra second place vote and a couple of thirds.
In addition, George Springer and Paul Goldschmidt landed a couple of votes in each race, to end up on the tally, while Chris Sale also landed four votes, including a first-place vote in the MVP race to finish fifth overall. Khris Davis even landed a few third place votes in the Babe Ruth category.
“The names don’t surprise me as it was obviously all year that those guys drove the bus offensively,:” Newgard commented. “Had Judge not had such a great year, I could have seen Sale getting even more support there.”
The last awards went to Newgard for being the GM of the Year in the OL as well as a second-place finish to the Flagstaff franchise for Manager of the Year.
“It’s always an honor to be considered for these awards and we’ve only missed the ballot once back in 2010, I think,” Newgard said. “It feels a bit weird accept the General Manager award when so much of this team was built in the previous year, but I guess the Sale and Parker deals, along with a few of the reliever deals, put us over the top in this year’s crop.”
Overall, it’s the second GM of the Year award for Newgard, as he also won it back in 2009. For Manager of the Year, the second place finish was the franchise’s fourth time finishing second or better.