We are in the thick of BBWAA awards week and the Atlanta Braves are very much in the running for several awards. While Manager of the Year is a crapshoot and the Cy Young race seems like it could be really tough for Max Fried to win, most observers felt confident that a Braves player was going to take home the hardware.
While the Cardinals’ Brendan Donovan was a finalist, it was very clearly a two horse race between the Braves’ Michael Harris II and Spencer Strider. Harris’ promotion to the team coincided almost immediately with Atlanta’s turnaround during the 2022 while providing big time production at the plate and with his glove. Spencer, on the other hand, was putting up video game numbers on the mound. If you are breaking franchise records and even records set by Randy Johnson, you know you are doing some special things
At the end of the night, it was Michael Harris that took home the award as he got 22 first place votes to Strider’s eight. Typically, BBWAA voters prefer everyday players when it comes to Rookie of the Year voting (this is not a hard and fast rule, though) and our friend Kevin Henry over at Call to the Pen broke down why that was a key factor when he cast his ballot.
More Braves News
The Rookie of the Year vote was the big news item from yesterday, but the content train kept rolling along on the site. First, we had a look at the Hall of Fame case of Dale Murphy. I promise, we love Murph around here, but that doesn’t mean that he should be in the Hall of Fame and that is okay, too.
We continued our look at Braves history with some of the craziest injuries to ever happen in Braves franchise history. If you didn’t know the name Cecil Upshaw before today, I promise you will after reading that article.
Finally, our season review series continued with Orlando Arcia who ended up being counted on far more than the Braves planned on with the injury to Ozzie Albies. He certainly wasn’t perfect, but it sure was nice to have someone that wasn’t embarrassing out there.
MLB News
Braves fans probably only REALLY care about the National League side of the Rookie of the Year vote, but Julio Rodriguez ran away with the American League crown. If you want a full breakdown of the ROY awards, here it is.
Over on the FanSided MLB mothership site, our own Robert Murray put together his top 25 free agents this offseason. A small spoiler: Dansby Swanson features prominently.