DIBS Awards

A couple of weeks ago, I received a request from Billfer at the Detroit Tigers Weblog to participate with a number of other Detroit sports blogs to vote on our Tigers Players of the Year. This group of united bloggers had been given the name DIBS, an acronym for Detroit Independent Baseball Scribes. That or we've been named by a Rob Dibble fan.

DIBS was formed by Brian at the TigerBlog.net, Ryan at Detroit Tigers Central and the aforementioned Billfer. All three deserve credit, praise and possibly ridicule for allowing me to vote. We voted for three categories in the first annual DIBS Awards: Player of the Year, Pitcher of the Year and Breakout Player of the Year. Each site selected a first, second and third place nomination in each category.

The DIBS ballots have been tabulated by two very nice senior citizens from Florida, known for their acumen in such things, and here are your winners. The DIBS Tigers Player of the Year is
Placido Polanco. Our Tigers Pitcher of the Year is Jeremy Bonderman. Chris Shelton got a unanimous selection as Breakout Player of the Year.

For those of you dying to know how I voted, here is how my ballot looked. Player of the Year I gave to Chris Shelton, followed by Polanco, then Craig Monroe. I felt Shelton's body of work in a Detroit uniform merited him a tad more pull than Polanco, who was also stellar for a bad team, but wasn't here as long.

My pitcher of the Year nod went to Bonderman. His second half was a disappointment, but he's still rather young and led the squad in a number of categories. Mike Maroth got my second place vote, then Kyle Farnsworth.

My Breakout Player of the Year vote went to Shelton, then Polanco (mostly for his "breakout" here, not in MLB.) Curtis Granderson claimed my last vote in the Breakout category.

For those of you curious, here are all the blogs that currently make up DIBS. I believe I have links to all the members in my blogroll, but for handy reference here is a list.

Detroit Tigers Weblog
Detroit Tigers Central
TigerBlog.net
Roar of the Tigers
Motown Sports Revival
SportsPig
The Cheap Seats
Out of Bounds
Detroit Sports Squad
Bless You Boys
Beyond Boxscores

While DIBS is in its infancy, I would suspect that all parties are hoping that this affiliation will bring fame, fortune, media credentials, more hits (both for our sites and the Tigs' offense) and possibly quality time with Brandon Inge (Sam's not-so-secret desire). Seriously, I would hope this would be our first of many yearly awards and, perhaps, other joint ventures.