MLB.com Launches Fan Voting for Annual Online Baseball Awards

MLB.com,
the official website of Major League Baseball, announced today the fan voting
has begun for the sixth annual This Year in Baseball Awards, which provides
fans around the world an opportunity to choose the top players and moments from
the historic 2007 season. Over the previous five years of the awards, more than
11.5 million fan votes have been cast online at MLB.com.

Online fan
voting for the awards opened with Starting Pitcher of the Year on October 4 and
will continue for each of the 11 categories through Wednesday, December 5. The
winners will be unveiled exclusively during a special live broadcast on MLB.com
after the conclusion of the Baseball Winter Meetings in December.

The
candidates for each award will be unveiled over the next month. Nominees for
Starting Pitcher of the Year are: Josh Beckett; Fausto Carmona; John Lackey;
C.C. Sabathia; Chien-Ming Wang; Erik Bedard; Cole Hamels; Jake Peavy; Johan
Santana; and Brandon Webb.

Fans can
voice their opinions in the following 11 categories (previous winners
included):

Starting
Pitcher of the Year (Voting began October 4)

(C. Wang –
’06; C. Carpenter – ’05; J. Santana – ’04; M. Prior – ’03;

J. Smoltz
– ’02)

Single-Game
Performance of the Year (October 8)

(A. Pujols
– ’06; A. Rodriguez – ’05; R. Johnson – ’04; B. Mueller –

’03)

Manager of
the Year (October 11)

(J.
Leyland – ’06; O. Guillen – ’05; T. Francona – ’04; D. Baker –

’03)

Closer of
the Year (October 15)

(M. Rivera
– ’06, ’05, ’04)

Rookie of
the Year (October 18

(F.
Liriano -’06; R. Cano – ’05; D. Wright – ’04;
S. Podsednik
– ’03)

Setup Man
of the Year (October 22)

(J. Zumaya
– ’06; N. Cotts – ’05; F. Rodriguez – ’04; B. Donnelly – ’03; C. Hammond – ’02)

Play of
the Year (October 25)

(M. Cabrera – ’06; D. Wright – ’05; D. Jeter –
’04; R. Furcal – ’03;

T. Hunter – ’02)

Defensive
Player of the Year (October 29)

(M. Lowell – ’06;
I.
Suzuki – ’05; J. Edmonds – ’04, ’03; T. Hunter –
’02)

Hitter of
the Year (November 1)

(D. Jeter
– ’06; D. Ortiz – ’05, ’04; A. Pujols – ’03; A. Rodriguez –
’02)

Postseason
Moment of the Year (November 5)

(E. Chavez
– ’06)

Blooper of
the Year (November 8)

(S. Casey
– ’06; P. Martinez – ’05; J. Michaels – ’04; O.
Osbourne -’03;
M. Grace – ’02)