1. Player of the Year

–Matt Holliday
–Albert Pujols (X)
–Colby Rasmus
–Write-in: _______________

I’m choosing Albert, but Matt had an outstanding season as well.

2. Pitcher of the Year

–Chris Carpenter
–Jaime Garcia
–Adam Wainwright (X)
–Write-in: _______________

Can’t really go wrong with any pitcher listed here.

3. Game of the Year

–April 5 at Cincinnati–Opening Day, 2 HR from Pujols, slam from Molina
–May 30 at Chicago–Pujols three home runs
–July 18 vs. Los Angeles–Five runs in eight and ninth to win
–July 19 vs. Philadelphia–Four home runs
–August 10 at Cincinnati–Brawl, home run from Molina (X)
–Write-in: _________________

Coming out of the All-Star break strong against LA and Philly was great, but I chose the brawl game in Cincy. If the Cardinals would have went on to win the division this series would have been highly regarded as the turning point.

4. Surprise Player of the Year

–David Freese
–Jaime Garcia (X)
–Jon Jay
–Write-in: ________________

Jaime gets the nod here but who knows what could have been for Mr. Freese. Hopefully his health holds this next season.

5. Disappointing Player of the Year

–Kyle Lohse (X)
–Dennys Reyes
–Brendan Ryan
–Write-in: _________________

For me this one’s a toss up. I realize Kyle’s not going to be a twenty game winner but to be sidelined once again with such an odd injury was frustrating. Brendan shined defensively at short but fizzled at the plate. I’m very hopeful he gets another shot but the front office and TLR seem content replacing the Gold Glove caliber shortstop with offense.

Honorable Mention: Brad Penny

6. Rookie of the Year

–Jaime Garcia (X)
–Jon Jay
–Fernando Salas
–Write-in: ________________

Honk Honk. Can’t say enough good things about Jaime’s season

7. Acquisition of the Year

–Aaron Miles
–Brad Penny
–Jake Westbrook (X)
–Write-in: ________________

Jake was very solid and I’m happy he’ll be in St. Louis the next two seasons.

8. Biggest Off-Field Story

–Jaime Garcia’s shutdown without him knowing
–Mark McGwire’s return to baseball
–Colby Rasmus’s trade request (X)
–Write-in: _____________

Once Big Mac addressed the media in Spring Training his story passed. Colby’s rocky relationship with TLR continues to linger.

9. Most Anticipated Cardinal

–Zack Cox
–Lance Lynn
–Shelby Miller (X)
–Write-in: ________________

10. Best Individual Cardinal Blog

–Write-in: Throatwarbler’s Blog

11. Best Team Cardinal Blog

–Write-in: Pitchers Hit Eighth

12. Best Media Blog

–Bird Land
–Cardinal Beat
–Obviously, You’re Not A Golfer
–Write-in: _______________

Not a real preference here.

13. Best UCB Project

–Cardinal All-Decade Team
–Progressive Game Blog
–Roundtables (X)
–Write-in: ______________

I’m a newer member so the Post-Season Roundtable was my first project.

14. Most Optimistic Cardinal Blog

–Write-in: Cardinal Diamond Diaries and C70

15. Funniest Cardinal Blog

–Write-in: N/A. This is serious business folks.

16. Rookie Cardinal Blog of the Year

–Cardinal Diamond Diaries (X)
–i70baseball (X)
–RetroSimba (X)
–Welcome To Baseball Heaven
–Write-in: _______________

I wanted to vote for my blog so at least I’d receive one vote but it wasn’t allowed. So I had a tie with CDD, RetroSimba and I-70 Baseball. It would be unfair to vote for only one since I visit these sites weekly. Hopefully Daniel doesn’t frown on my 3 way split.

I wanted to also recognize the work done at Fungoes.net and Play A Hard Nine. Blogs dedicated to addressing Cardinals and MLB news and happenings from a sabermetric point of view.

And of course there’s plenty of fantastic UCB blogs I didn’t have the time to mention.