Tampa Bay Rays’ trio nominated for 2011 Player Choice Awards - MLB News
The 2011 regular season was filled with more thrilling games and tense moments than the spectators have seen in past seasons. At the end of the every season, the fans wait for the players who will be crowned for various prestigious and honourable awards.
Like every year, many rookies and the veterans from 30 teams hoped for their nominations but this season Major League Baseball seemed to give more importance to the players of the Tampa Bay Rays.
Major League players have jointly announced their finalists for the highest tributes, the Players Choice Awards. The services of the three of the Rays’ players have been appreciated by nominating them for the prestigious awards in American League. MLB players
themselves select the winner of these awards.
Jeremy Hellickson, who has been named as the MLB’s Rookie of the Year Award winner on Friday by Baseball America, is nominated in the category of the outstanding Rookie and the Los Angeles Angels’ Mark Trumbo and Kansas City Royals’ Eric Hosmer will be his
competitors.
Rays’ outstanding pitcher James Shields is nominated for Outstanding Pitcher, but will have to face tough competition by the Detroit Tigers’ Justin Verlander and Los Angeles Angels Jered Weaver. Verlander has the most wins in the Major League and that has
made him the main candidate for the Award.
As baseball is all about the retaliations and the bounce back, the players have also nominated Casey Kotchman of the Rays in the category of the Comeback Player. Boston Red Sox Jacoby Ellsbury and the New York Yankees’ Bartolo Colon have also been nominated.
Players Choice Awards are present in the circles of baseball since 1992, when Major League Baseball honoured Dennis Eckersley and Barry Bonds announcing them AL and NL Outstanding Players respectively. Now the MLB has extended these awards to include the
categories of outstanding player, rookie, pitcher and comeback playersvin each league. Besides these awards the Player of the Year and the Man of the Year award are also presented without any specification of the League.
MLB Network will announce the winners of the 2011 Players Choice Awards on November 3 in a special transmission scheduled for the Awards. The winner of the Awards will receive a $260,000 grant from Major League Baseball Players Trust, the charitable foundation
established and organised by the players themselves.
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