Padres Up for 3 GIBBY Awards

While I wouldn’t use the word great to describe the 2014 Padres season, it doesn’t mean that there wasn’t a fair share of great moments. Now those moments have a chance to be recognized. Voting is now open for MLB.com’s Greatness in Baseball Yearly Awards, or GIBBY Awards for short.

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The GIBBYs have several different awards from the standard MVP, best pitcher, best manager to unique ones like storyline, walk off and oddity.  The best part of the GIBBYs though, is that the fans get a say. Through November 21st fans will be able to vote as much as they want for each award, and the winners will be announced on December 6th.

The first award a Padre is up for is Chris Nelson in the play category. Despite hardly having enough time with the team for the fans to even learn his name, he did have one great moment. He found his inner Derek Jeter and dove in the stands to make a spectacular catch against the Rockies.

As you can see in the side by side view the similarities are uncanny. While the stature of the players couldn’t be more different you can’t deny that Nelson’s catch was just as impressive. While he’s up against some stiff competition like

Jr.’s no- hitter saving catch and the Pirates triple play, but I think Nelson’s got a shot at taking home the GIBBY.

Next up is Andrew Cashner in the oddity category. Back in April the Padres were in the middle of an extra inning contest against the Nationals and Seth Smith injured himself running out a ground ball. Jayson Werth was set to lead off the inning with Adam LaRoche on deck. The Padres wanted Stauffer to face Werth and then bring Torres in with a double switch, because the pitchers spot was due up third in the top half of the next inning. Now with Smith out of the game the Padres needed a left fielder for one at bat, so this happened.

If a pitcher playing left field isn’t an oddity then I don’t know what is. Cashner should be a strong contender for this one.

Lastly the Padres are up for the walk off award. Why is it the team and not one player? Because it’s not one walk off, but 3 walk offs in 3 games. It started on August 27th with Rene Rivera doing this.

And then after a day off,

did this.

Then

topped it off with this.

While none of these were spectacular or memorable walk offs like the rest of the contenders, having three straight walk offs is pretty special.

While those are the only Padres players up for awards, there are another pair of Padre related nominees. Former Padre Huston Street is up for closer of the year. He began his banner year with Padres, so if he is the winner it’s partially a victory for the Padres.

Another is a moment that happened at Petco Park. While the name Agnes McKee probably doesn’t ring a bell, her first pitch at Petco is in the running for top Cut 4  topic of the year. The reason it was memorable was her age, 105.

While it was a truly special moment I doubt she’ll top the

Signs.

Voting is now open and you can vote here. With your help maybe a Padre or two might take home an award.