It is time to vote on the BtB Sabermetric Writing Awards! As a reminder, the community vote has a 50% say in who gets the award (the other 50% being an internal vote among BtB writers as well as a few invited guests).
Here is the category description.
The best sabermetric writer and/or researcher of the year. Define as you wish, though the individual should be nominated based on sabermetric writing and/or research contributions this year.
And here are your nominees, along with a description provided from the nomination thread. They are sorted randomly, courtesy of excel's rand() function:
1. Eric Seidman
http://www.baseballprospectus.com
One of the individuals who has continued to publish novel research at Baseball Prospectus before their infusion of talent that began in December.
2. R.J. Anderson
http://www.fangraphs.com & http://www.draysbay.com
He’s a machine; literally.
3. Sky Kalkman
http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com
He did a good job of showing how to use, e.g., Justin’s WAR numbers pre-FanGraphs, made the WAR Graph cool, established many community WAR projects, etc. Moreover, he’s "discovered," encouraged, and given a platform to many, many writers. One could make an argument that by education, encouragement, and networking, Sky might be the most influential guy in the sabermetric blogosphere over the last couple of years.
4. Jeff Zimmerman (Tucson Royal)
http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com
Some of his work includes well-done versions WAR, very valuable UZR projections, and innovations in Hall-of-Fame graphs. But he also has done novel stuff on climate and park effects and marginal spending on wins.
5. Rob Neyer
http://www.espn.com/mlb/
Rob is still one of the absolute best writers around and one of the best at communicating to a more casual audience sabermetric principles, so he really deserves to still be nominated.
6. Carson Cistulli
http://www.fangraphs.com
The guy writes extraordinarily well in a field that, frankly, features mostly bland writing. He’s genuinely funny, and it’s great to see articles on Fangraphs where the bulk of the content isn’t stats, graphs, or scouting reports. His "Etherview" series of interviews with leading sabermetricians are fascinating and legitimately entertaining.
7. Dave Allen
http://baseballanalysts.com and http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php?author=14
Lots of good insights into baseball through PITCHf/x data and innovative graphical presentation.
8. Erik Manning
http://www.fangraphs.com and http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com
Excellent use of applied research to understand players, especially prospects.
9. Dave Cameron
http://www.fangraphs.com & http://www.ussmariner.com
One of the best at taking complicated sabermetric concepts and explaining them in a readable and concise fashion.
10. Jeremy Greenhouse
http://baseballanalysts.com/
Jeremy pretty much sets the standard for quality and quantity.
11. Tom Tango
http://www.insidethebook.com/ee/
Even after many years of active contributions, one of the most insightful and enthusiastic sabermetricians around.
12. Tommy Bennett
http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com & http://www.baseballprospectus.com
His daily box scores were a must-read.
13. Sky Andrecheck
http://baseballanalysts.com
Exploded this year with a large number of highly innovative contributions.
14. Max Marchi
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/authors/maxm/2009/
Max has done some legitimately great work with fielding positioning and Pitch f/x.
15. Matt Klaassen (devil_fingers)
http://www.fangraphs.com/
I don’t know anyone that has done more in his first year of writing. Would be a great ROY candidate.
16. Colin Wyers
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/authors/colinw/2009/
The Best. Has had some ridiculous posts this year
17. Brittany Ghiroli
http://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/?author=167
She seamlessly combined reporting and analysis, outlasting many other quality writers in BP Idol (like Wyers). Her research on Babip should be an immediate staple of SABR 101.
18. Dan Szymborski
http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/oracle/
As he has for many years, Dan continues to employ ZiPS to inform his analysis and insight into virtually every major transaction in the major leagues. Also released an important minor league translation database.