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We turned the nomination process over to the FBb commenters, giving them the opportunity to pick the contenders for the Defensive Play of the Year by a member of the Washington Nationals' baseball club.
Going into this, the thinking is that due to its context and degree of difficulty, Steven Souza's no-hitter-saving catch is going to run away with this one.
The Nats' 25-year-old outfielder came on late as a defensive replacement in the ninth inning of Game 162 of 162 and was there in left field to take an extra base hit away from Miami Marlins' outfielder Christian Yelich with a spectacular diving catch for out no.27 of Jordan Zimmermann's no-no...
Zimmermann promised to buy Souza anything the young outfielder wanted in return for making this catch and he did apparently buy something for him, though when he was asked before his postseason start in Game 2 of the NLDS if he had purchased a gift, the Nationals' starter said, "I have. You will have to ask him what it is." Was it really a BMW?
Can anyone beat that? Is there another Nationals' fielder out there who did something more impressive? What about Denard Span taking one away from New York Mets' outfielder Matt den Dekker?
What about this catch by Nationals' catcher Wilson Ramos on the first pitch of a May 19th game from Stephen Strasburg to Cincinnati Reds' outfielder Billy Hamilton? Ever seen a buffalo fly?:
Asdrubal Cabrera moved to second when he was acquired by the Washington Nationals at the trade deadline. He made a few impressive plays. MLB.com called this one a "fancy flip" to start a double play:
Can you separate a play from its context? If so, this was an impressive play by Wilson Ramos on Aaron Barrett's intentional ball/wild pitch:
Ryan Zimmerman made a few nice plays in left field, how about this one he made to end the Nats and Brewers' extra innings affair in June:
No, Travis Ishikawa, Bryce Harper is not letting this one fall in for a hit:
I had to add one myself since no one mentioned Ian Desmond. How about a spinning, off-balance throw from behind second base. Adam LaRoche was impressed:
• VOTE for the Nationals' Defensive Play of the Year below...
• Information on the 2014 SB Nation MLB Awards:
The SB Nation's baseball sites are taking a different approach to awards season this time around.
Instead of filling out our own non-binding ballots for the traditional BBWAA awards like the Cy Youngs, MVPs and Rookies of the Year, the decision was made to come up with our own categories and have each of the 30 MLB team sites vote on the winners for their respective teams.
The categories are:
- Funniest moment - LINK - Current Leader: Dan Kolko + Frandsen: "There is no wrong pipe."
- Most regrettable moment: LINK - Current Leader: Williams pulling Zimmermann in Game 2
- Defensive play of the year - Nov. 7th
- Most important hit of the year - Nov. 10th
- Best pitching appearance of the year - Nov 12th [ed. note - "And seriously, if you vote for anything other than Jordan Zimmermann's no-hitter, I will ban you."]
- Team of the year - Nov. 14th
Starting on November 17th, the winners in each category will be sent on to the writers at sbnation.com/MLB where an SB Nation/MLB committee will select 4-5 nominees for each category based on team site results and hold a nationwide vote for each on sbnation.com/MLB to determine the league-wide winners.