ATB XIII Reliever of the Year

Or should I say Relievers of the year. For the first time in our history, we have a tie for a post season award. In fact, top to bottom, the voting was extremely close.

Mariano Rivera and Joaquin Benoit will share the honors this season. Voters had a difficult time with the non-closing Rivera resulting in two diverging schools of thought. In general, voters put Rivera and his high innings pitched count on the ballot right next to teammate Joe Neale and his high innings pitched count.

Or in contrast, voters left both Rivera and Neale off the ballot focusing on traditional closers like Benoit and Jonathan Papelbon. In fact, both the third and sixth place finishers appeared on more ballots than our winners

The tale of the tape:

Benoit -- 3-1, 1.45 ERA,, 74 IP,, 71 K, 36 Sv, 1.09 WHIP, 2.31 RCERA
Rivera - 13-5, 2.47 ERA, 157 IP, 114 K, 10 Sv, 0.88 WHIP, 1.86 RCERA

The full ballot below (Total Pts, 1st Place Votes, Total Ballots, Name)
21 (4, 5) - Mariano Rivera (DC)
21 (3, 5) - Joaquin Benoit (WPM)
16 (1, 6) - Jonathan Papelbon (KD)
14 (2, 4) - Eric Gagne (HH)
14 (0, 6) - Joe Neale (DC)
02 (0, 2) - Rafael Betancourt (GCG)
01 (0, 1) - Dick Hall (KD)
01 (0, 1) - Andrew Bailey (OFB)

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