The Cy Young was all James Shields.  had a great year and the numbers broken down even fuirther tell of domination of opposing squads. Quality starts prove that.  He bested next closest Jake Peavy, last years winner, by 55 pernts. Peavy finished ahead of Skoklie's Tim Hudson and a very strong showing by Limoilou closer Takayashi Saito.  JJ Putz another closer, and John Maine showed strong for Joliet. Old time CBA future HOFer Greg Maddux had some votes on a couple of ballots.

Now the Clemente award for MVP was less cut and dry.  A few outstanding offensive seasons looked quite the dominant in the DH league known for it's big power.  The vote came as somewhat of a surprise considering some conversations among the crew who thought otherwise.  In the end, it was Vlad Guerrero  half of the notorious Otter Vlad-Papi tandem.  He outpointed last years VP Miguel Cabrera 140 to 106 to win this years award.  It is another gem on the crown for future HOFer Guerrero.  Cabrera had slightly more average and HR, but Guerrero drove in more runs, with less in table setting OBA by others ahead of him in the Otter lineup.  Jimmy Rollins finished a distant 3rd on virtue of his excellent play for Lake County highlited by speed (triples 20, SB 35).

The Cy Young award voting was closer...Went down to the last votes and Roy Oswalt defeated Eric Bedard 115 to 108.  One GM left Bedard off the ballot completely or it may had been closer. Oswalt's 18-3 3.55 era 215 inn, 159 K 83BB numbers were not as strong as Bedard's 17-3 3.43 era, 215K's, 53BB in only 178 inn. But  but his leadership in helping Indiana to another Clemente crown may have been.  Philly's Justin Verlander led his teammates to another Schmidt crown, finished 3rd ahead of the surprising Carolina Copperhead Jason Marquis 68-61.  Who'd have thunk Staten Island (NYC borough) born Jason Marquis would finish 4th in the Cy Young?  Cooperstown, who improved big time in 2008 boasted Francisco Cordero's 41 pt performance in '08.  Javier Vasquez also did well for Carolina.

The Johnstone award also went to the wire. Rick Ankel managed to hold off rallies by the game company man, Milton Bradley of Skokie and Carolina's Jason Werth. Both runners up had oputstanding seasons as did most of the Johnstone winners. 

It comes as no surprise that Skokie's "Wolfman" Shapiro won CBA's GM of the year after building yet another successful season which brings him to the World Series.  His crafting of a worst to first franchise with the old Montreal Royals, was another for the ages.  It remains to be seen how he and John Miller do against veteran Bob Fidler who finished second to the Wolf. Marc Wasserman finished third after guiding the Brooklyn Superbas to the Clemente finals.  John Miller has plenty of votes in his first year in CBA.