On Sunday evening, Major League Baseball posted a few videos announcing award winners throughout the Players’ League. These awards included Best Player, Best Twitch Name, Best Manager, Most Entertaining Streamer, In-Game MVP, Best Reaction, and Best Cameo. The voting process consisted of the fans and players where thirty percent of the vote went to the fans, and the remaining seventy went to the players. Rangers’ Joey Gallo took not one, but two honors, trophies, or whatever they’re giving out. Gallo was the only player throughout the tournament that received two different awards. The videos featured two entertaining players in Brett Phillips of the Royals and former Ranger, Hunter Pence.

I’m honored😂🎮 https://t.co/bCsXnyQvxj

— Joey Gallo (@JoeyGallo24) May 3, 2020

Best Player

Joey shredded through his competition for the first week, starting 11-0 and captivating the eyes among fans and his oppositions. I would take a gander a few times at other players’ streams and the look of worry they had when they realized Joey was next on their schedule. According to Juan Toribio of MLB.com, Gallo received 39.79 percent of the vote from fans and received 30 percent from the players beating out the champion, Blake Snell, who Joey demolished in their regular-season matchup. In the end, Gallo ripped the competition in big flies and scored a total of 118 runs with a run differential of 66 (Illuminati!). Unfortunately, the strong run ended abruptly, and Joey was a first-round exit in the playoffs.

https://twitter.com/Starting9/status/1250255384524337154

Best Cameo

The award for best cameo awarded the player who dominates the competition, with himself, more than anyone else. It’s an easier award for hitters than pitchers since the stamina eats up pitchers throughout the tournament. Therefore, you could filter to fifteen players, and considering the game rides on home runs, with this in mind, Joey Gallo should have won the award before the tournament even started. Joey won the best cameo award unanimously sporting thirteen bombs, twenty-six runs driven in and a 1.814 OPS, is that good?

Tell me if you heard this before… @JoeyGallo24 homers as himself. Than goes back-to-back with @FlavaFraz21. Just your usual two homer game. #Rangers pic.twitter.com/rXyL4zz4ws

— Alex Plinck (@aplinckTX) May 2, 2020

In-Game MVP

While there was no nomination for virtual Joey Gallo for this award, Willie Calhoun certainly was. If there was anything we learned throughout the tournament, it’s that Joey can rake with Willie. Unfortunately, Willie finished second in the voting behind Aaron Hicks of the Yankees (played by Tommy Kahnle). Kahnle dominated with Hicks, with an OPS of 2.369 (no typo, that’s real or virtual).

Other notable awards

Dwight Smith Jr of the Orioles took the award for the best manager. It was an impressive run considering the Orioles are ranked in the bottom three in MLB: The Show. Considering he made a run to the postseason, it was a deserving award for Smith. While Joey’s streams had a few entertaining moments (and forced an application update), Brett Phillips of the Royals won the award for the most entertaining streamer. Brett is a character and streamed with a smile and a funny laugh at any given moment; it was a great choice by the players and fans.

The best reaction in a game went to Rhys Hoskins of the Phillies and Cole Tucker of the Pirates. In their match, Cole was inches away from making a bet that he would name his kid Rhys if Hoskins went deep. The next pitch, Hoskins went yard, but I don’t think Tucker ever finished the sentence, does it count? Finally, the best twitch name went to Bo Bichette (BoFlows). While Joey wasn’t nominated, I would have gone with Ty Buttrey of the Angels (although Buttery streamed on YouTube and not Twitch). Buttrey’s name is BigButtButtrey and how can that name not win an award for best name, maybe it was because Bichette won the peanut gallery over with his BoFlow.

Eduardo Rodríguez, Amir Garrett and Blake Snell talking about facing Joey Gallo. 🗑️🗣️😂

From: https://t.co/uf3Y2nK75G pic.twitter.com/xp0gybgTev

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 11, 2020

It was indeed a fun experience watching all of these players take time to entertain the baseball world and, most importantly, the fans. A Blake Snell three-game sweep of Lucas Giolito finalized the first MLB The Show Players’ League tournament. Now our focus is on a possible season or the Korean League. You can watch the reveals from Brett Phillips and Hunter Pence along with Toribio’s article here.