Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun honored

Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun honored October 28, 2007 | 08:39 PM Prince Fielder was the NL recipient of the Hank Aaron award and the Players' Choice Award for most outstanding NL player this week. The Hank Aaron Award is voted on by the fans and honors the top offensive player in each league. Alex Rodriguez won the AL award. From Reuters.com: Nearly 400,000 votes were cast at MLB.com, the official Web site of Major League Baseball, and Commissioner Bud Selig announced the winners on Sunday. Fielder received 16 percent of the NL fan votes. The first baseman led the National League with 50 home runs and drove in 119 runs for the Brewers. Rodriguez was absent from the ceremony held before Sunday's Game Four of the World Series, but Aaron had special praise for Fielder. "I'd like to thank Prince Fielder and congratulate him on his outstanding year for winning this award," Aaron said. "And I want to thank him again for playing in a city which I hold very dear to my heart, and that's Milwaukee," added the Hall of Fame slugger, who played most of his career with the Milwaukee Braves. ... The Players' Choice awards were voted on in September. from MilwaukeeBrewers.com: Fielder beat out fellow finalists Matt Holliday of the Rockies and David Wright of the Mets to win the Players Choice Award for most outstanding player in the NL. The Yankees' Alex Rodriguez won the award in the American League after a vote of Major Leaguers in September. "That's an awesome feeling, knowing that the guys you play against every day respect how you play and how you go out there and give 100 percent," Fielder told Yahoo.com, which announced the results on a webcast. "The whole year I kind of surprised myself," Fielder said on the webcast. "Growing up, you never say you are going to hit 50 home runs or be in a pennant race or anything like this. This whole year was great all-around in terms of my season and the team's." ... A few days later it was announced the Ryan Braun was chosen as the Players' Choice NL Rookie of the Year From MilwaukeeBrewers.com: The 23-year-old did not debut until late May but nonetheless led big league rookies with 34 home runs, a .324 batting average and a .634 slugging percentage. On Thursday, he won the Players Choice Award for most outstanding rookie in the National League, decided by a vote of his peers. "It really wasn't easy," Braun told Yahoo.com in a webcast announcing the award. "I came up, tried to make adjustments as quickly as possible, and as long as I was able to do that, I was able to find some success." "To me, there's nothing more meaningful than being awarded for something like this and recognized by your peers," Braun said. "It's very special to me and something I take great pride in." "The most impressive thing was how quickly he adapted from being that new guy," Yahoo baseball analyst Tony Gwynn said in the webcast. "Things seemed to happen quite easy for him. ... The most amazing thing is that he accumulated these numbers in about four months." Boston's Dustin Pedroia was named the top rookie in the American League. Both Pedroia and Braun will get to make a donation to the charity of their choice courtesy of the Major League Baseball Players Association. Braun said he wanted to use the money for the Milwaukee Boys and Girls Club or the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity, two causes supported by Brewers Charities. Nicole