The Rookie of the Year process in Major League Baseball is a fun one to watch. It’s one of the only times in professional sports that men get rewarded for having mildly above-par seasons.
Similar to the Comeback Player of the Year Award, it basically says, “We knew you were pretty good, but you exceeded our very low expectations! Congrats!”
Jonathon Niese should be the N.L. Rookie Of the Year. Niese has a nice 2.5 to one strikeout to walk ratio, and two complete games to boast. Does he have the best numbers? No. Does he have a losing record? Yes. Does he carry his team? No. But he does play for the Mets, and he actually tries. For that, a man should be rewarded.
In all seriousness though, the N.L. R.O.Y. race is tighter than most would have expected after the first month of the season. By May, Jason Heyward of the Atlanta Braves was basically christened Rookie of the Year, if not rookie of the decade. His walk-off homers were featured on Baseball Tonight every evening, and his right field play was on Sportscenter every morning.
Heyward battled through a thumb injury and has still been a staple of consistency this year for the Braves, but others have emerged, even within the National League East. Gaby Sanchez has shined for the Florida Marlins, even in spite of the Marlins’ average record.
Sanchez and Heyward have both been flirting around the .280 mark in batting average, but Sanchez has the RBI edge by twelve. The reason why Heyward is going to win the 2010 N.L. Rookie of the Year award has nothing to do with numbers though.
The two budding superstars have much too similar stats to contrast based solely on slugging percentage or doubles.
It comes down to defense. Heyward plays a solid rightfield, whereas Sanchez plays an unchallenging first base. It also comes down to leadership. The Braves have found themselves in the postseason hunt in spite of a batting order that includes Nate McLouth with a .169 batting average. Heyward has put Atlanta back on the map.
Honorable Mentions: Gaby Sanchez- Florida, Jaime Garcia- St. Louis, Buster Posey- San Francisco.
The A.L. Rookie pool lacks quantity but the Detroit Tigers make up for it. The Tigers have the top two A.L. rookie hitters at the front half of their lineup in Austin Jackson and Brennan Boesch. All year, it has been up for debate: Which one of these tykes will take home the trophy?
Jackson has speed and average (26 SB, .299 average) where Boesch in a home-run threat as well as an RBI machine. It has to be one of these guys.Whoops. Never mind. Don’t mess with Texas.
Ranger’s closer Neftali Feliz has the thing voters love most: records. When someone breaks into the MLB and immediately starts writing his name on all the big books in Cooperstown, it gets hard not to notice. Feliz now holds the record for most saves by a rookie, and soon he’ll be A.L. Rookie of the Year.
Honorable Mentions: Austin Jackson- Detroit, Brennan Boesch- Detroit, Wade Davis- Tampa Bay.
It’s fun to take stock of what the kids do in the spring and summer. Some of them might even get a trophy out of all of this. But there’s a week left in the season. It’s time for boys to become men.
Let’s see what these little brats can do in the postseason.
These statistics are accurate as of Sept. 27.
Miles Parks can be reached at mparks@spartans.ut.edu.
how ’bout Ike Davis?
mmmm I disagree. jhey has 18hr with a 278 ave in 139 games for a wildcard team. BUT… BPos has 17hr with a 311 ave in only 105 games,, on a team that will most (super most) likely win their div… maaaybe, maaaybe it Posey as ROY, eh!?!? btw, do u think the Giants would even be close to winning the nl west if molina was still catching instead of Posey……….?
Some great writing. Keep up the awesome work!
-JL