Who is the AL Rookie of the Year?

Prior to the completion of the 2010 regular season, I gave a quick run down of the main candidates for the major baseball awards in Early Award Returns. Never one to rest with a cursory look into any topic, I thought it would be a worthwhile venture to explore each of the major awards in a more in-depth manner. With that, here are my thoughts on the 2010 AL MVP.

To see the previous articles in the series click on the following link:

Who is the NL MVP?

Who is the AL MVP?

Who is the NL Cy Young?

Who is the AL Cy Young?

Who is the NL Rookie of the Year?

AL Rookie of the Year Discussion

Brennan Boesch: He was the best power bat amongst AL rookies this season with 14 homers and 67 RBI, but his production was all over the map. Boesch was hitting .342 with 12 homers and 49 RBI at the All-Star break when I pleaded with everyone to trade him. Hell, as early as the second week of June I was jumping off his bandwagon because he was, simply put, hitting in an extreme amount of luck (you can read my thoughts in BABIP: Hitters). I wasn’t surprised he slumped in the second half, but the drop was precipitous to say the least (.163-2-18 over 68 games).

Wade Davis:  He was everything the Rays hoped he would be in his first full season in the big leagues. He won 12 games, against 10 loses, and despite some ups and down, in addition to some time on the DL, he still posted a solid 4.07 ERA over 168.1 innings. He didn’t strike out as many as hoped – his K/9 mark was a mere 6.05, well below his roughly one per inning pace in he minors – but he managed to keep his walks in check (3.32 BB/9).  He really wasn’t much more than ordinary, but that is still pretty darn good for a rookie in the AL East.

Neftali Feliz: The question to start the year was whether or not he would start of pitch out of the bullpen? The Rangers obviously made the right choice. When Frank Francisco struggled to hold down the 9th, the Rangers gave the ball to Feliz, and he rewarded their faith with the most saves by a rookie in baseball history (40). He also struck out more than a batter per inning (9.22 K/9) while posting a 2.73 ERA and 0.88 WHIP for the AL West champs.

Austin Jackson: I’m still shocked. Jackson led the majors in BABIP at .396, a completely ridiculous mark (see BABIP: Finally Tally- Hitters). At the same time Jackson became the 4th rookie in baseball history – since 1901 anyway – to have a season of 100 runs, 25 steals, 30 doubles, 10 triples and 180 hits. You can read who the other three are at By the Numbers. He clearly was the most productive hitting rookie in the Junior Circuit, there is no debating that.

John Jaso: When you are a catcher for a team that leads the league in victories – the Rays won 96 games – people tend to take notice. Though his 5×5 numbers were ordinary (.263-5-44-57) it should be noted that he had only 339 at-bats. Because of his ability to control the strike zone – he had an excellent 1.51 BB/K mark leading to a .372 OBP – Jaso batted leadoff 45 times for the Rays.

Brian Matusz: He tossed 175.2 innings for the Orioles racking up 10 victories against 12 loses. He also had middling ratios – a 4.30 ERA and a 1.34 WHIP – for a team that was once again a bottom feeder. However, he really stepped up his game down the stretch and completely turned his game around after the All-Star break going 7-3 with a 3.63 ERA an a 1.19 WHIP over 14 starts. All in all, it was a wonderful rookie season filled with much promise thanks to his superlative finish.

Carlos Santana: A knee injury ruined what was shaping up to be a sublime rookie season. In a mere 150 at-bats Santana had six homers, 22 RBI and 23 runs scored, a 120 game pace that would equate to 16 homers, 57 RBI and 60 runs scored. He also posted a .401 OBP leading to an impressive .868 OPS thanks in no small part to his tremendous plate discipline (1.28 BB/K).

In the end, this is a two-man race. Do you favor the everyday player (Jackson) or the pitcher (Feliz)? After much internal wrangling I’m going to award the trophy to the Tigers’ everyday center fielder but that call was by the hair on my gray chinny-chin-chin.

7- Brennan Boesch
6- Carlos Santana
5- John Jaso
4- Brian Matusz
3- Wade Davis
2- Neftali Feliz
1- Austin Jackson

By Ray Flowers

Did You Know?

Did you know that I’m tall (6’3″)? Did you know that I wear size 13 shoes? Did you know that I have a rule that I don’t get up before the sun? I know that isn’t the type of did you know that you were planning to read, so before I lull you into a semi-comatose state with more mundane “Ray facts” let’s get to the meat of this piece.

Mike Napoli leads all catchers with 20 homers. Only 12 of those bombs have come as a catcher, eight have come as a first basemen, but you get the point. Moreover, the 20 homers from a catcher eligible player are more than the combined total of Buster Posey (nine) and Joe Mauer (eight) who are hitting a combined .335.

Albert Pujols is pushing for the NL Triple Crown with a .319 average (third – Joey Votto leads the league at .323), 33 homers (first) and 92 RBI (first). He’s also second in the league in OPS at 1.013 (two percentage points behind Votto). But did you know… Albert Pujols also leads all first basemen in the game with 12 steals. And he’s having a down season?

There isn’t a single second basemen, who qualifies for the batting title, who has an OBP of .400 as Robinson Cano has a .390 mark. Can also leads the position with a .326 batting average, a .568 SLG, a .958 OPS, 35 doubles and 87 RBI. Yeah, Cano has been pretty good, which is kinda like saying that Adrianna Lima is hot.

Casey McGehee has been insanely good given his draft day cost. McGehee has hit 20 homers this season which just so happens to be one less than Alex Rodriguez. Moreover, McGehee has more homers than a litany of fantasy stars at the hot corner; Michael Young (19), Kevin Youkilis (19), David Wright (19), Aramis Ramirez (19) and Evan Longoria (18). Casey’s total of 82 RBI is also more than Wright (81), Mark Reynolds (71), Young (70), Ryan Zimmerman (70).
Yunieksy Betancourt has more RBI (61) than any shortstop in the American League. Read that again to make sure you’ve got it. For that matter, any idea who leads NL shortstops in RBI? In another minor miracle, it’s Juan Uribe (66). Let’s keep building on the craziness. I haven’t even mentioned the man who leads all shortstops in RBI – Alex Gonzalez who has 70. He had 50 as a member of the Blue Jays and 20 as a member of the Braves.
Brennan Boesch hit .342 with 12 homers and a .990 OPS in 65 games before the All-Star break. Since that point he has played 37 games and he his hit a sickly .145 with two homers and a .429 OPS. Think about that. He has literally been less than half the player he was in the first half.

Juan Pierre has 49 steals leaving him one short of a fifth season of at least 50 thefts. Since he began his career in 2000, there are only two men that can rival that level of production. Jose Reyes has four 50-steal seasons in that time whereas Carl Crawford has five 50-steal efforts. Mr. Crawford needs nine more steals this season to push his career mark to six 50-steal seasons.

The Giants’ Andres Torres is having a special season. Amongst players who qualify as a right fielder, Torres is sixth in OPS (.866), sixth in OBP (.370) and seventh in SLG (.499). Torres also has scored 71 runs – one more than Justin Upton – and his total of 23 steals makes him one of only five qualifiers at the position with at least 20 (Ichiro Suzuki, Angel Pagan, Will Venable and Ben Zobrist).

Everyone has been talking about Roy Halladay, Adam Wainwright, Ubaldo Jimenez and Josh Johnson, but has anyone noticed who is leading the AL in ERA this season with a 2.26 mark? The answer is none other than Clay Buchholz of the Red Sox. Clay hasn’t given up an earned run in his last three starts, and five times in his last nine trips to the hill he has emerged unscathed. Not bad for a guy who entered the year with a grand total of 36 games under his belt.

Not many have taken notice, but Neftali Feliz is about to make history. After tossing a total of 31 innings last season, Neftali still qualifies for the AL Rookie of the Year award. If that isn’t cool enough, how about the fact that he is a mere seven saves from setting an all-time rookie record. The current mark is 37 held by Kaz Sasaki. Of course, Sasaki was 32 years old when he came to the States after a career of success in Japan, so that number really shouldn’t count – at least in this scribes book.

By Ray Flowers