2011 Top Rookies of the Year

The Baseball Bloggers Alliance gives its Willie Mays Award to the top rookie of the season. Mays was a dazzling baseball presence whose skills had to be seen to be believed. He stole bases, was a superb center fielder, had a rocket arm, hit for a high average and possessed breathtaking home run power. When He came up with the New York Giants, his superb play and infectious enthusiasm made him an instant fan favorite. After being called up from the Triple-A Minneapolis Millers,  Mays hit .274, clubbed 20 homers and knocked in 68 runs to win the National League’s Rookie of the Year Award in the process. I like to insert photos into my posts, and in this case I’ve found one you may not have seen before. Directly below is the wire photo and caption that was issued by the Associated Press to its subscribers on May 24, 1951. To make the text easier to read, I’ve presented it in a separate, horizontal format.

AMERICAN LEAGUE ROOKIES

My vote for the top rookie in the American League goes to Kansas City Royals First Baseman Eric Hosmer. The highly touted, twenty-one year old Hosmer was brought up from Triple-A Omaha and made his major-league debut on Friday, May 6th. He was the team’s every day first baseman from that date on. He was expected to hit major league pitching and did not disappoint, posting a .293 batting average, with 19 home runs and 78 runs batted in. I hope Royals fans like watching him, because they’re going to be doing so for a long time.

My second place vote goes to Pitcher Ivan Nova of the New York Yankees. There was a point during the season when he was just about my last choice for this recognition. He had difficulty going deep into games. This hurt the team because it required its relief pitchers to throw more innings. He was sent to Triple-A Scranton and returned a different pitcher. Nova was a force down the stretch, going deeper into games and winning with unerring regularity. I’m sure he was the beneficiary of the Yankees prodigious run production, but even putting that run support, which some of the other rookie pitchers did not enjoy, to the side, Nova’s final numbers were impressive: 16 wins, 4 losses, 3.70 ERA and a WAR of 3.5. I’m anxious to see if he can continue to improve during the 2012 season.

First Baseman Mark Trumbo, of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, gets my third-place vote. It’s not by accident that I’ve shown him hitting, because he does it very well. The picture shows him perfectly balanced, making contact with the ball, hips turned, elbow close to the body and eyes on the ball. This was the form that enabled him to launch 29 home runs and knock in 87 runs. I’m sure that in the long run the team would like to see him cut back on his strikeouts, maybe take some more walks and make more consistent contact. Whatever happens, however, Trumbo has served notice to pitchers that he is a serious threat and should not be taken lightly.

National League Rookies

Atlanta Braves closer Craig Kimbrel gets my first-place vote among National League rookies. There have been several closers chosen as Rookies of the Year in the recent past, including  Neftali Feliz (Texas Rangers, 2010), Andrew Bailey (Oakland Athletics, 2009), and Huston Street (Oakland Athletics, 2005).  I think this reflects the growing importance of the closer in the contemporary game of baseball. I’m certainly not going to downplay his importance to the 2011 Braves. Kimbrel posted a 2.10 ERA, had 46 saves and held opposing batters to a .178 batting average. His 79 appearances meant he was in 49% of the Braves games. Perhaps the truest indicator of how dominant he was were the 14.84 strikeouts he averaged for every 9 innings pitched during the season.

Billed as the team with all aces, the Philadelphia Phillies still found themselves in need of starting pitching, and for his excellent job of providing it Vance Worley gets my second-place vote. He appeared in twenty-five games, all but four of them as a starter. He crafted a 11 win and 3 loss record, posted a 3.01 ERA and averaged 8.1 strikeouts per game.

Freddie Freeman, First Baseman of the Atlanta Braves, earned my third-place vote for several reasons. His 21 home runs, 76 runs batted in and .282 batting average certainly helped the Braves as they just missed the National League Wild Card. His fielding percentage of .996 attests to his ability with the glove. Of greater interest to me were his 32 doubles and 53 walks.

Who among us doesn’t like power from our corner-infield players? Ideally, what I want from any hitter is for him to work the count, stay patient, and use his judgment, experience and bat control to wait for his pitch and then hit it hard. If the player doesn’t get that pitch, then he shouldn’t be afraid to take the walk, get on base, and permit the player who follows him in the lineup the opportunity to find and hit his pitch hard. At the age of 22, it looks to me like Freeman already has that figured out. What’s more, at 6’5″ and 225 pounds, he is more than likely to get stronger in the next few years. I don’t think National League pitchers are going to like that.