Major League Baseball always starts award season with the Rookie of the Year. I can see why. It builds up the excitement for the more prestigious awards (Cy Young and MVP), and, for the most part, Rookie of the Year is usually the easy one. You have the rare occurrence where there's an actual Rookie of the Year race like there was in the AL last year. But you usually know who the Rookie of the Year is most likely going to be well before the season is over.
That was certainly the case this year. There's no suspense heading into the announcement. We know who won. The only question is whether or not they were both unanimous. In the AL, I think it probably is. In the NL, I'm not sure. Even though Pete Alonso had a historic rookie season and will be the winner, there was an overall strong crop of rookies in the National League, so I wouldn't be surprised if Fernando Tatis, Jr., snagged a first-place vote or two.
For most of the season, people were talking about the Alonso-Tatis Rookie of the Year "race" as if there actually was one. Call it New York bias if you want, but I never believed that. Even if Tatis had been healthy the entire year, Alonso deserves to be the runaway winner. Frankly, he deserves for it to be unanimous. Just like it was for Aaron Judge two years ago, when he was also the runner-up for AL MVP.
Judge hit 52 home runs in 2017. Alonso hit 53 in 2019. That led the National League and was also the Mets' franchise record. He was on the Mets' Opening Day roster and led Major League rookies in every major offensive category you can think of. And, while this has no bearing on the Rookie of the Year, Alonso made the All*Star Team and won the Home Run Derby. He's one of those force-of-nature rookies who takes his team and city by storm from the second he arrives. I mean, it took, what? a week? for him to be dubbed the "Polar Bear."
None of which takes anything away from Fernando Tatis, Jr., who's much more than just the son of the guy who hit two grand slams in one inning. With all this talk about service time and keeping Major League-ready rookies in Triple A, Tatis was the Padres' Opening Day shortstop at the ripe old age of 20. He'll be a foundation in San Diego for years to come. I can only imagine what his numbers would've looked like had he played the entire season! Because what he did in half a year was mighty impressive!
Then there's Mike Soroka, who would be an incredibly strong candidate (and maybe even the favorite) in any other year. He's the only one of the three who appeared in the postseason, and he's one of the big reasons why the Braves won the division. Soroka was steady in the rotation all season, made the All*Star Team, and finished third in the NL with a 2.68 ERA. And he was just as good in September as he was in April.
My NL Ballot: 1. Alonso, 2. Soroka, 3. Tatis
When I gave out my midseason awards at the All*Star Break, I had Michael Chavis of the Red Sox pegged as the AL Rookie of the Half-Year. At that point in the season, Yordan Alvarez had been in the Majors for less than a month and Vladimir Guerrero, Jr., had only been there for two. Oh what a difference half a season can make! Because when the votes are counted, Alvarez will likely be the unanimous winner and Chavis will have only gotten a handful of third-place votes.
Alvarez was called up on June 9 and did nothing but mash. He hit 23 home runs in 56 games at Triple A, then hit 27 in 87 games with Houston. He had 51 RBIs in his first 45 games, which is just absurd. It really says all you need to know that the Astros, the team with one of the most stacked lineups in baseball, inserted a rookie right into the middle of it...and he wasn't out of place at all. The only thing they were missing was a full-time DH. Alvarez gave them one for years to come.
Frankly, I'm surprised that Guerrero wasn't among the top three finalists (which leads me to believe he finished fourth). Because he was everything people were expecting and more once he finally got the call. Think Alvarez regularly hitting in the middle of the lineup is impressive? Toronto had Vlad Jr., in the three-hole in his second game! And he played in 123 games. I'm not saying that should be a factor. But he definitely lived up to the hype. I'm not saying he had as good or as impactful a season as Alvarez. I'll take .272-15-69 from the 20-year-old you're expecting to become the face of the franchise, though.
Until Yordan Alvarez showed up, people were hyping up Tampa Bay's Brandon Lowe as the AL Rookie of the Year front-runner. Frankly, I just don't see it. He can play all over the field and is solid offensively, but what did he do to stand out above the rest? Then he didn't play at all after the All*Star Break because of injuries, which is why I'm shocked he finished in the top three. Clearly the voters see something I don't. Because I didn't even have Lowe in my top five. And why wasn't Eloy Jimenez of the White Sox among the finalists?
John Means I don't have a problem with. As bad as the Orioles were this season, the fact that he was arguably their best starter says a lot. Baltimore's team ERA was 5.59. His was 3.60. They won just 54 games. Means won 12 of them. He was the Orioles' All*Star, and not just because they needed a representative. On a bad team that used a lot of players, they were able to count on a rookie starting pitcher every fifth day who was doing more than just eating innings.
This isn't the only award where my ballot is going to look different than that of the writers. There's no debate at the top, though. Alvarez will become the first full-time DH to win AL Rookie of the Year honors since 1994. (Yes, Ohtani won last year, but, as we all know, he's a pitcher/DH.) It'll likely be unanimous. And it'll be start of a big week for the Astros, who can expect some more hardware later.
My AL Ballot: 1. Alvarez, 2. Guerrero, 3. Means
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