Quick thoughts: 2010 Rookies of the Year

Kudos to Buster Posey and Neftali Feliz -- and to the Baseball Writers Association of America members who voted them the 2010 Rookies of the Year. I think they got it right (well, except for the two who each left one of them off his ballot).

I'm no Heyward hater, at least other than the fact that as a Mets fan, it's hard to like the Braves. I can certainly appreciate his talent, and he hasn't had a chance yet to take Atlanta's Mets Killer torch from Chipper. At the start of the season, I was among those who figured the NL ROY was his to lose, but even that phrasing isn't fair to him. He had some injuries that supressed his numbers a bit, and in the end even the fact that he was in the lineup from Opening Day couldn't keep him from fending off Posey. The Giants catcher put up numbers just as good or better than Heyward in a lot of the key categories and did a fine job handling a top-of-the-line pitching staff in a tight pennant race, right down to the final day of the season. Just as Alex Rodriguez's defense ostensibly pushed him over the top against David Ortiz for the AL MVP a few years back, I think Posey's defense played a part in this award. Good for him, even if he is a Seminole.

Player G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SF SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS
Jason Heyward 142 623 520 83 144 29 5 18 72 91 2 128 10 2 11 6 .277 .393 .456 .849
Buster Posey 108 443 406 58 124 23 2 18 67 30 5 55 4 3 0 2 .305 .357 .505 .862
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 11/16/2010.

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11th and Washington: Quick thoughts: 2010 Rookies of the Year

Monday, November 15, 2010

Quick thoughts: 2010 Rookies of the Year

Kudos to Buster Posey and Neftali Feliz -- and to the Baseball Writers Association of America members who voted them the 2010 Rookies of the Year. I think they got it right (well, except for the two who each left one of them off his ballot).

I'm no Heyward hater, at least other than the fact that as a Mets fan, it's hard to like the Braves. I can certainly appreciate his talent, and he hasn't had a chance yet to take Atlanta's Mets Killer torch from Chipper. At the start of the season, I was among those who figured the NL ROY was his to lose, but even that phrasing isn't fair to him. He had some injuries that supressed his numbers a bit, and in the end even the fact that he was in the lineup from Opening Day couldn't keep him from fending off Posey. The Giants catcher put up numbers just as good or better than Heyward in a lot of the key categories and did a fine job handling a top-of-the-line pitching staff in a tight pennant race, right down to the final day of the season. Just as Alex Rodriguez's defense ostensibly pushed him over the top against David Ortiz for the AL MVP a few years back, I think Posey's defense played a part in this award. Good for him, even if he is a Seminole.

Player G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SF SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS
Jason Heyward 142 623 520 83 144 29 5 18 72 91 2 128 10 2 11 6 .277 .393 .456 .849
Buster Posey 108 443 406 58 124 23 2 18 67 30 5 55 4 3 0 2 .305 .357 .505 .862
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 11/16/2010.

Labels: , , ,

posted by Dan at 5:12 PM

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Offensive numbers being equal, you'd have to pick a catcher over an outfielder for the award. When the catcher has better numbers, it's an even easier call.

I was surprised that there was still any talk that Heyward might win the award.

The writers who left Posey off their ballots probably should step down from voting next year.

7:59 AM  
Blogger Dan said...

Definitely -- playing catcher should be weighted more heavily than other positions, especially outfield.

11:31 PM  

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