Just a little community exercize, feel free to vote and argue who the NL and AL rookie of the year should be.
Me? I’ll take Geovany Soto and Evan Longoria, although there is a case for Jair Jurrjens and Mike Aviles.
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16 Responses to “ROY?”
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There’s also a case for Alexi Ramirez.
Yep, I’ll take Soto and Alexei. That grand slam yesterday pretty much sealed my opinion.
Geovany Soto played his first professional games in 2001. Here are his minor league OPS numbers, year by year.
2001 .714
2002 .744
2003 .630
2004 .750
2005 .699
2006 .739
2007 1.076
I couldn’t vote for Soto for any award, for the same reason I couldn’t have voted for Barry Bonds for any of his last 4 MVP awards. If you know what I mean.
I’ll take Longoria and Votto.
Ill take Longoria and Votto also. Longoria had great offensive numbers even with missing time with a wrist injury, he also played GG defense in his 1st year in the majors.
Not every boost in power has to do with “helpers”. But I’m not a cynical person, so…
103 OPS+ Ramirez
130 OPS+ Longoria
not even close you have to take Longoria and i would probably take Aviles and his 116 OPS+ at SS over Ramirez…i will say that was a big hit yesterday though…Soto in a route in the NL…
im not saying he is clean for sure but to say you cant vote for him because he might be on something is ludicrous…who is there that you are sure is not on something? as far as you know all of the ROY candidates are on something as well as the MVP and CY candidates…
AL will be the tough vote, but I can’t see Longoria not getting it. He was very important to that team. If the Rays would have had another craptastic season, then the Cuban would get the vote.
Top 3 AL
1. Longoria
2. Ramirez
3. Aviles
Wow, all infielders!
Top 3 NL
1. Soto
2. Votto/Bruce (take votes away from each other)
3. DeWitt
Votto?
Either people really hate the Cubs or just want to start a good debate which in my opinion is not good…….
Geo Soto NL MVP…..
.868 OPS is 3rd in MLB at the Catcher position behind McCann and Mauer. Sorry Catcher is a more difficult position than 1B and Votto is not that much better than Geo OPS wise. I don’t get how people can vote for Votto?
Longoria in the AL
DeWitt was more of a home town pick — Jurrjens could make a play for top two or three in the NL
Give me Jurrjens and Tony Parker’s husband.
Bob,
I would liken Soto’s offensive outburst last year in AAA to our own Joe Mather last year in AA/AAA. He was drafted around that same timeframe, and also took several years (didn’t he spend his first 4 or 5 years in A/A+? Sometimes with these high school draft picks it just takes several years for their bodies and power to develop. That’s why I’m not very concerned with Bryan Anderson’s lack of power so far – it’ll come, there’s no question about it.
AL:
1) Longoria
2) Ramirez
3) Aviles
NL:
1) Soto
2) Jurrjens
3) Votto
4) Kyle McClellan (he did lead MLB in holds despite blowing up at the end of the year…)
Does Jorge Campillo also qualify as a rookie? I haven’t looked up his stats so I don’t know how many innings he had pitched prior to this year. I do remember that he was an independent league journeyman and is just now starting to play regularly at 30 or so years old. So if he’s eligible, I’d put him at #3.
Mather certainly enjoyed an unexpected breakout in the Texas League in ’07, but it wasn’t remotely comparable to Soto’s 3rd go-around in AAA.
Mather’s batting average was 28 points higher than he’d ever posted before. Soto’s was 80.
Mather’s HR rate doubled his previous career numbers–Soto quadrupled his HR rate.
Mather’s iso. slg. was 50% than his previous best; Soto more than doubled his previous high.
Mather’s improvement was (not surprisingly) accompanied by a marked improvement in plate discipline. In AA he walked 20-30% more than before, and cut his strikeouts by a similar amount–in short, he was swinging at better pitches.
Soto showed no breakthrough whatsoever in strikezone control during his (historically unprecedented) 2007 season at Iowa. Same walks, same K’s as he’d always had. (By the way, there’s a small myth going around that Soto’s massive career-altering improvement can be attributed to a big weight loss between 2006 and 2007. Seems unlikely, since BA’s prospect handbook listed Soto at 6′ 1″ 230 back in 2004/5, and he’s still listed at either 230 or 225, and looks it.
Soto was entering his third year of AAA ball as 2007 began, and in 6 minor league seasons had never at any level distinguished himself with the bat. He no doubt saw himself slipping into AAA journeyman status, maybe to never get a real shot at the Majors–if I were him, with literally millions of dollars at stake, I might well have done the same thing. It certainly makes much more sense on a risk v. reward level than what Giambi, Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, Clemens, et. al. did.
Still, you have absolutely no proof Soto did anything illegal or against the rules.
…and as Joe Sheehan very recently noted, Barry Bonds has *never* tested positive.
I’m not applying courtroom rules of evidence to Geo Soto. I’m just using old fashioned common sense. ;)
Like someone said as far as we know everybody is on something, but Bob does make a good agrument, but I would probably vote for him and I’m sure he will win.
Longoria would be my AL pick.