2013 MLB Rookie of the Year Awards

The 2013 MLB season was a wild ride that nobody could have foreseen when the first pitch of the year was thrown out in Houston on March 31st (The A's, Rangers, Angels, and Mariners were certainly happy to welcome the Astros to the AL West this season, who were 51-111 in 2013, the fourth most losses by a MLB team since 1952 behind the 1962 New York Mets [120 losses], 2003 Detroit Tigers [119 losses], and the 1952 Pittsburgh Pirates [113 losses]). After finishing 69-93 in 2012 in their worst season since a 62-100 campaign in 1965, the Boston Red Sox not only won the AL East for the first time since 2007, but they also went on to win the World Series in 6 games over the St. Louis Cardinals. The Red Sox 28 game win increase was the franchise's largest win disparity between two seasons since the club went 71-83 in 1945 and then reached the World Series the following year with a 104-50 record (this large win increase had a lot to due with the return of Ted Williams to the Red Sox after a three year absence because of his military service in WWII. Williams had 38 home runs, 123 RBI's, .497 OBP, .667 SLG, 1.164 OPS, 215 OPS+, and won the AL MVP with the Red Sox in the 1946 season.)

On the other side of the spectrum, after winning their second World Series in three years in 2012, the San Francisco Giants finished 10 games under .500 in 2013. San Francisco scored just 629 runs over the course of their entire 162 game season (the 6th fewest runs in the NL), and averaged only 0.32 runs in the third inning of games.

Meanwhile, despite having a 229 million dollar payroll, the Yankees failed to make the playoffs for the first time since 2008 and just the second time since 1994. The Los Angeles Angels, another big spending club, were also not playing in October, mainly due to the fact that in his first 72 games in Anaheim, Josh Hamilton batted .207 and averaged more than a strikeout per game. While teams with large payrolls like the Yankees (228 million), Phillies (159 million), Giants (142 million), Angels (142 million), White Sox (124 million), and Blue Jays (118 million) failed to make the postseason, the Athletics (68 million), Pirates (66 million), and Rays (57 million), all teams within the bottom five of the league in salary, made it to the playoffs. A team starting Derek Norris at catcher, Brandon Moss at first, Eric Sogard at second, Jed Lowrie at short, and Seth Smith at DH won their division and made the playoffs over a team with Mark Trumbo, Howie Kendrick, Mike Trout, Josh Hamilton, and Albert Pujols. Furthermore, despite adding Jose Reyes, Melky Cabrera, Mark Buehrle, Josh Johnson, and R.A. Dickey in the off-season, the Blue Jays spent just three days above .500 the entire year, and had a team ERA of 4.25 (Mark Buehrle had a 4.15 ERA, R.A. Dickey had a 4.21 ERA, and Josh Johnson had a 6.20 ERA).

Obviously, predicating the 2013 MLB season would not have been a very easy task for anybody. However, after watching the entire year unfold, it is not as onerous to give out our 2013 MLB Rookie of the Year awards.

Since the Rookie of the Year award began in 1947, those who have received the honor have either continued to improve on their performance from their first year, or have faltered under the pressure that comes with being recognized as one of major league baseball's brightest young stars. Hall of famers like Jackie Robinson (1947), Willie Mays (1951), Frank Robinson (1956), Luis Aparicio (1956), Orlando Cepeda (1958), Willie McCovey (1959), Billy Williams (1961), Tom Seaver (1967), Red Carew (1967), Johnny Bench (1968), Carlton Fisk (1972), Eddie Murray (1977), Andre Dawson (1977), and Cal Ripken Jr. (1982) all won the Rookie of the Year award and then obviously went on to have outstanding MLB careers.

Also, current stars like Derek Jeter (1996), Carlos Beltran (1999), Albert Pujols (2001), Ichiro (2001), Justin Verlander (2006), Hanley Ramirez (2006), Dustin Pedroia (2007), Ryan Bruan (2007), Evan Longoria (2008), Buster Posey (2010), Craig Kimbrel (2011), Bryce Harper (2012), and Mike Trout (2012) all took home the Rookie of the Year award.

However, there are also a long list of names that went into baseball obscurity after they won the honor in their first major league season. Harry Byrd won the AL Rookie of the Year award in 1952 with the Philadelphia Athletics. However, the following year he had the most losses in the MLB with 20, the second worst ERA in the league at 5.51, and the allowed the third most hits in the league with 279. In Byrd's final 5 seasons he had an ERA of 4.53 and a 1.476 WHIP, which took him from once promising Rookie of the Year to MLB afterthought.

In 1965, Jim Lefebvre won the NL Rookie of the Year award with the Los Angeles Dodgers, but in a six year span from 1967 to 1972, he batted a measly .245, had a -7 RAA, and averaged just 6 home runs.

Finally, while Jerome Walton won the NL Rookie of the Year award in 1989 with the Chicago Cubs, the rest of his career was a major disappointment. In his final 9 MLB seasons from 1990 to 1998, he averaged 1 home run, 10 RBI's, and a 0.2 WAR.

AL Rookie of the Year: Tampa Bay Rays OF Wil Myers

The Kansas City Royals have not been in the postseason since they won the World Series in 7 games over the St. Louis Cardinals in 1985 when Brett Saberhagen won the CY Young (20-6, 2.87 ERA, 1.058 WHIP, 1.5 BB/9) and Hall of Famer George Brett had one of his best ever seasons (.335 AVG, 30 HR, 112 RBI, .585 SLG, 1.022 OPS, 179 OPS+, 322 TB, 6.4 BW, 8.1 oWAR). When small market teams struggle over a long period of time and don't have a successful core of players, they typically try to become a consistent contender by building up through the draft and trading away some of their veterans for younger and possibly more valuable future assets in the form of minor league prospects. The Royals have pretty much followed this template over the past decade.

In 2004, Kansas City traded Carlos Beltran, who had won the AL Rookie of the Year with the Royals in 1999 and was a star in the making, in order to avoid losing Beltran and getting nothing in return when he became a free agent. The Royals shipped Beltran to the Astros in a three-team deal where Kansas City received John Buck and two top end prospects (Mike Wood and Mark Teahen, who at the time was considered one of the best young players in all of baseball). Also, in a 8-year span from 2005 to 2012, Kansas City had a top five pick every year except for 2009, and with their high draft slots and multitude of selections, the team was able to begin to build a nucleus around Alex Gordon (2nd overall pick in 2005), Luke Hochevar (1st overall pick in 2006), Mike Moustakas (2nd overall pick in 2007), Greg Holland (10th round pick in 2007), Eric Hosmer (3rd overall pick in 2008), and, of course, Wil Myers (3rd round pick in 2009).

With all that being said, it was confounding when the Royals traded Myers, who had developed into one of the best, if not the best, prospect in baseball, for James Shields and Wade Davis. Obviously, any team that fails to make the playoffs for nearly 30 years should rightfully become a little impatient, and James Shields is a very reliable workhorse who has pitched over 200 innings ever year since 2007 (Justin Verlander and Mark Buehrle are the only other pitches to do so). However, trading Myers seemed to be a little impetuous, as proven by the fact that he should win the 2013 AL Rookie of the Year award.

Myers showed that he could do a little bit of everything in his first MLB season. He hit .293 against left handed pitchers, but also batted .292 versus right hand pitching. Myers had a .351 OBP and a 121 wRC+ (weighted runs created plus) at home, but was also very good on the road, as he batted .313 and had a .567 SLG in games away from Tropicana Field. The outfielder had a .390 wOBA (weighted on base average) with the bases empty, but also had a .310 batting average with runners in scoring position with a .925 OPS. Furthermore, while Myers led all AL rookies in wRAA (weighted runs above average) at 12.6 and wRC (weighted runs created) at 53, he did not commit an error in either right or center field for Tampa Bay. Myers was also a catalyst behind Tampa Bay's fourth postseason appearance in the last six years. The Rays began July with a 44-39 record, but in just his second month in the big leagues, Myers batted .352 and had a .963 OPS to propel the Rays to a 20-5 month and a very solid 64-45 record through July.

It was a particularly weak AL rookie class this season, especially coming off a year with Mike Trout, Yoenis Cespedes, and Yu Darvish. Wil Myers was the only AL rookie with at least 45 RBI's (last season Trout, Cespedes, Jesus Montero, and Will Middlebrooks all had more than 50 RBI's) and no AL rookie pitcher had more than 10 wins or a WAR of at least 2 (last year 7 AL rookies had more than 10 wins and at least a WAR of 2.) The top competitors to Myers in this pedestrian AL rookie class are Jose Iglesias and Chris Archer.

Looking to become the first ever Rookie of the Year in a season in which he played for two teams (Red Sox and Tigers), Iglesias showed why many people consider him to be the best defensive shortstop the majors have seen since Omar Vizquel or Ozzie Smith. Iglesias's 2.0 ErrR, which is according to fangraphs, "the number of runs above or below average a fielder is, determined by the number of errors he makes as compared to an average fielder at that position given the same distribution, was the third highest amongst AL shortstops, only behind Yunel Escobar (a ridiculous 5.6 ErrR) and Jhonny Peralta (5.1 ErrR). Furthermore, Iglesias's 0.6 DPR, which is according to fangraphs, "the number of runs above or below average a fielder is, based on the number double plays versus the number forces at second they get, as compared to an average fielder at that position, given the speed and location of the ball and the handedness of the batter," was the fourth best amongst AL shortstops, behind Alexi Ramirez (league-leading 2.4 DPR), Alcides Escobar (0.9 DPR), and J.J. Hardy (0.9 DPR). The surprising thing about Iglesias this year though was the fact that he was such an effective hitter. Iggy batted .303, which was tied with Jhonny Peralta for the highest amongst American League shortstops with at least 350 plate appearances, and had a .349 on-base percentage, which was only behind Jhonny Peralta in OBP amongst AL shortstops with at least 350 plate appearances.

Meanwhile, in a year in which 2012 AL Cy Young winner David Price had only 10 wins, Jeremy Hellickson had a 5.17 ERA (only Edinson Volquez and Joe Saunders had a worse ERA), and Alex Cobb had to miss two months of the season to a head injury, Chris Archer was the Rays most consistent pitcher. In Archer's 23 starts this season, he allowed 2 or less runs in 16 of them, including in July when he went 4-0 with a 0.73 ERA in 5 games. After being called up to the majors on June 1, Archer held opponents to a .223 batting average, which was the 5th best in the AL only behind Yu Darvish (.193), Max Scherzer (.196), Matt Moore (.212), and Hisashi Iwakuma (.218).

Nonetheless, Myers should have no trouble running away with the AL Rookie of the Year award this season. Unlike some of the other top baseball prospects who have come from the minor leagues in the past, Myers looked like the same player in the big leagues as he did with Triple-A Durham. Like any other young ballplayer, the outfielder is still adjusting to the majors and the difficulties of facing top notch pitching every night (as shown by the fact that Myers batted .202 in a month stretch from August 2 to September 2 with 32 strikeouts). However, Myers's free-flowing swing and diverse range of field capabilities will only continue to improve, which means that the Rookie of the Year award is likely not going to be the only honor he receives in his MLB career.

NL Rookie of the Year: Miami Marlins P Jose Fernandez

When the Miami Marins traded Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle, Josh Johnson, John Buck, and Emilio Bonifacio to the Toronto Blue Jays, they not only dumped nearly 170 million dollars in salary (96 million from Reyes's contract, 52 million from Buehrle's deal, 13.75 million from Johnson's contract, 6 million from Buck's deal, and 2.2 million from Bonifacio's contract), but they also lost an assortment of their fairweather fans. On the surface level, the trade was not a terrible one for the Marlins. They got rid of some excessive contracts with underachieving players, specifically Reyes, who hit just .287 in his first year with the Marlins despite having a contract that was paying him more than 17 million per year. Miami was also able to trade Johnson and Buck, who were in the last year of their contracts, before they left the Marlins in free agency. In return, the Marlins were able to stockpile some highly rated prospects and young players.

However, the problem with the move was more so the symbolic message that it sent to Marlins fans. The trade of some of the club's most noticeable players was effectively showing the fans that the team was no longer willing to spend money to make a contending team and thereby lost the interest of a variety of their supporters. By the end of the season, the Marlins lineup was littered with unknown players like Greg Dobbs, Donovan Solano, Ed Lucas, Mike Dunn, Jeff Mathis, and Marcell Ozuna. Nonetheless, rookie pitcher Jose Fernandez, who the Marlins took in the first round of the 2011 draft, was as electrifying as any pitcher in the MLB this year. Although he may need to to lighten up on his very animated pitching antics, Fernandez is a player that Marlins fans should definitely embrace, especially following his scintillating rookie campaign.

Fernandez's first year in the MLB was so good that we should look at some of the greatest rookie pitching seasons in the history of the big leagues for a point of comparison. While you could certainly make an argument for a panoply of names, the best ever rookie pitching season are likely Mark Fidrych's 1976 season with the Detroit Tigers, Fernando Valenzuela's 1981 year with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Dwight Gooden's 1984 season with the New York Mets.

Fidrych, known as The Bird, will always be remembered for his entertaining but very outlandish and bizarre pitching antics. The Detroit pitcher would talk to the ball before he pitched, fix the mound with his hands, and shake the hands of teammates in the middle of the field as well as fans during the game. However, Fidrych's antics were only so entertaining and compelling to the fans because of how successful he was as a pitcher in his rookie season. The Bird, who won the AL Rookie of the Year and finished second to Jim Palmer in the AL Cy Young in 1976, led the major leagues with a 2.34 ERA, a 159 ERA+ (adjusted ERA for the pitcher's parks and the average ERA over the entire league), a 35 adjusted pitching runs (measures the number of runs a pitcher allows compared to the league average in a neutral park with an equivalent number of innings pitched), and a 4.04 adjusted pitching wins (measures a pitcher's contribution to a team's total wins).

Meanwhile, Fernando Valenzuela's rookie season in 1981, where he won both the Rookie of the Year Award and the Cy Young, has to be considered one of the greatest rookie pitching seasons of all-time. The young pitcher rejuvenated a Dodgers team that had missed the playoffs for two consecutive years and his quirky and awkward looking pitching style and his Latin American roots created a huge fan following around him, known as "Fernandomania." Valenzuela came out of nowhere and began the 1981 season with the craziest 8-game stretch in baseball history. The Mexican pitcher started the year 8-0 with 7 complete games, 5 shutouts, a 0.50 ERA, and a combined 4 runs allowed in 72 innings pitched. At the age of 20, Valenzuela took the baseball world by storm with the greatest start to a season in the history of the game and his 8 shutouts over the course of the season has only been eclipsed once in the last 33 years (John Tudor in 1985 with the St. Louis Cardinals).

Finally, Dwight Gooden is largely remembered for his 1985 season with the Mets, where he went 24-4 and had a 1.53 ERA, becoming the first pitcher in 66 years since 1919 to finish a season with an ERA under 1.60. However, what many people forget is the precursor to Gooden's phenomenal 1985 year, which came in his rookie season, where he was 17-9 with a 2.60 ERA and won the NL Rookie of the Year and finished 2nd in the NL Cy Young to Rick Sutcliffe. That year, Gooden had a league leading 276 strikeouts (more than he had in his historic 1985 season), which is still a record for a rookie pitcher, and was only eclipsed by three pitchers in the previous 13 years dating back to 1972 by Nolan Ryan (5 times), J.R. Richard (twice), and Steve Carlton (3 times). Gooden also became the first pitcher in 100 years to have a K/9 ratio above 11, which Henry Porter, Ed Cushman, and Lady Baldwin of the Milwaukee Brewers and The Only Nolan of the Wilmington Quicksteps all did in 1884.

However, Fernandez's first year in the big leagues deserves to be in the same conversation with Fidrych's, Valenzuela's, and Gooden's incredible rookie seasons. Fernandez was so good this year that if Clayton Kershaw didn't finish the season with a gaudy ERA of 1.83, the lowest since Pedro Martinez had a 1.74 ERA in 2000, he might have joined Valenzuela as the only pitchers to win both the Rookie of the Year and the Cy Young in the same season. The young star was at the top of the big leagues in almost every pitching category. His ERA of 2.19 was the second best in the majors, behind Kershaw, and his adjusted ERA+ of 176 was also the second best in the MLB, once again behind Kershaw. Fernandez became just the third pitcher since 1943 to have an ERA under 2.20 in his rookie season (minimum 160 innings pitched), joining both George Bradley of the 1968 St. Louis Brown Stockings and Jerry Koosman of the 1968 New York Mets, which were both done in the year of the pitcher. Fernandez allowed just 111 hits in 172 innings pitched, which averages out to a very impressive 5.8 H/9 ratio. Hit hits per 9 IP was the second best in a single-season since 1986, only behind Pedro Martinez in 2000, and the 11th best all-time. Fernandez was also 4th in WHIP at 0.979, behind Kershaw, Harvey, and Scherzer, 5th in K/9 at 9.75, behind Darvish, Scherzer, Sanchez, and Burnett, 2nd in adjusted pitching wins at 3.5, behind Kershaw, 4th in adjusted pitching runs at 30, behind Kershaw, Sanchez, and Darvish, and 4th in base-out runs saved at 33.09, behind Kershaw, Darvish, and Iwakuma. As good as the Cuban pitcher was throughout the season, he was at his absolute best in the latter half of the year. In Fernandez's 11 starts after the All-Star break, he was 7-1 with a 1.34 ERA and 88 strikeouts while holding opponents to a .164 batting average. The Marlins starter did not have one start over the second half of the year where he allowed more than 2 runs.

In most seasons, Yasiel Puig would be a sure-fire Rookie of the Year award winner, as no player has had a bigger impact on his team's success in the past several years than Puig. When the young Cuban star made his MLB debut with the Dodgers on June 3rd, Los Angeles was sitting at 23-32, 8.5 games behind the Diamondbacks despite having a payroll of over 215 million dollars. However, Puig's unique energy and dynamic play-making ability rejuvenated the entire Dodgers team, as LA manager Don Mattingly said, "I think the way Yasiel plays is really contagious for guys... His energy [is] infectious." After Puig joined the ball club, the Dodgers went 67-38 and finished the season 92-70, 11 games ahead of any other team in the NL West. Puig had 44 hits in his first month in the big leagues (a Dodger rookie record a month), which was the second most in a player's opening month in the majors, only behind Joe DiMaggio's 48 hits in May of 1936 with the New York Yankees. He also joined Joe DiMaggio as the only player to have at least 4 home runs and 40 hits in his first month in the MLB. Puig, who signed a 7-year, 42 million dollar contract with the Dodgers in 2012, finished the season with a .319 batting average and a 160 OPS+.

Despite the heroics of Yasiel Puig in Los Angeles and his direct impact on the team's first appearance in the postseason since 2009, Jose Fernandez's historic rookie season is deserving of the NL Rookie of the Year award. The Cuban pitcher has elite stuff with a mid-90's fastball that averages about around 95 MPH, but he also has a great secondary pitch with his curveball and can also mix in a change-up and a slider. There has been a lot of talk around baseball that Fernandez could be the next great MLB pitcher. However, the truth of the matter is, Fernandez is already one of the majors best pitchers.