Rookie of the Year

Funky Buttloving!

Later today, Major League Baseball will announce the National League and American League Rookies of the Year. My take...

AL Rookie of the Year

Mike Trout.

With respect to Yoenis Cespedes (who looks like a potential cornerstone for Oakland) and Yu Darvish (a potential ace for Texas) Mike Trout is winning this award. I will surely have another post with more detail on Trout's year when we approach the MVP debate on Thursday but just know that Trout led the league in OPS+ (171), runs (129) and stolen bases (49). 'Nuff said? 

NL Rookie of the Year

This is a better discussion among finalists Bryce Harper, Wade Miley and Todd Frazier.

A case for Frazier:

Versatility having playing third base, first base and the outfield while also occasionally coming off the bench and playing for a winner.

A case for Miley:

16 wins, almost 200 innings pitched (194.2), 4.8 fWAR and a great ERA (3.33). Miley had a fantastic rookie campaign for the Diamondbacks who have the best problem in baseball - too many young pitchers. Ian Kennedy, Dan Hudson, Wade Miley, Tyler Skaggs, Patrick Corbin and Trevor Bauer all either have established success at the MLB level or come with fantastic pedigree. 

A case for Harper:

Harper did a little bit of everything for a first place team hitting for power (22 homers/.477 slugging), fielding his position (9.9 UZR) and running the bases (18 steals). Add it up and Harper had 4.9 fWAR. Not bad, especially considering he's 19 years old.

Todd Frazier is a nice piece to have on your team (reminds me of David Freese) but he played less and slightly worse than Miley and Harper. My head tells me that Harper is more deserving with the kicker being Miley's less than stellar 3.75 xFIP (due to a likely lucky 6.9% HR/FB%) and the fact that when push comes to shove I prefer the hitter. If you wanted, you could even throw in some of the 'intangibles' argument as Harper played better down the stretch and picked up the slack of the lineup with Zimmerman and Werth out for significant periods. 

However, at the same time my heart tells me to go with Miley since Harper will have more chances for hardware in his career. Still, I'm in the business of using my head and with some sadness I have to give my theoretical vote to Harper. 

One last thing, it's going to be fun watching Harper and Trout over the next 10 years.

UPDATE: Harper and Trout both won.