Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - Hellickson, Kimbrel win ROY honors

Tampa Bay pitcher Jeremy Hellickson, who went undefeated in five consecutive starts against American League East opponents in September as the Rays earned the wild-card playoff berth, was voted the AL winner of the Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Award.

Atlanta Braves pitcher Craig Kimbrel, who set a major league record for saves by a first-year pitcher with 46 in tying the Milwaukee Brewers’ John Axford for the National League lead, was elected the NL winner of the Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Award, unanimously.

Read more here on MLB.com ...

Posted by Mick Doherty on Monday, November 14 2011 @ 02:08 PM EST.

Hellickson, Kimbrel win ROY honors | 9 comments | Create New Account

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Mike Green - Monday, November 14 2011 @ 02:39 PM EST (#246675) #

Good choices. I wouldn't normally support a reliever for RoY, but Kimbrel's year was pretty spectacular and the competition was not particularly special (if better than John Castino).

Mick Doherty - Monday, November 14 2011 @ 02:55 PM EST (#246678) #

I dunno. The best two NL ROY candidates were probably both Braves, and you can make a decent case that Kimbrel wasn't ROY on his own team ,,, Ready Freddie?

James W - Monday, November 14 2011 @ 03:05 PM EST (#246681) #

All 32 voters thought Kimbrel was better than Freeman. I'd agree he was more impressive. What is the case for Freeman?

Glevin - Monday, November 14 2011 @ 04:02 PM EST (#246687) #

Happily surprised Hellickson won. He was clearly the best rookie in the AL, but other rookies had more traditionally loved numbers (HRs, wins).

China fan - Tuesday, November 15 2011 @ 03:29 AM EST (#246696) #

Just for the record -- neither JPA nor Lawrie got a single mention on any of the 28 ballots. Perhaps not surprising, since each voter was limited to 3 names.

rpriske - Tuesday, November 15 2011 @ 09:07 AM EST (#246697) #

I would have been (pleasantly) surprised if either HAD received a vote.

I would have voted Hosmer over Hellickson, but I would also not argue the point. Kimbrel was a no-brainer.

John Northey - Tuesday, November 15 2011 @ 09:20 AM EST (#246698) #

I'd like it if they'd expand the 1-2-3 ballots (manager, rookie, Cy Young) to a 1-2-3-4-5 ballot instead. If you can do 1-10 for MVP why not 1-5 for the others (especially Cy Young)?

James W - Tuesday, November 15 2011 @ 09:49 AM EST (#246699) #

The Cy Young vote was changed to 1-5 last year.

Greg - Tuesday, November 15 2011 @ 02:15 PM EST (#246716) #

WAR is far better as a beginning to a conversation than an end to it, so Kimbrel's 3.0 to Freeman's 1.1 doesn't necessarily settle the issue. I think the case for Freeman rests on two pillars

A) You place extremely little value in relief pitchers.
I think in general relief pitchers tend to be a bit over-valued.

B) You don't buy Freeman's poor showing in the defensive numbers (-5 runs BBREF, -12 runs fangraphs)
One season's worth of data is not even close to being conclusive, so this is a fairly reasonable position.

I just think, in order to get those two close to one another you have to go pretty extreme on both those positions (relievers have almost no value and Freeman is not just a minus with the glove but a GOOD 1B).

Hellickson, Kimbrel win ROY honors | 9 comments | Create New Account

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