AL Rookie of the Year Rankings: Rays Lefty Matt Moore Debuts in the Top 5

Jun 7, 2018

Many moons ago, when Mike Trout was just some dude in Triple-A named Mike Trout, Tampa Bay Rays lefty Matt Moore was a heavy favorite to win the American League Rookie of the Year award in 2012.

Sadly, Moore had a hard time getting going in the first half of the season. He went into the All-Star break with a 5-6 record and a 4.42 ERA—not to mention 50 walks in just under 100 innings pitched. He wasn't even close to being on the AL Rookie of the Year radar.

Suddenly, perhaps due to some sorcery, he looms quite large on the award's radar.

Moore has caught fire since the All-Star break, winning four of his six starts and generally looking like the pitcher who showed so much promise when the Rays called him up late in the season in 2011.

For the first time all season, Moore has cracked the top five in my weekly AL Rookie of the Year rankings. Click ahead to see where he and all the other contenders stand this week.

Note: All stats are as of the start of play on Wednesday, August 15, and they come from Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.

Honorable Mentions

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Chris Carter, 1B, Oakland A's

Carter is finally living up to his potential. He's got a .398 OBP and a .600 slugging percentage, giving him a shiny .998 OPS. Equally impressive is the fact that he has 10 homers in only 33 games.

Yu Darvish, SP, Texas Rangers

Darvish bounced back nicely in his most recent outing against the Detroit Tigers, but he was far from perfect. He walked five, making it five starts out of his last six in which he's walked at least four. He still has work to do to climb back into the top five.

Sean Doolittle, RP, Oakland A's

According to FanGraphs, Doolittle leads all AL rookie relievers in FIP at 0.93. He also has a 13.33 K/9. Not bad for a guy who was a first baseman not too long ago.

Jarrod Dyson, CF, Kansas City Royals

Dyson's dealing with a bum ankle right now, but he gets an honorable mention again this week because he's still hitting .375 since July 1 with nine stolen bases.

Kelvin Herrera, RP, Kansas City Royals

Herrera has a 1.83 ERA since July 1 with 20 strikeouts in 19.2 innings pitched. For the season, his ERA is down to 2.55, and FanGraphs has him ranked fourth among AL rookie relievers in WAR.

Jarrod Parker, SP, Oakland A's

Parker has a bright future ahead of him, but he has a 5.45 ERA and an opponents' batting average over .300 since the All-Star break. His 3.71 ERA for the season is still solid, but it's climbing higher every week.

Jose Quintana, SP, Chicago White Sox

Quintana snapped a five-game winless streak his last time out, and he now has a 2.97 ERA in 14 starts. He's a candidate to move into the top five if a space opens up next week.

Addison Reed, RP, Chicago White Sox

I wouldn't say Reed's been dominant this season, but he does lead all AL rookies with 21 saves, and it's pretty clear that he has a bright future ahead of him.

Pedro Strop, RP, Baltimore Orioles

Strop hasn't allowed an earned run since July 3, and his 1.22 ERA for the season is tops among AL rookie relievers.

Tom Wilhelmsen, RP, Seattle Mariners

Wilhelmsen ranks second to Reed among AL rookies with 16 saves, and he also boasts a 2.51 ERA and a 10.52 K/9. He's having a nice little season that few are noticing.

Honorable Mention of Honorable Mentions: Will Middlebrooks, 3B, Boston Red Sox

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Many years (or weeks) from now, we'll be looking back trying to find the exact moment the death rattle started sounding on Boston's 2012 season.

At the moment, the day Will Middlebrooks broke his wrist stands out. It was broken by a hard Esmil Rogers fastball in Cleveland over the weekend, and indications are that Middlebrooks won't be back this season.

When it happened, you could practically feel the life being sucked out of Boston's dugout. And why not? It was pretty obvious at the time that they knew that their young star third baseman wouldn't be playing again anytime soon.

If so, Middlebrooks' rookie season will have consisted of just 75 games. He made the most of them, though, hitting .288/.325/.509 with 15 home runs and 54 RBI. For the time being, he still ranks second in the AL among rookie position players in WAR, according to FanGraphs.

Middlebrooks' numbers are more than good enough to warrant a spot in the top five, but I don't really see the point of putting him there knowing that his season is likely over. Stashing him in his own honorable mention spot for the rest of the season strikes me as the best thing to do.

Now then, on to the guys who are still kicking...

5. Matt Moore, SP, Tampa Bay Rays

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Last Week: Unranked (honorable mention)

Matt Moore has finally arrived, folks.

Moore was a mess in the first half of the season. His 4.42 ERA wasn't overly ugly, but there was nothing to like about his 4.5 BB/9 or his .252 opponents' batting average. The strikeouts were there, and Moore was still flashing dominant stuff, but he just wasn't fooling anybody.

It's safe to say he's made some adjustments. Moore has gone from being an afterthought to being one of the best pitchers in baseball since the All-Star break.

In six starts since the break, Moore is 4-1 with a 1.43 ERA. In 37.2 innings of work, he's struck out 37 and walked only 13. That's a BB/9 of 3.1, a significant improvement over where Moore was earlier in the season.

He's fooling everyone now, and that's reflected in the triple-slash line of .191/.270/.243 that opponents have against him since the break.

For the season, Moore's record now sits at 9-7 and his ERA is down to 3.60. His FIP of 3.88 is tied for seventh among AL rookie starters, according to FanGraphs.

At the moment, Moore is tied for fourth among AL rookie starters in WAR. The guy he's tied with just so happens to be the next entry on this list.

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4. Scott Diamond, SP, Minnesota Twins

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Last Week: No. 5

Scott Diamond's first two starts out of the gate in the second half didn't go so well, as he was touched up for 19 hits and nine earned runs in just 12 innings of work. It looked like the scouting report on him had gotten around during the break and that teams had made note of how to beat him.

Maybe that's not the case. Or maybe Diamond has simply made adjustments.

Whatever the explanation, Diamond has returned to form in his last four starts. He's gone 2-1 with a 2.37 ERA, pitching at least seven innings in all four starts.

He's still giving up his fair share of hits, as his .243 opponents' batting average in his last four starts qualifies as being just OK. But like any good sinker-baller, he's making sure that the hits he gives up don't go very far. Hitters have only slugged .374 against him over his last four outings, and that's with a trio of home runs mixed in.

For the season, Diamond has a record of 10-5 and a 2.97 ERA. His FIP checks in at 3.80, according to FanGraphs, which is good for sixth among AL rookie starters. His 55.7 ground-ball percentage ties him with Twins teammate Samuel Deduno for the highest mark among AL rookies.

Diamond and Moore have the same WAR at 2.0. Diamond gets the nod over Moore in these rankings because Diamond has been far more consistent for a much longer period of time. His performance has remained more or less steady ever since he made his 2012 debut back on May 8.

And for that, the Twins are grateful. Good starting pitching has been hard to come by for them.

3. Wei-Yin Chen, SP, Baltimore Orioles

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Last Week: No. 4

Wei-Yin Chen had his worst start as a major leaguer last Thursday against the Kansas City Royals. He was pounded for seven earned runs on nine hits in 4.2 innings. Of the nine hits he gave up, two left the ballpark.

That outing bumped his ERA up more than 30 points from 3.46 to 3.79, and he picked up his seventh loss of the season.

It was a rough one, to be sure, but it was no excuse for anyone to panic. Chen has had more than a few rough starts this season, but they haven't tended to come in bunches. He's been very good at making adjustments.

Sure enough, Chen bounced back and gave up just one earned run over six innings on Tuesday against the Boston Red Sox. He picked up win No. 11 on the season and dropped his ERA back down to 3.70.

Chen may not have a flashy ERA, and he's certainly not striking hitters out at the same rate as Yu Darvish and Matt Moore. To boot, his 4.09 FIP suggests that luck has been on his side this season.

But these are petty complaints, seeing as how Chen has been the only consistent starter the Orioles have had all season, and he's certainly been the most consistent rookie starter in the American League. He's started more games (24) and logged more innings (146) than any other rookie.

He's basically the one rookie in the AL who hasn't pitched like a rookie.

2. Yoenis Cespedes, OF, Oakland A's

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Last Week: No. 2

Yoenis Cespedes was as hot as hot can be in the month of July, hitting .344 with a .961 OPS, five homers and 19 RBI in just 24 games. He was a huge part of Oakland's 19-5 showing last month.

He hasn't been the same player in August, as he's hitting just .278 with a .659 OPS. All 10 of his hits this month have been singles.

You can chalk Cespedes' sudden lack of power up to his bad right wrist. He's been able to play through the pain, but it's clearly hindering him at the plate.

Even despite his recent power outage, Cespedes is still hitting .302 with a .502 slugging percentage through his first 82 major-league games. He ranks third among AL rookies in home runs with 14 and second in RBI with 56.

According to FanGraphs, Cespedes' weighted on-base average is .373. That's good for third among AL rookies behind Mike Trout and A's teammate Chris Carter.

You can rest assured that the A's are happy to have Cespedes in their lineup no matter how much power he is (or isn't) providing. They're 49-33 when he plays and 12-21 when he doesn't.

This being said, the A's would certainly prefer some power from Cespedes, as his power outage has coincided with a 5-7 record in August.

If things carry on this way, Cespedes is going to start to slide down these rankings, thus opening up a chance for somebody else to be the runner-up to Mike Trout when all is said and done.

1. Mike Trout, OF, Los Angeles Angels

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Last Week: No. 1

As always, we can keep this brief.

Trout is still leading the American League in hitting at .341, and he ranks third in OBP at .404 and second in slugging at .591. His .995 OPS is also good for second in the AL.

In addition to batting average, Trout leads the league in runs scored, stolen bases and, according to FanGraphs, weighted on-base average and WAR.

He's slowed down a little bit in August, as his .846 OPS for the month is kinda cute compared to the 1.259 OPS he posted in July. He's still very much capable of doing amazing things on a nightly basis, however. Look no further than what he did last Friday against the Seattle Mariners.

In case you missed it, Trout racked up five RBI against Felix Hernandez on a three-run homer and a two-RBI sac-fly. The Angels were down, 5-0, before he came to the rescue, and they went on to win, 6-5.

And yes, this would be the same Felix Hernandez who just threw a perfect game.

Last Friday, the so-called "King Felix" was in Trout's pocket.