MLB Rookie of the Year 2013: Fernandez and Myers Are Most Deserving Candidates

The American and National League Rookie of the Year awards for 2013 are coming down to a number of well-deserving candidates.

Wil Myers of the Tampa Bay Rays and Jose Fernandez of the Miami Marlins should be the players that receive the accolade.

In Myers' case, his biggest competition is that from Tigers infielder Jose Iglesias. 

Iglesias ended the 2013 season with both Detroit and Boston hitting .303 with three home runs and 29 RBI.  Myers ,on the other hand, hit .293 with 13 homers and 53 RBI. 

As pointed out by Matt Snyder of CBS Sports, Iglesias has played in more games and had a bigger impact than Myers.  Yet Myers has put up bigger run-producing numbers compared to Iglesias and has done so over a shorter period.  Snyder also states that this race could come down to the wire, and anticipates that it will.

While both could realistically receive the award, Myers narrowly breaks away from the competition thanks to his impressive AL Rookie of the Month from September. 

Ryan Ritchie, a featured columnist for MLBReports.com feels that Myers is deserving of the award.

If the phrase "what have you done for me lately" applies to the voting process, Myers' strong finish should be enough to convince voters that he deserves the award which could provide the edge.

Myers is not particularly concerned about the award, stating via Cash Kruth of MLB.com on September 30:

"

I'm not concerned about [the Rookie of the Year Award]...  I'm more concerned about today.  It's the last game of the season -- regular season -- and everybody's got to come out and play hard, and I think everyone's a little more amped for this game.  So we just have to go out and play our game.  Whatever happens, happens.

"

While Iglesias, and other notables like Chris Archer and Dan Straily, put heat on Myers, the edge should go to Myers based on what he did over a shorter period.  His power numbers also give him a boost. 

The NL Rookie of the Year award is a little tougher to disseminate.

Fernandez, the Dodgers' Yasiel Puig and Hyun-Jin Ryu, the Cardinals' Shelby Miller and the Braves Julio Teheran are all likable candidates for the accolade.

The favorite boils down to the competition between Fernandez and Puig, however—a fact argued by Dayn Perry in a recent publication on CBS Sports.

Perry points out that Fernandez has logged a qualifying number of innings while Puig, with 396 plate appearances by September 19, won't reach qualifier status.  As great as Puig has been, the relative lack of playing time will hurt him.

In the meantime, Fernandez has been dominant all season.  He has logged a 2.19 ERA over 28 games for the lowly Marlins and struck out 187 hitters against 58 walks.

Jayson Stark feels that Fernandez is deserving of the award citing his stellar performance as reason enough.  He writes:

"

Fernandez finished with a 2.19 ERA to become only the fourth pitcher since the rookie of the year award's inception in 1947 to post a sub-2.20 ERA in his debut season.  Stan Bahnsen of the 1968 White Sox and Dave Righetti of the 1981 Yankees both won the award, and Jerry Koosman of the Mets finished second to Johnny Bench in the '68 NL balloting.

"

Based on that alone, Fernandez is a clear-cut winner and should get the top vote in 2013.

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While there are plenty of players worthy of consideration in both leagues, Myers and Fernandez have both done enough to showcase why they are most deserving.

Their reception is no slight against some of the other candidates—just being in the top five is worthy of recognition—yet both Myers and Fernandez are stellar beyond their competition.  For the aforementioned reasons, they should top the votes.

Considering how special each player is, it would not be surprising to see both Myers and Fernandez continue to add accolades to their trophy case in future years.

All statistics, records and accolades courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise indicated.

 

 

Peter Panacy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report.  Follow him @PeterMcShots on Twitter.