AL Rookie of the Year Candidates

With the baseball season entering its last full month this is a good time to look at the AL Rookie of the Year candidates.

 

AL Rookie Batting Leaders

Doubles—Gordon Beckham 22…Luis Valbuena 20

Triples—Elvis Andrus 7…Brett Gardner 6

Home Runs—Nolan Reimold 12…Jayson Nix 10

Runs Batted In—Gordon Beckham 49…Nolan Reimold 39

Stolen Bases—Elvis Andrus 24…Brett Gardner 20

Walks—Nolan Reimold 43…Gordon Beckham, Elvis Andrus 30

Batting Average (At least 200 at bats)—Brett Gardner .275...

Gordon Beckham, Nolan Reimold, and Matt Wieters .271

On Base Percentage—Nolan Reimold .365…Brett Gardner .354

Slugging Percentage—Nolan Reimold .452…Jayson Nix .448

On Base Plus Slugging—Nolan Reimold .817…Gordon Beckham .784

 

Summary: Nolan Reimold leads in five of the rookie offensive categories while Gordon Beckham leads in doubles and runs batted in.

As of today Reimold would be the AL Rookie of the Year but with over a month left it wouldn’t surprise me to see Beckham win the honor.

AL Rookie Pitching Leaders

Wins—Jeff Niemann 12…Rick Porcello, Ricky Romero 11

Losses—Trevor Cahill 12…Jason Berken 11

ERA, Starters (100 innings)—Brad Bergesen .343…Jeff Niemann 3.80

ERA, Relievers (50 Games)—Andrew Bailey 1.90…Jose Mijares 2.13

Strikeouts—Brett Anderson 119…Ricky Romero…104

Saves—Andrew Bailey 20…seven pitchers tied with one save

Holds—Jose Mijares 19…Phil Coke 15

Lowest Opponent Batting Average, Starters—Matt Palmer .250…Jeff Niemann .258

Lowest Opponent Batting Average, Relievers—Andrew Bailey .172…Jose Mijares .212

Summary: Jeff Niemann and Andrew Bailey both deserve the honor.

Now it is a matter of whether the AL Rookie of the Year should be a pitcher or a hitter.

Reimold would be the likely hitter to receive the award but seeing him 10 RBI behind Beckham, who has 30 fewer at bats than Reimold, is not too impressive. He still needs 11 RBI to reach 50 for the season.

Gordon Beckham would have been my choice if he had been called up earlier in the season. His numbers would be far ahead of the other hitters if he had a full season of at bats.

This might be a good chance for an AL rookie pitcher to win the award since no rookie hitter has hit more than 12 homers or has driven in more than 50 runs this season as of today.

My choice if the season was over today would be Andrew Bailey with 20 saves, with no other rookie reliever having more than one save.