American League Rookie of the Year

That's NOTHING compared with the lack of length of closers compared with the past.

 

Brandon Webb was 10-9 withi a 2.84. Weaver, the probable 4th place finisher, is 11-2 with a 2.63.

Weaver was a better rookie than Webb.

 

I voted for Liriano, simply because for two-plus months he was the best pitcher in the game. And that was good enough for me.

 

I think saves are valuable, but this won't help my case: Some of the greatest save totals of all time came on teams that didn't get to the playoffs. Thigpen, Gagne, Randy Myers, etc. etc.

Of course, it goes the other way with Hoffman in '98, Rivera about every year and Eckersley in '92. So ignore this.

 

I don't see how this is possible. If a starter is no good, then a closer doesn't even factor into the equation. They can't have any impact on the game if they're just sitting on the bullpen bench. If people are complaining starters are working shorter days, then what are closers doing? Guys like Rollie Fingers saved just as many games as Papelbon throwing twice as many innings. Now that's value.

Akinori Otsuka had a brilliant year with the Rangers. Brilliant year. BUT... the Rangers didn't get very far because they didn't have leads after eight innings, mainly due to their craptacular starting pitching. Brian Fuentes in Colorado is the same deal.

It's not like Papelbon had a Gagne-caliber season. Papelbon blew six saves. He had a lower save percentage and fewer saves than Todd Jones, who pretty much succeeded in Detroit this year in spite of himself. Papelbon's entire argument hinges on ERA, and that's not a terribly accurate measure of worth for that low of an inning total. I'd take Joe Nathan and his .66-higher ERA any day of the week.

 

I believe in the value of closers, but Papelbon blew too many saves to win ROY with such a strong group of candidates. I voted for Verlander, by the way, just because he did it all year, not just part of the season.

Yes, good closers can rack up big save totals on bad teams. How is that different from a hitter racking up big numbers for a bad team? He still produced. It's not his fault if everybody else sucked.

 

I was thinking of future value - not for just that rookie season.

 

Um, it's JERED Weaver, not Jared.

And he deserves his name on the ROY trophy, regardless of spelling.

 

But two months does not a season make.

 

For four months, he was the best rookie pitcher in the AL. And for more than two months, he was the best in the game. Only when he got hurt in August did he slip. Not going to slight the guy for that.

Last I checked, rookies didn't have to play a complete season to earn ROY honors.

 

Yes, if it's spelled like this: Jonathan Papelbon.

 

Ryan Howard didn't have to play a full season last year. Bob Hamelin certainly didn't have to in 1994. He rode the pine from Aug. 12 on...