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| Future Stars...Current Rookies of the Year!!! |
In recent years, Topps has reserved six cards within Series 1 for the AL and NL award winners that are being announced this week. Unfortunately, this year's preliminary checklist doesn't specify what numbers are being held for the them. But this afternoon, we learned who was named the Rookies of the Year in both the National and American Leagues.
Congratulations to both Bryce Harper of the Washington Nationals and Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for winning the National League and American League Rookies of the Year Awards. While it was really anybody's to win it in the NL, it sure was no surprise who was going to take it home in the AL.
In what turned out to be a rare unanimous decision, Trout, the Angels All-Star centerfielder, blew past the competition with all 28 first-place votes (140 points). He beat out four other players for the award, including Yoenis Cespedes of the Athletics (63 points, 19 second place votes), Yu Darvish of the Rangers (46, 9 second place votes), Wei-Yin Chen of the Orioles (2), and Jarrod Parker of the Athletics (1).
On the other hand, Harper's win was extremely close as he won the award by seven points (112 points, 16 first place votes) over his closest competitor, Wade Miley of the Diamondbacks (105, 12). The rest of the field included Todd Frazier of the Reds (45, 3), Wilin Rosario of the Rockies (12, 1), Norichika Aoki of the Brewers (11), Yonder Alonso of the Padres (1), Matt Carpenter of the Cardinals (1), and Jordan Pacheco of the Rockies (1).
Back in 1987, Topps named the following six players as "Future Stars" and included those words in now iconic rainbow-colored lettering: Pat Dodson (Red Sox), Bo Jackson (Royals), Dave Magadan (Mets), Rafael Palmeiro (Cubs), Tim Pyznarski (Padres), and B. J. Surhoff (Brewers). As Topps was paying homage to the '87 set, it made perfect sense to give both Trout and Harper the Future Stars treatment. Just like another pair of rookie All-Stars back in 2001, their names are forever intertwined. There is little doubt that these two will carry the torch as superstars of the game and appear in multiple All-Star contests as the years go by.
So begins a wild week were debates will come fast and furious. Did your guy win???
Sincerely,
JayBee Anama
P.S. Just saw the count...this is the 1500th post for this humble little blog. Time to celebrate another milestone. jba
2 comments:
I think Wilin Rosario should have gotten a little more support. Sure his defense was horrible, but he hit 28 home runs as a CATCHER. Only Mike Piazza and Matt Nokes ever hit more in that position. Piazza won in a landslide and Nokes came in 3rd behind two of the best rookie seasons ever in McGwire and Seitzer. Rosario just suffered from being a Rockie and not as hyped. Harper had the award before the season even started in some people's minds.
Rosario hands down, Harper was already voted to be the NL ROY before the season started. Rosario had 137 less at bats than Harper and he hit 6 more home runs and 12 more RBIs. If Rosario had as many at bats at Harper you would be talking about a 35 HR 100+ RBI season as a rookie...to me it's all about the hype. Even if the Nats didn't make the playoffs, he would have been ROY.
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