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Hearing the new National album
Jeremy Guthrie Is the AL Rookie of the Year
O's right-handed starter Jeremy Guthrie isn't just the leading candidate for 2007 AL Rookie of the Year, no, he may actually be The Rookie of the Year. The dude was a waiver wire claim this offseason from Cleveland, where he'd floundered for years after being a first-rounder out of Stanford in '02. Shockingly, he's turned into Baltimore's best ex-Cardinal since Mike Mussina thanks in large part to a blistering, mid-to-high 90s fastball.
Coming into this season, it was Erik Bedard, Daniel Cabrera and Adam Loewen who gave Baltimore hope for the future. Despite Bedard's amazing strikeout rate, it's Guthrie who's their ace through first two-fifths of the season. The 28 year-old has only three wins (thanks, Chris Ray!), but check out these numbers: 2.70 ERA, 0.93 WHIP and five or more innings and three or less runs in each of his eight starts. If he pitched for Boston there's a good chance he'd be 8-0 and the talk of baseball right now.
Here's to hoping I haven't jinxed the kid, and, while we're taking a snapshot of his season to date, here are the next guys down the line for AL ROY:
1. Hideki Okajima, Boston reliever -- His numbers are out of control (1.14 ERA, 0.79 WHIP, 29 K in 31.2 IP, 2-0 and 4 SV).2. Dustin Pedroia, Boston second basemen -- He hit .415 in May and gives that lineup yet another guy with a .400 OBP. It's almost unfair.
3. Daisuke Matsuzaka, Boston starter -- His ERA (4.52) and WHIP (1.31) are a bit high, but he's striking out a batter per inning and sparking endless gyroball jokes for my softball team.
4. Travis Buck, Oakland outfielder -- Great name, heroic even, and you can't deny an .894 OPS.
5. Reggie Willits, Anaheim outfielder -- He's given that lineup an unexpected spark (.402 OBP), but he's fading so far in June (.219 batting average). Bonus points for being the newest Reggie Cleveland All-Star.
6. Kei Igawa, New York starter -- Just kidding. He's terrible.
Someone Pretend They Saw This Coming [Camden Chat]
Update: Considering Guthrie's historical struggles, there's a decent chance that if he holds on to win ROY he'll be considered for future incarnations of The Feed's 20 worst MLB award winners of all time. Previous worst award winners include Jerome Walton and Pat Listach, which is awesome.
Update No. 2: The Lineup Card convinces me that Pedroia will win this thing.
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Nemeth! Good hearing from you, buddy.
Ichiro and Nomo both won ROY despite their Japanese pro experience. Matsui was edged out by Angel Berroa, though, if you can believe that.
As for softball, I play leftfield with a Jim Edmonds-esque level of flair. -
Dice-K and Okajima shouldn't win the award since they aren't technically rookies. Those guys have been pros for years in Japan. If Matsui didn't win it after his sick Rookie year.
PS -- You don't play softball, you'd break a nail or mess your hair up :)
6/15/07 3:16 PM