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Today we have the Rookie of the Year Awards. There was no contest in the American League. Mike Trout easily won the award, picking up every single first-place vote. Say what you will about Trout MVP candidacy (and you'll have the chance to later this week, when that award is revealed), but his status as the best rookie in baseball this year is clear.
Texas' Yu Darvish received most of the second-place votes and Oakland's Yoenis Cespedes finished in third by a comfortable margin. Trout, Darvish, Cespedes matches the order I turned in on my own ballot. To no one's surprise, there were no Indians mentioned. I have a hard time seeing how Jesus Montero landed on someone's ballot, but that's pretty small potatoes. I think SB Nation's writers did well for themselves here.
AL Award
| Player | Team | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mike Trout | Los Angeles Angels | 26 | 130 | ||
| Yu Darvish | Texas Rangers | 16 | 7 | 55 | |
| Yoenis Cespedes | Oakland Athletics | 9 | 10 | 37 | |
| Jarrod Parker | Oakland Athletics | 1 | 6 | 9 | |
| Jesus Montero | Seattle Mariners | 1 | 1 | ||
| Matt Moore | Tampa Bay Rays | 1 | 1 | ||
| Wei-Yin Chen | Baltimore Orioles | 1 | 1 |
The National League voting was a little more competitive. Bryce Harper still won pretty easily, but Arizona's Wade Miley also had strong support and Cincinnati's Todd Frazier snagged a first place vote. I didn't have a ballot for this award (again, LGT only voted for the American League awards), but Harper would have been 1st on mine and Miley would have been 2nd. I would have had Milwaukee's Norichika Aoki 3rd, he finished in 4th in the actual voting.
NL Award
| Player | Team | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bryce Harper | Washington Nationals | 26 | 9 | 157 | |
| Wade Miley | Arizona Diamondbacks | 8 | 21 | 5 | 108 |
| Todd Frazier | Cincinnati Reds | 1 | 4 | 9 | 26 |
| Norichika Aoki | Milwaukee Brewers | 14 | 14 | ||
| Zack Cozart | Cincinnati Reds | 1 | 2 | 5 | |
| Andrelton Simmons | Atlanta Braves | 1 | 1 | ||
| Anthony Rizzo | Chicago Cubs | 1 | 1 | ||
| Lucas Harrell | Houston Astros | 1 | 1 | ||
| Mike Fiers | Milwaukee Brewers | 1 | 1 | ||
| Yasmani Grandal | San Diego Padres | 1 | 1 |
When the Cy Young and MVP Awards are announced, I'll go into greater detail on who I put on my ballot and why. The Rookie of the Year Awards seem pretty straight forward to me though. Would you have chosen someone different?
Also, if these awards were for which rookie you think will have the best career beyond 2012, whom would you choose? Does Trout still have the edge on Harper, or does Harper being a year younger and carrying even higher pedigree cause you to believe he'll be the better player in the long run? Will someone else prove better than either of them?
For my part, I think Trout and Harper both stand a good chance of becoming perennial All-Stars and eventually even Hall of Famers. The limited track records of players who've been as good as they both were at such young ages is impressive:
| Rk | Player | WAR/pos | Year | G | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | SB | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mike Trout | 10.7 | 2012 | 139 | 129 | 182 | 27 | 8 | 30 | 83 | 67 | 139 | 49 | .326 | .399 | .564 |
| 2 | Alex Rodriguez | 9.2 | 1996 | 146 | 141 | 215 | 54 | 1 | 36 | 123 | 59 | 104 | 15 | .358 | .414 | .631 |
| 3 | Al Kaline | 8.0 | 1955 | 152 | 121 | 200 | 24 | 8 | 27 | 102 | 82 | 57 | 6 | .340 | .421 | .546 |
| 4 | Mel Ott | 7.3 | 1929 | 150 | 138 | 179 | 37 | 2 | 42 | 151 | 113 | 38 | 6 | .328 | .449 | .635 |
| 5 | Ted Williams | 6.6 | 1939 | 149 | 131 | 185 | 44 | 11 | 31 | 145 | 107 | 64 | 2 | .327 | .436 | .609 |
| 6 | Ty Cobb | 6.6 | 1907 | 150 | 97 | 212 | 28 | 14 | 5 | 119 | 24 | 54 | 53 | .350 | .380 | .468 |
| 7 | Jason Heyward | 6.3 | 2010 | 142 | 83 | 144 | 29 | 5 | 18 | 72 | 91 | 128 | 11 | .277 | .393 | .456 |
| 8 | Vada Pinson | 6.3 | 1959 | 154 | 131 | 205 | 47 | 9 | 20 | 84 | 55 | 98 | 21 | .316 | .371 | .509 |
| 9 | Mickey Mantle | 6.3 | 1952 | 142 | 94 | 171 | 37 | 7 | 23 | 87 | 75 | 111 | 4 | .311 | .394 | .530 |
| 10 | Frank Robinson | 6.2 | 1956 | 152 | 122 | 166 | 27 | 6 | 38 | 83 | 64 | 95 | 8 | .290 | .379 | .558 |
| 11 | Bryce Harper | 5.0 | 2012 | 139 | 98 | 144 | 26 | 9 | 22 | 59 | 56 | 120 | 18 | .270 | .340 | .477 |
| 12 | Ken Griffey | 5.0 | 1990 | 155 | 91 | 179 | 28 | 7 | 22 | 80 | 63 | 81 | 16 | .300 | .366 | .481 |
Harper is the only 19-year-old on that list, meaning that we just saw arguably the best season by a 19-year-old ever AND the best season by a 20-year-old ever. Look at the other names on that list, eight of the twelve are among the 40 or 50 greatest position players in history (also, Jason Heyward is pretty good).
I don't know which one will turn out to be better, but I think one day we'll look back at 2012 and marvel at the beginning of two incredible careers.