This year the AL Rookie of the Year went to Texas Rangers closer Neftali Feliz who by all means was outstanding this season. Feliz was absolutely dominant by setting a record for rookie saves (40) and limited opposing batters to a .176 batting average and .246 on-base percentage.
There are a couple of problems however in the nomination of Feliz with the first and foremost being that he isn’t an everyday player. Like most closers Feliz was trotted out to the rubber every other day and on average pitching only ONE inning a night. In fact Feliz appeared in 70 total games and pitched a total of 69.1 innings. Again I’m not trying to take anything away from him, he was a great pitcher for the Rangers this season and greatly helped them in their run to the playoffs.
I just don’t see the justification in awarding the ROY to a player that simply wasn’t everyday.
Coming in second was Austin Jackson, center fielder for the Detroit Tigers. Jackson who unlike Feliz never played an inning in the big leagues prior to opening day. Jackson appeared in 151 games for the Tigers this season, had 618 plate appearances, 103 runs, 181 hits and sported a .293 batting average.
Jackson also did it on defense as well having to patrol one of the largest outfields in the majors. A-Jax went out there on a nightly basis looking like a veteran that new the ins and outs of playing center field. He would make the most unbelievable catches and never skipped on the basic fundamentals of the position.
Something that is overlooked though is the shoes Jackson had to fill.
Going into this past season, Jackson was taking the place of fan favorite Curtis Granderson who was traded to the Yankees to get Jackson during the off-season last year. Granderson in his own right played center field at Comerica very well, however once Tigers fans got a glimpse of what Jackson could do it seemed almost like all was forgotten and Jackson was our guy.
To me though, the biggest disappointment in all of this was the way the voting went down. Neftali Feliz got a total of 20 first place votes, 7 second place votes and 1 third place vote. Jackson got a total of 8 first place votes, 19 second place votes and 1 third place vote. Behind him Danny Valencia of the Minnesota Twins received zero first place votes, 1 second place vote and 9 third place votes. In other words, the voting resembled the Bush/Kerry outcome when it probably should of resembled the Bush/Gore outcome (without the fixing of course).
Aside from the statistics of each player, it seems as though what lost it for Jackson was the overall record of his team. During the second half of the season the Rangers simply played in more meaningful games then the Tigers on their way to a playoff berth. In a perfect baseball world the overall team success should have no impact on voting for Rookie of the Year. Unfortunately that isn’t the case.
Call me a homer but Jackson deserved more recognition then this.
Source: Baseball-Reference.com, Detroit News
