Jair Jurrjens Finishes 3rd in Rookie of the Year Voting

by gondeee on Nov 10, 2008 3:06 PM EST in News Comment 18 comments

Atlanta Braves pitcher Jair Jurrjens finished third in the 2008 NL Rookie of the Year voting. Jair received 6 second-place votes and 16 third-place votes. The Cubs Geovany Soto won the award, with the Reds Joey Votto finishing second. A late season slump may have cost Jurrjens a better chance at the award.

Here are his ERA's per month for 2008:

Month	ERA
April	3.05
May	3.94
June	1.63
July	3.41
August	5.73
September	4.30

Already with 10 wins by the end of July, JJ only won three more games the rest of the season, and voters usually put a lot of emphasis on how a player finishes. It's not unusual for a rookie pitcher to tire towards the end of the season, as they are usually throwing more pitches than they ever have in a single season. Jair had been pretty consistent in innings pitched having thrown right around 140 innings each of the last three years. Jurrjens problems at the end of the 2008 season started after he passed that 140 innings mark. That's not to say that he didn't have some good outings late in the season, but the outings he did have were shorter and generally less effective.

Rafael Furcal was the last Braves player to win the Rookie of the Year award, when he won it in 2000. You can see a complete list of winners here. I sort of got started on something and couldn't stop; here are all the Braves receiving ROY votes since 1990:

Yunel Escobar got one third-place vote last year.
Jeff Francoeur finished third in 2005.
Believe it or not, Damian Moss finished fifth in 2002.
Of course, Rafael Furcal won in 2000.
If you remember Kevin McGlinchy, he received one third-place vote in 1999.
Kerry Lightenberg finished fourth in 1998, even recieving one first place vote.
Andruw Jones finished fifth in 1997.
Back when he was a Brave, Jermaine Dye finished sixth in 1996.
Chipper Jones barely got beaten out by Hideo Nomo in 1995.
Ryan Klesko finished third and Javy Lopez finished tenth in 1994.
Greg McMichael finished second in 1993.
Mark Wohlers got one third-place vote and finished tied for seventh in 1992.
Brian Hunter finished fourth and Mike Stanton finished eighth in 1991.
David Justice won the 1990 Rookie of the Year.

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The complete ignorance of Hiroki Kuroda is noted.

by 17843 on Nov 10, 2008 3:07 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I’m a little surprised by that as well. I’ve heard the whole “he’s not a rookie” BS, but according to the rules he qualifies. Why he didn’t get more votes is a mystery to me. Could be the up and down starts around the middle of the season, but that’s really not fair when you look at the overall numbers.

by scstrato on Nov 10, 2008 4:15 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Doesn’t matter. It looks like the Baseball Writers Association of America just plain forgot about him.

Fukudome got votes, Matsuzaka and Okajima received votes, Hideki Matsui, and even Kenji Johjima got votes in previous years. Ichiro, Kaz Sasaki, and Nomo each won the award, despite their lengthy careers prior to MLB. There’s no consistent basis to how Asian players and the ROY is treated, because all the aforementioned names played in the same cities – Seattle, New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago. It seems like who can make the most noise, and back up said noise. Kuroda had a good year for a good team; but he made absolutely no noise whatsoever, excluding the near-perfecto he laid down on the Braves earlier. But the fact that he didn’t even get a single third-place vote makes me feel that he was just plain forgotten about.

No wonder nobody likes you, Tuttle... everything's a (Pujols) damn debate.

by royhobbs on Nov 10, 2008 4:32 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Haha, you love this topic.

I guess I should be one to talk.
There's nights that I can't even walk.
There's days I couldn't give a fuck.
And in between is where I'm stuck.

by Smoltz's Beard on Nov 10, 2008 4:36 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Not to mention that Edinson Volquez got 3 second-place votes and he was ineligible as a rookie. That shows you how seriously some of these writers take the job of filling out their ballot.

by gondeee on Nov 10, 2008 4:57 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Echo?

I guess I should be one to talk.
There's nights that I can't even walk.
There's days I couldn't give a fuck.
And in between is where I'm stuck.

by Smoltz's Beard on Nov 10, 2008 5:10 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah, I didn’t see your comment before I posted… oops.

by gondeee on Nov 10, 2008 7:20 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Surprised...

…Campillo didn’t get any love. But considering three people were stupid enough to vote for Volquez when he was not eligible, it doesn’t surprise me.

I guess I should be one to talk.
There's nights that I can't even walk.
There's days I couldn't give a fuck.
And in between is where I'm stuck.

by Smoltz's Beard on Nov 10, 2008 4:36 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I'm guessing

Jon Heyman was one of them thanks jh

No wonder nobody likes you, Tuttle... everything's a (Pujols) damn debate.

by royhobbs on Nov 10, 2008 4:44 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I guess I should be one to talk.
There's nights that I can't even walk.
There's days I couldn't give a fuck.
And in between is where I'm stuck.

by Smoltz's Beard on Nov 10, 2008 4:56 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Well in that case

This is my rookie of the year ballot:

1. Pujols
2. Jones
3. Utley

by VictorW on Nov 11, 2008 12:56 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Don't be stupid.

4. Jamie Moyer

No wonder nobody likes you, Tuttle... everything's a (Pujols) damn debate.

by royhobbs on Nov 11, 2008 8:49 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

The BBWAA faced a rather embarrassing moment this week when the NL Rookie of the Year voting showed that Jeremy Cothran of the Newark Star Ledger, John Klima, Los Angeles Daily News and Jay Paris of the North County Times all voted Cincinnati Reds pitcher Edinson Volquez second on their ballots. Volquez wasn’t a rookie.

FOX Sports

(Very bottom)

No wonder nobody likes you, Tuttle... everything's a (Pujols) damn debate.

by royhobbs on Nov 12, 2008 4:37 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I’m glad those guys were named. Now to send each of them a quick email pointing out how foolish they are…

I guess I should be one to talk.
There's nights that I can't even walk.
There's days I couldn't give a fuck.
And in between is where I'm stuck.

by Smoltz's Beard on Nov 12, 2008 5:26 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Especially the L.A. writer

Who totally forgot about their own outstanding rookie pitcher, Hiroki Kuroda.

No wonder nobody likes you, Tuttle... everything's a (Pujols) damn debate.

by royhobbs on Nov 12, 2008 5:29 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

HA!

If it weren’t such a fucking travesty this might actually be funny. This is almost as bad as the Boston beat writers shunning Ted Williams all those years. Actually I guess it’s not that bad, but it’s pretty darn close.

by scstrato on Nov 12, 2008 5:42 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Kevin McGlinchey was an outstanding pitcher. He jumped virtually from A ball to the major and was a key member of the bullpen that year. Unfortunately, he blew out his arm, maybe he needed more minor league seasoning, maybe he could’ve used some time as a reliever in the minors, but he was a good pitcher who’s career was unfairly cut short.

by cbwilk on Nov 10, 2008 5:06 PM EST reply actions 0 recs