The Braves' Tommy Hanson wins the SBN NL Rookie of the Year

by gondeee on Nov 10, 2009 9:11 AM EST Comment 22 comments

Every year the bloggers and members of the SBN baseball blog community get together and do our own BWAA-style voting for all of the major awards. This year they have chosen the Atlanta Braves rookie starting pitcher Tommy Hanson as the SBN NL Rookie of the Year. This, despite neither of the two Atlanta votes going his way. Perhaps our voters were being too cautious, or not wanting to put too much pressure on our young hurler. The reality is that Hanson is by far the better major league prospect on this list, with McCutchen probably a close second, and that may have swayed some voters despite Hanson only spending half a season in the big leagues. I find it interesting that four different rookies got a substantial number of first place votes. Here are the results:

Rk	Player	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Tommy Hanson	Atlanta Braves	9	9	6	78
2	J.A. Happ	Philadelphia Phillies	6	9	7	64
3	Andrew McCutchen	Pittsburgh Pirates	8	3	5	54
4	Chris Coghlan	Florida Marlins	7	5	4	54
5	Dexter Fowler	Colorado Rockies	-	3	1	10
6	Randy Wells	Chicago Cubs	-	-	6	6
7	Garrett Jones	Pittsburgh Pirates	1	-	-	5
8	Casey McGehee	Milwaukee Brewers	-	1	2	5
9	Seth Smith	Colorado Rockies	-	1	-	3

The real Rookie of the Year awards will be announced next week.

The SBN NL Cy Young will be tomorrow and Atlanta has several hurlers that should get some votes.

The AL results are after the jump.

Rk	Player	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Elvis Andrus	Texas Rangers	6	9	6	63
2	Andrew Bailey	Oakland Athletics	11	1	3	61
3	Jeff Niemann	Tampa Bay Rays	3	5	3	33
4	Rick Porcello	Detroit Tigers	2	7	2	33
5	Brett Anderson	Oakland Athletics	5	1	3	31
6	Gordon Beckham	Chicago White Sox	1	2	8	19
7	Nolan Reimold	Baltimore Orioles	1	-	1	6
8	Matt Wieters	Baltimore Orioles	-	1	3	6
9	Brad Bergesen	Baltimore Orioles	-	1	-	3
10	Ricky Romero	Toronto Blue Jays	-	1	-	3
11	Travis Snider	Toronto Blue Jays	-	1	-	3

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Comments

Congrats to Hanson, but Garrett Jones got the shaft

It seems like the voters cared more about prospect status than what the award is for—-the rookie who performed best in 2009. Garrett Jones may be too old to be a prospect and his unexpected production may scream Kevin Maas, but his numbers were as good or better than any of the other hitters eligible. Yet he got less than 1/10 the votes of McCutchen and Coghlan. The same thing apparently happened to Casey McGehee.

by cavebird on Nov 10, 2009 9:49 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

He also has the part time player problem...

so does Hanson, and to an extent McCutcheon among others. But McCutch played more and got more national pub, while Jones did his work in half the season (82 games, a little over 300 at bats). I agree that he and Mcgehee deserved to round out the top 6, but hard to really say any of those 6 did that much better than the other 5.

by Mr. Sanchez on Nov 10, 2009 9:59 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Yes, but his production made up for the missing time

Here are the numbers:

McCutchen: 493 PA, .286/.365/.471 122 OPS+, 204 total bases
Coghlan: 565 PA, .321/.390/.460, 122 OPS+, 232 total bases
Garrett Jones: 358 PA, .293/.372/.571, 147 OPS+, 174 total bases
McGehee: 394 PA, .301/.360/.499, 127 OPS+, 177 total bases

You can make a good argument that McGehee’s lesser treatment is fair because his numbers were about even with McCutchen and Coghlan and he played less. Jones is a much tougher matter. Yes, he played less, but his numbers when he did play were appreciably better. 25 OPS+ points is a large difference—-it is more than Coghlan and McCutchen were better than league average. He certainly didn’t deserve 1/10 the votes that Coghlan and McCutchen got. Personally, I would rank the hitters: Jones, Coghlan, McCutchen, McGehee.

by cavebird on Nov 10, 2009 10:15 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

And Fowler beating Jones is a joke

Fowler’s numbers were:

518 PA, .266/.363/.406 96 OPS+, 176 total bases. Yes, Fowler had 27 SB’s, but he got caught stealing 10 times, so his steals were probably a net negative. (And Jones had 10 SB with 2 CS himself).

by cavebird on Nov 10, 2009 10:18 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

how can you honestly say jones deserves it more or is a better hitter than coghlan?

he hit about 30 points higher and did it in 200 more PA’s than jones

"Im a fullonrapist, I do men, women, autistic kids, children, the elderly." -Charlie Kelly

by Hcgadawgs on Nov 10, 2009 10:28 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Did you look at the stats I posted above?

It is pretty easy to say why Jones was better than Coghlan. For starters, while Coghlan had a higher batting average, batting average is not that important of a statistic, their OBP’s were very close (.390-.372), and the slugging was Jones in a cake walk (.571-.460). I didn’t even mention HR where Jones easily surpassed Coghlan despite far fewer PA’s.

Basically, for me, it comes down to this: which is better: 122 OPS+ over 565 PA or 147 OPS+ over 358 PA. I’ll take the latter. Your mileage may vary, but the vote should be a heck of a lot closer than 54-5. So, to answer your question, that is how I can honestly say that Jones deserves it more than Coghlan. They probably both lose to Hanson and Happ, however.

by cavebird on Nov 10, 2009 10:47 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

they are two different types of hitters so of course the OPS and SLG is going to be very different, and a 30 point difference in batting average is very relevent, especially when it is coghlan who did it for nearly 50 more games and was the catalyst for a pretty good team

"Im a fullonrapist, I do men, women, autistic kids, children, the elderly." -Charlie Kelly

by Hcgadawgs on Nov 10, 2009 12:12 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

For a lead-off type like Coghlan...

…OBP is far more important than AVG, and while Coghlan’s was good, it wasn’t that much better than Jones’s. One must also remember that as a whole, sluggers are simply more valuable than leadoff guys. Coghlan got on base at a .390 clip, which is very good, but Jones got on at a .372 clip which is also good and had power. Basically, PA for PA, Jones was clearly better as he did almost as good as Coghlan at what Coghlan does best while Coghlan couldn’t hold a candle to Jones’s power. The only question remaining is whether Jones superior play makes up for having 200 less PA’s. As I noted above, I think the play was superior enough to make up for that difference but others may disagree.

by cavebird on Nov 10, 2009 12:24 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Runs 84-47 for Coghlan...

I know that’s also dependent on teammates, but Coghlan had a pretty solid year as a leadoff man. Personally, I think you could fit Coghlan, Jones, McCutcheon, and McGehee in any order 3, 4, 5, 6 and it wouldn’t look wrong.

by Mr. Sanchez on Nov 10, 2009 3:11 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Hanson won

but neither Braves voter voted for him…. For shame (JK).

by Andy Braves Fan on Nov 10, 2009 9:53 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

yeah

I just didnt think he played enough to be better than coghlan. Ofc, that doesnt make me any less happy that he won :)

"If I have asthma, they won't let me scuba. And if I can’t scuba, then what’s this all been about?? What am I working toward??"

by Doghnut on Nov 10, 2009 10:24 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I can certainly level with you on that

my personal choice would have been between Hanson and McCutchen.

by Andy Braves Fan on Nov 10, 2009 10:28 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I am curious why you think McCutchen was the best hitter...

If you like the full year thing, Coghlan had 72 more PA’s with more or less even hitting stats, and if you like “peak”, Jones’s numbers were far better than McCutchen’s. I would find it hard to make a case for McCutchen being the best hitter of the bunch, although I could see him being second behind Coghlan.

by cavebird on Nov 10, 2009 10:50 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

my opinion on the matter

is far more subjective. I just like the kid, I think he was awesome.

by Andy Braves Fan on Nov 10, 2009 11:07 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Happ on Traven's

I voted for Happ on Neil Traven’s awards at Baseball Prospectus.
Happ had the better year.
Hanson will have the better 2010 and career.

by Drom John on Nov 10, 2009 10:33 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Better year?

I’d be interested to see how you determined that Happ had a better year. He had 2 more starts than Hanson and 1 more win. Hanson was better than Happ in ERA, WHIP, H/9, K/9, K/BB, etc.

by ajones2522 on Nov 10, 2009 10:42 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

40 more IP of near equivlant rate stats

Lazy homer rate stats is why LaRoche is not the Braves MVP.

by Drom John on Nov 11, 2009 10:13 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Too bad Happ's rookie status is a technicality

He’s already got a ring

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

by royhobbs on Nov 10, 2009 10:47 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

That is my big problem with Happ

I really don’t consider him a rookie.

by Andy Braves Fan on Nov 10, 2009 11:08 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

My feeling and belief is Hanson deserves to win the real ROY based on his dominent performances and the huge contribution he made to the success of his team.

Unfortunately, however, I expect Happ will win it by a significant margin. Happ had 35 appearances with 23 starts.

Hanson had only 21 appearances, all of which were starts, and will be unjustly penalized for, in effect, not having greater opportunities

by fandave on Nov 10, 2009 1:06 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Congrats Tommy!

" If you're going to be accused of something, being accused of being a nice guy is not the worst thing to be accused of."
Mark Richt (November 3, 2009)

by HEYJUDE on Nov 10, 2009 3:11 PM EST reply actions 0 recs