[Tim Kurkjian voice] DID YOU KNOOOOW THAT THE LAAAST TIME TWO AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN WON BOTH LEAGUES' ROOKIE OF THE YEAR AWARDS, THE YEAR WAS 1984 AND ONLY 76 CURRENT MAJOR LEAGUERS WERE ALIVE?
...Look.
Voting for a Rookie of the Year can sometimes be a crapshoot. It's odd enough that you're not voting for one rookie of the year, and it's separated by leagues, but sometimes the best overall rookie isn't in the conversation for some reason. You're really following the guidelines of pundits and booming voices, regardless of who actually deserves anything. A lot like Oscar voting. Was Green Book really the best movie of 2018? No. The Sonic the Hedgehog movie from this year was better than Green Book. But enough industry people say in booming voices 'this is how the votes are gonna go', and that's how they go, greenback distribution or no.
And that's what we're dealing with one of our rookies of the year in 2020.
Kyle Lewis is the one I don't have a problem with. I know that he completely trailed off in September, and that Luis Robert maybe would have been a more consistent choice for the award, but Kyle Lewis at his height this year was unstoppable, and was one of the sole forces keeping the Brewers in the conversation.
And that's the big factor for me, when I think about these awards. Does the presence of this one player make or break this team? Without Kyle Lewis, could the Mariners even have gotten as far as they did this year? Probably not. This kid is on the way to a nice career if he keeps his averages high.
And then there is Devin Williams. Devin Williams is a great reliever, was fantastic in 2020, and his unhittable work was definitely a factor in the Brewers' 2020 season. However...take Devin Williams away, are the Brewers any better or worse? Not really. He is just a reliever, in a bullpen of people like Josh Hader, David Phelps and Eric Yardley. Williams was there for 22 games, 27 innings. He missed playing time in September due to an injury, and the Brewers fell off...but they were going to fall off anyway because they just weren't as good this year. Corbin Burnes made the Brewers look like they had a chance for a split second in September. Williams was just a really good reliever for the month of August.
And I know what people are gonna say. 'Jordan, you make customs of relievers no one talks about, why not boast about a relief pitcher getting a major award?' Because Devin Williams never felt like 'the best rookie performance of the year' to me at all this year. I was getting ready for Jake Cronenworth to win it. Cronenworth was giving me David Ecsktein vibes, I liked how he fit right into the Tatis-Machado-Hosmer infield, and while he wasn't one of the biggest producers of this team [that was Tatis, another detail the writers got wrong in nominating players for awards this year], he still brought a lot of versatility to this Padres team.
But like Williams, I don't know if Cronenworth is going to have a career of seasons like this, or if he'll become David Eckstein, the full novelty of him and all. Will Williams still have a career in 2030? Will he still be as consistent? As much as I love relievers, one of the reasons why Topps doesn't always include the correct relievers is that it's very rare for a reliever, or a closer, to be consistent for a long period of time without completely losing it for a season or two. Look at Craig Kimbrel, a ROY pick I thought was valid back in the day. Kimbrel has had two straight down years, and is looking into a role as a middle reliever instead of his usual 9th inning role.
Will Devin Williams be this good for the rest of his career? Probably not. This is, of course, rewarding his 2020 season, not predicting whether or not he'll have a career after this, but...I feel like that needs to have a hand in this. Both Yordan Alvarez and Shohei Ohtani had miserable years in 2020, due to injuries and inefficiency. I wish more sportswriters would vote for this award with the guise of 'which of these players is going to be a superstar for the next several years?'
If I were given a vote for Rookie of the Year, I would have voted for Sixto Sanchez. Not Alec Bohm, for any of you who thought I was bitter about someone from one of my teams not getting it [that comes when one of the Joses wins AL MVP this week]. Sixto Sanchez, despite a slightly late come up, made the Marlins into a contender, and was one of the strongest pitchers in the NL East this year. He also was responsible for some decent postseason energy, and previewed what could be a prosperous career that the Phillies gave up for a catcher they're not even gonna try and re-sign. To me, Sixto Sanchez was the best rookie in the NL. But he only got one vote, so what the hell do I know?
Maybe the sportswriters know something I don't about Devin Williams. Maybe he has the career and Kyle Lewis flames out in 5 years. I just...thought I had this predicted, and I was off. That tends to happen. Maybe I'll warn up to ROY Devin Williams.
Regardless, it's a very big deal that both ROYs were african-american. I like that a lot, and it almost justifies the questionable NL pick for me. More than almost.
No comments:
Post a Comment