August 13, 2005  

As we head into the final three weeks of the season, it's time to start taking a serious look at the Pat Listach Rookie of the Year Award candidates. Remember, a rookie is defined as a player in his first year of DMBL eligibility (for batters, that's 250 MLB plate appearances for non-catchers; 200 MLB plate appearances for catchers; 10 starts for starting pitchers; and 30 games, with at least 10 in relief, for relievers). This year, there are 113 rookies: 47 batters and 66 pitchers (20 starters, 45 relievers and one swing man).

And the leading candidates are...

Batters

Phil Plantier's Top 5 Rookie Batters
(in alphabetical order)
Chone Figgins, COL
IF/OF
.258, .706 OPS, 19 3B, 78 R, 21 SB, 69.0 RC, 608 PA
Lew Ford, TIJ
OF
.302, .805 OPS, 93 R, 23 2B, 83.8 RC, 580 PA
Ross Gload, VAN
1B/OF
.404, 1.019 OPS, 7 HR, 37 RBI, 53.9 RC, 235 PA
Victor Martinez, VAN
C
.300, .912 OPS, 34 HR, 122 RBI, 111.6 RC, 613 PA
Wily Mo Pena, ARK
OF
.301, 1.100 OPS, 15 HR, 36 RBI, 32.8 RC, 145 PA

Vancouver's Victor Martinez leads rookies in just about every offensive category, and he's doing it as a catcher! The 26-year-old switch-hitter, who was selected in the 9th round (#120) as an ineligible prospect in last year's draft, just might be the first catcher ROY in league history. Martinez leads all rookies in hits (166), doubles (34), slugging percentage (.553), OPS (.912) and runs created (111.6). Most impressive of all, however, are his 34 home runs, 122 runs batted in and 306 total bases -- which not only lead all rookies by a wide margin, but also all catchers in the league! (In fact, among all players, Martinez is tied for 5th in RBIs and is 6th in HRs and 7th in TBs.) Martinez also had a 19-game hitting streak this year, and was the only rookie voted to start in the All-Star Game. If there's a knock on Martinez, it's that he doesn't have a great arm -- he's thrown out just 14 baserunners in 52 tries, a woeful .269 CS%. He's also proven to be a much better hitter against righties (.320, .971 OPS) than lefties (.241, .743 OPS).

Let's not give the award to Martinez just yet, however -- there are a couple other candidates who deserve some consideration, especially if they can turn it up a notch over the final few weeks of the season. Chone FigginsColumbia's Chone Figgins is hitting a rather unimpressive .258 (.706 OPS), but he does 19 triples this season -- just one shy of the DMB Era record, set by Phoenix's Juan Uribe in 2002. (Las Vegas's Carl Crawford just tied the record with his 20th triple this week.) As impressive a season Martinez is having, he isn't close to setting any league records! Figgins, the second pick overall in this year's draft, is a 27-year-old utility man, having played third, short and all three outfield positions for the Rattlesnakes this year. Figgins also leads all rookies with 21 stolen bases, though he's been caught 14 times, an ugly .600 SB%... Figgins's teammate, Ryan Freel, ranks second among rookies in stolen bases (17), with a slightly better (but still not good) SB% of .708. Freel also leads all rookies in walks (56) and HBP (13), though his .243 batting average keeps his OBP at just .339... Tijuana's Lew Ford is an interesting candidate, leading rookies in runs scored (93) and ranking second in hits (159), triples (9), runs created (83.8), batting average (.302), OBP (.362) and OPS (.805)... The only other rookies with enough plate appearances to qualify for the leaderboard are Philly's Khalil Greene (.230, .630 OPS, 24 2B, 53 R in 538 PA), Phoenix's Pedro Feliz (..244, .643 OPS, 27 2B, 71 RBI in 512 PA), Vancouver's Jason Bay (.245, .756 OPS, 21 HR, 66 RBI in 471 PA) and Westwood's Eric Valent (.244, .759 OPS, 18 HR, 51 RBI in 433 PA).

Put me in, coach! These rookies have made the most of their limited playing time so far this season, but probably aren't seeing enough action to make an impact on the ROY voters. Vancouver's Ross Gload is scorching the ball with a .404 batting average and a 1.019 OPS (13 doubles, 7 homers, 37 RBIs) but only has 235 plate appearances this year as he's in an unusual platoon -- he's a lefty, but he's facing almost exclusively left-handed pitching... Arkansas's David Newhan (.384, .946 OPS, 4 HR, 39 RBI in 210 PA) is in a more traditional platoon arrangement, a southpaw seeing mostly right-handed pitchers... Newhan's teammate, Wily Mo Pena, was putting up numbers comparable to another Golden Falcon -- Barry Bonds -- but cooled off considerably after missing six weeks with an injury. He's now hitting "only" .301 with a 1.110 OPS (and 15 HR) in just 145 PA... Termel Sledge was hitting a respectable .304 (.836 OPS) in 246 PA but was released by Hillsborough for undisclosed disciplinary reasons... The first overall pick of the draft, Arkansas's David Wright, is mostly watching from the bench but hasn't looked overmatched in limited action (.256, .759 OPS in 212 PA).

Starting Pitchers

Phil Plantier's Top 5 Rookie Starters
(in alphabetical order)
David Bush, NWK
SP
13-4, 5.64 ERA, 14.9 R/9, .429 QS%, 57 BB, 84 K, 159.2 IP
Jose Contreras, PHX
SP
6-10, 6.46 ERA, 16.2 R/9, .375 QS%, 73 BB, 130 K, 138.0 IP
Zach Greinke, PHI
SP
8-11, 5.47 ERA, 12.2 R/9, .429 QS%, 24 BB, 120 K, 176.0 IP
Noah Lowry, PHX
SP
10-14, 5.79 ERA, 14.5 R/9, .357 QS%, 49 BB, 118 K, 152.1 IP
Bobby Madritsch, VAN
SP
14-7, 4.22 ERA, 12.6 R/9, .500 QS%, 68 BB, 125 K, 181.1 IP

No less an authority than baseball guru Earl Weaver taught that the best place to break in a rookie is in long relief, not the starting rotation. Many great starting pitchers have had their careers start with an ugly rookie year; for an example of what can go wrong, look no further than the No. 1 pick of last year's draft, Tijuana's Dontrelle Willis, who suffered through a 4-16 season (6.05 ERA, 1.75 WHIP).

The flip side of the coin, of course, is that a rookie starting pitcher who succeeds against such long odds is going to get plenty of notice. In fact, three out of the last seven Pat Listach Rookie of the Year Award winners have been starting pitchers -- and, in 2002, a rookie won the Ben McDonald Pitcher of the Year Award. (And let's not forget that Big Ben himself as a rookie when he had that great season of 1991!)

Bobby MadritschAnd once again this year, there is a rookie starting pitcher with a shot at winning the award: Bobby Madritsch. Selected with the Fist's second pick in the first round (#8 overall), the southpaw just might be the only guy with a chance to steal the ROY from batterymate Victor Martinez. The Lakota Sioux ranks first among rookies in wins (14), ERA (4.22), H/9 (8.9), HR/9 (0.6), OPS against (.698), quality starts (14), QS% (.500), shutouts (2), complete games (7) and innings (181.1). Among all DMBL pitchers, he's tied for 1st in complete games, tied 2nd in shutouts and HR/9, tied for 7th in wins and is 8th in OPS against. And he's doing all this as a lefty in a league where most lefties get eaten alive!

Making Madritsch's debut season even more impressive is when you compare it to the other rookie starters this season. Just three other starters are having what could charitably be described as "solid" campaigns: Newark's David Bush (13-4, 5.64 ERA, 14.9 R/9, .429 QS%), Philly's Zack Greinke (8-11, 5.47 ERA, 12.2 R/9, .429 QS%) and Phoenix's Noah Lowry (10-14, 5.79 ERA, 14.5 R/9, .357 QS%). Bush leads all rookies (and is 3rd in the league) with a .765 W%, but that probably has more to do with the fact that the Sugar Bears average 7.5 runs per game in his starts. Greinke leads all rookie starters in R/9 (12.2), BB/9 (1.2) and K:BB (5.0), but he also leads all rookies in homers allowed (38 in 176.0 IP, or 1.9 HR/9)... Phoenix's Jose Contreras -- Jose Contrerasyes, he is a rookie at age 33, despite being drafted with the first pick of the second round (#15 overall) in the 2003 draft -- leads all rookies in strikeouts (130) and K/9 (8.5), but won't get many votes with a 6.46 ERA, 16.2 R/9 and 6-10 record... Hillsborough has two left-handed rookies in the rotation -- Erik Bedard (4-13, 7.26 ERA, 18.3 R/9, .172 QS%) and Cliff Lee (3-9, 8.42 ERA, 18.1 R/9, .235 QS%) -- which helps to explain the Destroyers' awful season this year... The only other rookie with a start this year is Chris Capuano, a free-agent pick-up by Philly later traded to Las Vegas for Juan Rincon and a 6th-round pick. Capuano didn't see any action with the Animals and was bombed in his one start for the Rat Pack (1.2 IP, 6 H, 7 R, 1 BB, 1 K) before being sent back down to Triple-A.

Relief Pitchers

Phil Plantier's Top 5 Rookie Relievers
(in alphabetical order)
Yhency Brazoban, STP
RP
2-2, 1 SV, 2.65 ERA, 12.7 R/9, 7.2 K/9, 88.1 IP
Kiko Calero, PHI
RP
1-4, 4 SV, 3.44 ERA, 9.2 R/9, 10.2 K/9, 65.1 IP
Mike Gonzalez, LV-NWK
RP
4-4, 8 SV, 3.12 ERA, 10.6 R/9, 11.4 K/9, 86.2 IP
Matt Miller, CAR
RP
6-5, 0 SV, 2.77 ERA, 11.0 R/9, 9.0 K/9, 87.2 IP
Shingo Takatsu, HBK-ARK
SP
5-3, 3 SV, 3.34 ERA, 12.0 R/9, 6.0 K/9, 94.1 IP

Long relief might be the best place to break in a rookie reliever, but that means you don't have the honor of starting games or the glory of closing them out -- and no wins or saves means little national attention. And yet, the only reliever ever to win the ROY was John Rocker, and he was pitching in middle relief when he won it with Arkansas in '99. This year's crop of relievers certainly hopes that the voters keep that in mind this year, because of the 25 rookies with at least one relief appearance this season, just one could be considered a closer -- and his numbers are astonishingly bad.

The Sugar Bears had three rookies in their starting rotation last year; this year, they have five rookies in their bullpen! Of the five, three have had great seasons, and of those three, Mike Gonzalez might be the best of all. The 27-year-old lefty was taken by Las Vegas with the No. 9 pick in this year's draft, but was traded to Newark for Pat Burrell last month. His stats combined rank him first among rookie relievers in appearances (75), strikeouts (110), K/9 (11.4) and K:BB (5.0); he's 2nd in R/9 (10.6) and tied for 2nd in saves (8); and he's 3rd in ERA (3.12). The other top rookies in Newark's pen are Akinori Otsuka (4-4, 8 SV, 3.43 ERA, 12.3 R/9, 10.4 K/9) and Orber Moreno (6-4, 1 SV, 3.89 ERA, 11.6 R/9, 6.7 K/9); mid-season pick-ups Kevin Gregg (5.40 ERA, 16.2 R/9 in 6.2 IP) and Matt Wise (5.73 ERA, 18.0 R/9 in 22.0 IP) are roster fillers.

The Mighty Men also have a youth movement going on in the bullpen, led by middle-man Yhency Brazoban. The 25-year-old righty leads all relievers, not just rookies, with 17 holds; he also leads all rookies with a 2.65 ERA in 88.2 IP, but his 12.7 R/9 is a little high (mostly due to his 4.3 BB/9). Southpaws Joe Horgan (4-4, 2 SV, 5.00 ERA, 15.3 R/9) and John Parrish (7-2, 4.31 ERA, 14.5 R/9) are the team's garbage men... Another top reliever who put up stats across two teams is Shingo Takatsu, Shingo TakatsuHoboken's 4th round pick (#46) subsequently traded to Arkansas for an eighth-rounder next year. Takatsu has been impressive for both clubs, going a combined 5-3 (3 SV) with a 3.34 ERA and 12.0 R/9 in 94.1 IP... Carolina's Matt Miller is 2nd in ERA (2.77), tied for 2nd in relief wins (6), and is 3rd in R/9 (11.0), and has struck out 88 men in 87.2 IP... Philly's Kiko Calero, taken in the second round (#20), has lived up to the hype, leading all rookies in R/9 (9.2) and H/9 (6.6), with a 3.44 ERA and 74 Ks in 65.1 IP... Relievers having good-but-not-great debuts: Phoenix's Jason Frasor (2-3, 4.39 ERA, 12.9 R/9); Vancouver's Ryan Madson (1-2, 1 SV, 4.08 ERA, 11.8 R/9) and Westwood's Frank Francisco (1-1, 3 SV, 4.86 ERA, 13.4 R/9).

Though several rookies have picked up a few saves here and there, only one freshman is considered his club's closer: Hillsborough's Chad Cordero. The 23-year-old second-round pick (#15 overall) leads his team in save opportunities with 21, but has just 11 saves and 10 blown saves to show for it -- a scary-bad .476 BS%. On the other hand, Cordero's peripheral numbers (.715 ERA, 17.1 R/9, 1.8 HR/9, 1.6 K:BB) are so ugly it's surprising he hasn't blown all 21!

Phil Plantier, one of the top prospects of the last decade, was picked by baseball guru Bill James in 1991 as the player most likely to lead the majors in HRs during the 1990s. In 1994, at age 24, he hit 47 round-trippers with 118 RBIs for the Charleston Chiefs, his first and last DMBL season. He's currently an analyst for Fox Sports Net. Click Here for past articles.