Despite winning two other rookie of the year awards, Gordon Beckham finished fifth in the American League Rookie of the Year voting. Oakland closer Andrew Bailey took home the hardware, followed by Elvis Andrus, Rick Porcello and Jeff Niemann.
Beckham tried to play down his miffedness:
“It was the first full season for me, not even in the big leagues, but ever, and it probably didn’t help I struggled the last month,’’ Beckham said. “I won two awards that were voted on by the players. At the end of the day I would want the players to respect me more than the writers.’’
It makes sense that Beckham wouldn't fare as well in the main ROY voting. Beckham's case -- he had the highest offensive impact but the shortest year -- is the kind that opposing players would remember. A team might not see a pitcher in a series, and they might not get an opportunity to see a glove guy like Andrus show his skills. They'd get a good look at a good hitter three or four times a game, though, so Beckham's name had a better chance of resonating.
The writers, however, are more apt to take the whole season into account. Considering Beckham started a month late and tailed off in September, he just didn't have the quantity of the others.
But hey, Magglio Ordonez finished fifth in his rookie year, too, so it can't be all bad.
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Mark Gonzalez has to feel like the principal who has to answer to the fire department when one of the schoolkids pulls the alarm. Mainly because he had to follow up on a very silly trade rumor that somehow had Adrian Gonzalez heading to the White Sox and
PAUL KONERKO TO THE ANGELS!
Damnit -- I was off by a month!
There's a link to the original "report" in Gonzalez's article, but I don't want to link to it, myself. It's simply too stupid, and I don't want to encourage more by sending traffic anywhere.
(Glass half full, it gave me a reason to start a "Jason from the Trib" tag.)
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I'm looking for mobile site testers, having just come across a plugin that may suit the site's needs pretty well.
Shoot me an email (jim-at-8b83fa7fd3.nxcli.net) if own a smartphone, would post from it often, and would be willing to report your navigating/posting experience.
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Arizona Fall League:
- Surprise 6, Peoria 4
- C.J. Retherford went 1-for-4 with an RBI.
And on an unrelated note, happy birthday to The Fifth Feather.
