Rookies to Watch For 2011

These are the rookies that are likely to perform extremely well this year and are potential                              Rookie of the Year candidates.

 American League

1. Michael Pineda

He reminds me greatly of current Mariners ace Felix Hernandez, and in the future they will probably form a dangerous 1-2 top of the rotation tandem that has the potential to terrorize opposing batters. Once Dustin Ackley comes up to the bigs and the Mariners acquire some offense, this team will be one to be feared.

2. Kyle Drabek

Kyle Drabek is the son of former All-Star pitcher Doug Drabek and has the talent to have a career, which surpasses that of his father. His arsenal is deadly and he was the key piece in the Roy Halladay for good reason, as in a couple of years look for him to take over as the Blue Jays ace.

Figured I’d throw this in for Drabek as well:

http://jeffcrupper.com/images/drabekprosandcons.jpg

3. Jordan Walden

It seems as though the AL West is just filled with promising young closers as there was Neftali Feliz, and now there is Jordan Walden. He possesses electric stuff and will stay in the closer role as long as he keeps pitching well. He is a dark-horse to win the AL ROY this year.

National League

1. Craig Kimbrel

Craig Kimbrel has been dominant for the Braves thus far this year, emerging victorious from a platoon battle for the closing role with Johnny Venters. His K/9 ratio is extremely high and his composure for a rookie closer is tremendous, in some ways reminiscent of Neftali Feliz last year.

2. Danny Espinosa

Danny is an essential piece to the Nationals “rebuilding” movement. He is an extremely talented fielder and is an excellent double play partner to Ian Desmond. He also can be considered one of those rare power/speed type players which only enhances his value as a player.

3. Brandon Belt

Brandon Belt has been vastly considered to be the “next Buster Posey” by baseball analysts, and for good reason. Although he was recently demoted to Triple A Fresno to work out some struggles in his swing, he has true superstar potential and possesses great power as well as the ability to hit for a strong average. By the middle of the season he will be more acclimated to big league pitching and will be hitting the ball as well as he had in Triple A for the past couple of years.

Here is the link to a similar post to this that I made in 2009:

http://manoman.mlblogs.com/archives/2009/06/rocking_rookies.html

The Season is Still Young…..

The Manoman

Rocking Rookies

Some come out of nowhere. Some were destined for greatness while some were surprises from the start. Now what am I talking about? The Rooks. The New Kids on the Block. Each year there are standouts (see Longoria, Braun) and massive dissapointments (see Delmon Young, Rickie Weeks). The best part about rookie though is that they have that level of unpredictability (I don’t even know if that’s a word : ). Now lets see some of the newbie rookies right here: 

 

Leading off:

Our leadoff guy in this segment is Andrew McCutchen.

(mlb.com)

Here is a good player that has 5 tools. He is and excellent fielder, bolts around the bases and is a good hitter. He is the starting centerfielder for the Pirates now that they traded Nate McClouth and is the new lead off hitter. I actually thought his name was Andrew McClutchen because he was a such a good hitter.

McCutchen = McClutchen 

Batting Second:

Gordon Beckham

(mlb.com)

Beckham is currently the 3rd baseman for the White Sox and was only drafted LAST YEAR. It’s the Ryan Zimmerman the Second. I heard he was a solid hitter and has alot of talent so we’ll have to see…

 

 Batting Third: Mr. 5 Tools

Adam Jones

Jones is an amazing young player who is fast and knows how to hit the baseball.

 

Hitting Cleanup: Matt Wieters

You can love him, you can hate him, but what I know is that this guy has alot of skill and is gonna be a star in the future.

Today’s Pitching Matchup is Between Tommy Hanson and David Price

 

vs.

These guys are both pristine players that are both very talented. Hanson is on one of my fantasy teams and gets the job done each time. Price has been highly regarded for an extremely long time and price is just…er…um…right. Hah. Here are some honorable mentions:

Honorable Mentions 

1. Mat Gamel – Mat is a good hitter and is like Ryan Braun (bad defense at 3rd, great power swing). Give him some time and he will succeed.
2. Rick Porcello- He was dominating entering 2009 after his debut and looks to get 10 wins before the All Star Break. 
3. Dexter Fowler – fast and once had 5 steals in a game this year!
4.  Elvis Andrus -great defense and a good bat equals a good combo
5.  Trevor Cahill- doing a great job pitching for the A’s
6. *Omir Santos* (pretty sure he’s a rookie)- he came from practically nowhere to claim the Mets starting catcher job and has thrived since
7. Nolan Reimold- hidden from the spotlight of Matt Wieters, Reimold has been an outstanding player this year and already has 9 homeruns
8.  Ricky Romero- hey! hey! Ricky! Romero has been lights out since he returned from the DL and is making great contributions to a surprisingly dominant Toronto pitching staff 

9. Fernando Martinez- although F-Mart has had his struggles, and his face plants into the Citi Field grass, I still believe he will turn it around (anyone up for after the All-Star Break? Anyone?) 

 10. Andrew Bailey- Huston Street :traded; Joey Devine: season ending surgery; Brad Ziegler: ineffective; Bailey: sure I guess we’ll take him. Imagine if this what was running through A’s manager Bob Geren’s head as he was thinking about his closer. So far, this has been the right choice as Bailey has been lights out.  

                 So to end this post with a little more rookieness, do you think there will ever be rookies like Braun or Longoria again? Who do you think will win rookie of the year? Will Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg ever face off in the future???

and

The Battle is On.