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09/29/2003 Archived Entry: "MLB News: "Rookie" of the Year?"
MLB News by Eric Gartman
In what has now become an annual tradition, baseball writers are preparing to give the Rookie of the Year award to a former Japanese pro baseball player. To understand what we should do about the situation, it is helpful to look at the past history of pro Japanese players in the big leagues. It all began in 1995 when Hideo Nomo came to pitch for the LA Dodgers. Nobody knew whether he would be good enought to hang with the big boys. He had been great in Japan, but could he pitch well here? Nomo proved very quickly that he could, posting stellar numbers for the Dodgers. Giving Nomo the Rookie of the Year Award at that point was appropriate, since nobody beforehand knew if Japanese players could play in the US. But an avalance of Japanese pros followed, most of whom played well in America. In 2000 Kazuhiro Sasaki posted 37 saves for the Mariners to win the ROY, despite the fact that he was 31 years old! The following year 27 year old Ichiro won the ROY as well as the MVP for the M's. And in 2003, 28 year old Hideki "Godzilla" Matsui is leading the race. Shouldn't it be clear by now that Japanese players are fully capable of playing here, and their stars should no longer be treated as either anomolies or rookies? Even worse, the presence of such players takes attention away from young players who really should be ROY winners. This year alone, several players in the AL are having fine rookie seasons: Texas' Hank Blalock batted .300 with 29 homers and 90 RBI. Teamate Mark Teixeira hit 26 homers. Tampa's Rocco Baldelli and Kansas City's Angel Berroa also had good years. Baseball's writers should skip Matsui and vote Hank Blalock for Rookie of the Year.
Replies: 1 Comment
1. I'm not sure Blaylock qualifies as a rookie- over 160 PA's last year
2. The whole Japanese player = ROY is a conundrum-
A: Is Japan = to MLB? - everyone says no - right
B: guys like Matsui are too good and expierienced to qualify for ROY- it's not fair BUUUUT if Japan is equivalent of AAA why not?
If a 30 year old American came out of AAA and had Matsui's numbers would he get ROY- ala Bob Hamelin or Lou Pinellia whoever
C: You can't have it both ways- either Japan is inferior and these guys qualify or they are MLB equal and that opens up a whole nother can of worms doesn't it
D: Doesn't matter Berroa has equal numbers and plays a harder defensive position- Angel is the guy
Posted by Bart Ewing @ 10/04/2003 10:39 PM EST
