Comments on: Longoria, Soto take home ROY honors

By: River Avenue Blues | If you screw up, we will find you

River Avenue Blues | If you screw up, we will find you — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 21:30:45 +0000

[...] we heard about the Rookie of the Year award results yesterday, we also found out that three writers voted for the Reds’ Edinson Volquez despite his ineligibility. He had 80 innings of ML ball heading into 2008, thus disqualifying him [...]

By: dbroncos31

dbroncos31 — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 05:40:41 +0000

VORP does not look at defense, where Longoria was very good this year.
To look at a better offensive metric (which still ignores D) Longoria’s wOBA was .365 this year. Average is like .330. Longoria was one of the best players in the AL this year when you factor in his defense, and remember he also missed 40 games due to injury and the fact that Tampa didn’t call him up until mid-April.

Yeah Joba could have been better if he had a full season, but considering Longoria missed nearly as much time, I doubt it.

Basically, both players missed significant time and Longoria was still better in VORP without factoring in D. Longoria’s awesome; don’t underrate him.

By: tommiesmithjohncarlos a/k/a Mr. Snarky Irrelevant Non Sequitur Jones

tommiesmithjohncarlos a/k/a Mr. Snarky Irrelevant Non Sequitur Jones — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:57:55 +0000

“There’s been some mention above of Matsui & Fukudome, and it’s a Rookie thread of sorts, so that’s my justification for this slightly off-topic comment.”

Sarah Palin, is that you?

By: tommiesmithjohncarlos a/k/a Mr. Snarky Irrelevant Non Sequitur Jones

tommiesmithjohncarlos a/k/a Mr. Snarky Irrelevant Non Sequitur Jones — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:56:54 +0000

Especially since CMW is Taiwanese, and not Japanese?

By: tommiesmithjohncarlos a/k/a Mr. Snarky Irrelevant Non Sequitur Jones

tommiesmithjohncarlos a/k/a Mr. Snarky Irrelevant Non Sequitur Jones — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:55:47 +0000

All Yankees suck, and all Boston Red Sox are awesome. I don’t know how many times we need to go through this. It’s a fact.

By: radnom

radnom — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:55:00 +0000

CMW is the only Asian you’ve ever heard of?

By: Simon B.

Simon B. — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:45:01 +0000

I’m not really arguing with the decision, but mostly because of the thin field in the AL this year.

Also, I think Joba would’ve blown him away if he had hit his innings target of 140-150 instead of 100. He was only two runs behind in VORP (admittedly not a great metric, but an easy way to directly compare pitchers and hitters), despite losing about a third of his theoretical season.

By: Mike A.

Mike A. — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:44:03 +0000

As in a guy who signed and went straight to bigs without any time in the minors or Japanese leagues? No, I don’t think so.

By: Adam

Adam — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:42:14 +0000

well played sir.

By: TheLastClown

TheLastClown — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:41:18 +0000

There’s been some mention above of Matsui & Fukudome, and it’s a Rookie thread of sorts, so that’s my justification for this slightly off-topic comment.

Junichi Tazawa is ranked #24 by Jeff Passan, so I doubt that means anything officially, but I find it a little odd that this kid who’s never played pro ball on any continent is in the top 25 MLB FAs, in somebody’s opinion at least.

The question, though, is: Has there ever been a Japanese player to make his debut here? *CMW is the only Asian I know of, and I’m admittedly not super well versed*