At Least They're On My Fantasy Team

Major League Baseball announced the American and National League Rookies of the Year, and to nobody's surprise, it was Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers who came away with the most votes. After a consistantly dominant rookie year, in which his primary competitors (Minnesota's Francisco Liriano and our very own Jonathan Papelbon) were shut down before the season's end, Verlander showed the mainstream baseball fans exactly what all the geeks had been raving about.

Less decisive was the awarding of RotY honors to ex-Red Sox and current Florida shortstop Hanley Ramirez. Ramirez was up against stiff competition on his own team, let alone the threats by Los Angeles' Russell Martin and Washington's Ryan Zimmerman. Dan Uggla and Josh Johnson, both of the Marlins, had impressive rookie year postings.

In seeing Ramirez take home top rookie honors, it's not surprising that the debate over the merits of the Josh Beckett trade last offseason has found incredibly effective fuel. Would Ramirez have been as dominant in the American League? In my opinion, probably not.



RAMIREZ, HANLEY: 2006 MLB
G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG
158 633 119 185 46 11 17 59 51 15 56 128 .292 .353 .480

His batting line is impressive. Posting .292/.353/.480 with 17 long balls in what essentially looked to be a AAAA lineup speaks volumes to Ramirez's abilities as a hitter. Then again, so do his 128 SO in 633 ABs. It stands to reason that Ramirez reaped the benefits of playing in the National League, where the fastball is used far more often than the breaking pitches, and where AL hitters typically find their numbers improving after a league change. In the AL, Ramirez would've had to adapt to the breaking balls and the best pitchers in all of baseball. His success would've been anything but a sure thing.

Additionally, Ramirez swiped an eye-popping 51 bases, being caught only 15 times, for a 77% SB%. Without a doubt, this talent would've gone unused. The Red Sox are pitiful on the basepaths: the entire team only managed to swipe 51 bags, getting caught 23 times. Not pretty.

Undoubtedly, Ramirez had a great rookie year. But just like every great year in the National League, it likely wouldn't stand the test in the Junior Circuit.