Hellickson Wins AL Rookie of the Year, Reddick a No Show

Jeremy Hellickson, the fine young pitcher for the Tampa Bay Rays was named the 2011 American League Rookie of the Year on Monday.  Hellickson joins teammate Evan Longoria as the only other Rays players to win the award.

Hellickson captured seventeen of the first place votes, pacing him well past Mark Trumbo of the LA Angels for the award.  Eric Hosmer of the Kansas City Royals came in third and Ivan Nova of the Yankees was forth.

In case you’re wondering, Josh Reddick of the Red Sox didn’t garner a single vote for the award.  I’m not saying Reddick should’ve won the award, although he made a case for himself for the first couple of months of the season before fading away down the stretch like the rest of his team.

When you compare Desmond Jennings of the Rays, who finished seventh in the voting by the way of one, third place vote, Reddick had a similar season.

The lines between the two are extremely close with Reddick’s being listed first: .280, .327, .457, .784, 7 HR, 28 RBI while striking out 50 times.  Jennings line’s: .259, .356, .449, .805, 10 HR, 25 RBI and struck out 59 times.

Reddick played in 24 more games, but only had 7 more at bats than Jennings.

I’m not going to spend a whole lot of time on this because quite frankly it’s not worth it.  I just thought it was interesting that Reddick didn’t earn a third place vote, when Jennings managed to get one.  Similar stats, flip a coin and so be it.  Just another reminder that the Rays were that one vote, or one win better than the Red Sox this past year.  Am I still bitter?  Only when I think about it.

Craig Kimbrel, the Atlanta Braves closer won the NL Rookie of the Year by a unanimous vote, sweeping all the first place votes.

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