BDD ‘09 Predictions — Rookie of the Year

Posted by Brian Joseph on Saturday, April 4, 2009 at 11:03 am

With Rookie of the Year, there are more clear choices by the group — especially in the American League. Overall, three different rookies in the AL and seven in the NL received at least one vote of confidence from our panel.

According to us, it’s likely you won’t see the Rookie of the Year on Opening Day for the second straight season. Baltimore’s Matt Wieters was selected by six of our predictors with Tampa Bay’s David Price behind Wieters with three. Neither will start the season on the roster. Toronto’s Travis Snider will and he was tapped by two of our predictors. Snider has the advantage already since he’ll be in the lineup on Opening Day for the Blue Jays. Not surprising, of all rookies, Wieters owns the highest predicted Value Over Replacement Player (according to Baseball Prospectus 2009) at 59.6, nearly triple the next rookie on the list.

In the National League, the choice was a little less clear but Florida’s Cameron Maybin’s four selections was enough to outpace the rest of the field although he was not a true consensus selection. Like Wieters, Maybin is predicted to have the highest VORP in his league at 23.5. St. Louis’ Colby Rasmus was the only other National League player to be selected by more than one predictor and his beating out of Joe Mather for the final roster spot in St. Louis might help his case. Here’s our predictions:

AMERICAN LEAGUE

Matt Wieters, Orioles — 6
David Price, Rays — 3
Travis Snider, Blue Jays — 2

NATIONAL LEAGUE

Cameron Maybin, Marlins — 4
Colby Rasmus, Cardinals — 2
Dexter Fowler, Rockies — 1
Kenshin Kawakami, Braves — 1
Andrew McCutchen, Pirates — 1
Jordan Schafer, Braves — 1
Jordan Zimmermann, Nationals — 1