Posted by Brian Joseph on Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 3:29 am

It was supposed to be the year of Matt Wieters and David Price in the American League but those two rookies failed to cooperate for the prognosticators and instead a whole other group of A.L. rookies danced in and out of the first-year spotlight. No one in the AL gained a consensus of the first-place votes but Texas Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus’ five first-place votes and appearance on 13 of 15 ballots made the slick fielding Andrus BDD’s choice for AL Rookie of the Year.

Andrus wasn’t all glove — he hit .267/.329/.373 — but it’s what allowed the Rangers to move Michael Young to third base in favor of his plus defense. According to FanGraphs, Andrus’ offense was worth -5.0 runs but his glove provided a +10.4 runs (good for a +8.3 UZR/150) and his overall performance was worth 3.0 WAR. The speedy Andrus led the Rangers in steals with 33 in 39 attempts and grounded into just four DPs in 76 opportunities. The 21-year-old Andrus stole his 20th base on July 28th, 29 days before his 21st birthday, to become just the 10th player in baseball history to steal 20 bases under the age of 21. Other positives on offense came from Andrus vs. LHP — .279/.373/.388 — and at home — .298/.366/.425.

Enough can’t be said about Andrus’ defense. He finished second in UZR (behind Jack Wilson) at 10.4 and fifth in UZR/150 at 8.3. John Dewan’s +/- fielding system rated Andrus’ rookie campaign a +15 which ranked him fifth overall in baseball. The rookie did make 22 errors (second highest among shortstops) and his .968 was 10th when ranked compared to shortstops who played at least 100 games.

Detroit’s Rick Porcello nabbed three first-place votes and appeared on nine ballots finished second in the AL Rookie of the Year voting. The 20-year-old became the youngest pitcher since Dwight Gooden in 1985 to win five starts in a row. He posted a 14-9 record with a 3.96 ERA and 1.336 WHIP in 31 starts. In 170-2/3 innings, Porcello struck out 89 and opponents posted a batting line of .267/.323/.416. The youngster was often stymied by Jim Leyland from earning a quality start but still managed to go at least six innings and allow three or less earned runs in 35% of his starts while posting an average game score of 49. Porcello’s VORP of 32.2 placed him third among AL rookies and his WAR of 1.9 was third on the Tigers behind Justin Verlander and Edwin Jackson.

Right behind Porcello was Gordon Beckham of the Chicago White Sox. BDD’s third-place choice received three first-place votes and appeared on seven ballots thanks to his .270/.340/.460 batting line in 103 games after he was called up on June 3rd after he quickly took over the third baseman duties for the Sox. Beckham’s 28 doubles, 14 homers and 68 RBI in 430 plate appearances. Among AL rookie position players, Beckham was second in VORP at 19.2 and posted a 2.1 WAR.

Oakland hurler Brett Anderson finished fourth with two first-place votes and six BDD writers including him on their ballot. The 21-year-old lefty was 11-11 with a 4.06 ERA and 1.283 WHIP in 30 starts. Anderson impressed with 150 strikeouts in 175-1/3 innings and opponents hit .265/.312/.399 against him. He earned a quality start in 43% of his outings and an average game score of 51.

Anderson’s teammate Andrew Bailey was BDD’s fifth place choice and, like Anderson, received two first-place votes and appeared on six ballots. Bailey went from long shot to make the Opening Day roster to team’s closer after injuries cleared the way at the end of May. He earned a spot on the American League All-Star roster with an impressive first half that continued through the rest of the season. Despite not being the club’s closer for the first two months of the season, Bailey registered 26 saves in 29 tries (one of his blown saves came in a non-closer role) and posted a 6-3 record with two holds in 2009. His miniscule ERA of 1.84 and WHIP of 0.876 was almost as low as the .167/.228/248 batting line opponents were able to produce against him. The 25-year-old Bailey struck out 91 in 83-1/3 innings of work.

Many put Matt Wieters as the AL Rookie of the Year favorite even though the Orioles did not plan on calling up the darling of the 2009 edition of Baseball Prospectus for a few months. Wieters rookie campaign was not as strong as some expected but it was still good enough for him to appear on two of the 15 ballots. After a slow start, Wieters bounced back to hit .288/.340/.412 with nine home runs and 43 RBI in 385 plate appearances. Wieters caught fire after a 2-for-4 performance against the White Sox on August 23rd and his .331/.389/.479 over his last 37 games.

Wieters’ teammate Nolan Reimold tied Wieters for sixth as he made the most of the opportunity created by injuries in Baltimore. He hit .279/.365/.466 in 104 games. Reimold hit 15 homers and added 45 RBI in 411 plate appearances and posted the highest VORP among rookie position players in the American League at 20.8.

Here’s what the BDD team had to say:

Bill Baer
Check out what Bill had to say in his recent post reviewing his Rookie of the Year ballot for the Baseball Bloggers Alliance.

Brian Joseph
“This was tough for me beyond #1. It was a weak crop of rookies but Andrew Bailey was not only great among rookies, he was one of the better closers in the American League. The way he’s going, Billy Beane should be able to turn him into future prospects sooner than he expected. A full season of Gordon Beckham might have given him the numbers to justify putting him ahead of Bailey but that isn’t how it went down. Any of Nolan Reimold, Matt Wieters, Brad Bergesen, Elvis Andrus, Jeff Niemann, Brett Anderson and even Jose Mijares were rookies I considered for my third place vote but, in the end, I went with Rick Porcello using his performance in the 163rd regular season game that put him ahead of the mediocre bunch.”

Eric Polsky
“Bailey was so valuable to the A’s that he was their mandatory representative for the All-Star Game. He was even better in the second half and established himself as one of the best closers in the AL.”

Zach Sanders
“Andrus gets my vote for his quality defense and speed. Porcello finishes a close second in my book.”

Michael Street
“An incredibly weak year. Anderson did well all year long while Andrus helped out on both sides of the ball (more with the glove than the bat). Reimold was the best producer with the bat even though he didn’t play great defense.”

Doug Thorburn
“Tough choice. Beckham debuted against Anderson on June 4th, going 0-3 with a strikeout. Anderson came into the start with a 5.70 ERA, 1.51 WHIP, and 5.13 K/9 on the season; from that point forward he posted a 3.45/1.20/8.65 line, with a K:BB ratio over 4:1 in 128 innings. It’s very close, but Anderson gets the nod.”

Isaac Thorn
“Oakland’s pitching tandem was great… and will be… but I think Andrus’s speed, offense, and defense were more beneficial to his team.”

David Wade
“A 20-year-old pitcher doing as well as he did all year long on a contending team? Quite rare. Plus, I wrote about him.”

Bo Wulf
“The 20-year-old used his devastating sinker to become the second-most reliable starter on a this-close-to-the-playoffs team.”