By Mark GonzalesWhite Sox infielder Gordon Beckham placed fifth in the American League rookie of the year balloting announced today.
Oakland reliever Andrew Bailey won the award and received 13 first-place ballots on a 5-3-1 point system. Baily was named on 24 of 28 ballots and finished with 88 points. Texas shortstop Elvis Andrus placed second, followed by pitchers Rick Porcello of Detroit and Jeff Niemann of Tampa Bay.
Beckham received two second-place ballots and four third-place votes in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.
Beckham, 23, who wasn't promoted to the majors until June 4, led all AL rookies with 28 doubles, 43 extra-base hits and 63 RBIs, as well as tie for the rookie lead with 28 multihit games.
Beckham won 2009 AL rookie of the year awards from The Sporting
News and the Major League Baseball Players Association last month.
Those awards were voted on by major-league players.
Bailey, 25, however, led all AL rookie relievers with 26 saves and a 1.84 ERA. He limited opponents to a .167 batting average.
Andrus (8) and Porcello (7) received the other first-place votes.
Bailey, 25, however, led all AL rookie relievers with 26 saves and a 1.84 ERA. He limited opponents to a .167 batting average.
Andrus (8) and Porcello (7) received the other first-place votes.
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Great Post,
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Beckham will be the best of the top 5 finishers in the long run. Bailey's year was a bit off from where he was in the minors and I bet he will come back down to earth in 2010.
Once again the "experts" are wrong. This should have been a 2 horse race between Andrus and Beckham, pitchers need their own award, they do not play everyday, they do not really play much defense, they don't hit in the American League. They just stand on the mound and throw. Rookie Pitcher of the year should be the award they play for. But 5 years from now, I'll be happy we have Beckham and the rest can keep those pitchers.
Just because the writers did not pick someone who improved in their second year does not mean they don't know what they are doing. True, Geo Soto sucked in 2009, but in 2008 he was the best rookie in the National League, which is why he won the 2008 NL ROTY award. The writers pick the award based on the players' rookie year stats, not how much better they think they will be years down the road. The writers picking Bailey as ROTY does not mean they think he will have a better career than Beckham. They just think that a rookie closer with 26 saves and a sub 2.00 era is pretty amazing, which if you look at baseball history you'll find that it is pretty amazing.
I can tell you this, Cubs fans didn't care in 2009 that Geo Soto was the 2008 ROTY because he completely sucked in 2009. And if Beckham hits .300 with 30 homers in 2010, will Sox fans really care that he didn't win it in 2009? Of course not!
Cmon, Sox fans.
What were you looking at?
Had Beckham stayed around .300, he's have won the award, easily.
He slumped into the .270s and whether you like it or not, his slump contributed to the Sox's fade in the late stages.
"Awards" given by writers are always meaningless. Two words...Geovany Soto.
Andrew who?
I suppose the fact that Beckham did not play the whole season worked against him. According to the players' poll, he was the top rookie.
I'm not surprised Beckham didn't win award. He had some tough competition . I'm sure Beckham will go on to a great career. Beckham's only down fall was his average drop from around .300 at one point to .270 .Fielding did improve as year went on.I think if he had a average near .300 he would of gotten more votes. Received one rookie of year award already in spite . But awards don't win games so hopefully chisox will win more than 79 in 10.
The BBWA voting is a farce.You have clowns like Denver's Woody Paige who admitted he doesn't pay attention to the American League outside of Boston,NY,and the Angels,and hasn't been to the Cell since 2005.He acted surprised when told the the Cell had a 38 Million dollar renovation.So how can he cast any informed vote?
Beckham would have been the weakest ROY since Derrick Rose.
Must say that I am surprised Beckham only placed fifth in the voting, with NO first place ballots. I thought he might come in second with Porcello winning it. Never saw Baily nabbing the prize. Pitchers in general don't often win these awards, and certainly not relief pitchers who can well be one year wonders. Oh, well, at least it doesn't cost us any games in the standings.
The sportswriters are only guilty of grading the rookies on this years numbers and not projecting career stats. I love Beckham and rank him ahead of Ventura and Baines and just short of Frank Thomas as best rookie prospects that i have seen the White Sox develop. I thought Andrus would win because of the impact of his defense on the Texas pitchers and the fact that he played the full season but those pitchers were awfully good too. The players voted for Beckham in the other ROY polls because they could project out and see that Gordon will be the star among this group in years to come. Perhaps they really should not have done that but they like him and so do i.
Yet another reason why moving him to second (instead of the more demanding "shortstop" position) makes the most sense.
Kenny and Ozzie know of what they speak.
Expect Gordon to blossom next year and to finish stronger than he did this year. I wouldn't be surprised if he made the All-Star game next year.
Go Sox.
Meh, who cares what the worthless writers think? The fact that we will get to enjoy many more stellar seasons of Beckham is good enough for me and every other Sox fan. It's hysterical to see all the Flub fans and fake Sox fan posters, they stick out like sore thumbs with their mindless drivel. Gonna be a great 2010.
Gee, what a shocker, a Chicago player got the short of the the stick in terms of recognition...
Are we surprised?? I mean ESPN probably had the QUICKEST WS coverage EVER, so they could move on to the friggin Patriots, when the Sox won the WS.
Andrew bailey will be a flop next year, as well as the others Beckham was behind... He'll use it as motivation, they will flop and to hell with the conceited sport writers anyway.
It would have been great if he had won the award, but it is no big deal that he didn't. It doesn't have anything to do with the Cubs, or being disrespected by the rest of baseball. Gordon's numbers faded down the stretch, and he played only about 2/3rds of the season. Still, Sox fans believe (with a lot of evidence in 2009) that he will be a integral and productive part of the team for years to come. The two most productive position players from the White Sox farm system did not win the award in their rookie year, but it would be hard to argue that Frank Thomas or Robin Ventura was not better than Sandy Alomar Jr.
It's not that Gordon didn't win, it's that he finished 5th that bugs me. Elvis Andrus 2nd ? Andrus played the whole year, and only drove in 40 runs in a loaded lineup.
Derek Jeter, in a SI interview, called Beckham the best young hitter than he has seen in a long time.
I think the fact that Porcello finished third also shows that the writers were kind of clueless here. Then again, these are the same guys who vote on the Gold Gloves so....
Watch when the vote for Jeter for MVP, even though Mauer may have had one of the top 3 offensive seasons ever put up by a catcher. Because he is in Minnesota, Mauer will be lucky to break top 5.
Hey GB, great year! But did u write that post or did your PR/lawyer?
CM
Hey GB, good job on being in the top 5, dont worry about ROTY awards. As others mentioned, lots of guys won it and were never heard from again. True Sox fans just want another ring, not post season awards.
Work hard this off season on being the best for 2010.
Go Sox.
Come on gang - ROTY doesn't make the final standings any different. GB did a good job. Proves he's MLB material and will only get better. The only thing I didn't know before reading the blogs was how cool GB is by his comment on the cubbies. He deserves an award for truth in reporting!
Great Season, Year 2 should be something to see!!
Thanks for all of you who supported me this year. It is a shame that I didn't win this award but I am happy for Andrew Bailey and thoroughly believe that he deserved this award. Know that I am focused on making a smooth and successful transition to second base next year and doing everything I can to get the Sox back where they belong - in the playoffs! Maybe even bring another championship to Chicago (everyone knows the Cubs aren't getting any closer to pulling that one off!)Spring training can't come soon enough!
-GB
Man, are you kidding me? Rick Porcello was robbed!
The players award is more important? Keep on telling yourself that. Cause, you know, all the players rush home after their game is over so they can watch all the other baseball games going on or watch the highlight shows. That way they are qualified to vote on these awards by having a knowledge of all 29 other teams.
Give me a break! How much you want to bet most of the players who did vote for ROTY just voted for him because they've heard he was supposed to be good? Or maybe they talked to Beckham on the field before the game and thought he's an all right guy?
Saying Beckham deserved it because the players voted for him is like saying the high school class president got voted in because the students think he's the best choice, but totally ignoring the fact that his dad is rich and is often out of town so all the best parties are at his house. The player vote is a popularity contest, nothing more!
At least players can judge talent objectively. SPortswriters are not worthy enough to carry a bag full of dirty jockstraps. Most of them are totally useless and withour merit.
@ chris johnson:
Yes, Beckham won the awards that count (the 2 voted by players), but I need to call you out on something... JD for a Gold Glove? No, my 85 year old Grandmother has more range then he does, and yes, I'm a Sox Fan and will miss JD, but come on, the reason he made so many amazing plays is because he didn't have the range to get to the routine fly balls and had to dive/slide/etc.
Whinners.
Blame your front office and how cheap they are.
If they would have called him up sooner, maybe he would have deserved to finish higher.
Or maybe his fielding did him in, he was below par, this year - but of course compared to the rest of the White Sox, he fit right in.
The idiots that talk about Beckham and his fielding have to be Cub Fans or not know the game. Heck the Ball Players themselves voted for him as Rookie of the year but a couple idiot Cub Fans think the award coming from writers means something.
I am so Glad My family brought me up right, a SOX Fan!
First off, let's not kid ourselves here. You Sox fans know if the shoe were on the other foot you would be flooding the Cubs stories comment board with stuff like "another can't miss prospect for the Flubs" and invoking the names of Mark Prior, Corey Patterson, and Felix Pie. Oh, and of course you would end it all with 101 years or 1908, or call us racist fans, or call us gay, or something else along those lines.
Second, any smart White Sox fan would say the rookie of the year award doesn't mean a damn thing and point out all the rookie of the year award winners in the past who ended up being out of the league or just bench players a few seasons later (Marty Cordova, Bob Hamelin, Angel Berroa, Bobby Crosby, Jerome Walton, just to name a few). They would also point out that if Beckham becomes a 20+ homer guy and/or a .300 hitter no one will care where he finished in the ROTY award.
Finally, saying that Andrew Bailey shouldn't have won because all he does is pitch one inning show that you are either bitter that your guy didn't win or are naive when it comes to baseball. A 1.84 ERA with 26 saves is impressive for any closer, much less a rookie. Bobby Jenks and Kevin Gregg didn't even come close to putting up numbers like that, and they've been closers for several seasons now.
I'm sure there are smart Sox fans out there, but it's clear the ones on here only care about two things: 1) national recognition and 2) the Cubs making fools of themselves.
Well another snub it should'nt suprise us though we know how predjudice baseball is against our team we all know Mark Buerhle has been a gold glove pither for years yet he had to pitch a perfect game in order to get one this year if not for this he would have been snubbed again same thing with J.D if they were on different teams they would have won 5 gold gloves by now alot of whitesox haters in the world the question is why?
Highway F-ing Robbery!!!!
Are you kidding me?? Not only the stats that Beckham had, but the mere presence after he was called up, should have won him the award!!
Before Beck's getting called up, we were headed down the toilet, afterwards we were contending for the Central!
And I dare anyone to tell me the last position player to get called up to the bigs to play a different position and have the numbers he had!
Just goes to show what the writers know, and some of the busters on this comment board as well....let's give a honorable award to a guy who pitches in 1 inning per game for what 50 some appearances during a 162 game season??? Yeah that's bright...Beckham should have won this award hands down...
"Have some sack and post under usernames that show your true fandom"
This coming from the guy who's username is Eastcoastbasher.
Writers should be banned from deciding who wins post season awards, and this joke of a vote does nothing to help them. It's equally pathetic to see the undercover Flubbie fans calling him the "worst" or "bad" in regards to his fielding. Any real baseball fan knows how well Beckham fielded his position well in the final months of the season. Have some sack and post under usernames that show your true fandom. Then again, I would be embarrassed to cheer for the Losers in Blue too.
Are you people forgetting he was playing a position he never played before, didn't get called up until June and still had a lot better numbers than Andrus. Also won the award as voted on by the players, who know a heck of alot more than the writers and all you noobs put together.
KWFAN...how was golf game this season?
Should have finished third - those b#&*%ng about poor fielding are high and/or extremely fat. Probably ugly too.
New position, tough position = naysayers have no position.
...and I mean the fat and ugly thing.