Rookie Of The Year!

Dustin Pedroia was named the American League Rookie of the Year Monday. Pedroia won the award easily.

Several sports site comment sections have been ridiculing the choice saying Delmon Young was the more deserving rookie, however statistics do not back up that argument. In fact if one looked at the statistics they would ask why Pedroia wasn't a unanimous choice.

The traditional money categories, home runs and RBI were in favor of Young, but he also had two advantages. First he had 120 more at bats then Pedroia and he also batted in a spot that had a lot of RBI opportunities.

The differential in home runs wasn't that great. Pedroia had eight for Boston while Young had 13 for the Rays.

So where did Pedroia win the award? His great defense at second base was one area that helped, but his bat did a lot of talking too. Pedroia scored 21 more runs then Young, 86-65. He also had one more double then Young, remember in 120 less at bats.

Pedroia also excelled with his eye, he had 47 walks, but just 42 strikeouts. Meantime Young only had 26 walks and struck out 127 times. Young had advantages in hits 186-165, and stolen bases 10-7. Again this was with 120 extra at bats.

What does all this come out to? For Pedroia it was a .317 average with a .380 OBP and a slugging percent of .442. For Young? .288, .316, .408. Advantage Pedroia.

Seriously how can anyone make an argument for a guy with a .316 OBP? And to add to that the fact that Young had five more homers proved unimportant as Pedroia still slugged 34 points higher.

Ladies and Gentleman, there wasn't and never should have been any doubt who deserved this award.