SB Nation Awards: Best rookie

Balloting here was for the top three players, with qualification established as for the BBWAA awards, and points given out on a 5-3-1 basis. Here's what our two members of the electoral college put on their papers, and their explanations.

Clefo

1. Jose Fernandez
2. Yasiel Puig
3. Hyun-Jin Ryu

Fernandez had a 2.19 ERA as a rookie with a K rate above 9 and a walk rate of 3... That's pretty damn impressive for a non rookie, much less a fairly unheralded rookie that's stuck in Loria-Limbo. Puig had a good season, I don't think anybody will argue that, but it did seem to be very BABIP aided (.383), and his K rate was higher than I expected (22.5%). I look forward to Fernandez being traded to the Tigers in a few years.

soco

1. Jose Hernandez - was worth the same amount of fWAR as Puig, and as noted above was very obviously one of the top pitchers even with a shorter season.
2. Yasiel Puig - like Kershaw, I wrote him down at the top before I looked at the numbers, but this is still close. Puig probably gets jobbed by me for having less playing time than Hernandez. On the other hand, Puig also rode a very hot June to his gaudy numbers, and slowed down considerably in September. There's no doubt he's a talented player, but It seems like Hernandez had a more complete year than Puig, who also has problems with defense and TOOTBLANs)
3. Hyun-Jin Ryu - (third place was a toss up, as there wasn't a ton of players super impressive. By numbers you could make a case for Pollock, but it's almost all driven by his defense, as he was below average on offense. I might be biased against Pollock for watching him everyday, as well.

Fernandez over Puig? Shurerly shome mishtake. It looks like most SB Nation writers don't "know an impressive, exciting player when they see one" any more than fans do... Here are the results for the American League.