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How this works
Here is the complete list of winners since we started these in 2006. We'll be running one category a week for the next seven weeks, which should take us into the first week of February, when it'll almost be time for pitchers and catchers to report! So, that's nice. Here is the schedule:
- Week 1: Play of the Year - winner, David Peralta steals home
- Week 2: Single-game Performance of the Year - winner, Josh Collmenter's imperfect game
- Week 3: Game of the Year - winner, Killing Kershaw
- Week 4: Rookie of the Year
- Week 5: Unsung Hero
- Week 6: Pitcher of the Year
- Week 7: Most Valuable Player
For each, the pattern will be the same. Monday will be an open call for nominations - I'll offer some suggestions to get you going, but these are not etched in stone. So feel free to offer any suggestions in the comments - the number of "recs" received by suggestions will be a major factor in deciding which, if any, make the final list of nominees. That will then be posted on Wednsday morning, with accompanying video as appropriate. There will then be a two-day window for voting, with the winner being anointed on Friday morning. Rinse, repeat the following week, for the next category.
Rookie of the Year nominations
I think this one is probably a little bit different from the previous three categories. There, we had a fairly obvious winner, but choosing the rest of the nominees was more difficult, with a fairly broad range of potential candidates. Here, there doesn't seem to be one clear leader, but it's not hard to figure out who the six nominees should be. While there were a total of 19 rookies used by the Diamondbacks this year, their ephemeral nature takes care of most of these. Only three rookie hitters reached 150 PAs, and only four pitchers threw forty innings. But, for the sake of completeness, here are the stars for all ten batters and nine hurlers, in descending order or playing time.
Hitters
Rk | Player | PA | Age | G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | SB | CS | ||||
1 | Ender Inciarte | 447 | 23 | 118 | 418 | 54 | 116 | 18 | 2 | 4 | 27 | 25 | 53 | 19 | 3 | .278 | .318 | .359 | .677 |
2 | David Peralta | 348 | 26 | 88 | 329 | 40 | 94 | 12 | 9 | 8 | 36 | 16 | 60 | 6 | 3 | .286 | .320 | .450 | .770 |
3 | Chris Owings | 332 | 22 | 91 | 310 | 34 | 81 | 15 | 6 | 6 | 26 | 16 | 67 | 8 | 1 | .261 | .300 | .406 | .706 |
4 | Jake Lamb | 133 | 23 | 37 | 126 | 15 | 29 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 11 | 6 | 37 | 1 | 1 | .230 | .263 | .373 | .636 |
5 | Tuffy Gosewisch | 132 | 30 | 41 | 129 | 6 | 29 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 3 | 24 | 0 | 0 | .225 | .242 | .310 | .553 |
6 | Alfredo Marte | 114 | 25 | 44 | 106 | 8 | 18 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 6 | 34 | 1 | 0 | .170 | .221 | .292 | .514 |
7 | Nick Ahmed | 75 | 24 | 25 | 70 | 9 | 14 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 10 | 0 | 1 | .200 | .233 | .271 | .504 |
8 | Roger Kieschnick | 41 | 27 | 25 | 41 | 2 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 16 | 0 | 0 | .195 | .195 | .293 | .488 |
9 | Brett Jackson | 5 | 25 | 7 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .200 | .000 | .200 |
Pitchers
Rk | Player | IP | Age | W | L | H | R | ER | BB | SO | ||||||
1 | Chase Anderson | 114.1 | 26 | 9 | 7 | 117 | 56 | 51 | 40 | 105 | 4.01 | 4.22 | .268 | .330 | .450 | .779 |
2 | Vidal Nuno | 83.2 | 26 | 0 | 7 | 71 | 37 | 35 | 20 | 69 | 3.76 | 3.90 | .228 | .282 | .378 | .660 |
3 | Mike Bolsinger | 52.1 | 26 | 1 | 6 | 66 | 36 | 32 | 17 | 48 | 5.50 | 4.01 | .308 | .353 | .519 | .872 |
4 | Evan Marshall | 49.1 | 24 | 4 | 4 | 50 | 17 | 15 | 17 | 54 | 2.74 | 2.89 | .266 | .332 | .378 | .709 |
5 | Eury De La Rosa | 36.2 | 24 | 2 | 0 | 37 | 12 | 12 | 14 | 32 | 2.95 | 3.49 | .262 | .342 | .348 | .689 |
6 | Matt Stites | 33.0 | 24 | 0 | 0 | 33 | 23 | 21 | 16 | 26 | 5.73 | 5.47 | .260 | .345 | .480 | .825 |
7 | Zeke Spruill | 22.2 | 24 | 1 | 1 | 27 | 11 | 9 | 4 | 14 | 3.57 | 2.56 | .300 | .330 | .356 | .685 |
8 | Andrew Chafin | 14.0 | 24 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 3.86 | 3.63 | .265 | .379 | .306 | .685 |
9 | Bo Schultz | 8.0 | 28 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 7 | 7 | 1 | 5 | 7.88 | 3.88 | .382 | .389 | .559 | .948 |
10 | Bradin Hagens | 2.2 | 25 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3.38 | 5.01 | .400 | .538 | .500 | 1.038 |
Things we learn
- Brett Jackson and Bradin Hagens were on the 2014 Diamondbacks. Expect them to be two of those answers nobody gets in a future Saturday Sporcle.
- Tuffy Gosewisch, who turned 31 in August, was still a rookie. The only older ones in the majors this season were the Cubs' Tsuyoshi Wada [Japanese, so a special case] and Guilder Rodríguez, who spent 13 years and over a thousand games in the minors before getting a cup of coffee with the Rangers in September.
- Mind you, even Tuffy's a babe in arms beside Alan Zinter who was a 36-year-old rookie for the team in 2004. That's the same age as Jim Morris was, but Disney never made a movie about Zinter, starring Dennis Quaid.
While I don't want to destroy any element of tension here, I don't think it's too difficult to figure out that our final poll will likely consist of three hitters, two starting pitchers and a reliever. However, I am open to hearing arguments for any other rookies you think deserve to be included.