A look at the NL Rookies of the Year if the season ended today. Interestingly all three of these guys have never played a single game in the big leagues before this season and they all got called up with the season well under way.

Ryan Braun, Milwaukee Brewers - 3B

Despite not being called up until May 24th, Brewers 3B Ryan Braun is the easy choice for NL Rookie of the Year if the season ended today. He leads all major league rookies with 23 home runs and would likely be challenging for the league lead if he had not started late. He is hitting .354 with a .684 slugging percentage. He would be leading the NL in both stats if he had enough plate appearances and if he stays healthy for the rest of the year, there's a good chance he will qualify by season's end.

When was the last time a rookie lead the league in batting average or slugging percentage? Much less both? That's not a rhetorical question, I'm really asking. Has that ever happened before? There's a chance for it to happen this year. Braun's only faults appear to be a lack of patience at the plate (21 walks to 64 strikeouts) and in the field where he has a .893 fielding percentage (18 errors thus far.)

Runners Up:

Hunter Pence, Houston Astros - CF

Pence was called up on April 28th. Pence was just put on the 15-Day DL but he's been having an excellent rookie season thus far: He is hitting .330 with a .564 slugging percentage. Pence has shown the ability to hit for extra bases but many more doubles than home runs so far (25 doubles, 12 home runs.) Similarly to Braun he has had trouble with his patience at the plate. He has only 11 walks to 60 strikeouts.

Tim Lincecum, San Francisco Giants - Starting Pitcher

Lincecum was also called up late (although not quite as late as Braun.) He's had a somewhat up and down season but he has shown flashes of absolute brilliance. For example in the month of July Lincecum went 4-0 with a 1.62 ERA. But in June he was 0-2 with a 7.71 ERA. His overall numbers put him at 6-3 with a 3.88 ERA. Very strong numbers for a rookie starting pitcher. But it's his strikeout power that is most impressive. Despite his late start he is 12th in the NL in strikeouts. He has the most strikeouts per 9 innings of any NL pitcher with at least 100 innings pitched at 9.78 K/9.

Labels: Hunter Pence, Ryan Braun, Tim Lincecum