For a period early in the season, St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Colby Rasmus was called the frontrunner for the National League Rookie of the Year award by some watchers. An uneven campaign followed, during which he suffered through 20-30 pounds of weight loss due to a hiatal hernia and dealt with an ongoing foot problem.
As a result, Rasmus, 22, fell out of contention to the point he received just a single third-place vote in the balloting announced Monday. Eleven players received votes as Rasmus tied three other rookies for eighth place. The winner was Florida’s Chris Coghlan.
Baseball writers representing each of the 32 MLB clubs received three votes: one first place (worth five points), one second place (worth three points) and one third place (worth one point).
Rookie | Club | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Points |
Chris Coghlan | Florida Marlins | 17 | 6 | 2 | 105 |
J.A. Happ | Philadelphia Phillies | 10 | 11 | 11 | 94 |
Tommy Hanson | Atlanta Braves | 2 | 6 | 9 | 37 |
Andrew McCutchen | Pittsburgh Pirates | 2 | 5 | 25 | |
Casey McGehee | Milwaukee Brewers | 1 | 3 | 4 | 18 |
Randy Wells | Chicago Cubs | 1 | 3 | ||
Garrett Jones | Pittsburgh Pirates | 2 | 2 | ||
Everth Cabrera | San Diego Padres | 1 | 1 | ||
Dexter Fowler | Colorado Rockies | 1 | 1 | ||
Gerardo Parra | Arizona Diamondbacks | 1 | 1 | ||
Colby Rasmus | St. Louis Cardinals | 1 | 1 |
Here is a quick look at the offensive stats of the eight position players receiving votes. Leaders are in bold. Rasmus played in the most games of the eight, 147, and was among the youngest at 22 years of age. The Cardinals outfielder posted the lowest batting average (.251) and on-base percentage (.307) among the eight vote-getters.
Rasmus was one of ten rookies to appear with the 2009 Cardinals.
Age | G | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | CS | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | OPS+ | |
Coghlan | 24 | 128 | 565 | 504 | 84 | 162 | 31 | 6 | 9 | 47 | 8 | 5 | 53 | 77 | 0.321 | 0.390 | 0.460 | 0.850 | 122 |
McCutchen | 22 | 108 | 493 | 433 | 74 | 124 | 26 | 9 | 12 | 54 | 22 | 5 | 54 | 83 | 0.286 | 0.365 | 0.471 | 0.836 | 122 |
McGehee | 26 | 116 | 394 | 355 | 58 | 107 | 20 | 1 | 16 | 66 | 0 | 2 | 34 | 67 | 0.301 | 0.360 | 0.499 | 0.859 | 127 |
Jones | 28 | 82 | 358 | 314 | 45 | 92 | 21 | 1 | 21 | 44 | 10 | 2 | 40 | 76 | 0.293 | 0.372 | 0.567 | 0.938 | 147 |
Cabrera | 22 | 103 | 438 | 377 | 59 | 96 | 18 | 8 | 2 | 31 | 25 | 8 | 46 | 88 | 0.255 | 0.342 | 0.361 | 0.703 | 98 |
Fowler | 23 | 135 | 518 | 433 | 73 | 115 | 29 | 10 | 4 | 34 | 27 | 10 | 67 | 116 | 0.266 | 0.363 | 0.406 | 0.770 | 96 |
Parra | 22 | 120 | 491 | 455 | 59 | 132 | 21 | 8 | 5 | 60 | 5 | 7 | 25 | 89 | 0.290 | 0.324 | 0.404 | 0.729 | 85 |
Rasmus | 22 | 147 | 520 | 474 | 72 | 119 | 22 | 2 | 16 | 52 | 3 | 1 | 36 | 95 | 0.251 | 0.307 | 0.407 | 0.714 | 88 |