Somebody Get Some Pants on that Kid...

These are the precocious young talents, the tricycle driving, soother sucking, block building babies of the league. And Baseball’s Father Stork must have been busy this offseason, because this is a phenomenally gifted, incredibly deep crop of rookies. I guarantee that when you look back at this team in five years you’ll be blown away, at that point we might be able to anoint it the best ever. But that’s for another day, today we can just marvel against how good they were in 2006. There isn’t a position in which I didn’t have a choice to make (although sometimes it was easy) and the particularly remarkable group were the relievers. Normally for the rookie team I only pick a right handed starter, maybe a lefty, and a closer, but this year had so many good pitchers I was able to pick an entire pitching staff. The starters were the ones who got the big press, but guys like Cla Meredith and Joel Zumaya made my big league team, and another couple of guys were very close. So without any further adieu, lets start naming these baby greats. Time spent in the majors matters, even though Delmon Young and Adam Lind were awesome, they were late season call ups and really had no influence on the outcome of the season, as a rough rule of thumb, I was looking for 250 plate appearances for hitters and more than 50 innings for pitchers. Also, like the Big Club, I value long term potential, but I do place a greater emphasis on what guys did in 2006 than with the Big team (and obviously salary isn’t a consideration, since generally these guys are all paid the minimum). Finally I didn’t include the Mariners Kenji Johjima, while he is technically a rookie (and therefore should be included in ROY discussions), he’s a veteran of professional baseball, is older than me and thus doesn’t really fit in with what this team is about.

C – Russell Martin, Dodgers: Naturally the Dodgers catcher gets bonus points for being Canadian (although not that many, because he’s from Ontario…), but he didn’t really need them. An early season surprise for the Dodgers, Martin finished fourth among N.L. catchers with 65 RBI and first among rookie backstops with a 20.1 VORP.

1B – Prince Fielder, Brewers: The reason the Brewers were willing to trade away Lyle Overbay was because they absolutely needed to get the son of Cecil into the lineup. It’s certainly not a decision they’ve regretted. The LARGE kid, led rookies with 28 home runs and rookie first basemen with 17 win shares.

2B – Dan Uggla, Marlins: Howie Kendrick, Josh Barfield, and probably Ian Kinsler will all be better, but none of them had seasons anywhere near as strong as Uggla. Despite a terrible September, the 26 year was third among rookies with 22 win shares and he lead rookie second basemen with a VORP of 40.0 (fifth in the Majors among all 2 baggers).

SS – Hanley Ramirez, Marlins: A top five fielder among NL shortstops, and the far away leader in VORP among rookies with 55. Colorado’s Troy Tulowitzki and Arizona’s Stephen Drew may be great one day, but Ramirez already is.

3B – Ryan Zimmerman, Nationals: Leads all rookies with 110 RBI, plays gold glove caliber defense and has shown a proclivity to knock in runs during important moments in the game (what the old folks like to call… clutch). 25 win shares and a VORP of 28, -he’d have been a lock for ROY in almost any other year

RF – Nick Markakis, Orioles: It took him two months to get acclimated to the Majors and he’s had a slight swoon in September, but in the middle months he was awesome, highlighted by an August in which he hit 10 homers, with 26 RBI and an OPS of 1.140. He’s going to be a beast.

CF – Luke Scott, Astros: When the Preston Wilson experiment in Houston crashed horribly to the ground (did you see that, yup that’s right, sweet little NASA reference right there), the Astros lucked out when Scott emerged. His VORP, 30.8, is third among rookies and his OPS is a very robust 1.086. No, he wont be this good next year, but the Astros wouldn’t have made that almost playoff run without him.

LF – Josh Willingham, Dodgers: Andre Eithier was the flashier player and he might ultimately be the better one, but Willingham was a consistent producer for the Marlins, hitting 26 home runs and batting a respectable .277, with a 28.5 VORP.

Starters:

Francisco Liriano, Twins – Obviously he was only a four month player, but those four months allowed him to lead rookie pitchers with a 50.7 VORP. Lets all hope that he gets healthy, because he’s a joy to watch.

Justin Verlander, Tigers – Detroit was this season’s biggest surprise and Verlander front lines that. His VORP is 46 and he has 15 win shares. Baring injury, he’s going to be a Cy Young contender for most of the next decade.

Jered Weaver, Angels – Want to talk about a phenomenon, try going 9-0 to start your big league career. Scouts attribute his success to phenomenal command, but believe his stuff grades out more as a second starter. Great, I’d love the Jays to have him and his 11-2, 2.56 stat line.

Matt Cain, Giants – His ERA, 4.15, doesn’t look impressive, but he’s a big time pitcher with ace quality stuff. His 12 win shares trails only the three guys above him.

Scott Olsen, Marlins – Teammate Josh Johnson has better numbers and teammate Annibal Sanchez has the no-hitter, but Olsen’s a big lefty, who’s going to be the best of the Marlins’ young hurlers. So, I’m bestowing him with the fifth spot.

Relievers:

Joel Zumaya, Tigers – Perhaps the most sensational pitcher of the season. Phenomenal stuff, a great reliever. Might be shifted back to starting, but more likely the Tigers future closer.

Cla Meredith, Padres – Both Zumaya and Meredith made my big Boys team. They were awesome. Meredith made one bad pitch (which Albert Pujols pounded over the fence in a desperate attempt to salvage St. Louis’ season) all season. His ERA wont always be 1.07, but he’s no fluke.

Adam Wainwright, Cardinals – Another future starter (probably next year), Wainwright momentarily made Tony LaRussa forget that he hates rookies, by having an impressive 8.49 K/BB and 1.15 WHIP. Make pitches and keep hitters off the bases and Tony will call your name 60 times as well.

Jonathan Broxton, Dodgers - At some point you begin to wonder what more you can write about relievers, but if you haven’t seen Broxton pitch this year --- and lets face it, you probably haven’t --- then you’re missing out. The kid’s a gamer, he’s tough, resilient, and talented.

Jake Woods, Angels – The Mariners and I actually have something in common, besides of course spending most of our year wearing a raincoat: like them, I’m glad that Woods took an extra year to develop into a great middle reliever. For the Mariners it meant they were able to easily acquire him from the Angels and for me it meant that in my fantasy league, my Buddy Big Sexy used a mid season trade on a reliever who pitched exactly one inning, recording no outs and giving up two runs; ahh, it always feels good watching his players stink.

Ramon Ramirez, Rockies – Humidor or no humidor, any rookie pitcher who can throw 44 innings with a 4.5 ERA in the Rocky Mountain air has a spot on my team (his 1.59 ERA on the road doesn’t hurt either).

Jonathan Papelbon (closer), Red Sox – What, you thought I was going to pick somebody else to close for the kiddies? H*!! No. Paps was the man. Plain and simple. 35 saves with a 0.92 ERA, 75 strike outs in 68 innings, only 13 walks. Wow. Too bad he got hurt near the end and their season went to a word which sounds suspiciously like “hit”, or he might have led the AL in saves. Oh well, there’s always next year…