13th
November
2006
Verlander named AL Rookie of the Year
posted in 2006-07 offseason, awards, players |In what we hoped at times, expected at others, didn’t expect for some, and ultimately realized was a sure thing, Justin Verlander was named American League Rookie of the Year today.
MLB.com: In so doing, Verlander becomes the first starting pitcher to win AL Rookie of the Year since New York’s Dave Righetti in 1981. Dontrelle Willis won the NL honor in 2003.
He was also the first Tiger to win the pitchers honor since “The Bird” did so in 1976. Lou Whitaker was ROY in 1978. So, yeah, it’s been awhile, huh?
The voting wasn’t even close. Following Verlander (26 first place votes, 133 points) was Boston’s Jonathan Papelbon with 63. Francisco Liriano of Minnesota was third with 30.
Sphere It
Good for Verlander, I was really pulling for him to get it. Strange voting though, personally I would have put Liriano above Papelbon…but I will be the first to admit that I am anti New York and Boston.
Liriano and Papelbon both had very nice partial seasons. The starter’s is always more impressive and, of course, Liriano seems to be a great pitcher. But to me, Liriano just didn’t start for enough of the year so his number’s seemed better than a full season of work would have projected, to me anyway. And third place sounds fair. Ultimately, second, third, doesn’t matter. All three were awesome, I’m just glad Verlander won!
[...] As for lineup improvement, Sheffield is a great addition, but I don’t think the team is done. According to a Matthew Pouliot article found on Rotoworld.com, there are rumblings of moving Jeremy Bonderman to Texas for Mark Teixeira. I’d love to see Tex in a Tigers uniform, but I’d hate to see Bonderman leave Detroit. The likelihood of that move is unknown especially because I don’t see a date attached to the article so I’m not sure if it was done prior to the Sheffield trade or not. — To the surprise of very few, if any, Justin Verlander ran away with the Rookie of the Year award yesterday. I’m very happy for JV as he is the first American League pitcher to net the honor since 1981 when Dave Righetti did so. In other award news, I’m going to do a little back-patting. Though it’ll be the only I get right, Brandon Webb was announced as the National League Cy Young winner today. Back in early April, I selected Webb for the award. His 16-win total ties him for the lowest by a Cy Young winning starting pitcher since Rick Sutcliffe in 1984. [...]