5 Biggest Impact Rookies

[Theoldmole]

Here's my list.

Jackie Robinson, obviously

Willie Mays, 1951 - key figure in Giants' miracle comeback.

Fred Lynn, 1975 - MVP as well as ROY, led Red Sox to pennant and a narrow loss in one of the greatest WS ever played.

Mark Fidrych, 1976 - brought a new level of excitement to baseball in Detroit

Fernando Valenzuela, 1981 - ROY and Cy Young and high up in MVP voting -- led Dodgers to WS victory and brought positive energy into strike season

[Guest Edgy DC]

It seems like you're talking cultural impact as well as team impact.

I'll toss in:
Pete Alexander (1911)
Dwight Gooden (1984)
Mark McGwire (1987)
Hideo Nomo (1995)
Ichiro Suzuki (2001)

[metirish]

I'll go with ..

Kerry Wood - 1998 - RoY

Ryan Howard - 2005 - RoY

Mike Piazza - 1993 - RoY

Tom Seaver - 1967 - RoY

Frank Robinson - 1956 - RoY

[nymr83]

Pujols.

[Guest iramets]

Little biased towards the contemporary and the Metly, aren't we?


Might I suggest

Dick Allen, 1964

Stan Musial, 1942

Joe Dimaggio, 1936

Teddy Ballgame, 1939

Dizzy Dean, 1932

for impactful rookie seasons?

[metirish]

iramets wrote: Little biased towards the contemporary and the Metly, aren't we?

And you're biasd towards your generation ,I'm not sure what the purpose of this is anyway,hard to be wrong with whoever you pick.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Holy shit! Ira saw Dizzy Dean's rookie year!?

[Guest iramets]

Surprised the hell out of me, too. The 1930s went by like a blur. I was so busy, what with working for the WPA, catching the first few Joe Louis fights, and protesting FDR packing the Supreme Court, I didn't follow baseball all that closely.

I mean, come on, guys--if you want to write about "great rookie years since the 1980s" or "with the Mets" or "of players you've actually seen," that's fine. But that's not what the Old Mole is proposing for a topic.

[Benjamin Grimm]

iramets wrote: But that's not what the Old Mole is proposing for a topic.

That's what I was thinking too.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Nomo has to be on the list -- ended a 30-year "cold war" between MLB and NPB and cracked open the global baseball world. He & Ichiro ought to be considered real pioneers.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

TheOldMole wrote: Fernando Valenzuela, 1981 - ROY and Cy Young and high up in MVP voting -- led Dodgers to WS victory and brought positive energy into strike season

I'll happily give him the ROY, but that's Tom Seaver's fourth Cy Young Fernando has hanging on his wall.

I'd happily argue that Seaver was cheated out of at least two Cy Young Awards.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Certainly he was in 1971.

I don't really remember Seaver's 1981, and I don't particularly care that he didn't win that year, since he was no longer one of my guys.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I'll happily argue that the Fernandomania of the first half of 1981 was still clouding minds at the end of the second season. That's not only Seaver's Cy Young on his mantle (care for justice's sake, if not for Metly sake), it's also Tim Raines' Rookie of the Year.

Basically, he shouldn't have won jack.

OK, maybe a Silver Slugger.

[G-Fafif]

Tim Raines had the rookie season I had hoped to see from Mookie Wilson.

Which I guess made him Mookie of the Year.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Rodney McRae, now there's an impact rookie.

Hey, cut a brother some slack. I went with Alexander the Great.

I went with McGwire because he forshadowed the tipping of the game back away from the very impressive balance it had had for 15 years.

I went with Nomo and Suzuki because they opened up the door to a whole new world population of potential big leaguers.

I went with Gooden, because, well, he's a Met and I saw him play.

[G-Fafif]

Rookie of the Year voting is not necessarily an indicator of things to come. Not that it's supposed to be anything but an indicator of who was the top rookie in a given year, but it's interesting to see who beat who when and how much you would have lost investing in futures if you based your bets purely on the voting.

1994 A.L. Voting
1) Bob Hamelin
2) Manny Ramirez

1992 A.L. Voting
1) Pat Listach
2) Kenny Lofton

1996 N.L. Voting
1) Todd Hollandsworth
2) Edgar Renteria

1995 A.L. Voting
1) Marty Cordova
2) Garret Anderson
3) Andy Pettitte
4) Troy Percival
5) Shawn Green
T6) Ray Durham
T6) Julian Tavarez

1965 N.L. Voting
1) Jim Lefebvre
2) Joe Morgan

1989 A.L. Voting
1) Gregg Olson
2) Tom Gordon
3) Ken Griffey

And in 1984, Kirby Puckett (3rd) and Roger Clemens (6th) looked up to Alvin Davis.

[DocTee]

Boy, how embarassing for me. My list was:

Hamelin--Alvin Davis--Listach--Cordova and Jackie Robinson.

[Theoldmole]

Re the question about what the purpose of this is -- I thought it would be fun. You know...talking baseball?

[metirish]

TheOldMole wrote: Re the question about what the purpose of this is -- I thought it would be fun. You know...talking baseball?

[Theoldmole]

On ROY's to not the best player -- how about Gil McDougald over Mickey Mantle?

[Guest cleonjones11]

Joe Charbonneau...Don Bosch...Sal Bando...Stan Bahnsen...Mike Vail

[stevejrogers]

="cleonjones11"]Joe Charbonneau...Don Bosch...Sal Bando...Stan Bahnsen...Mike Vail

Captain of the Swinging A's, very soild big league careers, why are you lumping him with these other One Hit Wonders (Or in Bosch's case a never was)? Ditto with The Bahnsen Burner whose career lasted into the early 80s as well. I mean a very pedestrian career, but comparing him and Bando to Charbonneau? Bosch?

[DocTee]

But at least Charbonneau had a record made about him.

[stevejrogers]

G-Fafif wrote: Rookie of the Year voting is not necessarily an indicator of things to come. Not that it's supposed to be anything but an indicator of who was the top rookie in a given year, but it's interesting to see who beat who when and how much you would have lost investing in futures if you based your bets purely on the voting.

To further illustrate:
Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, Frank Robinson, Luis Aparicio, Orlando Cepeda, Willie McCovey, Billy Williams, Tom Seaver, Rod Carew, Johnny Bench, Carlton Fisk, Eddie Murray, Cal Ripken.

13 out of 110 winners are currently (or in Ripken's case about to be) inshrineed into Cooperstown.

Granted the rest does include guys who are on the outside looking in and could be through various means ala Pete Rose, Thurman Munson, Dick Allen, and Mark McGwire and of course guys who now have "If They Retired Today They Are Getting In" labels like Mike Piazza, and Derek Jeter and you can throw the recently retired Jeff Bagwell into that category.

To say nothing on the fact that many of those ROYs actually did have or are currently having some fine big league careers, but the current 12 percent of winners being actual, real future HOFers is quite telling.

[DocTee]

Steve et al:

What's the percentage of say-- Cy Young Winners, or MVPs or Rolaids Foreman or any other award winner in the Hall? My guess is that ROY is lower, but not substantially so.

[nymr83]

DocTee wrote: Steve et al: What's the percentage of say-- Cy Young Winners, or MVPs or Rolaids Foreman or any other award winner in the Hall? My guess is that ROY is lower, but not substantially so.

thats an interesting question... i'll get to work on that and edit this post when i have answers.

-MVP-
(since 1911 there have been winners, baseball reference lists no NL winner for 1923, 1924 and no AL winner for 1929, there was a tie in the NL in 1979 giving us 188 winners total)
-CY YOUNG-
(has existed since 1956, split into 2 awards in 1967, 1969 AL was a tie giving us 90 winners total)
-ROY-
(has existed since 1947, two awards since 1949, 2 ties gives us 118 total winners)


edit- still working
edit2- yeah i doubt this is getting done tonight or that anyone cares enough for me to finish it. suffice to say winning hte Rolaids relief award has meant nothing in making the HOF so far, winning the MVP has given you a better chance than winning the CY Young, and both those awards have higher chances than a mere ROY.

[Frayed Knot]

Tough categories to compare since multiple winners of CY or MVP are, almost by definition, likely to be HoF material -- but you can only be ROY once.

[DocTee]

True indeed-- perhaps single winners only?? and NYMR I didn't mean to throw more work at you or anyone--just thinking out loud. Would be curious, though.

[nymr83]

DocTee wrote: True indeed-- perhaps single winners only?? and NYMR I didn't mean to throw more work at you or anyone--just thinking out loud. Would be curious, though.

its fine, i need shit to do during the game anyway, i'm working now and will edit the post above later, but it looks like alot to do so it might be tommorow

i can tell you so far that the last ROYs inducted in the NL were Tom Seaver (1967 ROY) and Johnny Bench (1968). though Bagwell, Piazza, and perhaps Pujols will be too.
in the AL it's 1982's Ripken, and i don't think anyone was a rookie more recently than that would be eligible yet anyway unless they had a brief career.