Taravez - Rookie of the Year??

Hell yes he is. He'll win unless he has a terrible last half of the season.

 

He's Rickey Henderson re-born. Beltran phewy.

 

I hope so...mlb.com and espn.com dont' really have any kind of stat sort function that just applies to rookies, so I don't know which rookies are doing great or not.

 

Do they have Rookies of the Month in MLB? If so, who has been winning those?

 

For the LAST time, it's spelled T-A-V-E-R-A-S.

Get it right fools.

 

A guy named Church won one month in the NL and a guy named Atkins won the other. Haven't announced ROM for June yet, it seems.

Church seems to have more solid numbers than Willy, overall, though not nearly as many ABs.

 

Taveras is a terrific speedster, but he needs to improve on other facets of the game. He might be ROY worthy, but he is only an average player right now. His defense is a little above average due to his speed, but his judgement on fly balls are questionable. His offensive production is a little weak even though he bats .290 and has 22 SBs. OPS is basically the number that I look at. When you have a .290 avg, your OPS should be much higher than .700. This low OPS is due to his lack of patience at the plate (13 BBs, 50 SOs) and lack of power (don't expect him to be a slugger ) If he can just draw a little bit more walks and gain a little more muscle, he could be the ideal player at center field for the next 10 years.

 

Clint Barmes would've won easily for the Rockies, but he's hurt and done for.

A couple pitchers might threaten, if they go on a hot streak. Brad Halsey(Hook 'em Horns!) for Arizona and Colorado's lanky, liquid southpaw Jeff Francis. Both have ERAs above 4, and so-so win totals. If they can run off a few good starts in a row - especially Francis - they'll move themselves into consideration. But you know how rookie pitchers are, devilishly inconsistent.

Taveras has to be considered the prohibitive favorite, especially if the Astros continue this good run of play. His main competition is Rickie Weeks, Milwaukee's stud middle infielder. Weeks will get the gaudy home run numbers for a rookie middle infielder, but he's going to slump when the league figures him out a bit, and he's just too far behind Taveras now. Barring injury, Taveras will certainly be a worthy candidate for RoY.

Some NL Rookie hitting stats.

 

That's the reason I came into this thread. I don't want Willy to be associated with Leatherface.


I love that image.

 

Taveras has the inside track, barring injury.

As was said, Barmes would have won if he didn't get hurt.

Church is a solid player, but will also not have played everyday by the end of the season...and I think Willy is a little better anyway overall.

Taveras definitely needs improvements, but there's also no one out there this year showing off the power (like a David Wright/Justin Morneau kinda thing)...not that I need that, but power usually seems to trump guys that do the little things (get on base, steal bases, etc.) in a semi-small competition like this

 

In ESPN Magazine's latest issue, they list Ryan Church as their first half ROY. If the Nats fade and the Stros surge, Willy could get some play.

 

Willy should be getting overall considerartion because of the little things he does to get on base. I konw he leads the league in infield hits and he is scoring runs really well. He basicaly doing everything well in my eyes even though his numbers are not like through the roof or anything

 

Church is about to move to CF and split time there with Byrd, so he will have less ABs for the rest of the season. Wilkerson is too winded to play CF and will move to LF.

 

The other night, Peter Gammons said that Willy is on pace to win rookie of the year in the national league now that Barmes is hurt.

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=insidedishastrostaverasc&prov=tsn&type=lgns

Inside Dish: Astros' Taveras continues to impress

By Ken Rosenthal - SportingNews


Astros CF Willy Taveras, a Rookie of the Year candidate, began the week leading the majors with 41 infield hits, and club officials expect him to improve in the field. Taveras' defense was better at Class AA last season than it has been in the majors. He occasionally takes poor routes and sometimes overruns flyballs. . . .

 

i've heard Willy say that the bigger parks have affected him in the field...seeing the ball off the bat in the bigger parks.

 

I play OF a lot in rec leagues or whatever...when that started happening to me, I realized I needed my vision corrected. Not by a lot--I can still pass my driving eye test and all. But just enough that it affects me seeing the ball off the bat out there once in a while, esp. in certain types of weather or on certain fields

 

Actually I will put some blame of those commentators and TV/Radio analysts who keep pronouncing his name as T-A-V-A-R-E-"Z".

It should be pronounced TAA-VAIR-RAS.



Ps. The ROTY honors is now his to lose. I expect him to have an even better second half of the season and finish with:

.300+ BA
90+ Runs
40+ stolen bases
30+ bunt hits
350+ OB%


And a bunch of doubles, a healthy sprinkle of HRs, tripples, out-field assists, gold glove defense with relative consistency.

 

Taravez would be awesome in an outfield with Brekman and Gibbio.

Best case scenario, he winds up as another Juan Pierre. Anything more, I think, is pie in the sky.