Monday, April 6, 2009

2009 N.L. Rookie of the Year Update

During my original post covering the candidates for the National League Rookie of the Year Award, I left off Jason Motte, the assumed closer for the Cardinals this year. Motte essentially has just one pitch - a high 90's fastball - but last year he was able to strikeout 14.8 batters per 9 innings pitched at AAA, and has been working on a slider and change-up recently.

Motte will be 27 years old this season, and projects to have a K/9 rate around 8.5 and a BB/9 of 3.5 with a 40% ground ball rate. Depending on how many save situations he sees, he might pick up anywhere from 25 to 40 saves, which would certainly put him in the running for Rookie of the Year.

With a weak rookie field in the N.L., I've got Kenshin Kawakami as my #1 pick right now, and Jason Motte as a very close #2.

1 comment:

H. Michael Martin said...

Now that we are 6ish weeks into the season, what are your thoughts about NL ROY?