C Conner Keely
Keely is just a flat-out stud. His BA dropped down to a "measly" .299 by the end of the year, but he turned in a .400 OBP and an OPS of .863 for New Orleans. That is to go with 15 HR and 22 SBs. He may, indeed, already one of if not the best backstop in MBBA. Taking into account his position, he will be on everyone's shortlist for RoY candidates.
3B Larry Sunderland
Sunderland was a very bright spot in an otherwise dreary season for my Bulls. His BA dipped to .295 (from .316), but he logged an OBP of .361 and an OPS of .836. He doesn't possess the speed that Keely does, having only 1 SB, but his power stroke is solid as he wound up with 25 HRs and 102 RBI in his rookie campaign. We'll see how much voters value that magic threshold of 25/100. It should be noted, in all fairness, that Sunderland swept every RotM award over the last half of the season except for the last one.
P Robert Yoo
I said in my first article that Yoo had to get more innings under his belt (he only had just over 19 at the time). Serving mostly in a relief role, he ended up compiling just over 72 IP. His ERA of 2.36 and 1.09 WHIP are stellar, but like any reliever not tagged with the "closer" moniker he could struggle to get voters' attention.
New faces:
1B Reginald Harnois
http://baseballretrospective.com/MBBA/O ... r_2490.png
The player who won the one RotM award the escaped Sunderland? Harnois. It's a good thing, too, because he is a solid, young first baseman. Turning in a .273 BA, a .491 SLG, with 21 HRs and 70 RBIs is impressive for a rookie, but I think his OBA of .325 (leading to an OPS of .816) might sink his campaign. He also only rates a 10.6 VORP.
So, overall, it's hard to see how this doesn't come down to Keely and Sunderland.
