Atlanta Braves rookie starting pitcher Tommy Hanson missed his chance to win the National League Rookie of the Year Award. Hanson was beaten out by Florida's Chris Coghlan, who won the ward, and Philadelphia's J.A. Happ, who finished second.
The highly touted Hanson lived up to everyone's expectations once he reached the majors in 2009. He went 11-and-4 with a 2.89 ERA in 21 starts -- but it was not enough of a dominating performance to convince voters he deserved the award over the other contenders. His chances were likely hurt by only pitching part of the year in the major leagues.
Interesting that Hanson won the SBN voting a week ago, conducted by bloggers. It seems as though the writers went with raw stats over any other factor in determining the awards once again this year.
0 recs | 57 comments
bullshit
Scott Coleman - November 16, 2009 via mobile
hahah yea really.
I demand a re-count!!
bravesguy311 - November 16, 2009
Re-count? Are you trying to be disappointed twice?
cbwilk - November 16, 2009
………no
bravesguy311 - November 16, 2009
This is the second time,actually. i vaguely remember an incident involving Hideo Nomo?
bravesguy311 - November 16, 2009
At least Coghlan was actually a rookie. That was just BS.
cbwilk - November 16, 2009
my thoughts exacty
Zeus12888 - November 16, 2009
Happ over Hanson…really?
Hcgadawgs - November 16, 2009
^^This
All because he was on the Phils… Look at the stats Hanson had him in more categories in less innings.
cmdpsu15 - November 18, 2009
Garbage
Hanson is still the ROTY of my heart
Sid Bream's Moustache - November 16, 2009
Very surprising that a Florida player won. Gotta credit the voters for that at least.
10-4 - November 16, 2009
Coghlan isnt a bad choice. Be honest. .321/.390/.460 in 565 PA is pretty damned impressive. This was gonna be a tough choice regardless of who won.
Coghlan, Hanson, Happ, McCutchen, Garrett Jones, Casey McGehee….ALL of them had very fine years and could have won it. This isn’t necessarily indicative of who has the higher ceiling, but of who had the best rookie year. Hanson and Cutch especially are gonna be fun to watch for the next 5-6 years. (Then they sign with the Yankees, of course.)
!Vive la Francoeur! - November 16, 2009
Moral of the story: when you have a great young player, just play him instead of keeping him at AAA to save a few bucks and costing your team victories by having some washed out veteran or journeyman play instead. It’ll be interesting to see if the Braves make the same mistake with Heyward.
redwards95 - November 16, 2009
How does that moral derive from this story? This is just some personal award that has nothing to do with how the team performed. If you want to argue that point, go ahead, but don’t mix it in with something that has nothing to do with it.
cbwilk - November 16, 2009
plus winning the ROY likely means the team will pay a bit more down the line
Salty - November 17, 2009
you’ll never know if those extra couple months of AAA this year was actually the reason he did so good in the bigs…there no way to predict he would have been just effective if he started out in the bigs
Hcgadawgs - November 16, 2009
ha i beat u to it and wrote me
FTW
Swo12bv - November 16, 2009
we’ve gone down this road before… and i think we all agreed no one knows whether Hanson would have pitched as well early in the year or if his time in AAA helped turn him into the pitcher he was in the second half of the season.
all we know if that by holding him in the minors the Braves saved some coin and Hanson was absolutely dominant for his time and the strategy worked beautifully… we have no evidence to suggest Hanson would be where he is now had he started in the majors to start the year (that doesnt mean it wouldnt have happened, just that we have no eivdence that suggests that)
Swo12bv - November 16, 2009
Happ pitched in 07’, 08’, and 09’…also has a world series ring…thats not a rookie IMO
Hcgadawgs - November 16, 2009
Sadly, he is by the textbook definition
Though I agree, it’s utter horseshit. His numbers were all the same or worse than Hanson’s. He has three more strikeouts, but it took him a lot longer to get that number. Hanson’s K/9 is much better, so really you have to think it was lack of playing time this year that cost Hanson, not his actual numbers.
Happ can go to hell.
J-Freak - November 16, 2009
Happ but than Hanson No Freaking Way.
Man this just goes to show you that NL/AL Rookie of the year awards are nothing but a popularity contest.
Coghlan deserves to be ranked where he is at but to not have Hanson finish second in voting is an outrage.
I agree with you all with the recount.
Man what a joke this voting system for MLB baseball has become.
Hanson is way but than Happ will ever be on his best day, I am still in shock.
Holty_Panthers_Fan - November 16, 2009
This is a bunch of bullsh*t.
Why the hell do the writers hate the Braves so much? Happ over Hanson? Happ’s rookie year was ‘07. I don’t care what the definition of “rookie” is.
And I bet Jurrjens doesn’t even finish in the top 5 in Cy Young voting, because these awards have become a popularity contest.
GouldisGold - November 16, 2009
Coghlan I can understand
But looking at the voting, Happ was WAY above Hanson, and that makes zero sense. Even if you get caught up in crap like wins and Ks, Hanson was right there with Happ in those (obviously poor) measures, while posting better K/9, FIP, tRA, even ERA and WHIP, for anyone who looked at those.
It’s not so much Hanson missing out, it’s the fact that Happ came close to winning it, which would have been embarassing.
Bronn - November 16, 2009
Just goes to show
how stupid voters are. I realize that some award results will always be controversial, but come on.
Coghlan-105 pts.
Happ-94 pts.
Hanson-37 pts.
It should at least be close.
GouldisGold - November 16, 2009
Like we said last week,...
there were 6 legit contenders. None really stood out above the others, although we are all clearly partial to the Okie.
Mr. Sanchez - November 16, 2009
Oh look, the "everyone hates the braves" talk has already begun
esadb - November 16, 2009 via mobile
Why? Seriously, its not like Happ was any better than Hanson. You would think that Hanson’s top prospect status and living up to that would help him, guess not.
blitzerlover - November 16, 2009
I cannot argue with Coghlan getting this thing – the dude was seriously impressive. However, the fact that Happ beat out Hanson, and not just beat him out, but nearly TRIPLED him in voting points is just ridiculous!
Hanson was better or at least, equal to Happ in every facet of pitching. This is just stupid.
justincredubil02 - November 16, 2009
This
blitzerlover - November 16, 2009
IT SHOULD AT LEAST BE CLOSE!
GouldisGold - November 16, 2009
Think about one thing. In five years who’s going to be the all star,the above average player, and the nobody.
Yet again the press is retarded.
GoBravesNY - November 16, 2009 via mobile
If i had to guess i would say Hanson the All Star, Coughlin the above average player and Happ the nobody(im just not completely sold on this guy, maybe im completely wrong about him but im just not sold on him).
rockybull - November 17, 2009
Coghlan*
rockybull - November 17, 2009
bullsh*t
(censored for your protection)
Chief Noc-A-Homa - November 16, 2009
lol
Thank heavens you censored that!
I can’t for the life of me figure out what the real word should be!
dragonhawk26 - November 16, 2009
Ask me when you're older.
GouldisGold - November 16, 2009
Heyward thought it wouldn’t be fair for ATL to win it back to back years so he convinces Tommy to concede the race
GoBravesNY - November 16, 2009 via mobile
if you think about it
we could’ve possibly won RotY 4 years in a row:
Jurrjens
Hanson
Heyward
Freeman
Not many teams could say that
Scott Coleman - November 16, 2009
the Dodgers?
Mr. Sanchez - November 16, 2009
I'll say it again and again
If Hanson was pitching for a big market team like say Chicago or New York, I think it’s pretty safe to say that Hanson then would be this year’s ROTY.
disappointing indeed
SmithnCompany - November 16, 2009
Atlanta is a bigger market than the Marlins have.
blitzerlover - November 16, 2009
True,
but it’s not like the Mets or Dodgers or Cubs had any legitamate ROY candidates.
GouldisGold - November 16, 2009
Andrew McCutchen belonged in this conversation himself. He could be one the premier center fielders in the game in short order.
Coghlan and Happ can have one-two in for this award because the two guys behind them, Hanson and McCutchen, will have plenty of hardware by the time their careers are done.
jeg - November 16, 2009
I love Cutch man. I’ve been waiting to see what he could do in the bigs since I first saw him play and met him four years ago. And he didn’t disappoint.
cbwilk - November 17, 2009
The Pirates have to start drafting and developing starting pitching or McCutchen and Alvarez are just the next in line to be traded.
jeg - November 17, 2009
I’m really curious to see what Alvarez does. I doubt he’s able to stay at 3B because of his body, but he can really mash. I don’t like him as much as Cutch, but that’s probably just cause I like Cutch better as a person.
cbwilk - November 17, 2009
Im sure he could play 1B if they want him there.
rockybull - November 17, 2009
Oh yeah, absolutely, but he’s more valuable at 3B because slugging 3Bmen are more rare.
cbwilk - November 17, 2009
Eh, whatever
these are the same guys who voted Edinson Volquez for 4th place last year and he wasn’t even a rookie
GoBravesNY - November 16, 2009
This
royhobbs - November 16, 2009
Also
I can’t take the BBWAA seriously after the way Cal Ripken, Jr. was snubbed by one writer out in Detroit because he felt that him becoming unanimous would hurt the HOF’s credibility, and no other reason. Greg Maddux is f-ed already.
royhobbs - November 16, 2009
Yeah
That was definately some BS. Some baseball writers need to get over themselves.
Scott Coleman - November 17, 2009 via mobile
There are some SBN bloggers who routinely shovel BS.
Salty - November 17, 2009
Hanson wasn't even the worst snub, despite being a snub
Giving Garrett Jones two votes is a joke. Giving Fowler that many votes was a joke. The top four (as they should have been) were Hanson, Happ, Coghlan, and Jones. I’ll throw in McCutchen if you buy fangraphs defensive evaluations. All of them should have been close. I agree that Coghlan was a legitimate winner, but we know he won because of the shiny batting average which wasn’t the reason he was a contender compared to his other stats.
cavebird - November 16, 2009
McGehee over Jones.
Salty - November 17, 2009
The upside to this...
is that maybe Tommy says….I’ll show them next year!!
mikie baseball - November 17, 2009
Right or wrong what helped Coghlan and Happ to finish ahead of Hanson is they started from the beginning of the season. That and them puttin up good numbers helped them finish above Hanson. I dont think it should have been that big of a blowout like that between Happ and Hanson but it is what it is…
rockybull - November 17, 2009
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