Danny Espinosa's second-half slump may have killed his chances of winning National League Rookie of the Year, but it wasn't enough to keep him off one of baseball's more-prestigious honorary lists.Espinosa was named second baseman on this year's Topps Major League Rookie All-Star Team, the trading card company announced today. He was the lone member of the Nationals to make the list, which honors one rookie at each of the eight positions in the field, plus one starting pitcher and one reliever.
Though his season-ending numbers -- a .236 average, 21 homers, 66 RBI, .323 on-base percentage in 158 games -- were good enough only for a sixth-place finish in the Rookie of the Year vote, Espinosa did outrank all other rookie second basemen in the majors according to Topps. His closest competitor likely was Seattle's Dustin Ackley, who hit .273 with six homers, 36 RBI and a .348 on-base percentage in only 90 games.
Espinosa is the fourth Nationals player to be honored by Topps, which began naming its Rookie All-Star Team in 1959. The others: Ryan Zimmerman (2006), John Lannan (2008) and Stephen Strasburg (2010).
Though teammate Wilson Ramos finished ahead of Espinosa in Rookie of the Year voting, ranking fourth, he lost out to Toronto catcher J.P. Arencibia on this vote.
Here's this year's full team...
C J.P. Arencibia, Blue Jays
1B Mark Trumbo, Angels
2B Danny Espinosa, Nationals
SS Dee Gordon, Dodgers
3B Brett Lawrie, Blue Jays
OF Desmond Jennings, Rays
OF Josh Reddick, Red Sox
OF Ben Revere, Twins
SP Jeremy Hellickson, Rays
RP Craig Kimbrel, Braves
22 comments:
Can't believe Eck couldn't get him straightened out that second half. I mean....Eck was always working hard. Always had that clipboard. Its a mystery to me.
Atta way, Danny. If Topps did an AL and an NL team, they could "field" two catchers. The team seems rather AL-heavy as it is. I'm just saying... :-)
Glad to see Espy getting some recognition. Can't wait for 2012!
Just noticed the HOF ballot is out for 2012 -
I think Barry Larkin, Tim Raines, Jack Morris, Lee Smith and Alan Trammell should all get in this year. There are some horrible candidates this year on the ballot, I think the process needs to be revamped and it should be done like the Pro Football HOF, where a committee pre-selects finalists and then you can let the BBWA vote on that pared down list. Bill Mueller and Cooperstown should not be mentioned in the same sentence unless it is a local Cooperstown newspaper report noting that they saw Bill Mueller and his family buying admission tickets to the Museum!!!
Way to go Danny kid!
2012 will be even better for you!
Who's this rookie C from Tranna?? Must check him out. No way he's better than our Ramo!
Congrats to Espy!!
Arencibia over Ramos is a joke - Ramos is a much better all around player and had a better year. Power talks I guess.
Congrats, Danny!!!
Just bought my Teddy Partial Plan. Can't wait until April!!
Congrats to Espi..
1A - agree with you... Ramos should be on this list!
Full Hall of Fame ballot for 2012 is here.
Bernie Williams might have a first-ballot shot, with all the 'roid guys still on the list.
Hey, look! It's Viiiin-ny Castiiiiila. (He should get in on the basis of his mullet alone.) ;-)
From the prior thread Dunn no-trade discussion . . .
When you play Craps there are bad bets on the table. You can bet a hard 12, and if that relative long shot bet ends up hitting when you had a much better chance to make money on another play, you've gotten really lucky, but you have not been smart. If the compensation picks turn out to be valuable guys some day, then Rizzo will have gotten lucky as he had no idea what picks he would be getting when he made the move to keep Dunn (Rizzo had his fingers crossed on the Type A for Dunn and a club with a protected pick could have inked Adam). Rizzo could have walked away from the table with Edwin Jackson in his pocket and had him last year (might have made a wild card race difference in 2011) and going forward, which would have been the smarter play, no matter how well the picks might turn out someday.
Espi's September was relatively solid--274BA, 371OBA, 429slugg, 800OPS. He didn't have many RBI'S however.
July was a horrid month while August was poor but better. The kid was at least heading in the right direction.
Congratulations to a good baseball player.
One first rounder and one sandwich pick in a good year is probably much better odds than a "hard 12" (the only kind of 12 there is). Just sayin.
I was about to write that Jackson would not have made a difference to the Nats' Wild Card chances, but thinking about it, it's not out of the question. He'd probably have what became Gorzelanny's spot, and might well have led the team in games started--he had 31 combined, and was one out shy of 200 innings. He probably wouldn't have added 10 wins with that offense, but he might have added 4 or 5, and that might have kept them within sight of being on the bubble--which is more than the Cardinals could say most of the season. Still, if that was in fact the offer, and if Rizzo got over-ruled on the trade, then that's not on him.
I rather have Eric Hosmer at 1B and Ramos catching. And that is just off the top of my head.
Way to go, Espy!! I can't wait to watch you play again.
Sec 3 -- the first round pick was not in the bag for Rizzo at all when he decided not to move Dunn. Had the Tribe or some club with a protected pick taken Dunn, it would have been the sandwich pick and a second rounder. Or if the Chi Sox had also signed a higher rated Type A guy, the First Round pick would not go to the Nats.
dfh21
Arencibia over Ramos? Arencibia didn't even get 1 vote in the Rookie of the Year voting in the AL which should tell you something. JP only wins in the cooler name category. Another complete joke in voting.
In 129 game Arencibia struck out 133 times. He batted near the Mendoza at .219 with a .282 OBP. Yes he hit 23 HRs with a so-so .720 OPS.
Ramos in 113 games struck out 76 times and batted .267 with a .334 OBP and .445 slugging and .779 OPB.
Topps voters blew it big-time.
dfh21: Please consider this idea - while it was a risk that Rizzo took to get a first round pick, it was a good one. Why? Because the teams that had protected first round picks were not likely to sign Adam Dunn, either because they were small market teams, NL teams that would not want to spend more than the Nationals would put into re-signing Dunn (and the team did make a substantial offer), or had no position available for Dunn to play. While technically true that they could have been pushed to a second round pick if the White Sox had signed a higher rated Type A free agent, it is actually rare that teams sign multiple Type A free agents. So Rizzo had the odds in his favor.
Yes, he could have rolled a snake eyes - but that wasn't particularly likely.
Why is it that when Rizzo does something that works he's just lucky, and when he does something that doesn't he's an idiot?
Congratulations to Danny Espinosa! I daresay an easy choice at the second base position.
Along with others, I am shocked that Ramos wasn't the consensus catcher. It's really not close at all between Arencibia and Ramos. Ramos had a higher OPS (.779 to .720) OPS+ (113 to 90), CS% (32% to 24%), bWAR (2.5 to 0.9; and fWAR (3.1 to 1.5). The only stat they actually tied in was fielding% (at .993), but I do note that Arencibia actually had a negative defensive WAR on both B-R and Fangraphs, all while playing in a similar number of games (113 for Ramos, 129 for Arencibia).
So Ramos had a better bat, a better glove, and a better arm then Arencibia. But Arencibia had 23 home runs to 15 for Ramos, so he was the better player? That just shows that whoever made the selection is an idiot. I'd really like to know what the methodology of the Topps company is!
Let's ask them. Let's write to Topps and ask.
Had the Tribe or some club with a protected pick taken Dunn, it would have been the sandwich pick and a second rounder. Or if the Chi Sox had also signed a higher rated Type A guy, the First Round pick would not go to the Nats.
Fair enough, but a sandwich pick plus a top half of the second round is still pretty good in baseball, where middle- to late-round picks come up good often enough. Certainly better than boxcars.
captcha = "stera" -- plural of "steroiders"?
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