Tomorrow is the day. After one of the best seasons in the history of the Giants franchise -- a lot of the credit due to Buster Posey, of course -- the world will finally know whether or not Buster Posey is the Rookie of the Year. The Giants have been overlooked many times this season. They weren't expected to win the NL West. They weren't expected to win the NLDS. They weren't expected to win the NLCS. And most importantly, they weren't expected to win the World Series. When Gold Glove Awards were announced, the Giants once again were overlooked. Andres Torres, arguably the best defensive outfielder in the National League, was not given the award for his superb outfield defense. Instead, Carlos Gonzalez got it. It's easy to shake most of these off. It simply made the Giants World Series victory all the better -- the fact that they were considered underdogs; Andres Torres' not being granted a Gold Glove Award was more of a personal hit, because I, among many other Giants fans, felt that he deserved recognition for his work out there.
But tomorrow, the Baseball Writers' Association of America can make it all right. Their voting will be announced at 11 AM (Pacific time) on Monday. As we await this sacred announcement, I would like to take one last look at the 2010 seasons of Jason Heyward and Buster Posey.
Batting Average
Posey - .305
Heyward - .277
Walk Rate
Posey - 6.8%
Heyward - 14.6%
ISO
Posey - .200
Heyward - .179
K Rate
Posey - 13.5%
Heyward - 24.6%
HR/AB
Posey - 18/406
Heyward - 18/520
SB/CS
Posey - 0/2
Heyward - 11/6
WAR
Posey - 3.9
Heyward - 5.0
My biased opinion: Posey deserves the award. He is a better hitter -- better contact rate and better raw power (better ISO). To do that, on top of catching the best pitching staff in baseball is just remarkable. Catchers don't get enough respect, but what they do every day takes a real tear on their body. It requires intense focus and reaction time. Heyward has the upper hand in speed and his walk rate is quite impressive, but taking into account the fact that Posey is a catcher, I'd say Posey deserves the award.
Tomorrow, the Baseball Writers' Association of America can make it all right. They can reward Posey for one of the best rookie seasons of all time -- it's not very often that a rookie catcher leads their team to a World Series title, let alone the first World Series title for that franchise in over 50 years. For now, the demi-god known as Gerald Demp Posey III will have to wait to be honored.
NOTE: Keep in mind that WAR is a counting statistic, so the Heyward has better WAR because he played from day one, as opposed to Posey, who was held in the minors for the first two months of the season.
