Rookies

The other day I posted about my Rookie Broadcasting position with the Lake Norman Copperheads. All the things rookies have to put up with to get better. At least, all the things I have to learn being a rookie in the business, anyway.

It seems that some rookies don't have to got through the pain and suffering, the learning curve so to speak, as I've had to endure. I'm talking about the Atlanta Braves Justin Heyward and the Detroit Tigers Brennan Boesch. If you follow baseball at all, you probably remember Heyward's first at bat for the Braves. He hit a booming home run & ESPN turned the camera on fans celebrating with his father in the stands. What a way to break into the major leagues!

Since that initial at bat, Heyward's numbers have been worthy of a National League Rookie of the Year front runner. Of course, there is one Stephen Strasburg who so far has overshadowed Heyward while only taking the mound for the Washington Nationals four times, but that's another story altogether. For an everyday position player, I don't think the Braves or Manager Bobby Cox, who is in his final season of a hall of fame managerial career, could have asked for anything better.

Heyward, only 20 years old, was an expected future superstar before the season began. On the flip side of that, Brennan Boesch, 24, has basically come out of nowhere. There were no big expectations for Boesch within the Tiger's organization. Sure, the kid had some pop in the bat, but wasn't hitting for a high average during his minor league career. After all, the Tigers had several rising young stars who played parts of the last two years with the big club and seemed ready to play every day. Heyward was expected to come up to the big club, while Boesch seemed destined to be trade bait for maybe some insurance for a final push at an American League Central pennant later in the year.

Somehow, Boesch got a chance, due to Carlos Guillen's injury and the left-fielder-of-the-future, Ryan Rayburn, in the midst of a season opening slump. Brennan made the best of his opportunity. Maybe there was a little luck involved, that he just happened to be hot at the plate for the first few games. Manager Jim Leyland was quoted as saying something along the lines of he was going to play him as long as he was contributing. Leyland hasn't taken him out of a full-time left field spot since, except for the occasional day off for a rest.

These two rookies met in Atlanta this week. Bunches of pictures taken of the two. Interviews with both. And everybody on both teams being asked by the media what they think of their chances to become the American and National League Rookies of the Year after the season is over.

Well, my guess is that it's still way, way too early to cast any final votes. It's not even the All-Star break yet. There's a long way to go in a long season. But one thing is for sure; if the season ended tomorrow, they'd get most of the votes (sans Stratusburg). Here are a look at their numbers so far in their rookie campaigns:


____________AB R H HR RBI AVG OB% SLG%
Justin Hayward 251 41 64 11 45 .255 .371 .462
Brennan Boesch 185 24 64 11 39 .346 .399 .632