Look, everyone and their mother knew Mike Trout would win the AL Rookie of the Year award in a landslide, and deservedly so. And after his historic rookie year, he did just that.
But we figured Texas Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish would take a distant second in the voting, and well, he didn't. In fact, it wasn't even that close as he was beaten for the "best rookie other than Mike Trout" race by Oakland's Yoenis Cespedes, who got 10 more second-place votes than Darvish.
Darvish had a stellar rookie year, and got better as the season went on. He went 16-9 with a 3.90 ERA in 29 starts and led all rookies with 191 1/3 innings and 221 strikeouts while opponents hit .220 against him, which was the third lowest average of any big-league pitcher, rookie or not.
Darvish joined Cleveland's Herb Score as the only rookies in American League history with at least 16 wins and at least 210 strikeouts in a season.
Not bad at all. In fact, Darvish was at his best down the stretch when he finally seemed to figure out he didn't have to nibble around batters and cut down his walks drastically. Over his last eight starts, Darvish was 5-0 with a 2.04 ERA, striking out 67 with just 15 walks.
I'd say that $51.7 million posting fee ended up being worth it. You?
