ROY

So, baseball writers picked the Angels’ Shohei Ohtani (.285 BA, 22 homeruns and 61 RBIs in 326 AB) AL Rookie of the Year, this despite the fact he played for a team that finished 80-82 and two other players—the Yankees’ Miguel Andujar (.297 BA, 27 homers and 92 RBIs in 573 AB) and Gleyber Torres (.271 BA, 24 homers and 77 RBIs in 431 AB)—had what I would consider better offensive years, and for a team that went to the postseason.  So much for  Daniel Palka of the White Sox being a dark horse.

What seems to have clinched it for Ohtani was his pitching, which netted a 4-2 record with a 3.31 ERA and 63 strikeouts in ten starts that totaled 51.2 innings.  Granted, Ohtani was a nice story last year—when he played—but the second coming of Babe Ruth?  I would tend to doubt it.  In fact, I’d go so far as to say Ohtani hasn’t yet stepped out of the shadow cast by Willie Smith.

From 1960-63, Smith won 48 games in the minors for the Tigers.  In early 1964, he was traded to the Angels, where he went 1-4 with a 2.84 ERA in 31.2 innings.  The thing is, Smith hit better than he pitched.  He hit .301 his rookie year for the Angels, with 11 homeruns and 51 RBIs in 359 AB.  Those are numbers that should put Smith in the same ballpark, if you will, with Ohtani.

The next year Smith switched to hitting fulltime in a career that spanned nine seasons, including three with the Cubs.  In case you’re wondering, Tony Oliva won AL Rookie of the Year in ’64.  Oliva was more of an Andujar-Torres kind of player, batting a league-leading .323 with 32 homers and 94 RBIs.  Voters have different standards nowadays, I guess.