I wrote extensively about the role of rookies in the 2012 Major League Baseball season in a previous Between the Horns piece entitled “Year of the Rookie.” I highlighted the accomplishments of Yu Darvish, Bryce Harper, Mike Trout and a few others, but perhaps I didn’t go into enough detail about their youth, or their nascent potential.
I wrote extensively about the role of rookies in the 2012 Major League Baseball season in a previous Between the Horns piece entitled “Year of the Rookie.” I highlighted the accomplishments of Yu Darvish, Bryce Harper, Mike Trout and a few others, but perhaps I didn’t go into enough detail about their youth, or their nascent potential.
Weighing the impact of a rookie player in the MLB is different than weighing a veteran’s stats—a veteran player has a certain (albeit inequitable) obligation to be consistent or excel. Regression is expected after 15 or so years, but if one’s batting average should slip drastically, then it’s typically a trip to the manager’s office or another stint in Triple A.
A rookie, on the other hand, plays in a completely unfamiliar world. Whether he comes from years of playing Triple-A ball or is already a legend in a foreign country, playing in the majors is a completely new arena, and projecting a rookie’s success is much more difficult than predicting the next year of an established player. So it always comes as a surprise when a rookie not only thrives in the majors but actually manages to outshine the veterans around him. The winners of this year’s Rookie of the Year awards are prime examples of this phenomenon.
American League Rookie of the Year winner Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels won the award unanimously in 2012, with every first-place vote going in his favor. Despite being up against the tremendous young talent of Yu Darvish and Yoenis Cespedes, Trout easily dominated the vote—a feat that underscored the significance of his first year in the majors. In the National League, Rookie of the Year award-winner Bryce Harper of the Washington Nationals beat out some tough competition, pulling ahead of pitcher Wade Miley by just a few votes and overshadowing an exceptional year by third-place finisher Todd Frazier. Harper’s hot streak during the last third of the season is said by many to have been the difference in an extremely close race.
What’s truly remarkable about the winners of this year’s Rookie of the Year awards is the fact that both Trout and Harper were under the age of 21 this season (and Harper was still a teenager).Although youth affords those who possess it greater energy and faster recovery, excelling in the majors is a skill that requires patience, proficiency and determination—characteristics typically gained through years of experience. Trout and Harper both proved that adroitness and youthful exuberance can in fact coexist and, at the end of the day, astound.
When assessing Trout’s or Harper’s accomplishments this season, I can’t help but mention how deflating it is to the ego of a 26-year-old watching it all unfold in a La-Z-Boy recliner while eating cheese puffs and leftover Halloween candy. Sarcasm aside, the point is that at the age of 20 I was still figuring out how to become a well-balanced, functioning adult, while these two are eclipsing the achievements of their much-older peers on a regular basis. To dismiss any notions of jealousy would be disingenuous, but it’s easy to recognize that their talent exemplifies something truly special in their personas. Juvenility, it seems, exists for them as just one of the vital components that fuels their performance. Regardless of age, they wear the seasoned skin of a veteran.
