Predicting the Rookies of the Year in 2015

The Rookie of the Year award is probably far and away the hardest to predict every single season, and I show that almost every single season with the wrong predictions. A ton can happen between now and the end of the 2015 season and a lot of it comes out of nowhere. There is always the Josh Harrison that comes out of nowhere that I didn’t see coming and there is always the disappointment in Billy Hamilton that, well, disappointed me. Then there is always the rookie that gets kept down in Triple-A for too long and doesn’t have enough time to showcase enough to win the award and then there is always the guy that wins a job out of camp and shocks the baseball world for three or four months to win the award. I am going to take my best shot at these predictions but I am warning you not to go all Pete Rose and bet on the game because it is very likely I will be completely off base when we revisit this post in November.

For the American League I chose Francisco Lindor of the Cleveland Indians almost by default. I wanted to go with Rusney Castillo of the Boston Red Sox simply because Lindor is a glove first type shortstop but the Indians lineup should be deeper than last season and much improved. Lindor, even hitting near the bottom of the order, should be able to use his speed and his legs to get him a few base hits and keep a respectable average, runs scored, stolen base and RBI count. Lindor may not run away with the award but I think at the end of the day he takes it home for Cleveland.

For the National League Kris Bryant of the Chicago Cubs is becoming a household name after hitting an absolute ton of home runs in the Cactus League this spring. Bryant is the obvious pick and the safe pick but I honestly don’t know enough about the various farms around the league to go against him. I almost wanted to go with his teammate Jorge Soler just because it would be bold and different but then he went and swatted eight home runs in a few weeks’ time and I knew I had to go with Bryant in 2015.