Slade Heathcott Wins James P. Dawson Award

The New York Yankees give their best rookie in spring camp an annual award with Masahiro Tanaka winning the award for the team in 2014 while the 2015 recipient of the James P. Dawson Award was announced today. The winner of the award was the Yankees outfielder Slade Heathcott after a very strong spring before being sent down to Triple-A with the Scranton Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.

Heathcott beat out a very impressive group of rookies including Jacob Lindgren, Jose Pirela and Robert Refsnyder with a .355/.459/.581 triple slash with seven RBI and three stolen bases. Congratulations to Mr. Heathcott. The talent was always there for Slade but the consistency and his health always held him back and he may have finally put it all together this season, not a season too soon.

Masahiro Tanaka Named Yankees Rookie of the Spring

Leave your opinions at the door on whether Masahiro Tanaka should be eligible for any kind of rookie considerations, including the Rookie of the Year Award. Tanaka is eligible, everyone who has come over from Japan before him has been eligible, and anyone in the foreseeable future will be eligible if they come over from Japan, Cuban, China, etc.

With that said the New York Yankees have named Masahiro Tanaka as their rookie of the spring after signing him to a $155 million contract this winter. The James P. Dawson Award is given annually to the top rookie in Yankees camp and Tanaka is the 2014 recipient. Below is a list of the recipient winners since 2001:

2001…Alfonso Soriano 2B
· 2002…Nick Johnson 1B
· 2003…Hideki Matsui OF
· 2004…Bubba Crosby OF
· 2005…Andy Phillips INF
· 2006…Eric Duncan INF
· 2007…Kei Igawa P
· 2008…Shelley Duncan INF/OF
· 2009…Brett Gardner OF
· 2010…Jon Weber OF
· 2011…Manny Banuelos P
· 2012…David Phelps P
· 2013…Vidal Nuno P
· 2014…Masahiro Tanaka P