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No Surprise Here: Evan Longoria and Geovany Soto Named Rookies of the Year

Nov 10, 2008 – 2:24 PM
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Matt Snyder

Matt Snyder %BloggerTitle%

The least dramatic unveiling of the MLB awards happened a few minutes ago. Everyone -- well, almost everyone -- knew the top AL Rookie was Evan Longoria and the top NL Rookie was Geovany Soto.

Each player had a major hand in taking his respective team to the postseason, combining a power bat with solid defense.

Longoria was a unanimous selection in the AL, while Soto garnered all but one first place vote in the NL. Yeah, seriously, some clown voted for Joey Votto over Soto. While you can argue that Votto's stats were right on par -- if not better -- than Soto's, there's no other real rationale for the vote. First base, by nature, is an offensive position. Catcher is a defensive position. Soto played above average defense behind the dish while putting up nearly identical offensive numbers to Votto, a first baseman. The choice should have been easy for everyone.

The closest competition in the AL, if you can even call it that, for Longoria was Alexei Ramirez. He's a nice player, but Longoria's numbers, defense, and presence in the lineup overshadow the White Sox rookie.
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