Rookie Honors Keep Rolling In
Dustin Pedroia was named the American League Rookie of the Year. Hideki Okajima was voted in to the All-Star game in July. Dustin was named Rookie of the Year by The Sporting News. And Dustin and Hideki were each named a Rookie of the Month (Hideki in April, Dustin in May). But the rookie phenoms aren’t done collecting accolades yet – today, each of them was named to the 49th annual Topps Major League Rookie All-Star Team.
First awarded in 1959 by the Topps baseball card company, the Rookie All-Star Team is voted on by the MLB managers. The Sox rookies were the first to be named to the Team since Brian Daubach in 1999 — and the Sox also had two players (Scott Hatteberg and Nomar Garciaparra) named to the team in 1997.
Interestingly, neither Dustin nor Hideki were unanimous selections- but the Red Sox were the only team to have more than one player make the roster. Five players earned unanimous votes – James Loney, Ryan Braun, Delmon Young, Chris Young and Hunter Pence. Here’s the full breakdown:
2B Dustin Pedroia, Red Sox (139, 8, 50, .317)
3B Ryan Braun, Brewers (113, 34, 97, .324) – unanimous
SS Troy Tulowitzki, Rockies (155, 24, 99, .291)
OF Delmon Young, Rays (162, 13, 93, .288) – unanimous
OF Chris Young, Diamondbacks (148, 32, 68, .237) – unanimous
OF Hunter Pence, Astros (108, 17, 69, .322) – unanimous
C Carlos Ruiz, Phillies (115, 6, 54, .259)
RHP Brian Bannister, Royals (165 IP, 12-9, 3.87, 77 K, 44 BB)
LHP Hideki Okajima, Red Sox (69 IP, 3-2, 2.22, 63 K, 17 BB)
