Bucking The Trend

Geovany Soto is the rarest of realities for the Cubs.

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Soto turned his back on Cubs history, in a good way.

May 6th of this year marked the 10th anniversary of Kerry Wood's famed 20 strikeout game, one some call the greatest game ever pitched. Kid-K's fabulous 1998 season won him the Rookie-of-the-Year award and propelled the Cubs into the postseason for a few days. It's been a long ten years for Wood, and it's also been a long ten years since the Cubs got a major contribution from a first-year player.

Until now. Geovany Soto has won the award in the NL this year in runaway fashion. Talk about breaking a trend.

The failure of the Cubs to produce young talent was evident when Baseball Digest announced their 2007 All-Rookie Team. There were no Cubs on that list, just as there were none in 2006, or 2005, or 2004, or any year since Wood in 1998. Since then, (prior to the current vote) 122 players have been named to these All-Rookie teams, and not one of them has been a Cub.

And Cubs rookies haven't fared much better in baseball's annual Rookie of the Year vote. Since Wood won the award in 1998 until today, only one Cubs player (Mark Prior in 2002) has even received a single vote for ROY. To give this its full perspective, consider this: There have been 75 players named on the sportswriters' National League ROY ballots over the last nine years. These sportswriters have awarded a total of 2,592 ROY points during this time (five for first, three for second, one for third for each of 32 sportswriters over the last nine years). And out of those 2,592 Rookie of the Year points, the Cubs have received a grand total of three (3!) points, all for one player in one year. That's not just the lowest point total of any team in the National League, it laps the field in the entire major leagues.

But at last the Cubs managed to find a player to buck the trend. (Of course, many would have guessed when the year began that guy would have been Kosuke Fukudome. Live and learn.)

On May 6th of this year, the exact anniversary of the 20K game, Wood came out of the bullpen to pitch a scoreless ninth, combining with starter Carlos Zambrano in a shut-out of the Reds. Fittingly, Wood struck out the last batter he faced. But the more important story is not the pitcher who threw the last strike. It was Soto, the player who caught it.

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Volquez was technically a rookie last year.

Edinson Volquez as Ponce de Leon?

Edinson Volzquez had a big first season in Cincinnati. Three voters for the National League Rookie of the Year apparently forgot to check that it was not his first in the major leagues.

Volquez was 17-6 with a 3.21 ERA and that was enough for three members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America to give the right-hander their second-place vote in the balloting released Monday afternoon. Volquez finished fourth overall, well behind runaway winner Soto of the Cubs.

More than 50 innings on the mound disqualifies a pitcher of his rookie status and Volquez had pitched a combined 80 innings for the Texas Rangers from 2005 to 2007. He never pitched more than 34 in any season, which may have contributed to the confusion.

Voting for each of the major awards (Rookie of the Year, Cy Young, Manager of the Year and MVP) consists of two writers from each league city. The BBWAA does not release the individual ballots.

The BBWAA does not vote for Gold Glove winners, so they can't be blamed for a 1999 snafu in which Rafael Palmeiro earned the fielding honor despite playing just 28 games at first base and 135 as a designated hitter.

- Doug Mittler

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