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Pittsburgh Pirates: Four Players Robbed of NL Rookie of the Year
National League Most Valuable Player Award is not the only award players from the Pittsburgh Pirates have been snubbed of over the years. Many have been snubbed in their first big league season for the National League Rookie of the Year Award.
A few weeks ago, we went over four times a Pittsburgh Pirates player was snubbed of an MVP award. It’s not the only time a player from the Pittsburgh Pirates has missed out on an award because of reasons out of their control.
It’s easy to look back at times when a player should have won an award, but didn’t because of factors of the era. Obviously, today, we know that RBIs are not good ways of analyzing how good a player is when it comes to driving in runs. But back before the 2000s, RBIs at times made someone a winner. The same can be said for other stats like batting average and pitcher wins/losses.
Since 1951, the Rookie of the Year has regularly been awarded to a player of each league. So let’s go back and look at times when a Pittsburgh Pirates player should have won the National League Rookie of the Year award.
To compare players, we will be using stats such as OPS+, wRC+, ERA-/+ and FIP-. Each of these stats are adjusted for factors of the era. For example, the league average ERA in 2000 was 4.77, and the league average ERA in 2014 was over a whole run lower at 3.74. ERA- is adjusted for that, as well as park factors. Both wRC+ and OPS+ are offensive stats adjusted for the same reasons. Batting with a .500 slugging percentage means two different things if you’re in the steroid era, or the deadball era. Also, awards are voted on before the playoffs, so any sort of playoff contributions will not be a factor here.
So with that all out of the way, let’s get into our first rookie snub.
Richie Hebner
Richie Hebner is one of the best third basemen in the history of the Pittsburgh Pirates. I ranked him as the team’s 3rd best hot corner defender in their history. But Hebner had an outstanding rookie campaign in 1969, and is one of the top 10 rookie seasons in Pirate history. But he didnot receive even a single National League Rookie of the Year vote.
Hebner batted for a strong .301/.381/.421 line. For the era, he was about 25-28% above the league average with a 126 wRC+ and 127 OPS+. Hebner struckout and walked at the same rate with 53 of each in 532 plate appearances. Though he wasn’t a fantastic defender, Hebner did come through in the clutch batting .292/.372/.377 in high leverage situations.
Hebner collected a total of 3.5 fWAR. He led all rookies in terms of that, and also was tied in wRC+ among rookies with at least 500 plate appearances. That year, the light hitting Dodgers’ rookie, Ted Sizemore, took home the award. He only hit .271/.328/.342 with a 94 OPS+ and 95 wRC+. He also had an fWAR of just 2.5 in comparison. Though he was a fantastic defender at second base and shortstop, Sizemore’s fWAR was behind both Hebner, and another Pirates’ rookie who didn’t receive a single ROY vote, Manny Sanguillen.
Don Robinson
Don Robinson’s 1978 season was one of the more underrated seasons in Pirate history. The right handed pitcher posted very solid numbers during his first big league season, but finished 3rd in voting despite truly deserving the award.
Through 228 innings of work, Robinson had a 3.47 ERA, 3.33 FIP and 1.13 WHIP. In terms of era adjusted numbers, he had a 95 ERA-, 108 ERA+ and 92 FIP-. This all made him an above average pitcher.
Robinson was never a big strikeout pitcher, which was shown by his 14.8% strikeout rate, but walked just 6.1% of the 939 batters he faced. He also only allowed 20 long balls for a 0.79 HR/9 rate.
That year, Robinson actually was tied among all pitchers in MLB for 30th in fWAR at 3.4. However, no National League rookies came close to him. Robinson’s 3rd place finish was behind legendary defender Ozzie Smith, and Atlanta’s winner, Bob Horner. Horner batted .266/.314/.539 with 23 long balls, and a 124 wRC+ across 359 plate appearances. He was a big time power threat as indicated by the amount of homeruns he hit, and his outstanding .272 isolated slugging percentage. However, Horner only had a 2.3 fWAR, over a whole win lower than Robinson.
Dale Long
Early rookie of the year voting was weird, but that still doesn’t mean there were not any players who were unjustly snubbed of winning the award. Dale Long in 1955 may have been one of the first players to be snubbed of the award.
Long had a solid 10-year career, in which he spent about a season and three quarters of a season with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Long got his first long look at the Major Leagues in 1955. Long established himself as a really solid hitter, hitting for a .291/.362/.513 slash line, hitting 16 long balls, he led the league in triples with 13, and posted a 132 OPS+ and 128 wRC+. This was all though 479 plate appearances. He was even a pretty solid defender at first with +2 total zone runs.
Long didn’t receive a single National League Rookie of the Year vote, but finished 19th in MVP voting. Like I said, award voting was weird back then. Then St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Bill Virdon took home the award.
Before Virdon became one of the Pirates’ best defensive outfielders in their history, he was the second Cardinal National League Rookie of the Year. Virdon hit just .281/.322/.433 with a 100 OPS+ and 92 wRC+. Virdon posted an fWAR of just 1.1. Long outdid Virdon in every single category.
Andrew McCutchen
The 2009 National League Rookie of the Year voting is an example of how classical stats can mess up voting, and snub deserving players of the title of Rookie of the Year, MVP, Cy Young, and so on.
In 2009, Andrew McCutchen had a fantastic rookie campaign. Through 493 plate appearances, the long time Pirate center fielder established himself with a .286/.365/.472 line, 26 doubles and a dozen home runs. He also had a 121 OPS+ and 122 wRC+. Though Cutch did not put up great defensive numbers in his first season, it’s not like he was a huge negative either in center. Still, McCutchen led all rookies in fWAR at 3.4, fifth in wRC+ (min. 300 plate appearances), was 6th in base running runs above average (4.6), and wOBA (.363).
McCutchen was snubbed by Chris Coghlan. Before he became hated by most fans of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2015, he was a top prospect for the Florida Marlins. Now by no means was Coghlan a bad hitter.
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He hit .321/.390/.460 with a .374 wOBA, 122 OPS+ and 127 wRC+. But it’s not like Coghlan was overall that much better than Cutch. Cutch was not a gold glover, but Coghlan was awful defensively with -19 DRS, -6.8 UZR, -3.9 range runs above average, and -2.1 arm runs above average. Coghlan also had a 2.7 fWAR in comparison as well. This is all shown in their fWAR with Coghlan turning in a 2.7 mark and Cutch with his 3.4 mark.