First off, most players hit better at home.

Cabrera has an ops of 1.103 at home, .895 on the road. Mike Trout is close to 100 points higher at home than on the road for OPS.

Second off, does anyone realize where the Rockies play when they go on the road? Arizona is a great hitters stadium. The other three in the division rank 23, 25 and 29th in baseball. Keep in mind the Rockies play 27 road games a year in those three fields. Go ahead and play 1/3 of your road games at those parks and tell me what your home/road splits are, k?

Two more quick things:

Rosario has gotten better as the season has went on. His numbers in the second half are 303/352/560

His problem on defense has been catching the ball. Now, I know, he’s a catcher, and that’s kind of important, but give me a second to elaborate. His caught stealing percentage will rank him 6th in the league for catchers who have caught over 100 games this year. (I say will, because he needs to catch one more game) His range factor is low, but not horrific by any stretch. (slightly below Matt Weiters for example)

The problem is the passed balls/wild pitches he allows. He obviously needs to wok on those things, but I think learning to block balls better is a tad easier than teaching Grandal to start throwing runners out.

Rosario does not deserve rookie of the year. He does deserve a lot more credit than he’s been getting. He’s a 23 year old kid who has had a pretty darned good year for a horrific team. I’m sick of people dismissing him simply because of Coors Field.

(one other thing, can we take players who play a lot of games at Coors and drop them for their stats? Buster Posey his .485 at Coors in 33 at bats. McCutheon only had 12 at bats there, should Cutch get some extra votes because he didn’t get another 20 at bats at Coors?

**EDIT BUTTON OR RIOT**

Yes, home runs are important. Yes, runs batted in are important. Yes, batting average is important.

So is defense. So is base running. So is the ability to get on-base consistently.

If you want to look at WAR, Rosario ranks 7th among NL Rookies:

Wade Miley – 4.5
Bryce Harper – 4.0
Mike Fiers – 3.3
Todd Frazier – 2.6
Norichika Aoki – 2.6
Zack Cozart – 2.5
Wilin Rosario – 2.3
Yonder Alonso – 2.1
Yasmani Grandal – 1.9

This is because all of those other things matter, not just “the big three” of HR, RBI, and AVG. Defense plays a pretty big role in a player’s value and not a lot of people are in love with Rosario’s defense. Harper is a top-notch defender in the outfield. Harper is in-line for a 20/20/20 season.

Rosario hit for a bunch of power in a power hitters park and did little else on the road, he did it while playing subpar defense.

Even if you’re not sold on Bryce Harper and the hype that surrounds him, I’d be hard-pressed to find a world where Rosario deserves it over Frasier or Miley either.

Don’t get me wrong, I think he’s a good ballplayer, but I don’t think he’s by any stretch of the imagination the “Rookie of the Year” based on the fact that he’s hit for power and a good average, especially not when you look at the other performances around the league. Honestly, I’d still take Grandal over Rosario any day of the week.

That’s cute.

Thanks for the input, Murray Chass.

Rosario: 110 G, 369 AB, .276/.316/.545, 27 HR, 70 RBI, 4 SB, 18 2B, 65 R

Harper: 131 G, 507 AB, .260/.331/.450, 19 HR, 53 RBI, 16 SB, 23 2B, 92 R

Alonso: 147 G, 520 AB, .275/.350/.394, 9 HR, 60 RBI, 3 SB, 35 2B, 46 R

Frazier: 122 G, 409 AB, .279/.338/.504, 18 HR, 64 RBI, 3 SB, 26 2B, 54 R

Miley: 27 GS, 183 IP, 16 W, 3.25 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 131 K

Fiers: 21 GS, 121.2 IP, 9 W, 3.55 ERA, 1.27 WHIP 126 K

Rosario’s been good, but he’s also largely been a product of Coors. His OPS drops more than 200 points on the road. Alonso put up a bunch of his numbers playing in the ballpark equivalent of Yellowstone.

Harper probably gets it based on hype alone, but he’s not totally undeserving either, he could logically finish with 20+HR/20+SB/20+2B and 100+ runs scored…and he’s like 12-years-old. That’s impressive stuff.

I think Rosario will get some love, but beyond the HR/RBI/BA those numbers are pretty hollow.