AL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

Carlos Correa of the Astros was named the 2015 AL Rookie of the Year winner (he became the first No.1 overall selection to win the AL award. Three NL guys pulled that off: Bryce Harper, Daryl Strawberry and Bob Horner). Correa received 17 first place votes to help him edge Francisco Lindor who had received 13 such votes. The third place finisher was Miguel Sano (click here for the full results).

Correa and Lindor both played 99 games, and though Lindor is the better fielder it seems that Correa was awarded first place based on a big of a lead on the offensive side of things and the fact that the Astros went on a tear thanks in no small part to Correa. Here is a comp of the two men.

Correa: .313-12-51-50-12 with an .857 OPS

Lindor: .279-22-68-52-14 with an .835 OPS

Correa hit the most homers by a shortstop 21 or younger since Alex Rodriguez hit 26. Correa also set the Astros single season record for homers by a shortstop and his .857 OPS was the best in baseball for any shortstop with at least 250 plate appearances.

No debate that Correa is a much better fantasy option heading into 2016 but in the just completed season the two were nearly twins.

NL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

Not surprisingly, Kris Bryant won the 2015 NL Rookie of the Year award. He had a fantastic season on his way to being selected as the unanimous winner to become the first Cub to win the award since Geovany Soto in 2008. Bryant led all NL rookies in homers (26), RBIs (99), runs (87) and doubles (31). Bryant became one of eleven rookies since 1947 to have 60 extra base hits as well. Bryant also stole 13 bases while posting a dang impressive slash line (.275/.369/.488). Here’s how the voting finished up. Note how far down Joc Pederson fell after his torrid start to the year that had everyone convinced he was the second coming of Pedro Guerrero. 
 

THE FANTASY ALARM PODCAST IS AVAILABLE (TUESDAY AND FRIDAY EACH WEEK). MANS AND FLOWERS TALK FOOTBALL, LADIES, BOOZE, DFS... YOU JUST NEVER KNOW. NEITHER DO WE.

 

RANGERS and MARINERS DEAL

Rangers Receive: RHP Tom Wilhelmsen, OF James Jones and a PTBNL

Mariners Receive: OF Leonys Martin and RHP Anthony Bass

Wilhelmsen will almost certainly function as nothing other than a setup man in Texas even though he has two season of 24 and 29 saves on his resume. He walked a massive 4.21 batters per nine last season and unfortunately that mark was only just slightly over his career mark (4.03). He has a 45 percent career ground ball rate and a 8.47 K/9 mark. A solid arm, but not fantasy worthy.

Jones stole 27 bases as a rookie in 108 games played in 2014 but he wasn’t even in the big league last season. Jones appeared in a mere 28 big league games and his OPS, read that again (OPS), was .299. Through 136 big league games he’s stolen 28 bases with a .238/.268/.296 slash line. He’s a 4th/5th outfield option in AL-only leagues with the speed to surprise if he can hit which seems a bit unlikely at this point since he’s likely to be the 4/5th outfielder with the Rangers.

Martin is the biggest name in the deal but he is coming off a dreadful 2015 that saw his star go from ascending to nearly flaming out. A top shelf defender, Martin had at least 31 steals and 66 runs scored in each of the 2013 and 2014 seasons. He was therefore drafted in 2015, late, to be a 4/5th outfielder in mixed leagues with enough speed to potentially offer a nice return on that investment. Not so much. Martin hit .219 with a .576 OPS, .125 points below his average in 2013-14, and he just stunk. He did a decent job of running, he still stole 14 bases despite an atrocious .264 OBP, but the fact is that he was a completely deficient performer in 2015. He also cannot hit lefties with a .573 career OPS. There might be a platoon of Martin and Franklin Gutierrez. The slick fielding Gutierrez didn’t have an at-bat in 2014 as illness threatened to derail his career, but he returned in 2015 to hit .292 with 15 homers and a .974 OPS over 59 games. He’s not that hitter, never has been. He’s never hit righties (.658 OPS), but he’s always ripped up lefties (.291/.346/.491).

Bass has appeared in 129 big league games making 18 starts (none since 2012). He owns little in the way of skills with a 6.05 K/9 and 3.46 BB/9. He has a nice 48 percent ground ball rate but the righty owns ratios that are worse than the league average for his career (4.40 ERA, 1.39 WHIP). Blah.

 

Ray Flowers can be heard Monday through Thursday at 8 PM EDT and Friday at 10 PM EDT on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear Ray Sunday nights at 7 PM on the channel talking fantasy sports. Follow Ray’s work at Fantasy Alarm and on Twitter (@baseballguys).