Why Gordon Beckham doesn’t deserve to win AL Rookie of the Year

There hasn’t been much to dislike about Gordon Beckham’s rookie campaign with the White Sox. He’s sprayed the ball all over the field to a tune of a .808 OPS. His defense has improved with every game he’s played at third base. His at-bat music is awesome. And he plays the game with a confident cockiness that you don’t see from many seasoned veterans.

But he doesn’t deserve to win the AL Rookie of the Year.

That award deserves to go to Texas Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus.

Now, after quickly glancing at Andrus’ numbers, you’re wondering why a guy with a .738 OPS deserves to be named the AL’s top rookie. Until Andrus went 3/5 against Cleveland earlier today to move his batting average to .277, Beckham had Andrus beat in most every offensive category this year.

However, offense isn’t why Andrus deserves to win rookie of the year. After all, if we only looked at offense, Nolan Reimold would probably take the award. And that’s not even bringing pitchers like Andrew Bailey, Brad Bergesen, Jeff Niemann, Brett Anderson, Ricky Romero, and Rick Porcello into the equation.

Good cases can be made for Bailey and Niemann from that group, but Andrus still beats them all. Why?

Because baseball isn’t only about offense and pitching. Defense is just as important, and Andrus certainly proves that to be true.

A huge part of the Rangers’ surprising turnaround this year has been defense. Texas has been a black hole for pitching for the better part of the last 20 years, but this year, the Rangers have had their best pitching success in a long time. It’s no coincidence that their team defense is in the top five in the American League according to UZR, and that defensive success has been in large part thanks to Andrus.

While Andrus doesn’t lead his team in UZR (that would be outfielder Nelson Cruz, who has a 12.7 UZR), his 7.9 UZR is second-best on the team. That’s a whopping 13.7 runs better than Michael Young, who moved from shortstop to third after 2008.

A case can also be made that Andrus improved Ian Kinsler’s defense. While playing the first three years of his career with a poor defensive shortstop in Young, Kinsler’s UZR was consistently well below average—just like Young. In his first year playing second base alongside Andrus, Kinsler has been well above average with the glove as his 6.6 UZR indicates.

Causation or not, Kinsler and Andrus have combined to form one of the baseball’s best double-play combos this year. And that’s been huge in keeping the Rangers’ pitching—and playoff hopes—afloat well into September.

In terms of impact on their team, Andrus has had more than Beckham. Yes, the Sox really started playing better once Beckham started swinging the bat well—especially in June and July. But even if Beckham continued to rake at his July clip into August and September, I’m not sure he would have surpassed Andrus in my mind.

Defensively, Beckham isn’t in the same league as Andrus. UZR has him pegged at -3.2 at third, but when you consider that he hadn’t played third base at all before this year, that’s pretty good. Still, Andrus should win a deserving Gold Glove (I say deserving because most players who win Gold Gloves are anything but). Beckham certainly isn’t in any legitimate Gold Glove* discussions at third base.

So, at the end of the day, Andrus’ glove should earn him the AL rookie of the year in 2009. His offense—which really hasn’t been that terrible this year—is just the icing on the cake for a player that FanGraphs has valued at 2.8 wins, most of any rookie position player in the AL**.

Sorry, Gordon. It’d be nice to see all you success be rewarded, but there’s a player out there who’s more deserving.

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*Side note: Gold Gloves are such a sham of an award. Oh wow, Torii Hunter made another bad read that leads to a spectacular diving catch? He totally deserves an award for it! See, this is why UZR needs to become a more mainstream measurement of defense.

**Another side note: I’m not 100 percent sold on FanGraphs’ pitcher WAR, which is based on a pitcher’s FIP. While I like FIP, it’s possible to have pitching success without a good FIP or vice versa. So if you see guys like Anderson and Niemann with the similar WARs to Andrus, know that I took those with a grain of salt.

Topics: Elvis Andrus, Gordon Beckham, Rookie of the Year, White Sox

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