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Mike Trout won the Sporting News Rookie of the Year award, which is voted on by players. There were 92 votes. Trout got…88 of them. Four players voted for somebody other than Trout for Rookie of the Year. 

Two went to Darvish. I'm willing to allow that some players simply don't follow baseball, aren't really that into baseball, don't really know much about baseball, and only play it because of the money and fame. Those guys might genuinely look at a pitcher's stats, and a hitter's stats, and have no idea how to square the two. They might see that Yu Darvish got a bunch of "wins," and that Mike Trout didn't get any "wins," and figure, hey, wins are the name of the game. The name of the game is actually baseball, but these guys are confused about the name of the game. Anyway, so they vote for Darvish. It's lololololol but whatever. 

But two went to Cespedes. And that one's harder to fathom, not because Trout is better than Cespedes (he's better than Darvish, and everybody) but because I can't figure out what those two votes would be representing. What did those two voters look at to convince themselves? I'm truly, truly curious about this. So OK since they're not looking at WARP

HR: Trout 30, Cespedes 23
RBI: Trout 83, Cespedes 82
Runs: Trout 129, Cespedes 70
Stolen bases: Trout 49, Cespedes 16
Hits: Trout 182, Cespedes 142
Average: Trout .326, Cespedes .292
OBP: Trout .399, Cespedes .356
SLG: Trout .564, Cespedes .505
Doubles: Trout 27, Cespedes 25
Triples: Trout 8, Cespedes 5
Games played: Trout 139, Cespdes 129
Outfield assists: Cespedes 9, Trout 3

So there are two possibilities: these two players voted exclusively on outfield assists. Or they (and the two Darvish voters) are the four hitters who had home runs stolen by Trout this year, and they're still bitter. The only two possibilities. Don't leave your other possibilities in the comments, because there are none*.

*unless there's some rule that players can't vote for their own teammates; checking on that now, though the Sporting News article itself expresses surprise that it wasn't a unanimous vote 

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evancon
10/22
Maybe for some it's like the MVP, where they only vote for rookies whose team made the playoffs?
beeker99
10/22
Yes, the first thing I thought of.

The second is that Sam was setting us up with his lines "The only two possibilities. Don't leave your other possibilities in the comments, because there are none*." and then the asterisk goes to an aside about a rule about not voting for your teammates. A bold statement/prediction, indeed.
shankweather
10/22
That's right, the award is called Rookie of the Year, and if you don't make the playoffs, there clearly was no year.
adambennett
10/22
I think it's defensible to have voted for someone other than Mike Trout on the grounds that Mike Trout wasn't really a rookie this year.
sitdancer
10/22
But then the choice of Darvish and Cespedes are somewhat questionable as well, with both having played half a decade or more of professional baseball abroad.
jseiner
10/22
My guess is that the Darvish votes both came from Rangers and the Cespedes votes both came from Athletics. Just a guess.
holgado
10/22
holgado
10/22
Exactamundo.
Mooser
10/22
Maybe some voters didnt agree with MLB's treatment of Trout's rookie status amendment this past December.

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/12/02/mlb-restores-mike-trouts-rookie-status/
DeathSpeculum
10/22
clearly those voters were most concerned only with pig roasting ability. what about core strength? how do their cores compare and do we know if mike trout even knows who christopher cross is?
sam19041
10/22
Sam, what's missing from this post is fake mlb.com headlines. :)
lyricalkiller
10/22
An early version listed Trout as having 82 RBIs; he had 83; it's been fixed.
zasxcdfv
10/22
I would have voted for Cespedes solely due to that awesome youtube video. A true 80 video.
crperry13
10/22
"It's lololololol but whatever."

That needs to be your new catchphrase.
Oleoay
10/22
I think that's abbreviated to "trololol"
alangreene
10/22
If I'm a player on the A's, and I can vote for Cespedes. What's my upside of voting for Trout? The sanctity of the Sporting News Rookie of the Year Award?

Or the chance that my teammate comes by and wonders why I didn't support him.

It's like telling your wife she looks fat in that dress or telling a friend that's he's definitely a better catch than the new guy his ex-gf's with.
alangreene
10/22
Mean to say, "If I'm a player on the A's, and I can vote for Cespedes, I'm voting for Cespedes."
Oleoay
10/22
Why does Cespedes get the A's clubhouse love and not Parker?

And what prevents a team from voting for their own rookies regardless of who had the best rookie season in the league?

Also, with 92 votes in a 14 team league that means some teams must have more votes than other teams since 92 doesn't divide into 14 evenly. Does that mean that some teams can weight their own rookies more heavily?
alangreene
10/22
All good questions. Perhaps Cespedes was openly campaigning?

I also think that Cespedes probably got some ROY as MVP consideration.

Either way, if I'm a player, I'm not voting on merit if I've got a teammate in consideration. I really don't have a lot of incentive to do so.
pizzacutter
10/23
Maybe Cespedes (Cuba) and Darvish (Japan) get points for coming to another country and putting up good numbers. That's about all I got.

And no, New Jersey is not another country.
Oleoay
10/23
New Jersey isn't another country?!?!

BLASPHEMY!

:)
Drungo
10/23
This just serves to confirm the suspicion that in all award voting there is noise. There will responses that don't seem to make any objective sense when judging them against the stated criteria. No matter what you do some people will vote for the Monkey Rodeo option. They will punch their hanging chad for Lyndon LaRouche. Just because they can.
frankopy
10/23
maybe they were just cognizant of trout winning it and decided to give recognition to a couple of teammates or guys they just wanted to show respect for; two foreigners getting props isn't gonna ruin the landscape
jfranco77
10/23
Well, Trout certainly can't be the MVP if the players don't even think he's a unanimous ROY.
Lbsbigbro22
10/24
I am an A's fan, and Trout is an absolute stud. I was thinking that since the A's record with Cespedes is so much better without him, it landed those couple votes.
BurrRutledge
10/24
This reminded me that time is almost up for voting in the Internet Baseball Awards. Go vote.