Are Mike Trout and Bryce Harper the best rookie duo ever?
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| Mike Trout and Bryce Harper won Rookie of the Year in their respective leagues. (US Presswire) |
Is Trout the greatest rookie ever?
It's not exactly uncommon to be excited about the future when the Rookie of the Year winners are announced -- it's part of their charm. Although the voting is done on what a rookie did that season and not what he's expected to become, there's always some optimism toward the Rookie of the Year, whether it's Bob Hamelin or Albert Pujols.
This year, though, there may be even more, because we saw one of the greatest rookie seasons of all time and the debut of perhaps the most hyped prospect of all time. Both Mike Trout and Bryce Harper delivered, and they did so in historic fashion.
Although WAR certainly has its detractors, and there's a difference between WAR for hitters and pitchers, it's not exactly apples and oranges, more like grapefruit and oranges -- they're both citrus fruits. Still, it's a fun exercise. Trout's 10.7 WAR (the Baseball-Reference.com version) was one of the best seasons in baseball history, so it's no surprise he and Harper combined for the best total WAR for a pair of Rookie of the Year winners in baseball history. Harper's 5.0 WAR was the best among National League rookies, bettering second-place finisher Wade Miley (3.2) and third-place Todd Frazier (1.9).
Here are the top 10 Rookie of the Year combos:
| Best combined rookie seasons | |||||
| Baseball-Reference.com wins above replacement used | |||||
| Year | AL Rookie of the Year | WAR | NL Rookie of the Year | WAR | Combined WAR |
| 2012 | Mike Trout | 10.7 | Bryce Harper | 5.0 | 15.7 |
| 1964 | Tony Oliva | 6.6 | Dick Allen | 8.5 | 15.1 |
| 2001 | Ichiro Suzuki | 7.5 | Albert Pujols | 6.3 | 13.8 |
| 1975 | Fred Lynn | 7.1 | John Montefusco | 6.2 | 13.3 |
| 1976 | Mark Fidrych | 9.3 | Butch Metzger/Pat Zachry | 1.3/3.4 | 12.7* |
| 1993 | Tim Salmon | 4.9 | Mike Piazza | 6.8 | 11.7 |
| 1984 | Alvin Davis | 5.7 | Dwight Gooden | 5.4 | 11.1 |
| 1997 | Nomar Garciaparra | 6.5 | Scott Rolen | 4.3 | 10.8 |
| 1968 | Stan Bahnsen | 5.4 | Johnny Bench | 4.9 | 10.3 |
| 1970 | Thurman Munson | 5.3 | Carl Morton | 3.8 | 9.1 |
| *In the event of a tie, the better WAR among the two tied players was used | |||||
Those, however, are just the single-season WAR numbers, which is all we really have to judge either Trout or Harper at this point. The future, though, seems bright. There are 14 former Rookie of the Year winners in the Hall of Fame, and there are three years in which both Rookie of the Year winners eventually were enshrined in Cooperstown -- 1956 (Luis Aparicio and Frank Robinson), 1967 (Rod Carew and Tom Seaver) and 1977 (Eddie Murray and Andre Dawson), plus another that at this point looks like it will join those three great years for rookies in 2001 (Ichiro Suzuki and Albert Pujols).
More recent vintage seasons that look like they have had two very successful players win Rookie of the Year included 2006 (Justin Verlander and Hanley Ramirez) and 2007 (Dustin Pedroia and Ryan Braun).
Oh, and just for fun, here's your bottom-10 combos:
| Worst combined rookie seasons | |||||
| Baseball-Reference.com wins above replacement used | |||||
| Year | AL Rookie of the Year | WAR | NL Rookie of the Year | WAR | Combined WAR |
| 1980 | Joe Charboneau | 2.2 | Steve Howe | 0.3 | 2.5 |
| 1958 | Albie Pearson | 0.6 | Orlando Cepeda | 2.7 | 3.3 |
| 1971 | Chris Chambliss | 0.3 | Earl Williams | 3.0 | 3.3 |
| 1962 | Tom Tresh | 4.1 | Ken Hubbs | -0.3 | 3.8 |
| 1996 | Derek Jeter | 3.0 | Todd Hollandsworth | 0.9 | 3.9 |
| 1983 | Ron Kittle | 1.6 | Darryl Strawberry | 2.4 | 4.0 |
| 1994 | Bob Hamelin | 2.4 | Raul Mondesi | 1.6 | 4.0 |
| 1959 | Bob Allison | 1.1 | Willie McCovey | 3.0 | 4.1 |
| 1961 | Don Schwall | 3.4 | Billy Williams | 0.8 | 4.2 |
| 1992 | Pat Listach | 4.2 | Eric Karros | 0.2 | 4.4 |
| *In the event of a tie, the better WAR among the two tied players was used | |||||
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Trout's bomb
