By Dominic Capone
Rookies are the future of baseball. With every at-bat and defensive opportunity, they are being analyzed and scouted. Teams, media and fans want to see if they are the next Mike Trout or Bryce Harper, a homegrown talent that has emerged as one of the best in baseball. In recent years, one of the best rookie classes was in 2015: Kris Bryant, Francisco Lindor, Noah Syndergaard, Carlos Correa and many more. Two years removed, we now look at the 2017 rookie class in astonishment as they continue to power their way to the record books.
The two poster boys for this year’s rookie class, Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger, have both broken many records this year. Aaron Judge hit his 50th home run on Monday, passing Mark McGwire for the rookie home run record. Judge also joined Ted Williams as the only rookies ever with at least 100 runs, 100 walks and 100 runs batted in in their rookie campaign. Judge has put together one of the best rookie season in baseball history and arguably the greatest first half in history. At the break, he was hitting .329 with 30 home runs and 66 RBIs. Despite the slump in the second half, he has bounced back, batting .286 with 13 homers in September.
Cody Bellinger holds the most home runs in a debut season in MLB history with 39, as Aaron Judge and Mark McGwire both played sparingly in the year prior to their rookie season. Bellinger wasn’t a guy who you would expect this kind of production from this quickly, just ask him.
“A September call-up,” Bellinger said when asked what his expectations were for this season. “That was the goal in spring training. Obviously I wanted to be up here earlier. But to be honest, with the team that we had I just didn’t think there was a chance. Everything else that came this year has been crazy.”
Bellinger has helped propel the Dodgers into the playoffs as they look to win their first World Series since 1988.
With Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger stealing the limelight, many unknown rookies have made a name for themselves as well. The Philadelphia Phillies’ Rhys Hoskins has been crushing the ball since being called up. He has been hitting home runs at a rapid pace and has been one of the fastest players to reach certain home run milestones in his rookie year. He became the fastest player in history to hit 11 home runs, doing so in only 18 games and 64 at-bats. He also won NL Rookie of the Month in August.
This rookie class has also seen a lot of young talent like Andrew Benintendi and Rafael Devers of the Boston Red Sox, Clint Frazier and Jordan Montgomery of the New York Yankees, Mets’ shortstop Amed Rosario and White Sox second basemen Yoan Moncada.
With these young stars shining all over the league, you can make a case that they make up one of the best rookie classes in recent memory. Obviously, we have to wait to see what their future holds and we know that anything can happen. These rookies are going to try their best to avoid names like Kevin Maas who went on a tear similar to these young stars and then never performed the same again. It is extremely doubtful that these rookies will all end up with very successful careers, but hey, who knows?
