What makes a rookie a rookie? The word itself is younger than baseball. The Oxford English Dictionary’s first reference to a rookie comes from 1868. It appears to have jumped from describing young police recruits and soldiers to being a moniker for baseball neophytes at some point in the early 1900s.
You probably know that Jackie Robinson was MLB’s first official Rookie of the Year in 1947. The award now bears his name. But did you know that at that time, rookie qualification was determined solely by ROY voters?
In the segregation-era 1940s, there was no chance that any voter was going to view Robinson’s time in the Negro American League with the Kansas City Monarchs as enough to disqualify him from rookie status.
But if a voter in 1947 had tried to make that claim and disqualify Robinson’s rookie status, no one could have pointed to a rule one way or another.
In 1950, Cleveland’s Al Rosen led the American League with 37 home runs. He earned MVP votes, but he didn’t get any Rookie of the Year votes. Voters decided his 58 at-bats over the previous three seasons were disqualifying. Red Sox first baseman Walt Dropo’s 44 at-bats the previous year weren’t viewed as a problem. Dropo was ROY.
As a bonus baby, Al Kaline spent the second half of the 1953 season on the Tigers’ roster but then finished third in 1954 ROY voting.
A few years later, Kaline wouldn’t have been eligible. In 1957, rookie qualifications were finally defined. Players could have no more than 75 at-bats, 45 innings or have been on an MLB roster between May 15 and Sept. 1 of any previous season. That rule seemed too restrictive, so it was rapidly changed to 90 at-bats, 45 innings or 45 days on an MLB roster before Sept. 1.
In 1971 it was changed again, to 130 at-bats, 50 innings or 45 days on the roster before Sept. 1. Even with clearly defined rules, there have still been issues.
A voter cast a ballot for Red Sox third baseman Frank Malzone in 1957, even though he had spent more than 45 days on the roster and had 123 at-bats over the previous two seasons.
Reds righthander Edinson Volquez somehow finished fourth in the National League ROY voting in 2008—he received three second-place votes—even though he had made 17 starts and pitched 80 innings for the Rangers over the previous three seasons. That’s not a rookie by any logical standard, and it happened in the age of Baseball-Reference.
As editor-in-chief of Baseball America, I’ve probably spent more time than I’d like thinking about this. That’s because this issue begins our 43rd year of ranking the top prospects in each organization. And like we have for the previous 42 editions of Top 10 Prospects, we will use a straightforward criteria for determining which “rookies” are prospect-eligible.
Going back to the first run of Top 10s in 1983, BA founding editor Allan Simpson determined prospect eligibility by using rookie playing-time standards: no more than 130 at-bats or 50 innings in a player’s MLB career.
Simpson left out the 45 days of active MLB service requirement, because at that time there was no way to compile it. The American and National leagues published their annual “Red Book” and “Green Book” official record books—which sometimes included lists of players with updated rookie status—but those volumes were published long after BA began reporting and writing its Top 10s.
Since then, BA has added one more criterion for prospect eligibility. A pitcher must not exceed 30 career MLB relief appearances. We call that the Daniel Bard Rule. Bard spent five months in 2009 on Boston’s big league roster, but he threw just 49.1 innings over 49 appearances. It seemed silly to deem him a prospect.
For our 2024 prospect lists, we stopped ranking “foreign professionals,” who are defined by MLB as ...
You probably know that Jackie Robinson was MLB’s first official Rookie of the Year in 1947. The award now bears his name. But did you know that at that time, rookie qualification was determined solely by ROY voters?
In the segregation-era 1940s, there was no chance that any voter was going to view Robinson’s time in the Negro American League with the Kansas City Monarchs as enough to disqualify him from rookie status.
But if a voter in 1947 had tried to make that claim and disqualify Robinson’s rookie status, no one could have pointed to a rule one way or another.
In 1950, Cleveland’s Al Rosen led the American League with 37 home runs. He earned MVP votes, but he didn’t get any Rookie of the Year votes. Voters decided his 58 at-bats over the previous three seasons were disqualifying. Red Sox first baseman Walt Dropo’s 44 at-bats the previous year weren’t viewed as a problem. Dropo was ROY.
As a bonus baby, Al Kaline spent the second half of the 1953 season on the Tigers’ roster but then finished third in 1954 ROY voting.
A few years later, Kaline wouldn’t have been eligible. In 1957, rookie qualifications were finally defined. Players could have no more than 75 at-bats, 45 innings or have been on an MLB roster between May 15 and Sept. 1 of any previous season. That rule seemed too restrictive, so it was rapidly changed to 90 at-bats, 45 innings or 45 days on an MLB roster before Sept. 1.
In 1971 it was changed again, to 130 at-bats, 50 innings or 45 days on the roster before Sept. 1. Even with clearly defined rules, there have still been issues.
A voter cast a ballot for Red Sox third baseman Frank Malzone in 1957, even though he had spent more than 45 days on the roster and had 123 at-bats over the previous two seasons.
Reds righthander Edinson Volquez somehow finished fourth in the National League ROY voting in 2008—he received three second-place votes—even though he had made 17 starts and pitched 80 innings for the Rangers over the previous three seasons. That’s not a rookie by any logical standard, and it happened in the age of Baseball-Reference.
As editor-in-chief of Baseball America, I’ve probably spent more time than I’d like thinking about this. That’s because this issue begins our 43rd year of ranking the top prospects in each organization. And like we have for the previous 42 editions of Top 10 Prospects, we will use a straightforward criteria for determining which “rookies” are prospect-eligible.
Going back to the first run of Top 10s in 1983, BA founding editor Allan Simpson determined prospect eligibility by using rookie playing-time standards: no more than 130 at-bats or 50 innings in a player’s MLB career.
Simpson left out the 45 days of active MLB service requirement, because at that time there was no way to compile it. The American and National leagues published their annual “Red Book” and “Green Book” official record books—which sometimes included lists of players with updated rookie status—but those volumes were published long after BA began reporting and writing its Top 10s.
Since then, BA has added one more criterion for prospect eligibility. A pitcher must not exceed 30 career MLB relief appearances. We call that the Daniel Bard Rule. Bard spent five months in 2009 on Boston’s big league roster, but he threw just 49.1 innings over 49 appearances. It seemed silly to deem him a prospect.
For our 2024 prospect lists, we stopped ranking “foreign professionals,” who are defined by MLB as ...
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Baseball America (Digital) - 1 Issue, November 2024