The Pittsburgh Pirates were a miserable ballclub in 2010, but Dejan Kovacevic used his power to try to shine a good light on an otherwise horrific season.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writer was one of 32 baseball writers to vote for the National League Rookie of the Year Award, and was also the only one to leave Braves rookie sensation Jason Heyward off his ballot. Instead, Kovacevic voted for Giants catcher Buster Posey (the eventual winner) in his No. 1 slot, then Pirates rookies Neil Walker and Jose Tabata in that order.
Walker (.811 OPS, 12 home runs) and Tabata (.746 OPS, 19 steals) both had solid freshman campaigns. However, neither exhibited the same kind of production as Heyward (.849 OPS, 18 homers), Marlins rookie Gaby Sanchez (led all rookies with 19 homers and 85 RBIs) or Cardinals rookie hurler Jaime Garcia (13-8, 2.70 ERA).
Kovacevic's voting, which appears to be based mostly on hometown favoritism, is just the latest example of shockingly awful voting for MLB awards. Last week, Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter was awarded (by coaches and managers) his fifth career Gold Glove, despite the fact that many analysts deem him one of the worst middle infielders in the game today.
