Atlanta Braves’ Craig Kimbrel wins 2011 National League Rookie of the Year Award – MLB News
The Atlanta Braves’ closer Craig Kimbrel won the National League Rookie of the Year Award. Kimbrel became the first Braves to get an Award since the Rafael Furcal received it in 2000.
Kimbrel got the award with a unanimous decision by the 32 first place votes in balloting by the Baseball Writers Association of America. He got a total of 160 points in BBWAA balloting leaving behind his team-mate Freddie Freeman. Freeman won 21 second-place
votes and 70 points to be placed at the second position.
Freeman, who launched 21 home-runs and 76 RBIs with a .282 batting average, was also burly throughout the season. It is for the first time in the National League that two team-mates finished first and second in the NL Rookie voting since the Chicago Cubs’
out-fielders Jerome Walton and Dwight Smith did it in 1989.
All the 32 vote casters were forced to support the player because of his exceptional performance that he had in the 2011 regular season by the 23-year-old rookie. He set a Major League Baseball record for rookie getting 46 saves. He tied with Milwaukee Brewers’
John Axford for the National League lead in saves.
Getting a unanimous nomination placed Kimbrel with players like Albert Pujols and Rafael Furcal. Kimbrel also became the 10th rookie to be nominated unanimously and first since Albert Pujols was nominated in 2001. Kimbrel is now the seventh player
from the Braves to win the Award since their start in 1947.
"It definitely did surprise me," he said during a conference call from his vacation in Hawaii. "I expected it to be close."
The hard throwing 23-year-old Kimbrel overpowered throughout the season with his unexpected sinkers and changeups. He struck-out 127 batters in 77 innings and he threw 38 straight mid-season games without permitting any run. In a wild card race, Kimbrel
allowed a game-tying run in the ninth inning against the Philadelphia Phillies which then won the game in the 13th inning, putting the Braves into a close competition with the St. Louis Cardinals in the post-season race.
"I'm going to get over it, but I'm not going to forget it," he said. "I need to fix it."
Vance Worley of Philadelphia Phillies got the third position while the Washington Nationals’ catcher Wilson Ramos was on the fourth place. Kimbrel was also in the Big League in 2010, when he played 21 games, but was still eligible for the Rookie position.
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