Detroit's Valencia Tops a Deep Rookie Class
The first-year players worth watching.
The kids get the column today. Eduardo Valencia has quietly outhit every other rookie, Munetaka Murakami keeps thumping homers in Chicago, and Tristan Peters is riding one loud week into the conversation. Here's the freshman board.
The rookie class
Top first-year players, hitters by OPS (minimum real playing time).
Eduardo Valencia leads the rookie hitters at a 1.032 OPS for Detroit, the only one in that group above the 1.000 mark, though his six homers say he does it with line drives more than thunder. Behind him, Munetaka Murakami brings the power on the White Sox with 29 home runs and an .865 OPS. On the mound, San Diego's Bradgley Rodriguez owns the best rookie ERA at 1.95.
Eduardo Valencia
Detroit Tigers1.032OPS rookie›AVG .333 · HR 6 · OPS 1.03217 RBI · 0 SBOPS1.032elite
Esmerlyn Valdez
Pittsburgh Pirates0.883OPS rookie›AVG .244 · HR 15 · OPS 0.88342 RBI · 0 SBOPS0.883above avg
Munetaka Murakami
Chicago White Sox0.865OPS rookie›AVG .222 · HR 29 · OPS 0.86558 RBI · 1 SBOPS0.865above avg
Rafael Flores Jr.Pittsburgh Pirates0.838OPS rookie›AVG .233 · HR 6 · OPS 0.83814 RBI · 0 SBOPS0.838above avg
TJ Rumfield
Colorado Rockies0.822OPS rookie›AVG .290 · HR 13 · OPS 0.82261 RBI · 0 SBOPS0.822above avg
Brandyn Garcia
Arizona Diamondbacks2.31ERA rookie›ERA 2.31 · WHIP 0.82 · IP 39GS 0 · 0 W · 46 KFORM90elite
Bradgley Rodriguez
San Diego Padres1.95ERA rookie›ERA 1.95 · WHIP 1.05 · IP 60GS 4 · 3 W · 65 KFORM85elite
Rookies breaking out
Rookies with the biggest OPS jump this week.
Tristan Peters had the week that mattered, his OPS jumping 65 points to .817 for the White Sox. The Cubs' Pedro Ramírez climbed too, up 41 points to .785.
Tristan PetersChicago White SoxOPS 0.752→0.817 (+0.065) rookie›AVG .282 · HR 12 · OPS 0.81752 RBI · 7 SBOPS0.817above avg
Pedro Ramírez
Chicago CubsOPS 0.744→0.785 (+0.041) rookie›AVG .285 · HR 4 · OPS 0.78524 RBI · 7 SBOPS0.785above avg
Stats via the MLB Stats API. Colors, form scores and power rankings are Baseball Lens's own.