Two clear front-runners for the National League Rookie of the Year award have emerged through the first quarter of the season, St. Louis’s Shelby Miller and the Dodgers’ Hyun-Jin Ryu. Both started the season well. Ryu has had a couple rough outings and bounced back from them, and Miller has

Last year was a very good year for rookies. Mike Trout and Bryce Harper had obviously historic seasons, and Yoenis Cespedes, Yu Darvish and Norichika Aoki, among many others, impressed in their first seasons in Major League Baseball. This year’s rookie crop isn’t as star-heavy, but the members of the

Since coming up to replace Cincinnati ace Johnny Cueto a couple weeks ago Tony Cingrani has done a remarkable Cueto impersonation. The rookie lefthander has improved in each of his three outings this season, culminating with a stellar six-inning performance Sunday in Washington. He struck out 11 while walking only

Shelby Miller continued his hot start Monday night by shutting down the Washington Nationals with eight strikeouts and only two runs over 6.2 innings. Miller gave up only four hits and walked two, and even though his ERA went up to 2.16 we can take away nothing but positives from

Matt Adams is a big man. Matt Adams is a strong man. Matt Adams hits baseballs very, very far. His three homers in only five games and 18 at-bats this season have traveled an average of 417 feet. “The Mountain” is batting a ridiculous .611 this season with five extra-base

Shelby Miller made his first 2013 start Saturday in San Francisco, and while it wasn’t as good as his first major-league start last October he looked like he belonged in the majors while facing the world champs. Miller didn’t make it out of the sixth inning after walking Hunter Pence

Evan Fournier is a name you’d be wise to monitor down the final stretch run. The Nuggets under the radar 2012 first-round selection (#20 overall) has burst onto the scene over the past ten days on a suddenly crippled roster. In his last four games Fournier is averaging 14 points

Welcome to the first 2013 installment of the Rookie Report. Each week I’ll highlight a few rookies who have consistent playing time, see how they’ve done and try to predict what we’ll see from them in the future. Also, since the minor-league season just started today, starting next week I’ll

Recent NBA drafts have been dominated by that dreaded adjective — “potential”. Bradley Beal, for all his merits, did not fall under this high ceiling category.  The book on Beal was concrete: A+ character, fundamentally sound, tremendous shooting stroke, old-school shot distribution, good (but not great) athleticism and undersized. His

“Fear the Brow”. The Hornets drafted Anthony Davis at #1 with the full expectation of him developing into a franchise-changing talent. While the physical demands of the NBA would ensure rough concourse at times for the 19-year old, his freakish athleticism, length and mobility at 6’10 would bridge the strength