ESPN disrespects Steven Kwan and the Cleveland Guardians

The Cleveland Guardians have the AL Rookie of the Year in Steven Kwan, even if no one else wants to admit it.

I don’t care about your advanced stats. I don’t care about your “WAR” or your “AXE” stats. Baseball is not hard. Does the guy hit the ball? He does. Does the guy hit the ball more often than other people? Yes. Does the guy walk more than he strikes out? Yes. That’s the better guy and believe me when I say this, Steven Kwan of the Cleveland Guardians is the best rookie going.

ESPN listed their Top 10 rookies and had Kwan sixth. I’ve never been more personally insulted in my life.

ESPN has AL players, Julio Rodriguez of Seattle, Adley Rutschman of Baltimore, and Jeremy Pena of Houston over Kwan, while NL players Spencer Strider and Michael Harris of Atlanta over Kwan as well.

And I don’t get how. Do the folks at ESPN just make up stats?

Steven Kwan is the Rookie of the Year for the AL

The over-reliance on power figures in these evaluations is the problem. It’s the only way you can say that man who has hit .334 in four of his five-month as a pro is somehow second to a .259 hitting catcher, and a .246 hitting shortstop.

While you have a better argument with guys like Harris and Rodriguez, you still can’t say they’re the better hitters. You can rant and rave about power numbers being important, and that’s fine, the Guardians have proven that to be a lie, but power-hitting doesn’t make you a better player. It makes you a different player.

Comparing a clean-up hitter and a lead-off hitter is like comparing a running back and receiver in the NFL, or a point guard and a center in the NBA. They do different things. They have different responsibilities. So pointing to power stats is largely irrelevant.

Both men swing a bat, one is more effective at getting on base. That’s the name of the game.

I can respect Rodriguez and pitcher Spencer Strider being in the conversation for best rookie of the year, but seeing some of these guys ahead of me just hurts my head because of how we evaluate rookies.

Not by actual stats, but by “advanced metrics” that ignore the eye test. I understand this isn’t my first Kwan-based rant, and it won’t be my last if the MLB screws the rightful rookie of the year out of the award.