Baseball's Best Rookie Hitters: Danny Espinosa, Darwin Barney Among Top Freshmen

By Rob Neyer - National Baseball Editor

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Jun 1, 2011 - As we saw a couple of weeks ago (and saw again last night), there are some some truly impressive rookie pitchers hurling in the majors this season.

Just getting this out of the way ... This has not been a good season for rookie hitters. Doesn't mean it won't be. But to this point it's not been.

For one thing, only four rookies -- Darwin Barney, Freddie Freeman, Mark Trumbo and Danny Espinosa -- have played often enough to qualify for the percentage categories. For another, none of those four have played well enough to show up on any of those lists.

Granted, Barney's .310 batting average does place him 14th on the National League list. But Barney's walked only seven times all season, and homered just once. Leaving him with a 723 OPS that's just 52nd best in the league.

There aren't any OPS "rules" ... but the simplistic eyeball test looks for an 8. Just as .300 is a good benchmark for batting average, .350's good for on-base percentage and .450's good for slugging percentage, 800 is a simple barometer for OPS.

None of the four rookies listed above have an 800-plus OPS. Trumbo's the closest (778), but he's a first baseman so has the least valid excuse for a sub-800 OPS.

Looking a little deeper, we find

• Chicago White Sox third baseman Brent Morel, who has drawn one walk in 37 games;
• Arizona Diamondbacks first baseman Juan Miranda, who's been fantastic but has played only half the time while Kirk Gibson tried to figure out which of his eight first basemen deserved to play more than half the time; and
• Cardinals third baseman Daniel Descalso, who would be in the minors if not for David Freese's injury, and has played so brilliantly that Tony La Russa has actually deployed Albert Pujols to third base a couple of times (so far).
  

So like it or not, when sorting through the National League's best rookie hitters, our choices are essentially the four listed at the top, plus Blue Jays catcher J.P. Arencibia. That's five guys, none of whom look like serious Rookie of the Year candidates in their respective leagues.

But since you demanded it (or not), here are the rankings:

5. Freddie Freeman (Braves 1B, 748 OPS)
Freeman's only 21, hasn't been terribly overmatched, and still has an obviously sunny future. But his .265/.343/.405 line is obviously sub-standard for a first baseman, and is one of the reasons the Braves rank just 11th in the National League in scoring. If the Braves are going to improve, they'll need a healthy Jason Heyward and a productive Freddie Freeman.

4. Mark Trumbo (Angels 1B, 778)
Trumbo wasn't supposed to be in this position. Trumbo was just supposed to hold down first base for the Angels until Kendrys Morales was ready to play. Except Morales still isn't ready to play and nobody's sure when he will be ready to play. Which means Mark Trumbo's getting his big chance. He's sort of flubbed it, with a .306 on-base percentage. Granted, his 28 RBI rank second on the club, and the Angels are presumably happy to have him.

3. Darwin Barney (Cubs 2B, 723)
Barney does lead all major-league rookies in runs, hits, and batting average. And while his defense doesn't show well in the numbers, it's early and he's got an excellent reputation with the glove. He's also on pace for 21 walks all season, not a good number for a hitter who's also on pace for 33 extra-base hits.

2. J.P Arencibia (Blue Jays C, 816)
Arencibia hasn't played quite enough to qualify for percentage rankings, but he's close and also he's a catcher and only four catchers in the whole of Major League Baseball have played enough to qualify for the percentage rankings. Among all catchers, Arencibia's tied for third with eight home runs and fourth with 26 RBI. Oh, and Arencibia gets Bonus Fun Points for this freak stat: After stealing exactly zero bases in four professional seasons, he's stolen five bases already this season.

1. Danny Espinosa (Nationals 2B, 772)
No, that .217 batting average isn't pretty. But Espinosa does lead all rookies with 33 RBI, and 10 home runs for a fine-fielding second baseman is more than impressive.

So there they are, folks: Your 2011 class of rookie hitters, none of whom figure to excite the Rookie of the Year voters in four months. Keep an eye on Espinosa's batting average, though. And Arencibia's suddenly energetic legs.

Read More: Mark Trumbo (3B - ANA), Darwin Barney (2B - CHC), Freddie Freeman (1B - ATL), Danny Espinosa (2B - WAS)

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