No Brainers: Rookie of the Year Awards

"We're #2. We Try Harder." --Avis Car Rental 's longtime slogan.

Washington's center fielder, rookie Trea Turner, is hitting .345 with 12 homers. He's swiped 27 of 31 bases in less than half a season of work. His .338 TAv describes his entire offensive output scaled to batting average.

So is he the NL Rookie of the Year?

Not no. Hell no.

Corey Seager has owned the game in his inaugural season. The Dodger shortstop is the team MVP with his .316 average and 25 homers in 147 games.

Apologies to Aledmys Diaz and Trevor Story, but Seager, with a .330 TAv over a full season, should be the unanimous NL Rookie of the Year.

Over in the American League , Indians first-year centerfielder Tyler Naquin is tearing up opposing arms with a .300/.371/.535 in 107 games. But he's not the AL Rookie of the Year. For that he can thank Alex Rodriguez.

The departure of old, broken down ARod has given the re-issued, best-player-in-the-game ARod an opportunity to shine. 

So in his first 43 MLB games, Yankee catcher Gary Sanchez is hitting .337/.409/.725 and dragging the Bombers into the playoff race. He's reached 19 home runs faster than any player in baseball history, which goes back more than 100 years before Sanchez's parents were born.

Willie McCovey won the ROY award in 1959 by slamming 13 homers in just 52 games from the first base position. If he plays every remaining game, Sanchez will reach 54 games, and unless the magic dust suddenly wears off, he will join McCovey's on that list.

And that could work out well. McCovey hit another 508 dingers in his career, earned VIP status in a quaint upstate New York village and got a prominent cove named for him.