Top 10 Rookie Hitters And Pitchers By VORP

Fantasy players love rookies for reasons that defy the player's actual production. With the traditonal bail post of Memorial Day fast approaching, here is a list ot the Top 10 rookies as measured by Baseball Prospectus' VORP:

Value Over Replacement Player. The number of runs contributed beyond what a replacement-level player at the same position would contribute if given the same percentage of team plate appearances. VORP scores do not consider the quality of a player's defense.

Why VORP and not SBs, HRs, RBIs, or AVG, categories that fantasy players really care about? Because VORP is not a fantasy category but a measure of real-life baseball contributions. Using it may give the fantasy player a better idea of which players will do well enough on the real diamond and thus be more likely to get playing time next year.

There are some rookies who have not played enough or played well enough to show up on a VORP Top 10, but that can be remedied by time. So don't bail early! "Hey, David Murphy was in the Top 10 rookie hitters by VORP. That is why I dealt for him instead of Evan Longoria."

Top 10 Rookie Hitters by VORP:

NAME	TEAM	OBP	SLG	VORP
Geovany Soto	CHN	0.422	0.614	20.4
Kosuke Fukudome	CHN	0.421	0.45	12.8
Blake Dewitt	LAN	0.391	0.513	12
Jacoby Ellsbury	BOS	0.377	0.396	10.9
Joey Votto	CIN	0.338	0.543	8.8
David Murphy	TEX	0.33	0.48	8.2
Gregor Blanco	ATL	0.421	0.359	5.4
Carlos Gomez	MIN	0.298	0.4	5.3
Ryan Sweeney	OAK	0.353	0.392	5.3
Ben Francisco	CLE	0.404	0.581	5.1

Top 10 Rookie Pitchers by VORP:

NAME	TEAM	OBP	SLG	VORP
Jair Jurrjens	ATL	3.31	0.282	15.4
John Lannan	WAS	3.23	0.308	12.1
James Johnson	BAL	3	0.164	10.9
Nick Blackburn	MIN	1.57	0.346	9.7
Aaron Laffey	CLE	1.69	0.214	9.7
Gregory Smith	OAK	3.26	0.265	9.6
Joey Devine	OAK	2.95	0.273	7.6
Hiroki Kuroda	LAN	2.67	0.277	6.8
Jesse Carlson	TOR	2.45	0.239	6.7
Kyle McClellan	SLN	3.32	0.306	6.6