Not Happ-y With Rookie of the Year Award

J.A. Happ was the favorite to win the National League Rookie of the Year, however that wasn’t the case when the award was announced on Monday afternoon.

Florida Marlins outfielder Chris Coghlan beat out the Phillies left-hander by receiving 17 first place votes compared to Happ’s ten first place votes.

Final count: 105-94.

Coghlan hit .321 with nine home runs and 47 RBI in 128 games during his first season in the big leagues. After the All-Star break, the 24-year-old hit .370 with a MLB-leading 113 hits.

There are a lot of Phillies fans irate that Happ didn’t win the award, but his slow finish to the season didn’t help him out in the voting process. Awards are determined in late-September, not in June-July.

Happ finished the season with a 12-4 record with a 2.93 ERA in 166 innings. He led all rookies in innings pitched, strikeouts (119), ERA and complete games (5).

The 27-year-old didn’t have a strong finish to the season as he missed two starts in Sept. with a strained rib-cage, and had a 4.84 ERA in the last month of the regular season.

While I thought that Happ would come back down to earth, which he did, and that I would have parted ways with him to get Roy Halladay , he got snubbed with the Rookie of the Year voting.

I’m not taking anything away from Coghlan because he had a great season, and he was just as deserving, but Happ was arguably the Phillies’ best pitcher not named Cliff Lee .

Happ was a big part of the Phils winning their third straight division title, and making it to the World Series.

Okay, maybe he wasn’t that big of a piece during the postseason, but you get the point.

It stinks that he didn’t get it, but who really cares if he was given a trophy that is worthless. All that matters is that he pitches well on the field, and the Phillies win games. I don’t care about these awards too much.

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