Offseason Awards: Rookie of the Year

There were a handful of rookies that came up this year for the Dodgers, but only three really made an impact. Here are your nominees for Rookie of the Year:

Clayton Kershaw
-Kershaw debuted May 25th and had a strong six inning outing against the St. Louis Cardinals. He appeared in 22 games in 2008, going 5-5 with a 4.26 ERA, striking out 100 batters in 107.2 innings. His best outing came on August 7th, in St. Louis, when he gave up one run over seven innings while striking out seven.

Cory Wade
-Wade got called up and made his first appearance April 25th. He brought his ERA down from 3.00 to 2.35 on May 9th, and from that point until the end of the season, his ERA never cracked 3.00 again. He went 2-1 with a 2.27 ERA in 55 games in his rookie season.

Blake DeWitt
-DeWitt won the starting 3rd base job by default coming out of Spring Training, but showed he had some staying power. By the end of a terrific May, DeWitt was batting .303 with five homeruns and 29 RBIs. He settled down after that, but finished 2008 batting .264, with nine homeruns and 52 RBIs and started over 100 games combined at both 2nd and 3rd base.




...and the Rookie of the Year is...

Cory Wade

Blake DeWitt was all the rage for the first couple months, and he was important, don't get me wrong, but he seriously faded after that. Clayton Kershaw was hyped up, and while he wasn't lights out, he was still impressive.

However, Cory Wade received no hype but was quietly one of the best and most consistent members on the pitching staff. He settled right into the bullpen and pitched like a multi-year veteran. He might not have the most brilliant career of the three players mentioned here, but if you want to talk about who had the best year this year, it was Cory Wade.

There you have it, Cory Wade, "J's Dodger Blog 2008 Rookie of the Year."