2011 BBWAA NL Rookie of the Year: Craig Kimbrel

The Baseball Writers’ Association of America selected Craig Kimbrel as the 2011 National League Rookie of the Year.  Kimbrel, the Atlanta Braves’ freshman closer, was widely anticipated to take home the honor and the voting showed it as the flamethrower won in a unanimous decision.

Entering the season, Kimbrel took over as the leader of Atlanta’s bullpen.  The 23-year-old had an awesome showing to end 2010, and his success carried over to this year.  In his 79 appearances, Kimbrel maintained an ERA of 2.10 and a miniscule 1.039 WHIP.

Digging deeper, Kimbrel’s numbers just get better.  The right-hander held a 1.52 FIP and 1.94 xFIP, earning him a 3.2 fWAR which was the highest among all major league relievers.  Kimbrel tallied 46 saves, tying him for the top mark in the NL, second in the majors to only Jose Valverde (49).  Kimbrel’s most eye-popping stat, however, may be the 14.8 SO/9 the youngster managed over his 77 innings of work.

While Kimbrel won in a landslide, another Braves’ player finished second.  Freddie Freeman was nearly as impressive offensively as Kimbrel was on the mound.  Spending most of the 2011 season at the ripe age of 21, Freeman hit at a clip of .282/.346/.448 with 32 doubles, 21 home runs and 76 RBI’s over his 157 games played.

Phillies starting pitcher Vance Worley rounded out the top three.  The other five players receiving votes were Washington’s Wilson Ramos and Danny Espinosa, Arizona’s Josh Collmenter, Chicago’s Darwin Barney and Los Angeles’s Kenley Jansen.

During FanSided’s end of the year awards, our writers also selected Kimbrel followed by Freeman, Espinosa and Worley.