MLB: Top five American League Rookie of the Year candidates
Michael Fulmer, pitcher, Detroit Tigers
Fulmer is in the midst of a great rookie season. He is sixth overall among pitchers in Baseball-Reference Wins Above Replacement with 4.8 – only Corey Kluber, Max Scherzer, Chris Sale, Cole Hamels and teammate Verlander are better. He has a 2.77 earned run average, 3.79 fielding independent pitching, 150 ERA+ and 3.20 strikeout-to-walk ratio, quality numbers all. There’s an argument he’s worthy of Cy Young Cy Young consideration.
Among AL rookies, he leads the pack in Fan Graphs WAR (his 2.5 fWAR is 21st overall), bWAR, ERA and is second in FIP. The numbers don’t sparkle quite the same, but Fulmer resembles New York Mets phenom Noah Syndergaard in some interesting ways.
Fulmer’s impressive season got tethered to a looming innings limit in the middle of the season. That limit may come in to play if the Tigers stick around in the playoff hunt. And considering they are creeping in on the Indians, the Tigers may face a difficult decision in the coming weeks. The team has skipped multiple of Fulmer’s turns in the rotation in order to keep his innings down, which means the Tigers might have avoided a Stephen Strasburg of 2012 debacle.
Fulmer is the closest thing to a leading candidate in this race. He leads AL rookies in innings pitched, so he’s had an impressive season, not just an impressive two or three months. Strong performance over a full season should trump three strong months.
Next: Pressed into service