Rookie of the year
The Bucco drought continues
Last Updated 16 November 1999

The 1999 Rookie of the Year (ROY) votes are in, and the Bucco drought continues. A Pirate player has never won the award. Bill Virdon won the ROY in 1955 with the Cardinals and moved to the Bucs in 1956. Some Bucco Rookies have come close (or been named by organizations other than the BBWAA), but since the award was initiated in 1947, no Pirate player has finished first in the BBWAA balloting.

Here's the 1999 BBWAA vote:
The Bucs' drought in the Rookie of the Year balloting continues; although the Bucs had two players grab votes, the Bucs winless streak in the ROY award continues.
Player 1st Place 2nd Place 3rd Place Total
1. Scott Williamson, P Cinci 17 9 6 118
2. Preston Wilson, OF Fla 9 11 10 88
3. Warren Morris, 2B Pit 6 10 9 69
4. Kris Benson, P Pit 0 1 2 5
Here's the 1997 BBWAA vote:
The Bucs' drought in the Rookie of the Year balloting continues; although the Bucs had three players grab votes, the Bucs winless streak in the ROY award continues.
Player 1st Place 2nd Place 3rd Place Total
1. Scott Rolen, 3B Phila 28 0 0 140
2. Livan Hernandez, P Fla 0 8 1 25
3. Matt Morris, P StL 0 7 4 25
4. Rich Loiselle, P Pit 0 4 10 22
...7. Jose Guillen, OF Pit 0 1 1 4
...10. Tony Womack, 2B Pit 0 1 0 3
Here's the 1996 BBWAA vote:
Player 1st Place 2nd Place 3rd Place Total
Todd Hollandsworth 15 9 3 105
Edgar Renteria 10 10 4 84
Jason Kendall 1 5 10 30
The Bucs' Kendall finished third. The good news is that Jason was selected by The Sporting News as their National League Rookie of the Year.
Congratulations to Jason for a successful rookie campaign and his selection as TSN's Rookie of the Year.
David Kaleida (dkaleida@ix.netcom.com) posted this to the Pirate e-mail list on April 2, 1996. I have edited it and posted it here with his permission.
Well, all this talk made me curious so I busted out my copy of Complete Baseball and searched for all Pirates who had gotten ROY votes. 1995 is not included because the CD was published before then. Anyone who knows any Bucs who received votes that year please post them. Any other year which does not appear means Pittsburgh had no players who got votes. 
Year    Top Pirate-place    Winner
1993    Al Martin-6th       Mike Piazza       Carlos Garcia-10th          Steve Cooke-12th    
1992    Tim Wakefield-3rd   Eric Karros       (Moises Alou-2nd)
1991    Orlando Merced-2nd  Jeff Bagwell
1987    Mike Dunne-2nd      Benito Santiago
1986    Barry Bonds-6th     Todd Worrell
1985    Joe Orsulak-7th     Vince Coleman
1983    Jose DeLeon-8th     Darryl Strawberry
1982    Johnny Ray-2nd      Steve Sax
1981    Tony Pena-6th       Fernando Valenzuela
1978    Don Robinson-3rd    Bob Horner
1973    Richie Zisk-9th     Gary Mathews
1969    Al Oliver-3rd       Ted Sizemore
1962    Donn Clendenon-2nd  Ken Hubbs
1952    Dick Groat-3rd      Joe Black
1950    Danny O'Connell-3rd Sam Jethroe
Only Johnny Ray in 1982 finished a close second (63-57) to the award winner. Note that the voting fluctuated wildly-some years as many as 12 players received votes some years as few as 2 or 3. (1962 was a 2 player year)
Breakdown:
1st place - 0
2nd place - 4
3rd place - 5
4th place - 0
5th place - 0
6th place - 3
7th place - 1
8th place - 1
9th place - 1
10th place - 1
11th place - 0
12th place - 1

I should also note that the way the voting is done has changed through the years. A lot more votes are cast now than were in the years after the award was started.
Charly Rhoades (charly@hal.com) added this note:

The Bucs have had a couple of close calls (including Orlando Merced's recent second-place showing to Jeff Bagwell in 1991).

Johnny Ray won the Sporting News' Rookie Player of the Year in 1982. (The Baseball Writers' Assoc chose Steve Sax that year for the more widely acknowledged NL ROY award.)

Also notable is in his rookie year of 1927, Lloyd Waner was voted in at 6th place for the NL MVP Citation (awarded by the NL not the Baseball Writers Assoc., which only started the MVP as we know it in 1931). This was evidently before there was a ROY award (started in 1947 with Jackie Robinson). Big brother, Big Poison won the MVP award in 1927.

Mike Emeigh (mwe@nomos.com) added this note:

Bill James did a rookie study in his 1987 abstract, which listed all of the top rookies in the time frame of the ROY through 1975. The Bucs' highest-rated rookie in the measuring system that James was using for that study was a pitcher named Bob Chesnes in 1948.

If you look since 1975 to the present, the Bucs have only had three rookies who contributed enough to be considered: Don Robinson in 1978 (who *was* the rookie PITCHER of the year according to TSN; Bob Horner was the ROY), Johnny Ray in 1982 (who won TSN's award and tied with Steve Sax, the *official* ROY, in James's 2B rankings), and Merced (Bagwell was ROY in '91). (Wakefield was TSN's rookie pitcher of the year in 1992, but there's no way you could consider a half-year pitcher when Karros contributed to LA all year). You could make a case for any of them, but none of them was a clear-cut ROY.

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