Give Jurrjens the RotY

This was written Saturday morning, but for some reason it saved as a draft and didn't post. My bad.

Last night Jair Jurrjens was simply fantastic, shutting the Phillies DOWN in their own park through eight shutout innings. The Phillies managed just three singles off Jurrjens and Jair was economical with his pitches, throwing just 100 total, 62 for strikes. With the win Jurrjens is now 10-5 on the season with a 3.02 ERA and 92 strikeouts. To me, these numbers warrant Rookie of the Year consideration.
Let’s take a look at his “competition,” The Cubs sport two candidates in Geovany Soto and Kosuke Fukudome. The latter is NOT a rookie, even though this is his first year in the states. Fukudome played how many years in Japan before coming stateside? Plus his numbers, .275 average, 7 home runs, 36 RBI fail in comparison to his teammate Geovany Soto, aka the starting catcher for the National League all-star game this year. If you put Soto on the Arizona Diamondbacks, he would not be receiving the attention. True his .274 average, 17 homers and 58 RBI are somewhat impressive, but not when you look at what Brian McCann is doing with Atlanta. Soto should be on the ballot for Rookie of the Year, but it is only because of where he is playing. When I think of all-time Rookie Catchers, Mike Piazza comes to mind, and Soto is NO Piazza. Speaking of rookie catchers, JR Towles of Houston got some early season buzz, but he has since hit a wall and his numbers .142 average, 4 homers, 16 RBI show it.
Finally we move to Cincinnati, which has about 92 candidates. Outfielder Jay Bruce came up to the majors midseason and was untouchable. Then Sports Illustrated gave him the Francoeur treatment and Bruce subsequently went into the tank. Of his 7 home runs on the season, six came in the first two weeks and only last week did he hit his seventh, more than a month and a half without a long ball. Joey Votto was a popular preseason pick to take home the prize and his numbers are certainly better than Bruce’s (.272 v .266, 13 HR v 7, 44 RBI v 24 RBI) but the real competition for Jair Jurrjens on the Reds comes in the form of All-Star pitcher Edinson Volquez.
Volquez is 12-4 on the campaign with a 2.77 ERA and 134 Ks. His numbers are better than Jurrjens, but here is where I make the case for Jair. Volquez has had experience in two previous seasons, opposed to this being Jair’s first taste of the majors, and Volquez is 25 years old, compared to Jurrjens at only 22. One argument FOR Volquez is that his team has the better record at 50-54 vs. the Braves 49-53 and Volquez is unquestionably the Reds ace with the next highest win count on Cincinnati at 7. The Braves have Tim Hudson and his 11 wins over Jurrjens and Jair is clearly the team’s number 2 starter.
But all of that said, there is still plenty of time left in the year for Jurrjens to post a few more wins, and if the Braves CAN make a serious run at this thing, Jurrjens 15 wins with the last five coming in a divisional chase may be enough to put his past Volquez, who will just be pitching out the string. Keep that in mind voters, Volquez is pitching well, but on a team that isn’t going anywhere. That is like being the tallest smurf. Give it to Jair if the Braves make the playoffs.