Phillies Notebook: Case for Giles as NL Rookie of Year

MIAMI - It was 7 years ago, so it was difficult for him to recall off the cuff, but Kyle Kendrick said he wasn't sure where he finished in the National League Rookie of the Year voting in the fall of 2007.

He finished fifth, behind Ryan Braun (the winner), Troy Tulowitzki, Hunter Pence and Arizona outfielder Chris Young.

Kendrick was asked that question yesterday afternoon because there's a member of the Phillies pitching staff who should garner votes when members of the Baseball Writers Association of America fill out their ballots this week.

Even though non-closing relief pitchers are regularly ignored (although managers have started to look at them more for All-Star nods), Ken Giles is more than deserving of attention from BBWAA voters, according to Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg.

"Dominating," Sandberg said. "If he could have done it for one more month to add to it, been on that pace, to me he'd be a leading candidate."

The leading candidate, at least if you read up on such things, is Mets starter Jacob deGrom. The New York righthander, who arrived in the big leagues a month earlier than Giles, in mid-May, recently finished his season at 9-6 with a 2.63 ERA and 1.13 WHIP in 22 starts.

Beyond de Grom, it has not been a strong year for rookies - nowhere near as strong as Kendrick's class of '07.

Among NL rookie hitters with at least 350 plate appearances entering play yesterday, Arizona's David Peralta (.286, 7 home runs) has the best OPS (.766). Cincinnati's Billy Hamilton is an exciting player, but his numbers are far from perfect: .250, .292 OBP, .648 OPS, 56-for-79 in stolen-base attempts.

An educated guess: DeGrom and Hamilton will finish 1-2 in the voting, since each has received a healthy heaping of fanfare from national media. Voters, however, must list three names on their ballots.

Giles probably should show up on a lot of those ballots.

Among NL rookie pitchers with at least 40 innings, the 24-year-old Giles ranks first in ERA (1.21) and WHIP (0.78). And he's a good ways in front of his fellow rookies in both of those categories (Chicago's Neil Ramirez in second in both, with a 1.51 ERA and 1.08 WHIP).

The only rookie reliever with more strikeouts than Giles (63 Ks) is the Mets' Jeurys Familia (71). But Familia also has pitched in 30 more games than Giles.

Giles' strikeout numbers aren't just impressive when compared to fellow rookies; they're among the best among all pitchers in baseball this season.

Giles' 12.69 strikeout rate is fourth in the NL among pitchers with at least 40 innings, behind Aroldis Chapman, Kenley Jansen and Craig Kimbrel - arguably the top three closers in the game. (Interestingly, fellow Phillies reliever Jake Diekman ranks fifth.) Among MLB pitchers, Giles' strikeout rate ranks 12th.

Giles has struck out 63 of the 162 batters he's faced (38.9 percent). Only Chapman (52.1 percent) has struck out more batters more often among NL relievers.

Giles hasn't allowed a run in 38 of his 43 games. His strikeout-to-walk rate of 5.73 ranks seventh in the NL; among the pitchers in front of him is Cliff Lee (6.00).

"Not only important [to our bullpen], but he's been dominant," Sandberg said of his rookie righthanded setup man.

When the short conversation with Kendrick came to an end yesterday, he realized he was the top vote-getter among pitchers in the 2007 NL ROY voting. Suddenly, the voting results he had forgotten about had become more memorable.

Perhaps Giles will be able to say the same thing in a few years.

The last Phillies player to finish among the top three in the ROY voting was J.A. Happ. who finished second to Florida's Chris Coghlan in 2009. Happ went 12-4 with a 2.63 ERA and 1.23 WHIP in 35 games (23 starts) for the NL champion Phillies.

Ryan Howard went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts in yesterday's 6-4 loss to the Miami Marlins. It was the 25th four-strikeout game of Howard's career, extending his own major league record. Howard has a major league-high 188 strikeouts this season. Howard is hitting .172 (11-for-64) with 30 strikeouts in 75 plate appearances in September . . . Ben Revere (2-for-4, 2 runs) stole his 48th base of the season. He is two stolen bases shy of becoming the first Phillies player to reach 50 since current first-base coach Juan Samuel stole 53 bases in 1985. At the conclusion of Thursday's game, Revere was third in the National League in stolen bases and tied for fourth in hitting with San Francisco's Buster Posey (.308) . . . Jerome Williams (6-7, 4.71 ERA) will take the ball when the Phillies return home tonight to begin the final series of the season at Citizens Bank Park against the Atlanta Braves. Williams has not allowed an earned run in each of his last two starts and has yielded two runs or fewer in six of his eight starts with the Phillies.