Florida Marlins Chris Coghlan Wins National League Rookie Of The Year

Diamond Stud

Florida Marlins outfielder Chris Coghlan won the 2009 National League Rookie of the Year award. J.A. Happ pitcher of the Phildelphia Phillies finished second in the voting, which was carried out by selected members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

Coghlan’s victory continues the Marlins’ streak of three: three winners in club history, with each coming in three-year spans. It started with Dontrelle Willis winning the Rookie of the Year Award in 2003, continued with Hanley Ramirez, the best shortstop in the Major Leagues, claiming the honor in ’06, and now the torch has been passed to Coghlan.

Coghlan finished his first pro season batting .321 with nine homers, 47 RBIs and eight stolen bases in 128 games. Indirectly because another one of the Marlins’ highly touted young players, Cameron Maybin, wasn’t producing consistently in the Major Leagues, Coghlan was called up from Triple-A New Orleans on May 8 and never really gave the team a chance to take him out of the lineup.

He was playing a position he’s never played before – left field – while hitting out of a lineup spot he wasn’t used to – leadoff – but he performed at each like a seasoned pro.

Coghlan posted back-to-back 47-hit months becoming the first NL player with 94 hits in a two-month span since 1978, finishing sixth in the NL in batting average and led senior-circuit rookies in runs (84), hits (162), total bases (232), doubles (31) and on-base percentage (.390).

His batting average was the highest by a Marlins rookie, easily topping the .292 clips Ramirez and Jeff Conine hit at.

From the All-Star Game until the end of the regular season, Coghlan helped keep the low-payroll Marlins in contention with a Major League-leading 113 hits – 11 more than Yankees captain Derek Jeter – and added a .372 batting average – 14 points higher than eventual American League batting champion Joe Mauer. Coghlan’s hits total in the second half matched Juan Pierre in ’04 for the franchise record and is the most in the Majors since 1965.

In what turned out to be a great year for the rookies you couldn’t go wrong with any of the top 5 vote getter. There were so many rookies who had great years.