Trey Mancini Can’t Get No Respect
The Rookie of the Year award won’t be announced until after the post-season, but we’re already getting a little preemptively defensive. Look, we accept the fact that the enormous tree trunk in pinstripes named Aaron Judge is going to win Rookie of the Year and, in fact, we’re okay with that. The guy is a freak of nature. But Trey better come in second, or at worst, third—or heads are going to roll. And we have reason to be concerned. A few weeks ago mlb.com came out with a list of the top rookies, based on long term prospects. The story listed the Top 15 and then had 15 honorable mentions. We scanned the top 15, annoyed that Mancini’s name didn’t appear on the list. Honorable mention was a slap in the face to our boy. Except here’s the thing….HE WASN’T EVEN AMONG THE HONORABLE MENTIONS! And before you ask, yes, the list was written this September. Based on a snub like that, we naturally have our hackles up about the RoTY vote. Take a look at these stats: Mancini has the most hits of any AL rookie—yes, including Judge—and the second highest batting average. He also has more home runs than Houston’s Yuli Gurriel, arguably his toughest competition for second place. Another note: Both Gurriel and Judge played for winning teams. Trey? Not so much. It’s much harder to sustain his level of excellence on…let’s charitably call it a mediocre team. Bottom line: When it comes to Trey’s incredibly rookie year, we will accept second or third place and nothing less. Got that, voters?
John Harbaugh Pays Tribute to Tom Petty.
The coach, a huge fan of the rock star who died on Monday, said that the Ravens official song for this week’s game against the Raiders will be “Won’t Back Down.” After two shaky games in a row, sounds like it should be the season’s theme song.
Time To Start Tweeting Nice Things About The Ravens
Check this out. Some Ravens superfan named Ben Jett tweeted the following about his favorite player, Eric Weddles:
@weddlesbeard I've been a @Ravens fan my whole life..you're by far one of my favorite players! Thanks for being a great leader! #classydude — Ben Jett (@benjaminjett) September 28, 2017
The Ravens wrote back and told Ben to “check his DMs.” (DMs = Direct Messages for those who are Twitter impaired.) Squee! Fast forward a few days later and the kid received a signed football and a letter from the Ravens. (BRB, running off to tweet about how much I love Justin Tucker)
Thank you so much @Ravens and @weddlesbeard for my signed football and letter! I will cherish this forever! #ravensnation pic.twitter.com/7Xw8WDz3xP — Ben Jett (@benjaminjett) October 3, 2017
Ravens Bitmojis Are Here!
Knock yourselves out.
An earlier version of this story contained an outdated reference to a Brooks Robinson auction. Baltimore regrets the error.