MLB Rookie of the Year awards: No surprises as Geovany Soto, Evan Longoria win

November 7, 10:51 AMMLB ExaminerTony DeMarco

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 In two expected and extremely lopsided elections, Geovany Soto of the Chicago Cubs and Evan Longoria of the Tampa Bays Rays have been named the NL and AL Rookies of the Year by the Baseball Writers Association of America.

Longoria was a unanimous winner, receiving all 28 first-place votes. That is a rare feat, but rarely has a player with Longoria's package of talent come along. He led all major league rookies with 27 homers and a .531 slugging percentage, and led AL rookies 85 RBI, 60 extra-base hits and 238 total bases.

Longoria also drew raves for his defense at third base, and won the award despite missing 30 games due to a wrist fracture.

Soto hit .285 with 23 homers and 86 RBI to become the first catcher to win the NL award since Mike Piazza in 1993, and the first Cub since Kerry Wood in 1998. He received 31 first-place votes among the 32 ballots.

The 86 RBI led all major league rookies, his .504 slugging percentage was second among all catchers, and Soto won praise for his excellent handling of a Cubs staff that was third in the NL in ERA.  Soto also started behind the plate for the NL in the All-Star Game, and twice was voted the league's rookie of the month.

Cincinnati's Joey Votto got the other first-place vote in the NL balloting.

The rest of the awards schedule: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20081106&content_id=3669485&vkey=hotstove2008&fext=.jsp&partnerId=rss_mlb

Check out Examiner.com Rays and Cubs examiners: http://www.examiner.com/x-923-Tampa-Bay-Rays-Examiner; http://www.examiner.com/x-1553-Chicago-Cubs-Examiner~y2008m11d7-Cubs-unlikely-to-accept-Mark-Cubans-bid