Kuzul

Months before Stephen Strasburg‘s name (and elbow) was mentioned in the same sentence as Tommy John, the hype surrounding him and the anticipation of his arrival into Major League Baseball rivaled fans consumption of Fernandomania in the 1980s.

Strasburg set the bar so high for the 2010 rookie class that most casual fans missed out on a handful of first-year talent making their mark prior to K-Burg’s grand entrance in June.

In the National League, you had the amazing start for Cincinnati Reds pitcher Mike Leake, Atlanta’s Jason Heyward made the All-Star team and Buster Posey helped lead the Giants to the playoffs. In the American League, Detroit’s Austin Jackson made possibly the catch of the year and the Rangers’ Neftali Feliz was lights out in the closer’s role.

Thanks to Whatifsports.com’s MLB Dream Teams feature we were able to create a 2010 All-Rookies team, based on the statistical output and notoriety of the players, to face a collection of Rookies of the Year. We drafted ROY award winners over the past 15 years to construct a full roster.

Using our MLB simulation engine, we welcome the spirit of the playoffs and created a best-of-seven series to determine which team would win, the 2010 All-Rookies or past Rookies of the Year.

Stephen Strasburg had no issues with the Pittsburgh Pirates in his major league debut. He quickly learned in Game 1, this series wasn’t going to be a walk in the park.

The kid with a rocket for an arm only lasted 2.2 innings giving up three runs before they pulled the plug on him. Hanley Ramirez hit a two-run bomb in the second inning to push the Rookies of the Year up early. Baltimore’s Alfredo Simon would inherit one of Strasburg’s runners and allowed him to score to put the Rookies in a 3-0 hole.

Strasburg had a 1.35 K/IP in 2010, the highest in majors for rookie pitchers. Hideo Nomo was not impressed. The former Dodger ROY handcuffed the All-Rookies, going eight innings, allowing one run on six hits and struck out 15.

Ichiro and Dustin Pedroia each had an RBI in the fourth inning and an Albert Pujols RBI single in the seventh added insurance the ROY would not need.

The All-Rookies’ lone run came in the seventh inning off the bat of Neil Walker, who hit 12 dingers for the Pirates in 2010, a solo shot on this night.

It didn’t take long for the scoreboard to light up in Game 2 as current teammates squared off in the first.

Detroit’s Brennan Boesch cracked a two-out, two-run single to give the All-Rookies an early lead against current Tiger Justin Verlander.

Verlander lasted only five innings.

The ROY would cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the first when Albert Pujols followed up Ryan Howard’s triple with a double, driving in the Phillies’ franchise player.

With the ROY trailing 3-1 in the third, Howard would lead the offensive charge again. A solo dinger in the inning would cut the All-Rookies’ lead to one and then a fielder’s choice in the fifth would tie the game up at 3-3.

Hanley Ramirez continued to swing a hot bat and gave the ROY the lead for good with his second home run in as many games.

AL Rookie of the Year from 2009, Andrew Bailey, pitched a hitless 2.1 innings and got the win. Former Mariners closer, Kaz Sasaki got the save.

Down 2-0 in the series, the Rookies made some lineup changes to help wake up their offense. Alcides Escobar replaced Ian Desmond at SS and batted eighth. Brennan Boesch was bumped up to fifth in the lineup, and Danny Valencia started at 3B replacing Pedro Alvarez.

These changes paid off as the 2010 All-Rookies got their first win of the series, breaking out for nine runs on 14 hits. The Rookies also received a much-needed solid seven innings on the mound from Cardinals pitcher Jaime Garcia.

The Rookies found their power in this game hitting three homeruns—Buster Posey, Brennan Boesch and Neil Walker (his second of the series) all went deep.

Posey’s HR came in the first inning and was part of a 3-4, three RBI performance for the Giants catcher. Austin Jackson added three hits for the Rookies.

Former ROY, Jason Jennings, got rocked allowing six ERs on seven hits in 2.1 IP.

This was a much-needed win for the 2010 All-Rooks who now trail 2-1 in the best-of-seven series.

Mike Leake faced Kerry Wood in this pivotal Game 4. The connection between these two is they both debuted with Dusty Baker as their manager. Baker has had to answer a lot of questions about pitch counts throughout his career and perhaps hurt Wood’s arm due to overuse in Chicago. He was very cautious with Mike Leake in 2010 keeping his innings and pitches under strict watch.

Leake would not get any help in the second thanks to an Alcides Escobar throwing error allowing the ROY to take the early lead.

The Rookies would come back in the third when Jason Heyward crushed a Kerry Wood fastball to center field allowing Austin Jackson and Alcides Escobar to score giving the 2010 All-Rookies a 2-1 lead.

That lead quickly vanished with a solo homerun by the ROY’s Ryan Braun who made up for his two errors in this game.

Later, in the sixth inning, with Ryan Braun on second base, Kerry Wood helped out his own cause with a single to left allowing Braun to score to give them a 3-2 lead.

Leake ended up throwing 90 pitches through 5.1 in this game only allowing two earned runs.

The game would remain 3-2 until the ninth inning. Kaz Sasaki came in for the save. Boesch and Valencia went down swinging for two quick outs as the Rookies of the Year seemed poised to take a 3-1 series lead. However, Sasaki would walk Neil Walker and Escobar followed up with a bloop single that advanced the tying run to third base. Pedro Alvarez came in to pinch hit for the pitcher and drew a walk.

Huston Street would come in to replace Sasaki with two outs and the bases loaded.

It was Austin Jackson’s turn to play hero as he hit a line-drive single into center. Walker scored easily from third. Escobar was waved around from second, Ichiro’s throw was not in time and the 2010 All-Rookies walk off to victory and even the series at 2-2.

After losing two straight, the Rookies of the Year bounced back in a big way scoring 10 runs on 12 hits. Madison Bumgarner started for the 2010 Rookies and was rocked as was Hisinori Takahashi, who took over in the fifth. The two combined for five IP, nine hits and seven runs (six ERs). Not a great performance in a crucial Game 5.

On the other side, the Rookies of the Year’s pitching staff performed just as poorly. Dontrelle Willis started, but could not get out of the fifth inning either. Their bullpen struggled as well. Tim Worrell gave up a three-run bomb to the Marlins’ Gaby Sanchez in the eighth inning. All three runs were charged to reliever Andrew Bailey. Gaby’s homer tied the game at seven.

Orioles closer Alfredo Simon came on in the ninth for the All-Rooks and served up a three-run dinger to the Brewers’ Ryan Braun to hand the ROY a 10-7 lead.

Kaz Sasaki then entered redeeming himself with a lock-down ninth to pick up his second save of the series.

Buster Posey had his second three-hit game of the series going 3-6 with three RBI. In fact, the top four hitters for the 2010 All-Rookies (Jackson, Heyward, Posey and Sanchez) combined to go 10-19 with seven RBI, all of which comes in a losing effort.

The Rookies of the Year lead the series 3-2 heading into Game 6.

When it mattered the most, Hideo Nomo delivered for the Rookies of the Year.

The ROY received another phenomenal pitching performance from for the Dodgers ace. Nomo struck out 15 in Game 1 and followed that up with 12 Ks in Game 6.

Stephen Strasburg was a late scratch due to a shoulder injury. Arizona’s Daniel Hudson struggled in the spot-start situation. He allowed three runs in three innings of work.

Ryan Howard and Albert Pujols each hit a home run to help out the ROY’s offensive cause.

Nomo’s stuff was too much for the 2010 Rookies to handle. He was Player of the Game for Game 1 and Game 6 and also earns MVP of the series.

The Rookies of the Year win the best-of-seven series 4-2.

Hard to believe all this was accomplished with a talent like Evan Longoria spittin’ seeds on the bench.

Make sure you give this matchup a whirl—just click any of the Simulate Game links located inside the box scores.

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