1. RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka (Red Sox): Already a favorite for the Cy Young Award, Matsuzaka is sure to make a tremendous impact in his first year in Major League Baseball. His reputation for greatness may in fact hurt him in this case, though, as voters may opt instead to reward a young player who has come up through the minor leagues. Precedence has varied: Ichiro Suzuki won the award in 2001 but Hideki Matsui lost out to Angel Berroa (who has since fallen off the radar) in 2003.
2. 3B Alex Gordon (Royals): So good, he bumped Kansas City star Mark Teahen into the outfield so he could take over at the hot corner. Having a huge year while surrounded by little talent is a good way to get noticed by the voters. He's not the best defender in the game, and he's not going to have much protection batting fifth in the Royals' slim lineup, but this kid has tons of talent and is going to turn a lot of heads in '07.
3. OF Delmon Young (Devil Rays): Superbly talented, but ill-tempered, Young projects to put up some fantastic numbers for the Devil Rays in his rookie year, but may have some trouble pulling votes if he proves to be a problem in the clubhouse. Great fielder that is capable of going 30-30 while hitting for average.
4. 3B Akinori Iwamura (Devil Rays): Slick fielding infielder out of Japan has put up some pretty big numbers in his carrer in the Nippon Professional League. Like Matsuzaka, Iwamura may have trouble collecting votes because of his previous professional experience, but keep an eye on this guy.
5. RHP Phillip Hughes (Yankees): The most talked about young pitcher in the minor leagues is not starting the season with New York, but you gotta think that the Yankees are going to see some problems in their relatively thing rotation. Chances are Hughes is called up mid-year and makes a good impression as did Chien-Ming Wang a few years ago. If not, look for him as the front-runner for the award in 2008.National League:
1. 3B Kevin Kouzmanoff (Padres): The Padres gave up their star second baseman Josh Barfield in order to pick up Kouzmanoff, so he better make an impact on the club in his rookie year. Definitely impressed in his September call-up with the Indians last year, knocking three homers and 11 RBI in just 16 games.After Kouzmanoff (who played in an American League system last season), I'm not familiar with too many National League rookies. Rather than try to bull my way through this section I decided to link you to the MLB.com prejections, which do the job quite admirably. MLB.com NL Top Rookie Candidates
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