...Not even close, in fact. He finished fifth, as voters decided it would be better to reward guys like Garrett Atkins and Willy freaking Taveras for, y'know, their teams' decisions to run their sorry acts out there every day. Meanwhile, they gave the AL award to Huston Street, who was great but pitched fewer innings than Duke did. The AL class was very strong, too. The mind boggles at the logic that must have gone into those votes - guys who play a lot deserve more consideration for the award than guys who actually play well, but if a guy happens to play sparingly but is a reliever, well, that's a different story.

Anyway, another part-timer, Ryan Howard, actually won the award in the NL. Duke was better, but I can at least understand a vote for Howard, who was legitimately very good for half a year. I don't understand how voters could feel that Atkins or Taveras or Jeff Francoeur had a better rookie season than Duke.