The 2009 American League and National League Rookies of the Year are....

Andrew Bailey of the Oakland Athletics and Chris Coghlan of the Florida Marlins(fooled you with the picture, huh?). Bailey had a great year for the A's, going 26 for 30 in saves with a 1.84 ERA. He also recorded an impressive 0.88 WHIP as well. However, I am a little disappointed that Beckham did not win it. He finished fifth! Jeff Niemann (Tampa Bay), Rick Porcello (Detroit) and Elvis Andrus (Texas) all finished ahead of Beckham. With the exception of Rick Porcello, how could you say that any of those guys had a better year than Beckham? He hit 14 home runs and drove in 63 over the course of just 103 games, to go along with 28 doubles. You also have to take into account that Beckham learned a new position (third base) to go along with all of the numbers. He fielded the new position admirably, and he should be a mainstay in the Sox infield for years to come.

Even though he could not win the Rookie of the Year award given out by the writers, he still was able to take home the Sporting News' Rookie of the Year award (voted on by the players and some coaches/managers) as well as the Players' Choice Rookie of the Year award (also voted on by the players). And hey, Beckham should not feel too bad that he didn't get the writers' award. Not all Rookie of the Year award winners go on to have great careers. Besides, for every Albert Pujols who wins the award (like he did in 2001), you have a plethora of no-name players who took home the hardware (like Angel Berroa, Ben Grieve, Pat Listach, Joe Charboneau, Bob Hamelin, etc.). None of those guys I listed became anything special. Beckham not winning the American League Rookie of the Year will not define him. Instead, I'm looking at this as the start of a truly special career for "Bacon."

MLB.com's 2009 "This Year in Baseball Awards"

It is that time of year again, when MLB.com rolls out another edition of the "This Year in Baseball awards." The awards may not be as prestigious as the awards handed out by the Baseball Writers' Association of America, but they are pretty cool nonetheless. That's because we, the fans, get to vote for them! While there are some years when I will turn a blind eye to these, this year is different. There are a slew of White Sox candidates for these awards, and they are all worthy of having a vote this year. Without further adieu, here are your eligible White Sox candidates:

Rookie of the Year: Gordon Beckham

Even though "Bacon" did not get called up to the bigs until June, he certainly made the most out of his opportunity once he arrived. Playing at a new position (third base), Beckham handled himself admirably at the hot corner, while hitting .270, with 14 home runs and 63 RBIs in just 103 games. His "weclome to the big leagues" moment had to be on June 27, when he singled in the bottom of the ninth inning off of Cubs reliever Jose Ascanio to win the game for the White Sox 8-7.

Setup Man of the Year: Matt Thornton

Thornton proved himself to be a solid setup man to Bobby Jenks (and, at times, proved to be a solid closer, too). He finished fifth in the AL with 24 holds, while recording 87 strikeouts to just 20 walks in 72.1 innings pitched. He also finished the season with a 2.74 ERA. Not too shabby, I'd say.

Performance of the Year: Mark Buehrle's perfect game against Tampa Bay on July 23.

This has to be the only no-brainer on this year's list of candidates. Even if you are not a Sox fan, you would be a fool to vote against a perfect game. Only 18 perfect games have ever been thrown in baseball history, so it's not like you get the opportunity to vote for one every year. Sorry Paulie, even though your three home run performance on July 7 against the Indians is on MLB.com's list of candidates, it does not even come close to Buehrle's performance.

Play of the Year: Dewayne Wise saves Buehrle's perfect game on July 23.

With one out in the top of the ninth inning, and with Buehrle having already retired the first 25 men he faced, Gabe Kapler socked a 2-2 pitch to the deep left-center field wall. It seemed for certain that the perfect game, no-hitter and shutout would all be gone with one swing of the bat. However, Dewayne Wise made one of the most remarkable situational catches in baseball history. By leaping high over the wall to bring the ball back in play, juggling it, and keeping it within his possession after falling to the ground, he preserved Mark Buehrle's bid for perfection.

There you have it. Four candidates, all of whom are worthy of selection. You can vote as many times as you want, but just make sure you do it before voting ends on December 11. Thanks, and as always, go Sox!

Beckham playing at second base....good or bad?

If you did not happen to read my blog post from yesterday, shame on you. I'm only kidding, but within my post yesterday, I mentioned how Gordon Beckham will be moving from third base to second base, now that Mark Teahen is on the Sox. The rookie of the year candidate will be making his second position shift in as many years, and it still will not result with him playing at his natural position of shortstop. With an infield featuring Konerko at first, Beckham at second, Alexei at short and Teahen at third, it begs the question: will the infield defense be any better next year?

Konerko has always been pretty solid defensively at first. Alexei has had his struggles defensively at short, but he could always improve next year. I still do not know a lot about Teahen defensively, so I will not comment on him until I watch him play a few games at third next year. However, with Beckham moving to second, you have to wonder how good he will be defensively there.

It is worth noting that Beckham nearly won the starting job at second base during spring training last year, a job that ended up going to the recently departed Chris Getz. Beckham also played second in the Arizona Fall League back in 2008, and he played at second while he was in Double-A Birmingham last year, too. The experience he has there will definitely work to his advantage. Nonetheless, since he will be at a new position next year, that means he will definitely have his share of errors there. Pairing him up with Alexei Ramirez at short could be dicey, since Ramirez, as mentioned earlier, has had his share of adventures at short last season. However, I am confident that Beckham and Ramirez will work hard together during spring training next year to become solid defensively together.

Since Beckham is a natural shortstop, the transition to second should not be a difficult one for him, but there will still be a learning curve that he will have to hurdle once again. Hopefully, he can hurdle the learning curve rather quickly, because there have been Sox players in the past that have taken their defensive woes to the plate with them (namely Juan Uribe). The last thing the Sox need is for Beckham's offensive production to go down on account of his poor defense.