kudos for kimbrel

Former Mississippi Braves pitcher Craig Kimbrel was named National League rookie of the year today, becoming the second former JADAP to win the top rookie honor. Darryl Strawberry, a Jackson Mets alumnus, is the other onetime Jackson area Double-A player with an ROY award, winning it in 1983 with the New York Mets. Kimbrel, just 23, posted 46 saves, a rookie record, for Atlanta to go with a 2.10 ERA and 127 strikeouts in 77 innings. His sensational season was tarnished a bit by three blown saves in September, when Atlanta coughed up the NL wild card lead and missed the playoffs. But Kimbrel’s overall brilliance made him a well-deserved winner; he was, in fact, a unanimous pick. He pitched for the M-Braves in 2009, the year he played at four levels in Atlanta’s system. He had six saves, a 0.77 ERA, a 2-1 record and 17 K’s in 11 2/3 innings in his brief time in Pearl.
P.S. On the subject of closers, Philadelphia has formally signed Mississippi State product Jonathan Papelbon to a 4-year, $50 million free agent contract. Papelbon has 219 career saves and has converted 88.3 percent of his opportunities, one of the best ratios in history. And yet, success can be fleeting for closers. Papelbon’s career ERA is 2.33, but the last two seasons it was 3.90 and 2.94. That might be cause for some concern. Like Boston, where Papelbon spent the first six years of his big league career, Philly can be a tough place to play if you start to struggle.