After the historical emergence of two stellar rookies in 2012, the surprising Mike Trout and the much-anticipated Bryce Harper, it would be normal to expect 2013, in comparison, to be something of a letdown in terms of rookie stars. Happily, that hasn’t been the case.

This season has produced 6 rookies, 3 pitchers and 3 position players, each achieving more than 3 WAR. That’s about a normal number for recent years. What’s notable, though, is that 4 of those 6 rookies (and one other) have made the top 3 for their franchise’s best rookie WAR.

More on this year’s rookie crop and each franchise’s best all-time rookies after the jump.

I mentioned that 2013 was a fairly normal year for rookies contributing at the 3 WAR level. Here are recent rookies to reach that mark, first for position players.

And, for pitchers.

The presence on the list above of a few relievers is noteworthy as 3 is a very high WAR for a rookie reliever of the modern mold. For relievers with no starts and averaging 4 outs or less per appearance, Jonathan’s Papelbon’s 2006 season of 5.0 WAR is the highest of all pitchers, rookie or otherwise. Andrew Bailey’s 3.7 in 2009 is a distant second among rookies and one of only 9 such rookie relievers to reach 3 WAR.

Now for this year’s rookie crop, starting with the position players:

Yasiel Puig has taken Angelenos by storm as no rookie has since Fernando Valenzuela more than 30 years ago. Puig’s current 166 OPS+ is just two points behind Mike Trout’s 2012 mark that is the best by a rookie in the live ball era (min. 300 PA). Puig is also on pace to become just the 15th rookie of the live ball era (and only the 6th since 1961) to post a .300/.400/.500 slash.

The top 4 names on this list all make the top 3 list for best franchise rookie WAR (more on that further on). As suggested by their OPS+ scores, aside from Puig, the players at the top of the list are there mainly for their defense. Jose Iglesias has impressed both on offense and defense; he needs to become a more selective hitter, but a .350 OBP despite only 15 walks is a nice problem to have.

Brandon Barnes’ success rate on steals will need to improve. He is just the second rookie since 1986  (Peter Bergeron of the 2000 Expos is the other) with 10+ steals and no better than a 50% success rate.

Seattle is the just the eighth team of the live ball era to have two rookie middle infielders with 1.5 WAR.

Now, for starting pitchers:

Fernandez’s 6.5 WAR is the best for a rookie pitcher since Britt Burns posted 7.0 for the 1980 White Sox. For pitchers under age 21, it’s the best rookie WAR since Christy Mathewson‘s 9.1 in 1901. Fernandez’s 179 ERA+ is the best all-time for an under 21 pitcher in a qualifying rookie season, and the best since Vean Gregg‘s 189 in 1911 for a rookie of any age.

Houston’s two starters in the top 10 are notable in that both compiled their bonafides in 10 or fewer starts. Will be fun to see if they can keep it up next spring. We won’t have to wait that long to see how Hyun-jin Ryu fares under post-season pressure. The same goes for 9 other pitchers on the list playing on teams likely to make the post-season, or with a chance to do so.

And, for relief pitchers.

Mostly middle relievers and setup men, with only the Brewers’ Jim Henderson thrust into the closer role. Henderson is the 25th rookie pitcher with 25 or more saves, all of them since 1972. Craig Kimbrel‘s 46 saves in 2011 tops that list, which includes 6 RoY winners.

Alex Torres and the Twins’ Ryan Pressly are the only rookie relievers with 50+ IP to average 1.5 IP per appearance. The 254 ERA+ for Torres makes the top 15 all-time for rookie pitchers (min. 50 IP), and is the best among rookie pitchers averaging 1.5 IP per appearance since Calvin Schiraldi‘s 299 in 1986.

The league-leading 74 appearances for Paco Rodriguez marks the 11th time since 1961 that a rookie has led his league in appearances. Six more games this season will put Rodriguez into the top 10 for rookie appearances, a list headed by Wayne Granger‘s 90 relief outings in 1969.

To close, here’s a table showing each franchise’s top 3 rookies by WAR (with RoY winners denoted by asterisk) for both position players and pitchers, as well as other rookies outside of the top 3 to win RoY honors (first awarded in 1947, and separately for each league since 1949).

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