FanNation - The Republic of Sport

   The AL and NL Rookies of the Year have been announced, and I have a problem with the results. It isn't the winners, or even the players who finished in the top three in each league, as my hypothetical ballot was nearly identical to the results, with the same six players getting votes. My problem has to deal with the fourth place finisher in the National League race.
    Edinson Volquez finished fourth in the balloting, with 9 points (5 for 1st, 3 for 2nd, 1 for 3rd). This means that 3 members of the Baseball Writers Association of America gave him second place votes on their Rookie of the Year ballots. Vasquez went 17-6 with a 3.21 ERA this year, so three BBWAA members voting for would make sense, if not for one little snag: he wasn't a rookie this year.
    I thought it was bad enough when an SI Players Poll on top rookies during the season included Vasquez, but for the writers to include him? It isn't the players' responsibilities to know whether another player is a rookie, they just have to worry about playing against him. The writers who are voting for the award that goes to top rookies, however, should make sure the guy on the ballot is actually, you know, a rookie. 
    The Baseball Writers have been badmouthed in the past for questionable voting for awards. Sometimes it is just because looking past the traditional numbers (batting average, HR, RBI) to some of the sabermetric stats (which most writers still largely ignore) it becomes clear that the winner they chose was a questionable choice. Other times, they can be more controversial, such as in 1999 when Pedro Martinez lost the AL MVP award to Ivan Rodriguez because two writers completely left him off the ballot, claiming pitchers shouldn't win the award - except for the fact that one of those writers had voted for David Wells the previous year. Plenty of times the writers have had questionable motives, but this is the first time that I can recall some of them actually voting for someone who wasn't eligible for the award.
    I'm not blaming all of the writers for this. Much like in 1999, it is just a few writers who did this, creating a bad reputation for the entire BBWAA. A few bad apples hurt the credibility of the entire organization that determines who wins the most prestigious awards in baseball. 
    Maybe you can't really blame these three writers, who remain anonymous. After all, to find out Vasquez wasn't a rookie, they would have to do a little bit of research. And we all know that research has no place in a reporter's job. What's that? What do you mean it's one of the main parts of a reporter's job? Oh.....uh.....nevermind.
    So what is the solution to this? These voters, whoever they are, should be banned from voting on the awards in the future. I'm not saying kick them out of the BBWAA, I'm just saying no longer let them vote. If you can't be bothered enough to find out who is eligible for something you're voting on, you shouldn't be bothered to even vote on it.
    If those three writers have a problem with this proposal, they can come find me. Although I doubt they'd bother to put in the time to research where I am.