Rookie Gems: Anderson vs. Zimmerman

[TexasStampede]

Just thought I'd drum up some debate on two of the top rookie SPs for 2009! I believe Anderson will be OAK's #4 and Zimmerman will be WSH's #5. Initially I jumped on Zimmerman after monitoring his early spring stats but since he's going to be skipped sometimes I'm beginning to lean back towards Anderson. Baseball America has him ranked #7 and most scouts consider him to be pretty polished already.

So...which rookie do you think will have more success?

[AussieDodger]

Anderson.
He seems to be in a better environment to succeed.
Oakland will score more runs, and have a better bullpen, so he won't have to worry about any of that and just pitch.

[garf112]

i hate rookie pitchers, but I still ended up with Brett Anderson late in my deep draft. I'll probably sit him through April and see how he does. I like Anderson more just because I have more faith in Billy Beane than in Jim Bowden, but Zimmerman has more AA innings under his belt.

[bazzy_51]

chalk another tally for Anderson... Hes got the better overall team IMO, and he will be depended on all year to be in the rotation, where as i don't for see Zimmerman pitching a whole season...

[TexasStampede]

Geren hasn't said who is the #4 and 5 between Anderson and Cahill yet, right? I thought last I read indications were it was going to be Anderson at the #4 but that nothings been made official yet...

[rookies and cream]

chalk another tally for Anderson... Hes got the better overall team IMO, and he will be depended on all year to be in the rotation, where as i don't for see Zimmerman pitching a whole season...

I like Anderson better. In fact, I like him better than Cahill as well. Keep in mind though that he only pitched about 115 innings last year (including Olympics) so he's going to be limited. Zimmerman actually pitched about 20 innings more than him last year, but will be limited as well.

[silverZ]

I went with James Mcdonald over these 2 guys and Cahill. I'll be watching them all closely the first few weeks.

[TexasStampede]

For what its worth, Buster Olney declared Zimmerman as his pick for NL ROY. He's been raving about him all summer.

[oddmanout7]

I'd rate them Anderson, Cahill, Zimmerman, McDonald. I like McDonald as he pitched well in his short stint in the bigs last season, but he has only been pitching for a few years now, and doesn't appear to have the "upside" of the other guys. Now that Porcello is thrown into the mix I would probably slot him between Zimmerman and Cahill for this season.