Sal Stewart's HEARTFELT Reaction to Winning NL Rookie of the Year!

A lot of people doubt me, you know. I'm just focused, man. I'm focused and I know what I want. Congrats to Red Star Sal Stewart, winning National League Rookie of the Year. Sal Stewart with 32 home runs. How many RBIs did he finish with? Over 100. 112, wasn't it? Yeah, 112. I thought it was not 11, but maybe it was 12. Regardless, Sal Stewart. You're missing the S, Casey. Got him. Oh, man. Man, that's so tough. Sal Stewart. That's so tough. He won Rookie of the Year, too. Boo. This is off to a great start. Doesn't even know how to spell the Rookie of the Year. It's Sal Stewart, Casey. There we go. Well, Sal Stewart, after winning the award, chatted with MLB Network. This was a fun interview. His reaction to winning the award and chatting after winning. Let the celebrations begin. This is one Sal who knew how to do the right thing. Phenomenal season for the Cincinnati Reds. Let's go! Sal Stewart, congratulations. You can hear the let's go's and the reaction in the background. Sal, what's your immediate reaction as you're now the Rookie of the Year? Man, relief. I told myself, I was like, man, I know this award wouldn't define me because that's how I was raised. I've worked hard and I did what I could. So obviously, I told myself that, but as you hear everyone out there now, man, we're excited, man. I'm a kid from Miami. I work hard for this moment, man. A lot of people doubt me, and I'm just focused, man. I'm focused and I know what I want. Sal, in terms of Reds history, only Frank Robinson hit more homers as a rookie. 38 for him, 32 for you. I know you appreciate baseball history. How cool is that? I mean, damn, you know, came from Miami and in conversation with Frank Robinson. Are you kidding me? You know, a few years ago, I was in high school. I was Mr. And I'm here in conversation with Frank Robinson. I mean, it's something that I can't really explain. I always told myself throughout the year, like, it's on to the next game, it's on to the next game. But I think today I can sit back and realize that I'm fortunate to be in conversation with those people. So I couldn't have done it without my teammates. I want to take a quick second, man. I love my teammates. I know they're all watching right now. I wouldn't be here without them. I really want to say that. A young kid, you know, kind of flamboyant, kind of out there, you know, and they just let me be who I am and they let me go out there and do what I did. Man, I just want to really take a second to say thank you to my teammates, because I wouldn't be here without them. Congrats to Sal Stewart, enjoyed that interview on MLB Network. Should he have won? Mets fans are mad, Mets fans are mad, they're putting out graphics, they're doing everything they can. Should he have won? If I lived elsewhere, my answer would be no, but I'm a Reds fan, so yes. I just, I don't think- Because of war? Yeah, because of war, because of OPS Plus, because of all the advanced metrics where he really fell off at the end of the year. He had a great start to the season. If he wouldn't have had his worst month to end this season, then it would have even been a conversation. The fact that it became re-bettable over the last month or so kind of showed how that trended. And then the votes- It represented what it was more towards the middle of the season. Sal wins going away, 20 first-place votes to Benji's seven. So certainly, you know, claimed that award in convincing fashion. I do think this is an interesting split for voting in baseball. Baseball specifically as a sport where you have so many advanced metrics available, and then you have the numbers that we've gone off of for the last hundred years. So it's very interesting to see the split as it happens. Super happy for Sal and an incredible season he put together. Doubles him and runs batted in. Doubles him in home runs almost. I don't care about RBIs. It just doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. RBIs, batting average, don't even care. I just don't care. Okay. But why? I just think there's better ways to measure the success at the plate. Why is his WAR so high? Positional value. To have those numbers at first base is not as valuable as having those numbers elsewhere. He played third, too. And he would have ran away with rookie of the year had the Reds played him at third base all year. It was a huge mistake not to. Yeah, well, it's because they have an $8 million defender. Correct. That doesn't defend. Correct. Yeah, guess what? He was the best rookie. Now, how they used him, all that stuff, whatever. Carson Bench, congrats. You were second. Sal Stewart, first. Because he hit a lot of home runs and had runs batted in, and runs do matter. Points matter.