Cole Hamels and the NL ROY Race

Last year Pirates rookie Zach Day went 8-2 with a 1.81 ERA but because he started so late in the season - he was not able to overcome the rookie seasons of position players who started equally late. Day finished 5th in the voting while Ryan Howard won even though he had only 312 AB and Jeff Francoeur finished 3rd even though he had just 257 AB.

Cole Hamels was brought to the bigs earlier in the season than Day was. Will that be enough to position him for the NL ROY? Or are there position players out there who have too big a head start? Here are what I consider to be the top 5 NL rookies so far:

1. Hanley Ramirez FLA (.336 BA)
2. Prince Fielder MIL (.328 BA, 8 HR, 22 RBI)
3. Josh Willingham FLA (.306 BA, 7 HR, 28 RBI)
4. Ryan Zimmerman WAS (.261 BA, 6 HR, 20 RBI)
5. Sean Marshall CHI (2-1, 4.93 ERA)

So it looks like Hamels would need to have a great year AND have the top three on the list just have an awful second halfs in order to win the NL ROY. It looks to me that Hamels will probably finish higher than Day did last year but still not win the award.