Whether it was Giants’ 23-year-old backstop or the Braves’ 21-year-old right fielder, the only two candidates that deserved to be considered for the 2010 Rookie of the Year Award were Buster Posey and Jason Heyward.

Yet three clowns actually voted for Jaime Garcia and Gaby Sanchez when it came down to handing out the award on Monday.

When the voting was completed, Posey beat out Heyward to win this year’s ROY award. Heyward bested Posey in runs scored (83 to 58), hits (144 to 124) and walks (91 to 30), but he also played 34 more games as the Giants kept Posey in the minors because they wanted to slow his arbitration clock.

Despite not playing a full year like Heyward, Posey hit just as many home runs (18) as the Atlanta outfielder and finished with a higher batting average (.305 to .277). He also caught a pitching staff that led the majors with a 3.36 ERA and helped San Francisco win its first ever World Series while batting cleanup for most of the postseason.

Personally, I think Posey deserved the award based on the fact that he helped the Giants win playoff games while Hewyard struggled mightily in the NLDS. Posey also plays a more demanding position and may have doubled his output had he been given the opportunity to play a full year.

But whether you thought it should have been Posey or Heyward, I think most of us would agree that the award didn’t belong to Garcia or Sanchez, who each received three first-place votes. (Posey finished with 20, Heyward had nine, Sanchez had two and Garcia had one.) That’s not to say that Garcia or Sanchez didn’t have good years because they did. But are you kidding me? Did the writers who voted for those two see Posey or Heyward play this season?

Posey and Heyward played vital roles in the success that their teams had this year and put together some of the finest seasons of any rookies over the past couple decades. Garcia and Sanchez were nice players, but they didn’t hold a candle to what Posey and Heyward did for their teams. I would expect Cardinals and Marlins fans to argue that claim, but I would suggest they put on some tape to see what Posey and Heyward accomplished this year. Again, I’m not trying to take anything away from Garcia and Sanchez but come on. Two votes? Gabby Sanchez received two first-place votes? Over Buster Posey? Dear, Barbara.

At the end of the day, who received first-place votes doesn’t matter. Posey won by a landslide and I think it was well deserved. All four of these players should go on to have solid careers, although I only see two potential superstars in the bunch and neither of them plays in St. Louis or Florida.

Nyjer Morgan probably expected the Marlins to seek revenge on him after he bowled over their catcher Brett Hayes on Tuesday night and separated his shoulder.

So what does he do? Well, go apesh*t of course.

Here’s the scene from last night’s Marlins-Nationals brawl, which is making national headlines:

Only a marginal leadoff hitter on a last place team like Nyjer Morgan could garner this much attention.

The ironic thing is, Morgan also took out Cardinals catcher Bryan Anderson last Saturday night on a similar play and had this to say following the game:

“You go out there and play hard and don’t try to hurt somebody. It happened to maybe look like that. I don’t want to be perceived as a dirty player. It was just an intense play. From what I saw, I saw [Albert] Pujols threw a nice little pump fake. I was going full-speed around third. It was just what I saw. I thought maybe the ball was coming. I saw the catcher maybe tense up. I could have took the kid out if I wanted to, but I kind of grazed him. It wasn’t, in my eyes, intentional. From what I saw, I guess have should have slid. Next time, I’ll slide.”

Only next time he once again decided to take the catcher out instead of sliding. And had he slide on Tuesday night, he would have scored and the Nationals may have won instead of dropping the game, 1-0.

The shot he took from Sanchez was well deserved and like the announcer from the broadcast said, baseball needs to do something about Morgan (a suspension that lasts the rest of the season should do the trick) because obviously the guy doesn’t get it. Collisions at home plate happen, but guys can’t be looking to deck unprotected players – I don’t care if the catchers do have gear on. If you come full steam at somebody that’s not looking, you’re going to cause more damage than he is. Plus, the main point is that Morgan didn’t have to go into home that way. He could have slide both times, despite his claims that he could have gotten hurt when he bashed into Anderson.

It’s too bad, because if Morgan stopped doing stupid things he’d probably be a popular player. Dude is actually pretty funny…