Baltimore Orioles: Ranking Rookie Of The Year Winners
By Nick Stevens

1965 Curt Blefary, Outfield
The 1965 Baltimore Orioles were full of exciting young talent, including that season’s Rookie of the Year winner, outfielder Curt Blefary. On a roster with other young studs such as Boog Powell (23), Paul Blair (21), Dave Mcnally (22), and Jim Palmer (19), Blefary rose above them all, leading the Orioles with 22 home runs, a .381 on-base percentage, and an .851 OPS.
Appearing in 144 games, Blefary added a .260 batting average, 23 doubles, 70 RBI, and more walks (88) than strikeouts (73.)
Blefary just barely edged out California Angels pitcher Marcelino Lopez for the ROY Award. Lopez won 14 games, posted a 2.93 ERA, and was worth 3.5 bWAR. Blefary was worth 3.6 bWAR and received 12 of the 20 first place votes.
The former Towson Tiger played his first four seasons in the majors with the Orioles, hitting 82 home runs, 64 doubles, and 13 triples with a .347 OBP. He struck out 289 times while walking 299 times. Wouldn’t it be nice to see numbers like that in Birdland again?
He was traded to the Houston Astros after the 1968 season, a trade that netted the Orioles starting pitcher Mike Cuellar. Cuellar went 143-88 with a 3.18 ERA in eight seasons with Baltimore after the trade.