GLENDALE, Ariz. — There used to be a thing called the “sophomore jinx.” It was waiting, with tentacles, for all high-flying rookies.
The theory was that a first-year player sailed through his indoctrination year with no one else in baseball taking him seriously. By the second year, his flaws would be studied and exposed.
Examples, among those who won Rookie of the Year Awards, included pitchers Harry Byrd (1952), Carl Morton (1970), Butch Metzger (1979), Pat Zachry (1979) and Jason Jennings (2002) and hitters John Castino (1979), Joe Charboneau (1980), Jerome Walton (1989), Pat Listach (1992) and Marty Cordova (1995).