Atlanta Braves pitcher Jair Jurrjens finished third in the 2008 NL Rookie of the Year voting. Jair received 6 second-place votes and 16 third-place votes. The Cubs Geovany Soto won the award, with the Reds Joey Votto finishing second. A late season slump may have cost Jurrjens a better chance at the award.
Here are his ERA's per month for 2008:
| Month | ERA |
| April | 3.05 |
| May | 3.94 |
| June | 1.63 |
| July | 3.41 |
| August | 5.73 |
| September | 4.30 |
Already with 10 wins by the end of July, JJ only won three more games the rest of the season, and voters usually put a lot of emphasis on how a player finishes. It's not unusual for a rookie pitcher to tire towards the end of the season, as they are usually throwing more pitches than they ever have in a single season. Jair had been pretty consistent in innings pitched having thrown right around 140 innings each of the last three years. Jurrjens problems at the end of the 2008 season started after he passed that 140 innings mark. That's not to say that he didn't have some good outings late in the season, but the outings he did have were shorter and generally less effective.
Rafael Furcal was the last Braves player to win the Rookie of the Year award, when he won it in 2000. You can see a complete list of winners here. I sort of got started on something and couldn't stop; here are all the Braves receiving ROY votes since 1990:
Yunel Escobar got one third-place vote last year.
Jeff Francoeur finished third in 2005.
Believe it or not, Damian Moss finished fifth in 2002.
Of course, Rafael Furcal won in 2000.
If you remember Kevin McGlinchy, he received one third-place vote in 1999.
Kerry Lightenberg finished fourth in 1998, even recieving one first place vote.
Andruw Jones finished fifth in 1997.
Back when he was a Brave, Jermaine Dye finished sixth in 1996.
Chipper Jones barely got beaten out by Hideo Nomo in 1995.
Ryan Klesko finished third and Javy Lopez finished tenth in 1994.
Greg McMichael finished second in 1993.
Mark Wohlers got one third-place vote and finished tied for seventh in 1992.
Brian Hunter finished fourth and Mike Stanton finished eighth in 1991.
David Justice won the 1990 Rookie of the Year.