AMERICAN LEAGUE AWARDS
CY YOUNG:
Indy_Indians has done a very nice job in piecing together his team through the draft. 20 players on his ML squad were obtained through that avenue - tied for most in the league. It all started with this guy. Tebeau, the overall number 1 pick in Season 8, broke out last season with 16 wins, 5 CG, 235 2/3 IP and 212 K.
Dark Horse:
Ruben Ramirez - Burlington MAPS
MVP:
It's too hard to pick somebody else other than Moore. He's won back-to-back MVP Awards and deserves to be the favorite for a third. It will be interesting to see what the HR updates do to his totals. He's hit 141 bombs over the past two MVP campaigns.
Dark Horse:
Spike Cambridge - Cincinnati MuckLucks
BATTING CHAMP:
Ma has hit at least .340 in four out of the last five seasons. And with froidl moving his MAPS to a pitcher's ballpark,
Horacio Martin is removed from the conversation.
Dark Horse:
Crash Purcell - Dover Dozers
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR:
rawdk selected lefthanded pitcher Geraldo Gabriel with the 8th overall pick in the Season 10 draft. In 100 career minor league starts Gabriel has a 3.26 K-to-BB ratio and he allowed just one HR per 11.6 innings pitched. Playing for the defending champion helps but so does throwing strikes and keeping the ball in the yard.
Dark Horse:
John Boyd - Dover Dozers
NATIONAL LEAGUE AWARDS
CY YOUNG:
You're looking at the most dominating pitcher in the National League. In Walker's three-year career he has completed nearly a quarter of his starts and opponents have hit a measly .213 against him. He's a strong bet to throw 230 innings and strike out 230 batters.
Dark Horse:
Felipe Marquez - Charleston Men of Risk
MVP:
Duncan has been a Silver Slugger Award winner in each of his two seasons. And in a lineup bursting with talent Duncan has the potential to put up a monster season. It's not crazy to think of his season ending line looking like: 200 hits, 30 HR, 30 SB, 100 RBI, 120 runs, 40 doubles.
Dark Horse: Jacob Wells - Colorado Cougars
BATTING CHAMP:
Rivera won the NL batting title two seasons ago. He's never hit below .336. His home stadium is a hitter's paradise. Three out of five NL batting champs played for Sante Fe.
Dark Horse:
Sam Sobkowiak - Richmond Rebels
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR:
Parkers is a big lumbering Canuck. The 24-year-old Saskatchewan native stands 6-foot-4 and has been crushing baseballs at every level. His career minor league OPS is 1.061 and he drove in over one run a game. The Metrodome is a slight hitters park and Parkers could hit 50+ doubles there.
Dark Horse:
Rick Wakeland - New Orleans Flashers
REAL LIFE COMPARISONS
Louie Ma is arguably the best position player in the Fingers League. We all know what bunting's stance on the subject is. He is only 27 years old but has already taken home two AL batting titles and two AL MVP Awards.
Similar to Ma, Joe DiMaggio and Albert Pujols joined their respective big league clubs as a 21-year-old. Below are the three players statistics from their rookie seasons to the beginning of their seasons as a 27-year-old:
DiMaggio/ 825 G/ 3368 AB/ 735 R/ 1163 H/ 214 2B/ 198 HR/ 816 RBI/ .345
Pujols/ 933 G/ 3489 AB/ 748 R/ 1159 H/ 260 2B/ 250 HR/ 758 RBI/ .332
Ma/ 811 G/ 3030 AB/ 639 R/ 1016 H/ 237 2B/ 237 HR/ 751 RBI/ .335
The following is their 162 game average over the same time period:
DiMaggio/ 661 AB/ 144 R/ 228 H/ 42 2B/ 39 HR/ 160 RBI/ .345
Pujols/ 605 AB/ 130 R/ 201 H/ 45 2B/ 43 HR/ 132 RBI/ .332
Ma/ 605 AB/ 128 R/ 203 H/ 44 2B/ 47 HR/ 150 RBI/ .335
Frank Chong was the first pitcher automatically nominated to the Fingers Hall of Fame. He was the most dominating pitcher during the first decade. I think I found a pretty good comparison when I looked to see if any real life pitchers were similar.
Greg Maddux.
Obviously Chong didn't have the long career that Maddux enjoyed but many of their numbers are remarkably close. Below is a look at those similarities:
Chong: 3.17 ERA/ 3.28 KtoBB/ 1.145 WHIP/ .238 OBA/ .290 OBP/ .361 SLG
Maddux: 3.16 ERA/ 3.37 KtoBB/ 1.143 WHIP/ .250 OBA/ .291 OBP/ .358 SLG
Maddux (in 1994) was also the only pitcher since 1950 to equal Chong's Season 6, which is the best single season pitching perfomance in Fingers history:
Chong: 16-4/ 1.61 ERA/ .905 WHIP/ 5.11 KtoBB/ 10 CG/ 6.7 H/9
Maddux: 16-6/ 1.56 ERA/ .896 WHIP/ 5.03 KtoBB/10 CG/ 6.7 H/9
HAPPY RETIREMENT?
No closer in Fingers history has won more Fireman of the Year Awards than James Yamaguchi. He owns four. But as of the time of writing this, Yamaguchi is a free agent. Being 35-years-old with rapidly declining skills doesn't help much with getting a job.
Yamaguchi will be automatically eligible for the Hall of Fame when he retires and rightfully so. Eight times he finished with 30 or more saves in a season and if he never pitches again he will retire as #2 on the all-time saves list with 307.
