Welcome to awards season at Bus Leagues! Once again, we will have nine to hand out: Full-season, Short-season and Independent League Player, Starter and Reliever of the Year. These players are the best of the best of minor league baseball, except for the short-season starter I forgot to put on the ballot and didn’t realize until it was too late. Voting works like the college football polls. Voters selected five players from a list of 12, with a first place vote being worth five points, a second place vote being worth four and so on. Ties were broken by most first place votes. If neither had a first place vote, I look at who had the most second place votes and that continues down the line. If somehow ties still aren’t broken, I give Brian’s vote extra weight. Players not in the top five will not have ties broken.
The voters in the 4th edition of the Bus Leagues Awards include five experts: Chris Fee, Brian Moynahan and Andrew Rosin of Bus Leagues, Joshua Kummins of Boston Sports U18 and Craig Forde of the Boston Globe. I also voted. Here is a recap of the winners so far:
Indy League RP of the Year: Tom Boleska
Indy League SP of the Year: Jeff Duda
Indy League Player of the Year: Chris Nowak
Short-Season RP of the Year: Nick Sawyer
Short-Season SP of the Year: Taylor Guerrieri
Short-Season Player of the year: Mike Zunino
Full-Season RP of the Year: Matthew Stites
Full-Season SP of the Year: Dylan Bundy
Full-Season Player of the Year
FIRST
SS Billy Hamilton, 21, Bakersfield/Pensacola (Cincinnati A+/AA)
132 PA, 605 PA, 112 R, 22 2B, 45 RBI, 155 SB, .311 BA, .410 OBP, .420 SLG
23 points (2 first place votes)
If it wasn’t for Myers and Ruf putting up disgusting power numbers, Hamilton would have stolen this award (rimshot, please). Seriously though, 155 stolen bases is simply amazing, especially in this day and age when it seems to be a lost art form. Hopefully he doesn’t become another Herb Washington. -Craig
Pure, bad ass American speed. Always warrants a mention. -Andrew
SECOND
OF Wil Myers, 21, Northwest Arkansas/Omaha (Kansas City AA/AAA)
134 G, 591 PA, 98 R, 37 HR, 109 RBI, .314 BA, .387 OBP, .600 SLG
22 points (2 first place votes)
His line of statistics this season are exactly what a Player of the Year’s numbers should look like. -Craig
Inexplicably not in the show. He should have never been on the list. But he destroyed. Just destroyed. -Andrew
THIRD
1B Darin Ruf, 25, Reading (Philadelphia AA)
139 G, 584 PA, 93 R, 38 HR, 104 RBI, 34 2B, .317 BA, .408 OBP, .620 SLG
20 points (2 first place votes)
Higher OBP and Slugging % than Myers, but maybe just not enough flair? I dunno! It’s a tough one, but Ruf did not garner nearly as much hype as Myers heading into the year, so Myers gets the nod for being able to maintain it. -Craig
Not a huge fan of his major league future, but the last two months were ungodly. He should never have to pay for another meal in Reading. Ever. -Andrew
FOURTH
CF Adam Eaton, 23, Mobile/Reno (Arizona AA/AAA)
130 G, 613 PA, 130 R, 7 HR, 48 RBI, 47 2B, 44 SB, .375 BA, .456 OBP, .523 SLG
9 points
An integral part of the Aces’ run to the Triple-A Championship this year, Eaton’s .523 slugging while hitting only seven home runs is eye-popping. Which explains the 130 runs scored, as he just simply put himself in a position to score time-and-time again by taking the extra base whenever possible. -Craig
Were his stats inflated by the league? A little bit. But he’s hit everywhere. And he’s given no reason to believe that he won’t crash the D’Backs lineup. -Andrew
FIFTH
INF Jake Elmore, 25, Reno (Arizona AAA)
108 G, 511 PA, 95 R, 30 2B, 73 RBI, 32 SB, .344 BA, .442 OBP, .465 SLG
4 points
Another OBP guy from Reno that got on and took advantage of any open bases in front of him. -Craig
T-SIXTH
2B Delino DeShields Jr., 19, Lexington/Lancaster (Houston A/A+)
135 G, 637 PA, 113 R, 12 HR, 61 RBI, 101 SB, .287 BA, .389 OBP, .428 SLG
3 points
In the years I put together the ballot for these awards, I’m not sure I ever included a true speed guy – they were never quite good enough in other areas to make it seem reasonable enough. It’s hard to ignore a guy who steals 101 bases, though, especially when he adds 12 homeruns. Also, he’s on my fantasy team. -Brian
After a rough debut in the South Atlantic League in 2011, DeShields went back to Lexington in 2012 and made major improvements. In some ways he was better than Billy Hamilton this year, but just as he was during the season, DeShields will be overshadowed by Hamilton again. -Scott
T-SIXTH
OF Oscar Taveras, 20, Springfield (St. Louis AA)
124 G, 531 PA, 83 R, 23 HR, 94 RBI, 37 2B, .321 BA, .380 OBP, .572 SLG
3 points
Not the toolsy type. But for a 20 year old that skipped the Florida State League? Highly impressive. If he’s not in the top 3? This poll is a FARCE. -Andrew
T-EIGHTH
1B Hunter Morris, 23, Huntsville (Milwaukee AA)
136 G, 571 PA, 77 R, 28 HR, 113 RBI, 40 2B, .303 BA, .357 OBP, .563 SLG
2 points
T-EIGHTH
2B Stefen Romero, 23, High Desert/Jackson (Seattle A+/AA)
116 G, 516 PA, 85 R, 23 HR, 101 RBI, 12 SB, .352 BA, .391 OBP, .599 SLG
2 points
T-EIGHTH
CF George Springer, 22, Lancaster/Corpus Christi (Houston A+/AA)
128 G, 581 PA, 109 R, 24 HR, 87 RBI, 32 SB, .302 BA, .383 OBP, .526 SLG
2 points
T-ELEVENTH
LF Shawn Payne, 22, Augusta/San Jose (San Francisco A/A+)
118 G, 491 PA, 67 R, 20 2B, 59 RBI, 53 SB, .309 BA, .411 OBP, .430 SLG
0 points
T-ELEVENTH
SS Jurickson Profar, 19, Frisco (Texas AA)
126 G, 562 PA, 76 R, 14 HR, 62 RBI, 16 SB, .281 BA, .368 OBP, .452 SLG
0 points
This poll is a FARCE.