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 four 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 Reliever of the Year
FIRST
RHP Nick Sawyer, 20, GCL Rays/Princeton (Tampa Bay R/R+)
18 G, 5 SV, 3-1, 0.31 ERA, 0.72 WHIP, 29 IP, 9 H, 12 BB, 56 K
21 points (3 first place votes)
A modern day warrior with mean, mean stuff…ok, ok, I’ll stop with the puns, but filling these things out makes me a little crazy at times. Sawyer put up some beastly numbers, especially the 0.31 ERA and 56 Ks. -Craig
With the way the Rays develop people? He’ll be awesome in 2017. -Andrew
SECOND
LHP Lee Stoppelman, 22, Batavia (St. Louis A-)
22 G, 7 SV, 2-1, 0.79 ERA, 0.87 WHIP, 34.1 IP, 23 H, 7 BB, 49 K
20 points (2 first place votes)
OK, there are many reasons why he is the number one choice here. First and foremost are the numbers: 0.79 ERA, 0.87 WHIP and 49 Ks in 34 1/3 innings. Second is that he is a left-hander, which is always a big thing coming out of the pen. He could break that LOOGY stereotype with this type of pitching. The final thing is that his last name is Stoppleman…I mean, c’mon now, it’s a perfect reliever name. Only other better last names would have been Outsburger or Save’mall. -Craig
STOPPLEMAN! -Andrew
THIRD
RHP Roman Madrid, 21, Eugene (San Diego A-)
31 G, 13 SV, 7-0, 2.89 ERA, 0.99 WHIP, 37.1 IP, 26 H, 11 BB, 44 K
10 points (1 first place vote)
The Padres are hoping that Madrid remains beautiful in the summer for many years to come. -Craig
FOURTH
RHP Dakota Bacus, 21, Arizona Athletics (Oakland R)
18 G, 7 SV, 3-0, 1.20 ERA, 0.57 WHIP, 30 IP, 12 H, 5 BB, 35 K
9 points (0 third place votes)
Like the name, LOVE the numbers. -Craig
While Sean Manaea is going to put Indiana State on the map in the 2013 draft, Dakota Bacus had a strong performance there in 2012 before dominating the Arizona League for the A’s. -Scott
FIFTH
RHP Jeffrey Wendelken, 19, GCL Red Sox (Boston R)
13 G, 2 SV, 2-0, 1.27 ERA, 0.66 WHIP, 21.1 IP 11 H, 3 BB, 28 K
8 points
The only thing keeping him from being my first choice is the small sample size…maybe if he changed his last name to WHIPleken. -Craig
He only had 21.1 innings in the Gulf Coast League, but they were impressive. Who knows if he would be able to keep it up over more innings, but a K/BB ratio over 9.00 is tough to beat. -Scott
SIXTH
RHP Jose Valdez, 21, GCL Tigers (Detroit R)
23 G, 15 SV, 0-1, 0.82 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 22 IP, 15 H, 10 BB, 28 K
7 points (1 third place vote)
SEVENTH
RHP Nick Wittgren, 21, Jamestown (Miami A-)
17 G, 11 SV, 0-2, 1.46 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 24.2 IP, 24 H, 4 BB, 34 K
5 points
EIGHTH
RHP Jordan Jankowski, 23, Greeneville (Houston R+)
23 G, 4 SV, 4-0, 2.23 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, 32.1 IP 25 H, 10 BB, 53 K
4 points
T-NINTH
RHP Ross Stripling, 22, Ogden (Los Angeles A+)
14 G, 0 SV, 1-0, 1.24 ERA, 0.88 WHIP, 36.1 IP, 26 H, 6 BB, 37 K
3 points
STRIPLING! -Andrew
T-NINTH
RHP Ronnie Shaban, 22, Johnson City (St. Louis R+)
20 G, 16 SV, 3.05 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, 20.2 IP, 19 H, 7 BB, 31 K
3 points points
T-ELEVENTH
RHP Tyler Mizenko, 22, Salem-Keizer (San Francisco A-)
24 G, 13 SV, 3-0, 1.99 ERA, 1.01 WHIP, 31.2 IP, 27 H, 5 BB, 29 K
0 points
T-ELEVENTHTH
RHP Justin Thompson, 22, Missoula (Arizona R+)
25 G, 8 SV, 2-2, 1.69 ERA, 1.03 WHIP, 32 IP, 23 H, 10 BB, 47 K
0 points
Please come back Monday for our short-season SP of the Year.
