2006 Season Awards

Another year, another victory for the Daly City Montis. After breezing through the first and second playoff rounds, the shaky Pentax Shake Reducers proved to be no match at all, being swept 4-0 after two miraculous 4-3 series wins.

And now, onto the post-season report!

The Pitcher of the Year, UL: Nathan Yan, Daly City SP
For the fourth year in the row, Yan not only has another championship under his belt, but has also garnered his fourth straight Pitcher of the Year award. While he blew away the league last year with some astonishing numbers, Yan blew away even himself with his spectacular 2006 campaign. He pitched an astounding 284 innings in only 32 starts – only 4 inning short of the maximum 288 innings for 32 starts. Yan’s ERA at 0.79 and WHIP at 0.47 were in line with last year’s (needless to say, both led the league by a fair margin). But his biggest achievement of all this year may have been his complete evolution into the perfect strikeout machine. Like Zerg on Tarsonis, Yan simply devoured opposing hitters, not only reaching but shattering the 500-K mark he joked about at the beginning of the year. Yan finished the year with 568K’s, for an even 18 K’s per 9 innings. Over the course of the year, Yan reached the 20-K mark in a game 9 times, including perhaps the best game of his career: an 11 inning complete game shutout, allowing just ONE hit, and striking out 25 batters (21 batters by the 9^th inning). For that game he earned a staggering game score of 119.

Among the runner-ups, Apple pitcher Kyle Katarn stayed strong, almost directly replicating his 2005 stats, garnering him the #2 pitcher award. The big surprises were Microsoft’s Kernel Tyranus and Daly City’s Zhao, who had reversals of fortune – Tyranus, a solid pitcher in 2005, exploded this season, lowering his ERA form 3.29 to 2.08, while throwing 27 quality starts (90%). Unfortunately Tyranus’ season took a premature end with a September injury, or he may have easily broken the 30 QS mark or the 25-win mark. Zhao meanwhile, the #2 from 2005, nearly dropped off the map, with a slow start that left him at 8-7, 3.56 ERA at the end of July. Zhao turned it on in the final two months, however, and ended up a respectable 14-7 with a 3.03 ERA, although far off the mark of 2005’s amazing 23-4, 1.74 ERA run. Samantha Chin, in her breakout sophomore season, rounded out the top 5.

The other runner-ups:

Name	Team	Record	Starts	QS/CG/SHO	Innings	K	ERA	CERA	WHIP	K/9
Nathan Yan	Daly City	30-1	32	31/26/12	284	568	0.78	0.06	0.47	18.0
Kyle Katarn	Apple	21-11	36	29/14/3	299	298	2.41	2.02	0.98	9.0
Kernel Tyranus	Microsoft	22-5	30	27/3/0	226	193	2.03	2.08	1.03	7.7
Terrence Zhao	Daly City	14-7	30	21/9/2	205	236	3.03	2.40	1.16	10.4
Samantha Chin	Daly City	19-4	29	24/2/2	202 2/3	199	3.20	2.61	1.07	8.8

The Batter of the Year, UL: Derek Lew, Daly City 1B
Another HUGE surprise for the UL Batter of the Year award, as another Daly City hitter unexpectedly takes home the trophy. While Wong stunned everyone by winning the award over Asia’s Alex Quiros in 2005, Lew’s win comes out of nearly nowhere. Lew rebounded greatly from his disastrous 2005 season, and put up a solid season, with a .304-.338-.593 line, and a career high in SLG. Lew also set career highs in the RBI department, with 164, as well, which led the league. Perhaps that was enough to win it for Lew, who faced stiff competition elsewhere in the league – 9 players, including teammate Rudy Puzon, had higher OPS and higher total Runs Created, and Lew wasn’t even in the top 15 for Runs Created per 27 outs. Perhaps no one had a more heartbreaking season than Apple’s Ben Kenobi, who put up amazing numbers – he in fact bested Lew in .AVG-.OBP-.SLG, and dominated the league in RC/27 – and lost for lack of RBI’s, and endured a season pursuing and holding the SB lead that was eventually lost to Cristian Ortiz in the final two months, and ultimately failed to make the playoffs, despite having arguably the better end-of-year team than the Microsoft Longhorns.

Name	Team	AB	2B	HR	RBI	Runs	Walks	SB	AVG	OBP	SLG	RC	RC/27
Derek Lew	Daly City	688	77	30	164	116	34	13	.304	.338	.593	130	6.72
Ben Kenobi	Apple	633	58	18	88	143	69	72	.370	.434	.607	179.5	11.01
Jango Fett	Microsoft	616	53	21	96	125	88	30	.347	.429	.565	160.7	9.77
Mathew Glenn	Mozilla	614	35	38	124	130	85	13	.319	.401	.575	147.2	8.89
Alex Quiros	Asia	550	46	41	110	108	67	3	.293	.377	.611	129.5	8.68

The Rookie of the Year, UL: Benjamin Trepanier, Asia RF
There would be no trifecta again this year, as Asia’s rookie RF, the #1 pick in the 2006 draft, stormed to an amazing season, hitting .310-.437-.492, leading the league in OBP and walks, and placing 3^rd in RC/27. Punctuating an almost-there year for Daly City’s star rookie Whitney Esguerra, she ended in 2^nd place despite a dazzling rookie season in which she ranked 5^th in the league in ERA, 5^th in opponent’s OBP, 7^th in WHIP, 8^th in CERA, 4^th in K’s, and 2^nd in K’s per 9 innings, yet emerged with a 13-11 record due to poor run support (9^th worst) from the highest-scoring offense in the league.

Name		Team		AB	2B		HR		RBI	Runs		Walks		SB	AVG		OBP		SLG		RC	RC/27
Benjamin Trepanier		Asia		555	27		10		90	85		115		18	.310		.437		.492		141.6	9.32
Clifford Alfano		Caribbean		536	27		18		68	80		65		13	.282		.363		.455		95.6	6.14
Name	Team		Record			Starts		QS/CG/SHO			Innings		K			ERA		CERA		WHIP			K/9
Whitney Esguerra	Daly City		13-11			30		23/6/2			214		256			3.15		3.01		1.12			10.8

The Pitcher of the Year, SWL: Willard Weiler, Tokyo SP
Willard Weiler, last year’s #2, vaults into the spotlight as he claims this year’s Pitcher of the Year award, in a tight race of subpar performances. Weiler pitched worse than he did last year, but his star didn’t fade nearly as much as the lights-out Ramage. Weiler was #2 in the league in CERA, and led in wins, but otherwise was right in the middle of the pack with many other star pitchers. The year has been especially tough for Canon pitcher Justin Ramage, who dropped off heavily from last year’s performance but came back roaring in the playoffs, yet fell short of another World Series trip.

Name	Team	Record	Starts	QS/CG/SHO	Innings	K	ERA	CERA	WHIP	K/9
Willard Weiler	Tokyo	20-11	36	23/8/2	259 2/3	224	3.43	3.38	1.15	7.8
Gerald Freeman	Venice	17-13	36	23/10/3	278 2/3	290	3.68	2.71	1.08	9.4
Justin Ramage	Canon	18-10	35	24/1/0	231 1/3	240	3.46	3.59	1.27	7.7
Augusto Figueroa	Pentax	17-13	34	17/12/2	256 2/3	173	4.10	3.69	1.26	6.1
Pedro Basaldua	Sony	12-7	30	20/2/0	198	86	3.59	3.85	1.33	3.9

The Batter of the Year, SWL: Gates Skywalker, Canon LF
Talk about a year for hitting. Once again, Skywalker of Canon and Richard Eager of the Nikon resumed their rivalry. It’s readily apparent by now that Skywalker simply outclasses any other hitter in the league – his OPS+ is a staggering 173, and perhaps the only better player in baseball is Daly City’s Nathan Yan, whose 596 ERA+ blows even that away. It’s readily apparent, however, that Nikon is fast becoming an offensive force in the baseball world – Eager and last year’s rookie of the year, Brandon Wroten, were 2-3 in Runs Created, SLG, Isolated Power, Total Bases, HR, among a host of other hitting categories. Late-season injuries cost a few players, most notably Canon’s Francis Cote and Las Vegas’ Hector Valdivieso, who both missed the last month of the season with injuries.

Name	Team	AB	2B	HR	RBI	Runs	Walks	SB	AVG	OBP	SLG	RC	RC/27
Gates Skywalker	Canon	532	47	79	182	146	90	0	.350	.441	.891	202.7	14.71
Richard Eager	Nikon	613	35	45	125	143	94	25	.357	.448	.667	195.6	11.89
Brandon Wroten	Nikon	625	57	50	155	117	73	1	.307	.377	.638	152.2	8.99
Hector Valdivieso	Las Vegas	497	54	29	96	92	76	10	.338	.425	.626	139.5	10.70
Francis Cote	Canon	502	25	35	105	105	78	0	.313	.413	.584	126.3	9.42

The Rookie of the Year, UL: Michael Hooser, Las Vegas SP
It was a shallow field this year for rookies in the SWL. Only 8 rookies in all even qualified in terms of innings or plate appearances, and five of them were relievers. Las Vegas’ Michael Hooser ended up taking the crown, by being the least abominable with a 4.91 ERA in 199 2/3 innings, with 1.44 WHIP, although Paris pitchers Juan Perez and Andrew Wilcox were probably closer to “above average” than Hooser was, or will ever be, although all pitchers had a shaky WHIP in the 1.4 range. Nikon’s Brian Batchelder and Paris’ Robert Rodriguz put up a decent half-seasons, but after this there was really no one else even above average.

Name		Team		AB	2B		HR		RBI	Runs		Walks		SB	AVG		OBP		SLG		RC	RC/27
Brian Batchelder		Nikon		344	25		5		50	53		20		13	.299		.346		.422		54.8	5.78
Robert Rodriguz		Paris		222	13		10		35	29		18		3	.279		.331		.500		36	5.79
Name	Team		Record			Starts		QS/CG/SHO			Innings		K			ERA		CERA		WHIP			K/9
Michael Hooser	Las Vegas		11-13			33		16/1/0			199 2/3		96			4.91		5.02		1.44			4.3
Juan Perez	Paris		12-6			27		16/0/0			152 1/3		111			3.66		4.20		1.46			6.6
Andrew Wilcox	Paris		4-3			0		0/0/0			84		42			3.64		4.08		1.49			4.5