The 2006 Season Awards

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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 9th 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 3rd in RC/27. Punctuating an almost-there year for Daly City’s star rookie Whitney Esguerra, she ended in 2nd place despite a dazzling rookie season in which she ranked 5th in the league in ERA, 5th in opponent’s OBP, 7th in WHIP, 8th in CERA, 4th in K’s, and 2nd in K’s per 9 innings, yet emerged with a 13-11 record due to poor run support (9th 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
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