[BirdWatcher]

As earlier reported, Brooklyn's fantastic 29-year old center fielder Felix Lopez, had a dominant offensive season in a pitching-rich year.

Lopez not only led the league in batting average, which is the 4th time he has done so in his career, but also in hits, for the 6th time, triples for the 4th time, and on base percentage for the first time. It was the first season of his career where he did not lead the league in stolen bases though he did finish 3rd with 30 stolen bases. (He is the career leader in SB's with 366.) The speedy Lopez is also a fine defender and won a Gold Glove last season. He is an 8-time All-Star and 4-time Silver Slugger. His career slash line is .338/.382/.452. He has put up 65.9 WAR in his 8 WPK seasons. He's a generational talent and a likely future WPK Hall-of-Famer. And he had a very, very good year.

Phoenix's slugging right fielder Ju-ao Ju, in a season when home runs were down in the WPK, easily led both leagues in HR's with 38 and RBI with 111. In his 6 seasons in the WPK he has now led the league in these categories twice each and led in runs scored once. He is a 4-time All-Star and 3-time Silver Slugger. The 30-year old has a reputation of being unmotivated but remains, for now, a force at the plate.

Portland's Chris Tobin, at age 26, is turning into one of the biggest stars in the league as both a plus defender at shortstop and a gifted hitter. He's not the most well-liked teammate (many consider him selfish) but he is known to be a hard worker. And if the Portland Wild Things are to climb out of the cellar soon the 2-time All-Star and 1-time Silver Slugger Tobin, heading into just his 5th big league season, will likely be at the center of their resurgence.

(It should also probably be noted that Jeremy Brigatti's 67 stolen bases is a new single season high in the WPK. The 23 year old Australian somewhat came out of nowhere this season- his second full season in the WPK-as he jumped from a modest 2.1 WAR season in 1971, when he stole 27 bases but was also caught 25 times, to a 6.0 WAR 1972 season with a respectable slash line of .272/.340/.370, 27 doubles and 60 walks to only 40 strikeouts. Brigatti is also fine defensive outfielder, particularly at the corners, though his average arm leaves him best suited to left field. When combined with Felix Lopez, it is easy to see why the Brooklyn club led all of the WPK in stolen bases this season.)