[BirdWatcher]

Now onto the high profile awards, starting with:


Shoeless Joe League Pitcher of the Year:




In an earlier post with about 3 weeks left in the regular season we speculated about who the most likely candidates were for the league MVP and Pitcher of the Year awards were and these mostly turned out to be accurate. While we considered Parker Rayfield, the veteran Philadelphia Mud Hen starting pitcher as a legitimate candidate for the SJL Pitcher of the Year award it was felt that Edgar Lira (Jacksonville) might have the raw stats (win-loss record and ERA) that would give him the award. In fact, Rayfield, in spite of his underwhelming 13-10 record, was awarded with his first Pitcher of the Year honor of his 9 plus season career. He did lead the league in WAR (7.0) and in innings pitched (275.1) and was also the stingiest with the longball (0.2 HR/9). Lira did finish second, and as predicted the Columbus Whalers likely future Hall of Fame lefthander Luis Ramirez also finished in the top 3.

Moonlight Graham League Pitcher of the Year:



We also just missed on our prediction about the MGL Pitcher of the Year award as we thought Denver veteran Sadahige Kawasaki might have the slight edge over 22 (now 23) year-old teammate Eric Maisch. But in this case things like Maisch's 21-4 record, easily the best in the WPK, as well as his 2nd best strikeout total (205), 2nd best ERA (2.44, behind only Kawasaki at 2.38), best K/BB rate (4.6), etc. gave the young hurler his first, but perhaps not last, MGL Pitcher of the Year award. A third Denver hurler, Jim Atwell, finished 4th in the voting, with Oklahoma City's 22-year old Mike Piles finishing a somewhat surprising (but deserved) third.

Shoeless Joe League MVP:



We were spot on though in predicting that San Antonio second baseman John Mussaw would win his first SJL MVP award. He got all 24 first place votes. Philly's breakout star Mike Florack finished 2nd and Pittsburgh catcher Kevin Broadbent 3rd, pretty much exactly as predicted. The great Bud Lindsay, winner of 4 SJL MVP awards in his illustrious career, finished 4th.

Moonlight Graham League MVP:



For the 5th straight year a Denver Brewer was named the MGL MVP. The past three years that honor has gone to right fielder Antonio Acuna. Prior to that, in 1978, first baseman Brett Taranto won his first MGL MVP award. And now he has won his second, getting all but 1 of the first place votes. J.J. Hebert, slugging St. Louis outfielder, got the one that Brett didn't, and finished second in the voting. Other Brewers who got votes were left fielder Val Guzman (10th) and second baseman Dustin Moore (11th).