Wow -- what a month for Jeremy Mason. The Newtown Jets have the best record in baseball, and it's been fuelled by this man. He’s got the best eye in the game -- drawing more walks than hits (and he gets plenty of hits). He hasn’t hit a single home run, yet he leads all of baseball in extra-base hits, with more doubles than singles.
But the real headline? He stole 38 bases in May. That’s 1.4 per game! He’s had almost as many games with three steals (4) as games with none (5). His 56 total steals are more than twice as many as anyone else, and he’s on pace for 168 by season’s end.
If he gets on base, he eventually scores 52% of the time -- the best mark in baseball among qualified hitters. And that’s despite playing on a team that ranks squarely in the middle in terms of OPS. He gives himself every chance to score runs, and he’s racking up a lot of them.
Do you love dingers? Does the mere existence of Jeremy Mason bring a tear to your eye? How does someone win Hitter of the Month without blasting the ball into orbit? You’re not here for this small-ball malarkey. Bring on the big ball.
Stu Avon is your guy. 12 home runs in May -- no one else even has 12 on the season. The 21-year-old slugger might be a bit leaner than your prototypical power hitter (6'1", 180 lbs), but he absolutely packs a punch.
Chance Peterson was genuinely confused to find out he’d won Pitcher of the Month. If anything, he thought his April was better than his May. Couldn’t they find anyone else?
Still, the Preston Bears just seem to win when Peterson takes the mound — even when he doesn’t have his best stuff. When the Tasman Suns tagged him for 11 hits and 6 runs over 6 innings, the hitters responded with a casual “no worries bro” and smashed 9 runs in the same span (plus another 4 in the 8th for good measure).
Wait -- didn’t this guy have a 8.80 ERA?
Yes, at the end of April, Calvin Wilson was carrying an 8.80 ERA after a dreadful start. He couldn’t make it past the second inning in his first two games and racked up 12 earned runs over those 4 innings in the process.
But now? He’s trimmed that down to 4.76, thanks to a 1.60 ERA over five May starts. He’s cut his walk rate in half, bumped up his strikeouts by 50%, and allowed just one home run all month.
His standout performance came against the Penrith Blues. The Dolphins scored a solitary run in the first inning -- and that was it. Wilson allowed just one hit (in the 7th) and completed a one-hit CGSO, holding onto a narrow 1–0 lead.
