While the team struggled yet again in 2058, it wasn't for a lack of solid contributions from several rookie players in Portland last season. The Lumberjacks played a total of 5 rookies a year ago, all of whom played the entire season with the big league club and accumulated a combined 7.0 total WAR on a 63-win team.
John Simons, a rule 5 addition for the squad a year ago, survived a full year on the roster, making 31 total starts on the mound. Injury troubles escaped him but pitching woes did not. While still posting 1.1 WAR, he only managed a 4-11 overall record with a 5.05 ERA and 1.43 WHIP over 149.2 innings pitched a season ago. The 26 year old is looking to stick around another year in Portland.
Edward Roundfield IV was the biggest loser of the 2058 rookie class last season. His -0.2 WAR was the only negative producer among the 5 rookies last season. Injuries cost him about 30 games of action a year ago, but even that didn't make much of a difference. He did hit 23 homeruns to finish 2nd on the team last year, but his .227 batting average and .278 on-base percentage showed many that his high power ability at a middle infield spot still wasnt enough to overcome poor play. A new season upcoming appears to have only derailed what Portland fans had hoped to be a promising career for a former 1st round pick.
That leaves us with the 3 true candidates for the Top Rookie Award in Allan Uecker, Greg Squires, and Alvin Conley.
Squires is eliminated due to his 0.6 WAR but we felt he performed better than that. He hit .251 as a 19-20 year old last season with a .722 OPS. Hardly measly numbers. His 22 homeruns was 3rd overall on the team and he drove in 79 RBI while playing in 152 contests. He had a bad final 2 months which really hurt his overall numbers and a shift from the corner outfield to center midway through the year also damaged his WAR output. Nonetheless, we like the production Squires produced and hope a shift back to the corner may boost his WAR for next season.
That leaves us with Uecker and Conley for the award. The duo combined for 5.5 of the 7.0 overall WAR by our rookies last year. And they did it in different fashion. Uecker utlized his crazy ability to perform defensively behind the dish as catcher while Conley did it with the bat. Uecker put up 2.7 WAR while posting just a .615 OPS, if that says anything about his glove and arm work. Granted, at a glance his 23.3 caught stealing ratee with 3 passed balls and 6 errors doesnt' seem all that impressive. But we'll take the game's word for it.
That means Alvin Conley is our top rookie award winner in 2058. There was never really any doubt. He led the team in all 3 triple crown categories offensively with a .299-39-103 stat line. He'll go down as the franchise's rookie single season leader in both homeruns and RBI. In fact, his 39 homeruns ranks as the 7th most in a single season in Portland's 19 year history and his 103 RBI also tied him with the 8th most in the history of the club. His .299 average and .539 slugging fell just short of our franchise's top 10. But he did register top 10 seasons in:
Hits (191 is the 3rd most in franchise history)
Total Bases (344 is the 6th most in franchise history)
Singles (123 is the 6th most in franchise history)
So while Uecker and Conley were separated by just .1 WAR between the two, Conley's offensive numbers rank him as one of our top hitting performers in franchise history. And likely the best single season rookie offensive season the franchise has ever had.
Conley will finish 3rd in the final Gillstrom Award voting in the Frick for the league's top rookie. Uecker will come in 4th.
