Puckett Award Battles! (Johnson League)

[RonCo]

Rather than a couple 100-win behemoths the Johnson League spread it’s wins around the divisions, with only Jacksonville reaching 99, and 95-win Rockville and Mexico City leading their divisions. As you might guess, this means the competition for individual awards—which was already tough in the Frick—are basically a set of dogfights. Sure, there are a couple that look like no-brainers, but for the most part, JL voters are in for some tough decisions.

Let’s take a look, shall we?

Catcher: Don’t you love the irony of random chance? Just like in the Johnson, we tee up a narrative of hard struggles for the hardware, then start off with a gimme. In this case, New Orleans Crawdads’ Hsin Mei, towers over another pair of guys who in a normal situation would get looks. I mena, Rockville’s Francisco Flores is 21 and just dropped a .386 wOBA/4.5 WAR year, and Huntsville’s Luis Barrera posted 4.7 of them WAR thingies himself. But make no mistake here, if Mei doesn’t win it’s because someone down Georgia-way is counting the votes (or not, as the case may be). Mei is going to win in highly deserved landslide due to those 46 homers, 7.1 WAR. The wOBA/wRC+ combo is an eye-shattering .416/162. Enough said..

First Base: One can make a case for as many as six JL hitters at first base. The “Old-School” argument is led by Jacksonville’s Norris Rutledge (49 homers, 107 RBI), Atlantic City’s Adrian Salazar (41, 126), and New Orleans’ Yancy Cravat (47, 124). Cravat and Rutledge fans can argue WAR, too, whatever that’ s good for, because at 4.5 and 4.1, the two register up there. New-fangled stat fans will point to Rockville’s Mario Guerrer’s .407 wOBA and 156 wRC+, which is clearly top of the table, and Nashville’s youthful Miguel Suarez, whose fancy stats are just a cut below Guerrer’s. Vegas fans will still tout 31-year-old Gervasio Riddler, whose numbers are brilliant enough at first blush to get a call-out, but who, after a little comparison shopping seems to fade.

Our call is Guerrer, but we can see others. Cravat and Rutledge are effectively the same player, though, and we suspect they may split the old-school vote.

Second Base: Second base is probably a two-horse race between Atlantic City’s Keith Dean and Wichita’s bright soot, George Anderson Lee V. Some might find votes for Mexico City’s Brett Compton (whose 4.6 WAR leads the pack) and Montreal’s Charles Mann (.319/.343/.430), but those guys got a chunk of their WAR with the glove. Jacksonville’s Luzvimindo Arbizo will get some attention, but a .255 batting average will probably hurt him, and his advance metrics are a little slight (.337 wOBA/108 wRC+).

Between Dean and Anderson, we’re guessing Dean will get the nod. His 19 homers is eye-catching for a shortstop, and the ,859 OPS easily surpasses Anderson’s, who gets a lot of his offensive value from his patience and his legs. Interesting race, though. Depending on how the precincts break, most any of these guys could take the hardware home.

Third Base: There exist a few worthy third basemen in the Johnson League, but if you’re projecting the JL Puckett, you need say only two words: David Noboru. 42 HR, .342/.379/.615, .412 wOBA, 159 wRC+, 8.4 WAR). The end.

Shortstop: Some years Montreal’s Luis Gonzalez 3.3 WAR, 120 wRC+ season might take a shortstop Puckett, but it’s not going to cut it now. That’s because Rockville’s Chip Puckett (Puckett’s namesake, natch) and Nashville’s Tu-fu Yong are in a deathmatch for the award this year. Pucket wins the WAR game at 6.0 to 5.1, but he gets a big chunk with his legs (71 steals), whereas Yong’s bat produced 29 homers, and a .319/.368/.563 line good for a position leating .931 OPS, .387 wOBA, and 142 RC+. Our money is on the kid from Nashville. Your mileage may vary.

Left Field: Alfredo Salazar probably doesn’t have enough grunt to ride his 33 homers to another Puckett, but the fact that he’s 35 and still in the conversation says something for him. The chase should come down to a pair of kids in Rockville’s Lorenzo Palacios (22) whose .393 wOBA and 147 wRC+ edges Montreal’s Juan Santana’s .373/133. The two have similar lines, though, with Santana gaining a bit more of his value with the legs than Palacios, too…which makes him perhaps a bit more exciting to watch (13 triples doesn’t suck). We’ll lean this Palacios’s way, but won’t be surprised if come election day the final tally goes toward Santana. At 22and 21, we’re guessing they’ll be in the mix for this award for some time.

Centerfield: Seriously? I mean…seriously? A quick g;ance at WAR says Tim Torres, at 5.1, wins. But Torres gets a bunch of that gap with the glove…so looking more closely says that, holy shit, Batman, what are we gonna do here? The JL has fie guys that have serious arguments for the award (and Jacksonville’s Vincente Chavez who can fake a few bars).

Phoenix’s Thad Meyer is the longest shot of the real contenders. All he did was club 46 doubles and 24 homers in CF. The WAR is good, but the .818 OPS and wOBA/wRC+ numbers drop him (in our ranks, anyway). Atlantic City’s Ricardo Hernandez’s 30 homers and plate discipline give his case some weight, but he’s not in the top three to your eyes.

Separating the top three here is a lot like the 2B situation in the Frick, only here the three are Huntsville’s Torres, Las Vegas’s studly Juan Sweetworld, and New Orleans’s Virgil Shafer. Let’s list the fancy stats just for giggles:

Shafer: .356 wOBA, 121 wRC+
Sweetworld: .356 wOBA, 121 wRC+
Torres: .354 wOBA, 119 wRC+

Shafer hit 40 homers. Torres 18 triples. Sweetworld’s counting numbers were down a bit because he had only 329 plate appearances…so do we ding him fir that? Probably. So, for us we weigh Shafer and Torres, and come up with…sheesh…it’s just too close to call. Can we go halfsies?

Right Field: Here’s one that’s probably a pretty fair call. Phoenix’s 22-year-old Bartolo Ortiz and his .411 wOBA (46 homers on the side) is the class of the show. You might see Mexico City’s Chang-hyeok Chang and Brooklyn’s Mario Balderas pick up a perfectly reasonable homer vote or two, but Ortiz is the Kwisatz Haderach here.

Designated Hitter: Here’s another game of pick-up sticks for you. Seven guys could make a case for the JL DH Puckett, though Mexico City’s Augie Plascencia’s .320/.372 AVG/OBP-heavy argument is probably the weakest. The kid hit an astounding 57 doubles, though. The case doesn’t suck.

You can okay all sorts of swap ‘em out comparisons with Vegas’s Henry Rectenberg (32 HR, 4.6 WAR) Huntsville’s David Hall (49 HR, 34 2B), Jacksonville’s Comeback Kid Bertram Hahn (his .378 wOBA and 136 wRC+ match Rectenberg’s and his counting numbers are comparable in 60 less PA), Montreal’s Ettienne R. Lafitte (46 homers and posted dazzling fancy stats of his own), and Brooklyn’s Fernando Cruz, whose .389 wOBA and 143 wRC+ are better than those we’ve already listed on the force of 37 doubles and 36 homers. Any of these five could get votes.

But if we’re leaning anywhere here it has to be Phoenix’s Mario Deortez, whose 45 doubles and 42 homers converted into a .404/154 wOBA/wRC+, which are good enough to put him into the conversation for the JL Sawyer Silk award as well as the DH Puckett.

Again, though, it’ll be an interesting vote.

[aaronweiner]

Guerrer won the batting title if it means anything to anyone, and he plays in a park that depresses power output.

[agrudez]

Torres and Shafer had the same offense with 10 ZR separating them on defense - gonna give that tie breaker to Torres.

[usnspecialist]

Torres and Shafer had the same offense with 10 ZR separating them on defense - gonna give that tie breaker to Torres.

because defensive capabilities have everything to do with an offensive award right?

[recte44]

Torres and Shafer had the same offense with 10 ZR separating them on defense - gonna give that tie breaker to Torres.

because defensive capabilities have everything to do with an offensive award right?

What he said, its like giving someone a Zimmer because they hit better.

[agrudez]

If one bat was 50 OPS points better it's not a discussion. When they have virtually the same offensive production *something* has to be the tie breaker - so why not the other half of the game? Would you rather flip a coin?

[usnspecialist]

If one bat was 50 OPS points better it's not a discussion. When they have virtually the same offensive production *something* has to be the tie breaker - so why not the other half of the game? Would you rather flip a coin?

i would rather use SB as a tiebreaker, because at least that has SOMETHING to do with offense. Otherwise pick your favorite offensive category and use that.

[agrudez]

They're pretty much the same there (in quantity at least), too, lol. I'm factoring SB in my initial assessment because RC/27 is one of the main offensive stats I'm looking at (which factors base running in). Well, now that I mention that I guess I'm only *assuming* OOTP uses the equation for RC that includes SBs... they could be using the bat only version. Of course, Torres being .35 better than Shafer in RC/27 despite being 11 OPS points lower might prove that it does include SBs (since Torres having a ~18% better SB success rate is the one category he really outshines Shafer in).

To the defense as a tiebreaker point, though, defense absolutely impacts offense. Having an elite bat that can play a prime defensive position allows you to field a better lineup overall. How about this for a hypothetical... what if a team took a traditional 1B power hitter and put him at 3B. At the end of the year he's got 40 HRs, .900 OPS and -20 ZR. He's then in the running for the 3B Zimmer against some traditional 3B with ~0 to 5 ZR and ~.85 to .875 OPS. Are you really going to reward the player out of position that overall is hurting his team in that scenario?

[RonCo]

It's an interesting discussion. Glad the piece created it.

I'd love to hear some other folks chime in on the Torres/Shaffer question because while I have opinions, at the end of the day there's several fair ways to look at things...

[ae37jr]

Who did Alfredo Martínez piss off that he got left off the ballot?

[udlb58]

Who did Alfredo Martínez piss off that he got left off the ballot?

That's what I was wondering. He played the entire season in the JL and I'd think 603 PA would qualify.

[recte44]

Probably playing multiple positions?

[GoldenOne]

Cant be because of multiple positions. 121 of his 139 games played were in LF. He only played 7 in RF and I'm going to guess the other 11 were as a DH. Surely 121 games and 990 innings at LF should be more than enough to qualify.

[ae37jr]

Maybe cause he split between 2 teams. I know Jonathan Frank's stats are incorrect and only show what he did in Nashville.

I really don't mind. Just pointing it out. Matinez probably wins the award if he's on the ballot.

[udlb58]

Cant be because of multiple positions. 121 of his 139 games played were in LF. He only played 7 in RF and I'm going to guess the other 11 were as a DH. Surely 121 games and 990 innings at LF should be more than enough to qualify.

Yes, when he came back from injury early in the season, Tim McKee was on fire with a .970 OPS playing short (with Wareham at 3rd and Noboru in LF) and Hahn was in the middle of his worst month of the season (1 HR, .717 OPS). I decided to ease Martinez into the lineup, playing DH vRHP and LF vLHP, taking over full-time as McKee cooled off.