That's What Cheesehead - 00.24 - Award Losers

[7teen]

The 2000 Owner's Choice Awards (OCA) is in the book. The Madison Wolves were well represented in the final balloting, but just like on the field, many Wolves fell short. While the team missed out on championship glory, many individual Wolves' players missed out on individual glory.

Bopper Kengos fell short of winning his second consecutive Johnson League Sawyer Silk Award. The Wolves slugging 3b finished third in the voting with 105 total points. He received 2 first place votes, 8 2nd place votes, and 9 votes for 3rd-5th. Kengos was on 19 of the 22 ballots cast by the owners. On the season, Bopper hit .334/.377/.565 with 36 homeruns and 131 RBI. He led the JL in hits with 217 and ranked 2nd in total bases and VORP.

Finishing third in the Johnson League Steve Nebraska Award voting was Jessie Wright. Despite numerous attempts by myself to build Wright up enough to win the award, he still fell short. Wright received 7 first place votes and was on 20 of the 22 ballots cast, further proving in my eyes that some owners don't pay much attention when voting for Awards. Wright was 2nd in wins, quality starts, and shutouts this season while leading the JL in strikeouts and WHIP. He was 3rd in the JL in ERA. So while I can still justify him not winning the award, I can't see how 2 owners failed to vote for him. (Three owners did not vote for Robert Sargeant, who finished 2nd in voting)

Finishing 4th in the Nebraska voting was another Wolves pitcher, Tyree Wills. Wills, while not possessing outstanding ratings, put together a great season and was also on 20 of the 22 ballots cast. Wills did not receive a single first place vote, but did get 6 second place votes adn 8 third place votes. Wills was 2nd in the league in wins, ERA, and VORP while leading the league with 11 complete games.

In the JL Gunga Oogalagunga voting, Wolves closer Justin Marco finished 4th in the final voting. I have to admit, I was surprised here. Not because I don't feel as though Marco finished where he did, but I thought owners would have him higher. And I base that solely on his saves number. But I have to admit that it is nice to see the owners did not just vote for the man who had teh most saves. Marco had 48 saves, 2 shy of the all-time record for the MBBA. But his ERA was up near 4 and there were other relievers in the JL more deserving. I was surprised though that the guy who led the JL in saves was only on 13 of the 22 ballots cast. But again, it's nice to see that owners didn't just base their votes on saves and looked at everything else as well.

Finally, the last person coming up short was myself. I received 98 points in the Owner of the Year voting, a distant second behind Josh Johnson, owner of Calgary. The Woleves finished 2nd in the MBBA in wins and I'll be somewhere in the top 5 of participation points. While the first one probably won't hold up for long, it is safe to say I will continue my participation and always be in the top few owners when it comes to total numbers of PPs. Most of my TNs may be boring or fluff, but I'll continue to write plenty of them throughout the course of a season. At the same time, I still consider a large portion of this team to be Gates' team that I was lucky enough to inheret. If I can keep this team together for another 2 or 3 seasons, I'll be pleased. The contracts are gradually starting to increase and the cap space is disappearing. Nonetheleess, thanks to the 18 owners who gave me a vote.

[recte44]

I think there's enough room between you and Gates now that this is "your team".