By Javaris Jamar Javarison-Lamar | JavarisJamarJavarison-Lamar@3Wolves.net
Its that time of year again in Madison, where us local sports writers get together and hand out our award for Offense, Defensive, Pitcher, rookie of the year for Madison.
Overall the teams record dipped slightly, by X games, that could be due in part to the loss of last years MVP Manobu Shaimo for the season. His X Ware were hard to make. Still it was an overall good year at the ballpark for the team. Attendance was up over 2041 to 33177 per game (95% capacity). Overall it was up 14.8% from last season. 2.7 million fans went through the gates at Shotz Filed. Making a 13.7M profit for the season. Not bad for a sub-500 team. It just shows the fans in Madison really love their Wolves.
2042 - Best Offensive Player
Loosing arguably their best player lost for the season in Manobu Shimizu, 21yo 2x All-Star Salvador Allende was the writers clear choice for this award. Posting a 4.5 WAR and a .316/.431/.408 Slash for the season (all increases from his 2041 season). He also led the team in Stolen bases with 59, missing the 30/30 club by 3HRs. Probably something he would have made if he didn't miss those 5 weeks due to injury. This kid is going to be one of the cornerstones for seasons to come for this team. This writer for one is excited to see this kid continue to grow.
2042 - Best Pitcher
This was another easy choice for the Madison Sports writers. Yorikane Miyamoto wins his second consecutive sports writers award in back to back seasons. He followed up his 2041 season, and became the staffs clear #1 pitcher this year. Making his first All-Star game along the way. His 5.2 WAR was up from last years 4.4 WAR. His pitched more innings (222 vs 221), gave up less HRs (24 vs 27), walked fewer (75 vs 77), and struck out more (196 vs 182) vs his 2041 campaign. If this team could get some defense around this 23yo, he could continue to get better.
2042 - Rookie of the year
Last year the award went to Declan Hounsel the Wolves CF, who followed up with a pretty respectable sophomore season. This year, the rookie of the year award, goes to a closer Raphael Castagna. His 35 saves lead the Frick (third overall in the Brewster) as he posted a 3.35 ERA while going 8-8 during the season while taking over for the injured Belchior Barracas
2042 - Defensive Player of the year
The award this year goes to multi-purpose player David Guerra. Acquired in the offseason as an upgrade for team defense, he did not disappoint. Guerra played every IF this season for the Wolves, except for SS. He posted a positive ZR in all 3. He played the majority of his time at 3B this season (95 games) after the team decided it needed to shake some things up in the infield to help the teams pitching staff. His 5.5 ZR at 2B, and .5 at 3B lead the team for both positions. "He's played almost 100 games in his career at 3B before coming to us" said GM Simon. "So we felt confident in moving him over there."
2042 - MiLB player of the year
Not known for having the strongest MiLB in the Brewster, GM Simon and his staff of scouts are looking to restock this depleted farm system. "The team (Wolves) was so poor with talent, previous GMs had to bring our kids up to play." Simon said. "I'd like to stop that cycle and give these kids some time to develop with some of our new MiLB staff." I've had 2 Brewster drafts under my belt, its gonna take few more to get that depth back in our system. First things first, is we wanted to get these guys feeling like they are part of the Wolves organization, and not second class players. As you know we announced an entire new look for our farm system in 2043, to help on that front. We did have some success at the lower levels of play this season Charlottesville winning their division, and Saint Johns winning their second Drake League Championship this season. On that team for the majority of the season, was the 2042 2nd round pick Left Fielder and Wolves Minor League Player of the year Dan Rowe.
In his time at St. Johns, he posted a .316/.439/.594 slash, and was named the teams MVP in 42 games. He quickly moved up to AA Boulder and played another 37 games. Combined in his first year with Madison (SA & A) he posted a .284/.390/.561 Slash with 282 wRC and 2.1 WAR.
We will see you when the off-season starts. Until then I'm off to watch the Landis series.
~Javaris Jamar Javarison-Lamar
