2039.6 Great News Bears: Silk Contenders

[usnspecialist]

In a season that saw the Bears recover from their dip in 2038 and reclaim their position atop the Pacific Division, there were certainly no shortage of offensive reasons for the resurgence. Listed below are some of the main candidates for your consideration, with their FL ranking listed in parenthesis.

2B Angel Garcia: Garcia finally conquered his injury bugaboo by playing a career high 158 games and boy did he prove what a talent he is by combining a solid offensive season with Zimmer caliber defense at 2B..

WAR: 6.33 (4)
Runs: 113 (T7)
OBP: .395 (9)
BB: 84 (T9)
wRC: 120.95 (11)
HR: 35 (T20)

3B Juan Mendoza: Mendoza continued his incredibly steady career by putting in another season over 5.0 WAR. The 25 year old has certainly shown himself to be a rock upon which the Bears franchise can be built for the future.

TB: 346 (5)
Hits: 204 (5)
wRC: 133.84 (5)
WAR: 5.73 (6)
Runs: 113 (T7)
AVG: .321 (10)
OVP: .394 (10)
wOBA: .394 (11)
OPS: .939 (12)
2B: 37 (T20)
BB: 69 (T20)

1B: Tai hoi Wie: Already a legend in the history of the San Fernando Bears franchise, Wie received a large new contract early in the season and went out to prove that he was worth it with a nice rebound year at the plate.

Runs: 127 (2)
BB: 126 (2)
OBP: .415 (3)
wRC: 138.67 (3)
WAR: 5.39 (9)
wOBA: .398 (9)
OPS: .945 (10)
WPA: 4.37 (10)
HR: 40 (T12)

RF Luis Maldonado: In what is a theme for this Bears offense, Maldonado shrugged off a down 2038 to return his previous heights that make him one of the most feared players in the league.

Runs: 115 (T5)
RBI: 115 (T8)
wRC: 122.72 (9)
BB: 81 (T12)
WPA: 4.21 (13)
WAR: 5.05 (14)
SB: 46 (15)
wOBA: .384 (16)
OPS: .920 (17)
Hits: 176 (17)
HR: 37 (18)

DH Dusty Rhodes: Rhodes did things with the bat in his hands that have simply never been done in the history of the BBA.

Hits: 257 (1)- Alltime record
Singles: 218 (1)- Alltime record
AVG: .388 (1)- 8th all time
OBP: .421 (1)
wRC: 136.57 (4)
TB: 339 (7)
wOBA: .399 (8)
WPA: 4.25 (12)
OPS: .934 (14)
Runs: 106 (T15)

[RonCo]

The Frick Silk is going to be a wide open mess this year, I think. Rhodes could win it purely due to certain elements of his notoriety these days.

More interesting in the Bears' Camp is how many Pucketts the team will win. It could be all the Pucketts.

I'm not sure Mendoza is a front runner there...but I could see him with the 3B Puckett Award. Wei is in the 1B Puckett bucket, too, but the competition is high. Maldonado is flat-out, good...but he doesn't lead any RF category, can a guy who is basically #2 or #3 everywhere beat guys who lead two or three categories? If anyone can, it's probably him. It's probably Garcia or Williamson for the 2B Puckett, and I give Garcia a bit of an edge...though I stand willing to change my mind. The DH Puckett will be fascinating, too. One would expect Rhodes would have an edge here, but there are other contenders...so that vote will say a lot about how people view him today.

Bottom line: I'd not make a guess on who will win the Silk this year, but it's certainly possible that any or all of these guys could walk away with Pucketts, and that says something about the ball club in San Fernando.