Pitcher of the Year
Without a doubt, the best pitcher on the staff was Amen Mitrani. This is no slight to the yeoman efforts Katarou Sadao. Mitani's season highlights include a 16-8 record while maintaining a 3.44 ERA over 254 IP. His 292 strikeouts on the season were second in the MBBA only to Jay Lee. He also led the Frick League in shutouts with 3 on the season while playing errorless baseball from the hill. Amen is considered one of the top pitchers in the MBBA, so he must be our Pitcher of the Year.
Batter of the Year
This is a tough decision. Several players had outstanding seasons, and much of our lineup is set up to platoon. Although, one of the players really considered 'full-time' had a breakout season. IF Ryan Savaikie was much improved from last season. He was trusted with the starting jobs at 2B and SS depending on what pitcher was throwing that day. Raising his stats across the board, including AVG, OBP & SLG, he was a major force in the Buffalo lineup. He split time between AAA and the big leagues last season, but deserved a full-time starting job this season. His 22 longballs were second on the team to the 32 put up by 1B Kevin Maas. Maas had just too many K's and didn't perform near of what he needed to for serious consideration of this award. Serious competition was put up by utility guy Billy Johanson and speedster Leroy Lane. Both were given contract extensions for their efforts.
Rookie of the Year
Buffalo had several players perform very well in their first year playing in the major leagues. C Jeremy Hunter played outstanding in his call-up period to replace the injured Rod Smart. Hunter was able to hit at a .330 clip and post a .731 OPS in his 27 games of play. Jeremy will definitely be part of the roster in 1997, but the harder decision is who will be the odd man out?
So this closes the 1996 season, and there are very high hopes and aspirations for next season.
