Sticking Points 2034.3: Nearly Sweeps Joe Gillstrom

[aaronweiner]

Rockville players took 20 of a possible 25 first place votes for the Joe Gillstrom rookie award last year, with Mario Guerrer winning a nearly dead heat over Bob Coleman last year for first place. With the way they're talking, though, it's hard to tell who won.

"It's one of those things that will tie us together as teammates and as friends," said Coleman. "The fact that we both came up in the same year, the fact that we both showed excellence in our rookie season - those things will really define our careers."

Guerrer had the most dynamic rookie season for a Rockville batter since FT III came up and won the Joe Gillstrom and the Sawyer Silk. The 22 year old first baseman hit .342, fourth in the entire BBA, and also posted 25 homers and 109 RBI in 156 games last year. The former first rounder did all of this at age 21, and looks to be one of the premier hitters in the league for quite some time.

Coleman, on the other hand, was a less touted prospect who worked his way up through the ranks. The former second round pick was expected to do well as a rookie, but instead he set the league on fire: he finished second in the league in ERA and sixth in pitching WAR, posting 200 innings of 15-8, 3.14 ERA ball with a 148/66 K/BB ratio at the age of 23.

"Bob could easily have won this award," said Guerrer. "He's so talented, has so much skill with all of his pitches, throws that mean fastball. I'd have been as happy to see him win it as me."

Also finishing in the top seven in the Joe Gillstrom voting were closer Fernando Marquez (who lost a close race to Wilmot Schlondorff for the Jason Egan), who got the other four first place votes Rockville got, and former top ten pick Francisco Flores, who finished a distant seventh despite hitting .325 from the catcher position. Lefty reliever Marco Efremov also got a pair of fifth place votes.

"This is what we've been working for," said Efremov, a former sixth-round pick. "I've come up through the ranks with these guys and I've been hoping for something like this a long time, and it's a very exciting time to be part of this franchise."