22-year old IF Ricardo Norman took home Rookie of the Year honors for the Frick League at the league's year-end awards luncheon. Held last week at an unspecified secure location to avoid ongoing water-related guerrilla skirmishes mainly provoked by the fearsome Iowan Army, the luncheon saw Norman hold his trophy aloft and declare "the next person to call me Roberto gets their face smashed in with this gold-plated bludgeon." (Norman had previously been cited for threatening a rival player with his bat, which is strictly prohibited, but award weaponry is open season.) Norman is a clubhouse favorite in Iowa.
The 30th overall pick in the 2057 draft, Norman tore up every level of the minor leagues and has not yet posted an OPS below .900 in two years of professional play. After ascending rapidly through both AA and AAA in April '58 and crushing 10 HRs in just 103 collective ABs, scouts were confident that he was ready for the BBA, and an urgent Bane McCoy-sized hole at 1B prompted his early call-up. Norman immediately proved his worth, driving in 15 RBIs in the month of May, and never stopped mashing, producing a .938 OPS and 23 HRs on the season good for 4.6 WAR.
Norman is agile at 6'2", providing plus defense at 1B and filling in acceptably (though for a negative ZR) at 3B after Felix Parreno was traded at the deadline. At press time, the Kernels' offseason plan for their corner IF—indeed, for their entire IF—remained unknown.
