Calgary Herald Sports-Wrap - 1999 V.10 Hitting Awards

[KCCardinalFan]

This was the Marauders strength coming into 1999 and until some key injuries in August and September forced role players into starting, they were leading the league in most categories. Calgary is also young here, and should be a force in 2000.

Hitter of the Year: The 3rd place votes that Chris Coll is receiving for the Sawyer Silk are truly mind-boggling. Coll was limited to 150 games due to injury, but still put up some eye-popping numbers. 40 homeruns, 134 RBIs, 1.076 OPS, and 45 stolen bases, while playing above average Second Base. All this, in Coll's first full season at the big league level. The only black eye on Coll's season was the .143 he hit in the playoffs, hopefully he will get a chance to turn that around in 2000.

Breakthrough Season: Ashton Fontenot played very well in limited duty in 1998, but showed why he is such a promising young player in 1999 when he was given the Third Base job. Ashton hit .330 in 1998, with 19 homeruns and 99 RBIs, and only missing the final week of the season kept him from the 100 RBI mark. Even more promising is that Ashton's power numbers continued to bump throughout 1999 and looks to reach his high potential next season. Fontenot is a better defensive First Baseman, but is currently blocked by Joe Sullivan.

Biggest Disappointment: This is easy: late season injuries. We mentioned Fontenot going down at the end of September but also lost for the year were Johnnie Iraq and Daniel Kerber. Missing 1/3 of the offense probably wasn't the difference maker in the playoffs, but probably could have at least earned them a win or two instead of an embarrasing sweep.

[recte44]

In regards to Coll and third place votes, sometimes I wonder what people are going off of...