Trail Droppings 2040- 5 Pioneers Win Awards

[indiansfan]

Pioneers Win Awards

Two Calgary Pioneers won postseason awards this year, a surprisingly low number given the team’s FL Championship season. The team had several players that received votes for other awards, but only two that won.

Rookie first baseman Liann-Wei Mao lived up to his hype this year and won the FL Puckett Award for his position. He also finished third in the voting for the Gillstrom Rookie Award. He was selected as an All Star and won the MVP in the FL Doubleday series. “The Chairman” hit .315 with 39 HR and 96 RBIs. He also showed his talent with his glove posting a +4.4 ZR. Mao only started 128 games, playing mostly against right handed pitchers. This season he is expected to play more often against lefties than he did last year.

Edward Gilliam won the team’s only Zimmer Award as the overwhelming choice as the best fielding pitcher in the league. Gilliam was also named to the All Star team this year. In his sophomore season, Gilliam went 13-8 with a 3.63 ERA in 33 starts. He committed no errors and was one of a handful of pitchers to post a positive ZR.

Both players performed well in the postseason. Gilliam won 2 games and Mao hit .340. Mao also hit 7 HR and drove in 12 runs.