Best Hitter
Ted Sale
You could have made a solid case that Ted Sale should have won the FL's top hitter award last season. In fact, I made a small push for him when the votes were being counted. Sale hit .326/.410/.558 with 36 homeruns and 111 RBI. Sale put up career highs in hits (198), average (.326), on-base percentage (.410), at-bats (608), and games played (160). He ranked first in the FL in OPS, WOBA, and Runs Created. He was top 5 in the FL in plate appearances, hits, total bases, homeruns, RBI, runs scored, walks, intentional walks, extra base hits, average, on-base percentage, slugging, and VORP.
Best Pitcher
Bradley Rieves
Rieves does not have the ratings of a pitcher that should win the award. Nonetheless, Rieves had an outstanding season going 17-11 with a 3.75 ERA. He struck out 139 and posted a 1.26 WHIP. One of the major reasons for Rieves' success last year can be credited to his .278 BABIP which was 4th in the FL.
Best Reliever
Darrell Dowdle
While a lot of the focus was on some of the bigger named relievers like Rob Dibble, Tim Scott, and Pedro Martinez, 20 year old Darrell Dowdle was the unsung hero to the Surfers pen and a big reason why the Surfers were able to trade away Rob Dibble. Dowdle pitched in 40 games and went 3-0 with a 2.09 ERA. In 43 innings pitched, Dowdle allowed 37 hits and walked only 9 batters for a WHIP of 1.07! He also had 33 strikeouts compared to just those 9 walks. Overall, it was an extremely great season for the rookie Dowdle out of the Long Beach bullpen.
Best Minor Leaguer
Ramon Ayala
Ayala was spectacular last season. So much so that he was great at three different levels and made the Surfers rotation for the PLAYOFFS! With Double-A Florence last season, Ayala made 17 appearances (only 9 starts due to a gaf on my part) and was 9-0 with 1 save and a 1.55 ERA in 81.1 innings pitched. He struck out 59 and posted a 0.85 ERA. When he was called up to Triple-A Santa Fe, Ayala made 17 starts and went 9-5 with a 2.90 ERA. In 133.2 innings pitched, he struck out 122 and posted a 0.99 WHIP. Ayala was then called up for the final sim of the season and made 2 starts with the Surfers in September. In those two starts, Ayala went 2-0 with a 0.50 ERA in 18 innings. He pitched 2 complete games, allowed 1 run and 3 walks while striking out 13. With those starts, Surfers manager Bugaloo Polinski pleaded with GM Chris Wilson to put Ayala on the post-season roster. Wilson agreed and Polinski placed Ayala as the #2 starter. Ayala made 4 post-season starts, went 0-1 with a 2.61 ERA in 31 innings pitched. He walked 3 and struck out 24 with a 1.13 WHIP in the playoffs. So add it all up, Ayala pitched 264 innings pitched . Damn, who is running this team, Dusty Baker? He allowed 67 Earned Runs and struck out 218 batters.