Mare Wareham
Golden Bat Award - Frick League Short Stop (4th - 2032, 2033, 2034, 2035)
Xue-qin Man
Diamond Glove Award - Frick League Second Base (3rd - 2031, 2034, 2035)
Mark Wareham once again earned the honor as the Top Frick League Hitting Short Stop with his unusual, (though Sabermetrics may say progressive), approach to hitting. At a glance, one may wonder why Mark gets so much attention. A Career .249 batting average doesn't seem that interesting. However, Mark usually does one of three things when he comes to the plate... Strikeout, Get a Hit or Walk. In approximately 700 plate appearances in 2035, 436 appearances ended with one these outcomes. In fact, Mark Wareham is so good at getting walks, he's lead the entire league for 4 straight years, even setting the BBA Single Season record in 2034 with 162 walks. At 657 career Walks, he's still far shy of almost 2,200 Walks by legend Charles Pucket (Mark would only need 13 mores season at ~120 BB/yr to catch Puckett...lol) . Throw in his base stealing ability, he's a lead off menace, 2nd only to Amazing Mons Raider. Wareham also has enough power in this bat to be a decent home run threat and you have a crazy mix of skills not typically seen in any league.
The "Gorilla" Xue-Quin Man is the Yang to Mark's Ying. He hits for average, doesn't strike out or walk much and has very limited HR power. However Man has been unable to pull a Golden Bat yet in his career, finished 2nd or 3rd several times. But Man has made up for it with his glove, earning his 3rd Diamond Glove in 2035. Xue-Qin was a defensive wizard again in 2035, finishing just ahead of his nemesis in Des Moines, William Hardy. Zone Ratings - 17.7 Man vs 14.7 Hardy / Efficiency - 1.088 Man vs 1.081 Hardy. While he didn't rack up the over-all 2B defensive stats due to Man playing a little outfield after Harsnett's departure, he was still good enough to the earn the Diamond Glove for his third time.
There's some concern among River Monsters' Fan whether the dynamic duo of Mark Wareham and Xue-Qin Man might be coming to a close. Both are due to big contracts in 2037 and with Chris Limon already being paid, 2036 might be finale to an amazing 6 seasons of Twin Cities getting see these two work their magic together... both in the middle of Infield and at the Top of the Lineup.
