Hawaii Tropics LF/DH Vicente ‘Yogi’ Martinez capped off his amazing rookie season by taking home the Frick League Gilstrom, Puckett and Silk to add to his All-Star nod.
Yogi led the league with 54 doubles while adding 7 triples and 41 homers. He slashed .340/.389/.670 with a 182 OPS+ and put up 6.7 WAR on the season. He drove in 112 runs, scored 109, walked 46 times and stole 17 bases in 19 attempts.
He received 32 out of 34 votes for the Silk with one vote going for Mynorli Gaajlimitz and one head scratcher for Emilio Morales, Jr. Hawaii GM Jim Walker said, “I don’t know what season that voter was looking at, but it wasn’t this one.”
The road to the bigs wasn’t easy for Martinez after his career began after being selected by Hawaii with the 24th pick of the 1st round in 2056. He was raw coming out of high school and played the rest of ’56 in Gaylord (Rookie). He hit 9 homers in 205 PA and was promoted to Short A San Juan for 2057.
He struggled in San Juan with lefties and was sent back to San Juan for 2058. He had a small improvement but was still behind his peers in San Juan. Walker thought he may be bored and was promoted to Medford (A) to play for the Mules.
He blossomed in Medford slashing .297/.341/.479 with 5 homers and a 113 OPS+. In 2059, he made his way to Carson City (AA) where he began to struggle again. He repeated Carson City in 2060 where his power jumped but his average and on base lagged. He was sent back to Carson City again but was limited to just righties and he slashed .278/.316/.380 and was promoted to Death Valley.
In Death Valley he hit a slump but finished the season with 6 homers at the AAA level. He began 2063 in Death Valley and everything finally came together. He hit 39 bombs, drove in 130 runs and scored 104 while slashing .320/.370/.596 with a 4.9 WAR. Martinez was promoted to the Trops after the Scorpions were knocked out of the playoffs by the Missouri Blues.
In 16 games and 10 starts for Hawaii in 2062, Martinez hit 3 homers, drove in 11 and scored 8 runs. He slashed .349/.306/.767 with a 209 OPS+ and posted a 0.76 WAR in 43 at bats. Then, 2063 and a historic run for the Trops rookie star.
