I could almost get used to this sitting around at night doing nothing. I needed a break after 6 months of baseball and a summer in which I didn’t get as much sleep as I would have liked. Never really was able to sleep well in the warmer months. It’s nice, I’m getting some reading done. Didn’t get as much of that in during the summer since I got a smartphone and started playing Idle Miner Tycoon. That game is addicting. Also started reading This Astounding Close: From Bentonville to Bennett Place about the ending of the fighting between Sherman and Joe Johnston in North Carolina. Bought it at Bennett Place when I visited on my tip and I have a nice pile of books that I need to get through. Didn’t even drink much this week. Didn’t help that Gift Horse is apparently now closed on Mondays, or at least they were closed this week. Glad I weenied out and drove over rather than walking in the rain. My cold has been bad enough.

Headed up to Allentown to take in the Bears and Phantoms game. Made stops at 1787 Brewing in Hamburg, Weyerbacher in Easton, Lost Tavern in Hellertown, Bonn Place in Bethlehem and Hijinx and Fegley’s in Allentown. I see that a new brewery is opening in downtown Allentown soon too. I’m almost going to have to make 2 trips to see the Phantoms (I’m OK with that). Got my parking change in $2 bills. Don’t see those too often, in fact this is the only place that I know of that I can get them. OK, I probably could get some from my bank but you know what I mean.

The game started poorly for the Bears as Maksim Sushko netted his first pro goal 3 1/2 minutes in for the Phantoms. The Bears played catch-up all night. Beck Malenstyn picked off a poor Phantom pass and netted a short handed goal. Both teams added one more tally with Hershey netting theirs on the power play. Stop the presses, the Bears score on the power play! The second period saw no scoring but did see the main event when Liam O’Brien and Kurtis Gabriel dropped the gloves. Gabriel won the fight. Both teams traded goals in the 3rd period with Hershey’s coming from my brother-from-another-mother Travis Boyd. The game went to OT and appeared to be headed for a shootout. Lehigh had taken a penalty so Hershey was on the OT power play and it looked like once again it would come up short but Boyd put one in with 1 second left. Hershey wins 4-3 in OT.

And now without further ado, the Kevy Awards for the 2019 Baseball Season. Cue the orchestra…

Minor League (since that season ended first)

These are all done off of memory and since I do not really feel like pulling out all of the games I went to and compiling a master list of statistics my memory will have to do. Same goes for Indy ball.

Top hitter – This was actually somewhat hard to pick from. Harrisburg had one that would have qualified (Drew Ward) but he only spent half of the season on City Island before being promoted and he was on his third go-around in the Eastern League. The guys for Reading (like Darick Hall, also on his 3rd go around in the Eastern League) that stuck around all had major flaws in one way or another so this was not easy. So, no real standout performer here. There seemed to be a lack of power and top prospects in the Eastern and Carolina Leagues this year. My favorite would have been based on name only in Fayetteville Woodpecker Kyle Beer but he was promoted quickly so I only saw him once this year. So, I will give this to Cole Billingsley of the Frederick Keys and Bowie Baysox. For a good part of the early season the Keys stunk and he was one of the few bright spots on the team. Not a lot of power and not a lot of RBIs (hey, if no one is getting on in front of him or after him…) but he seemed to be the only competent hitter on the team and it earned him a promotion to Bowie at the end of the season. Passed Jomar Reyes by, that’s for sure. At some point Jomar is going to have to move up or move out.

Top pitcher – You know when you see a pitcher with a good record and good numbers and he stinks when you see him this will be a tough award to determine. It could have been yours Mario Sanchez but it was not to be. I admittedly struggled with this one to find someone just like with the top hitter Kevy. I didn’t get to see Bowie’s top pitchers that much, I don’t think I ever got to see Bruce Zimmerman, I didn’t see Zac Lowther until the playoffs and I only saw Michael Baumann once and with Frederick at that. Baumann was good, if I could have gotten another good effort out of him he might have taken this one home. Considering I saw Bowie a fair amount what are the odds? I will award this to Taylor Guillbeau of the Harrisburg Senators. The Senators kicked butt early in the season and he was a big part of that as a lockdown reliever. He was good enough to be included in a trade for the Nationals to acquire Hunter Strickland to sure up their bullpen. Maybe the Nats should have just kept him around…

Worst hitter – Lots of guys to pick from here and I’ll go with Altoona’s Arden Pabst. Reading’s Arquimedes Gamboa might have been more deserving but I don’t think I saw Pabst get a hit in any game I saw him play. I might have but if he did, he was a near automatic out otherwse. Altoona did not have a good season and from top to bottom the Pirates don’t have much in the way of catchers in their system. His catching partner Jason Delay did not do well either but at least he got a few hits. It could be a rough time coming up for the Pirates.

Worst pitcher (Joan Baez Award) – Can’t give this to Joan Baez as he seemed to be much more competent moving in a relief role in Harrisburg and was promoted quickly to Fresno so I didn’t see him much. There were several that could have fit this category but Matthias Dietz of the Frederick Keys was the standout. This fellow was the Orioles 2nd round pick in 2016 so he should be somewhat good. He got clobbered every single time I saw him pitch, which was 3 times. Sometimes he would have a good first inning and then got killed in the next one and it would get ugly before Ryan Minor would yank him. It looks like he got shut down about halfway through the season, I didn’t get to too many Keys games in the second half and he was not on the active roster when I did. For all I know he got released but he is still listed on the Keys roster as I type this so I don’t think that happened. In the end he had an ERA north of 11 and I know in the games I was at his ERA was worse. It’s not good when you come in with a crummy ERA, give up a run per inning and your ERA goes down. Considering he struggled in Frederick in 2018 too, I am going to guess his days are numbered in affiliated ball.

Worst performance (Jimmy Yacabonis Award) – This one stays in Norfolk with Josh Rogers. While he did manage to get out of the first inning unlike Yacabonis and he did make it into the 5th and in reality the game really wasn’t out of reach until the 5th but on this night he did not do well. Rogers gave up 9 runs. 9! It was ugly. It was hits too, he walked only 1 batter though he did hit a batter and three of those hits went out of the ballpark. This one was ugly (did I mention that?) and while Norfolk made a late comeback Rogers put this one out of reach making the comeback moot. Ironically he was also relieved by Yacabonis. Now, to be fair Rogers season came to an end soon thereafter with Tommy John surgery so he may have been injured during this start or was fighting through the injury but I may never know. This could be insult to injury but, hey, I’m just going off of what I saw.

Best defensive play – Carlos Perez of the Winston-Salem Dash. In the top of the 4th inning of the June 5 game that I was at Myrtle Beach’s Carlos Sepulveda hit a little dribbler up the line. Sepulveda had some speed, he did steal 14 bases during the season but Perez pounced on it quickly in one fluid move and unleashed a laser throw to nail him. A high degree of difficulty play. It was a good day for Perez as he also gunned down 2 Pelican runners.

Funniest Moment – I visited Segra Stadium in Fayetteville, North Carolina this year. This was the team’s first year and for whatever reason Weenie Boy wanted to get a Woodpecker hat. I went into the team store after him since it was 101 degrees outside and this was the only place air conditioned. He started trying on hats and the team’s mascot Bunker was in the store too. It probably gets hot in the costume and he needed a break too. The mascot was hi-fiving everyone and I told him to go up to Weenie Boy and say hi to him. OK, I told the mascot to scare the crap out of him. The mascot walked up behind him and Weenie Boy didn’t realize he was there until he tapped him on the shoulder and did scare the crap out of him. It was hilarious. Thanks Bunker! I’ll be able to make fun of Weenie Boy for the rest of his natural life for this. I just wish I had recorded it on video so I could share it here…

The I Will Hate You Forever Award – A no-hitter is rare. I’ve seen two rain shortened ones and while this was game two of a doubleheader (hence it was 7 innings and see the next award for more info about this debacle) I would count this one much higher than those. It was a frustrating year as I think I saw something like 5 or 6 one hitters this year, including 2 at the big league level. I also hold a grudge against the people I see break them up late in the game (I despise you Tucker Barnhardt…). Hartford’s Heath Holder was mowing down Trenton Thunder hitters until Kyle Holder (no relation as far as I know) got a hit.  Now it was a solid hit, it wasn’t one that was just out of someone’s reach or was misplayed but you deprived me of seeing a no-hitter so curses on you Kyle. I plan on booing you every time I see you, unless you get traded to the Pirates. Just kidding, I don’t boo too many people. Holder could have won the Kevy for best pitcher since I saw him pitch well in a game at Harrisburg as well but Reading beat the snot out of him about 2 weeks later in my presence. Close, but no cigar.

Stupidest Decision – Trenton gave away several nice bobbleheads this year so I made three trips there. 2 of the trips were doubleheaders. I have been to many doubleheaders in my time, even some where there is a giveaway. The Thunder decided to open the gates at the original time rather than adjust for the new gametime. Apparently it was so people would have a chance to get the bobblehead. Tell that to the people lined up outside waiting to go in. In one game there was an inning and a half left in the first game, in another there were 3 outs left to be had. Your customers are paying to come watch baseball, not stand in line listening to the play by play over the radio so a bunch of people who show up later can have a chance to get the giveaway. If people can’t adjust their time to get there they probably weren’t going to get the giveaway anyway. It’s also not like the games were rained out the night before, they had both been on the schedule for at least a few weeks so you could have just scheduled it for another date as well. I think the Trenton front office greatly overthought this and not wanting to piss off the potential late arrivals they pissed off the people who showed up. Nice job guys! I don’t normally complain to anyone but I told the customer service guy that this was a stupid decision. I know he didn’t make it and I probably wasn’t the first either. This award, should it be necessary in the future will now be named in honor of Trenton Thunder GM Pat Osborn and I now have a reason to root against the Thunder.

Independent Ball

Top hitter – This actually wound up being much closer than it I thought it would have been between York’s Telvin Nash and Isaias Tejeda. Tejeda had a very good season, 20+ homeruns and he won the batting title. Normally that would be enough but I tell you what, I saw Nash hit some moon shots. He is the kind of hitter that can just flick the ball and it goes out and when he comes up you pay attention. He hit over 40 homeruns for the season and he hit quite a few while I was in attendance. So many I stopped counting. I know he had a 3-homer game in my presence and several multi homer games too and it’s not like he was purely a homerun hitter. He had a good average too. He also had a big playoff showing as well while Tejeda struggled. So, if you want your award, just let me know if you come back for 2020.

Top pitcher – I will go homer here and award this to Mitch Atkins of the Revolution. For a good part of the season the Revs starting rotation was bad, except for you. I saw you pitch several good games, including a complete game down in Southern Maryland where you threw something like 85 pitches to get through the Blue Crabs. If only Ross Detwiler would have stuck around, but then he went from the Revs and wound up in the majors this past year, can’t blame him for that.

Worst hitter – Lots to pick from here and it’s hard because a lot of these guys don’t tend to stick around long. It’s no one on York, those guys could all hit, except for one guy and he was the utility guy and didn’t play much (and he actually did get some hits when I showed up). There were however a lot of guys to choose from on Lancaster. I’ll award this to Darian Sandford. You struggled all year and while you were a terror when you got on base, you struggled to get on base. The old adage went that you couldn’t steal first base but thanks to a rule change in the Atlantic League you actually could now. That still didn’t help. I could have awarded this to others like Josh Bell, K.C. Hobson and Devon Torrance but I can remember them all having at least one big hit. It just didn’t work in Lancaster this year for whatever reason.

Worst pitcher – Again this one is hard since bad pitchers usually don’t stick around. I’ll give this to Lancaster’s Jonathan Albaladejo. It’s not like he was awful, but he was almost an automatic loss this year, a stark turnaround from last year when he was the league’s pitcher of the year. He had some good outings and got little run support, he also had some games where he blew up in one inning. It just wasn’t a good year for him and I don’t know if it was pure dumb luck that I wound up seeing him more than anyone else on Lancaster or what but it seemed like I saw him pitch a lot this season.

Worse umpire – This category will probably be retired. Why? TracMan has been calling the balls and strikes, so Nate Caldwell can’t have his moving strike zone. Funny story about him, I went over to see Lancaster play Somerset and they introduced the umpires and he was behind the plate. I said a little louder than usual something like “Oh great, we’ll be here until midnight.” Somerset’s trainer was walking up, looked at me and said something like “Yeah, we know.” That was before TracMan was introduced midway through the season. Caldwell gets a little too chummy with the players in my opinion, especially the visiting players but he can’t do a lot of damage in the field. Oh, he can, I saw him miss an obvious fair/foul call before, but the chances of that are rare.

Best Defensive Play – It was a late season battle between York and Lancaster. York was one win away from clinching the Community Cup and the game was tied at 3. York had the bases loaded and no outs and Lancaster’s pitcher was on the ropes with the top of the order coming up. Justin Trapp hit a bullet. If it gets through its at least one run, maybe two but Lancaster’s Michael Martinez made a pure reflex play on a drawn in infield to snag the ball. Lancaster wound up getting out of the inning without giving up a run and took the lead in the bottom half of the inning, which staved off losing the Community Cup on their home soil. While they did lose it the next weekend this was a great play. See I’m not a complete homer. Maybe it’s because Martinez played for the Pirates (briefly).

Quip Of The Year – I will award this to myself. During the first playoff game the Revs were getting beaten pretty badly, 8-1 I think at that point. The on field host Diamond Doug was trying to get the crowd into the game and pump them up for a comeback. Now he’s a very nice guy and he is a homer so this is not surprising. He asked the crowd if they liked what the Revs were cooking. I then responded that if this is what they were cooking then the health inspector should come in and shut this one down. Got a couple of chuckles from folks around me. So there, this will be the first actually claimed Kevy. I would like to thank my family for this great honor for always believing in me and, no stop the music…

The Majors

Top hitter – For most of the season this would have been Anthony Rendon of the Nationals but I have to award this to Trey Mancini of the Orioles. He went 31-91 for a .341 batting average with 10 doubles, 4 homeruns and 14 RBIs. He also scored 15 runs. Considering the Orioles record for the year and a lack of protection in the lineup this was pretty darn good. He had a rough start but went on a tear late in the season that managed to overtake Rendon, who had a very, very good season but tailed off at the games I went to late in the season. It probably also helps that I saw more Orioles games than Nationals.

Top pitcher – Congrats to Patrick Corbin of the Nationals. I saw you start 5 games this year pitching 36 innings with a 2-1 record, a 2.25 ERA and 39 strikeouts. He wins this award also for doing something that I had not seen done since 2010 and that is throwing a complete game shutout in the bigs. OK, it was against Miami, which at the time was vying with the Orioles for worst team ever, but they’re still a big league lineup. For the record the last one of those I saw in the bigs was thrown by the immortal Carl Pavano then of the Minnesota Twins against the Orioles. I could have awarded this to John Means of the Orioles but I thought Corbin was superior and I think Means tired as the year went on which hurt his numbers. I was also never that impressed by Means and I think he outperformed this year. We’ll see about that, there is a reason that I pay to go to the games instead of getting paid to go.

Worst hitter – Lots of guys to pick from here but I will have to go with Ryan Zimmerman of the Nationals. Hah, you thought it would be Chris Davis didn’t you? Zimmerman’s a shell of what he used to be and granted he did spend half a season on the DL and the other half platooning with Matt Adams but he went 3-27 in games I attended. All 3 were singles and he had one RBI. A far cry from what he used to be. A decade ago I thought he would be a future Hall of Famer but I don’t see that happening now.

Worst pitcher – I saw him only pitch 3 games for the Orioles this year but they were 3 lousy games for Mike Wright. He threw 5 innings giving up 11 runs for a 19.80 ERA. Amazingly he only took one loss in those games but usually by the time he came in they were already behind. It was so bad for him this season that he couldn’t even stick around with the Orioles and was traded to the Mariners shortly after his final effort for a guy that they had DFA’d. That fellow managed to stick with the Orioles for the rest of the season so I think the Orioles won that trade. I see the Mariners tried to make him back into a starter down in AAA and that didn’t work well either. Just my luck he’ll probably end up pitching for the Revs next year. Look, I like him. He tossed me a ball when he pitched for Norfolk and I saw his Big League debut. It’s been all downhill for him from there though.

The you outperformed your season stats so you should get me to more games – Christian Yelich, Milwaukee Brewers. I saw the Brewers twice this year, once in Philly and once in DC. He went 8-11 (.727 AVG) with 6 RBIs, one double and a whopping 4 homeruns. Yes, I saw him have 2 multi-homerun games this year. So, Christian, you would have hit 324 homeruns had you gotten me to all of your games. Think about it won’t you…

The you underperformed when I showed up so you should pay me to stay away – Ronald Acuna Jr, Atlanta Braves. Heck of season for him but when I saw him he did not perform up to snuff. He went 1-15 (.067 AVG) with 3 strikeouts in 3 games. One hit was a double and he had 2 RBIs but compared to his season stats, this was well below snuff. Maybe next year Ronald. You aren’t the first great player that hasn’t brought it when I show up. Or maybe the Nats and Phillies should bring me down when the Braves come to town?

The completely crappy individual performance award (Dylan Bundy Award) – Alex Cobb of the Baltimore Orioles. Your start against the Twins was truly pathetic. 2.2 IP, 10 hits and 9 earned runs with 3 homeruns surrendered. You gave way to Mike Wright who was also bad and this one got so bad Chris Davis had to come in to pitch. There was a point in this game I was wondering if the Twins could get to 20 runs and threaten the most I’ve seen scored by one team in a game (25). They got to 16. It was probably best that you spent most of the season on the DL but the Orioles have you for 2 more years. What a waste.

The take ’em out behind the woodshed and beat the crap out of them award – See the previous award as this will be applied to the entire Oriole team. 16 runs with the starter giving up 9 of them with 8 homeruns hit by the Twins. 8! The most runs I ever saw by one team in a big league game is 25 and I thought that the Twins could get there about halfway through the game. I even told their pitchers in the bullpen so as I was preparing to make my exit. It was a doubleheader so I had seen enough baseball that day. Don’t know if they heard me.

Top Defensive Play – It was a late season game between Atlanta and Washington. Atlanta had a comfortable lead in the division but Washington was fighting for a Wild Card spot but was theoretically still in striking distance. The Nationals were holding on to a 1-0 lead when Freddy Freeman launched a ball towards center field. Washington’s Victor Robles raced back and leaped at the wall, taking away a homerun from Freeman. Freeman hit the ball as far as you could in the park and not get it out and Robles saved the lead. Unfortunately for the Nationals the lead was short lived as their bullpen imploded soon after and turned a 1-0 lead into a 10-1 loss but it was one helluva catch. Austin Hayes’ catch robbing Vlad Jr. of a homerun would have taken this otherwise.

The Shit Happens Award – As you may remember in June a large sinkhole opened up at the Convention Center stop in Baltimore right by Camden Yards. It made getting to Camden Yards extremely difficult as it closed Howard St as well as several other cross streets and snarled traffic downtown. Even on weekends getting to the Yard was not easy. I award this to everyone who had to deal with it. Most people just simply shrugged and kept going rather than complaining. The only time there was any real issue was when there was some sort of incident at the Lexington Market Metro stop which brought traffic to a halt. It was on Brooks Robinson Bobblehead day otherwise I would have stayed home. But being right at the shuttle bus stop, I got out and simply walked the rest of the way. There’s a lot of impatience in today’s world but most people adapted knowing that there was nothing that they could do about it and the bus drivers were doing the best that they could.

Ballparks

Best Major League – Camden Yards. It was a tough year on the field this year but in a way I kind of liked it. Never had to worry about sellouts and plenty of room in the seats. Despite the tough year the staff remained friendly all year and it was still a great place to watch a game. Only made it to Pittsburgh once so I can’t in good conscience give the award to them.

Best Minor League – CocaCola Park. I do like it here and I wish they would do more bobbleheads so I would have an excuse to get up there. If only it was about 30 minutes closer I would go a lot more. Great food here too. The only complaint I have was that they got rid of the free programs (gotta save the environment now…) and I had to buy a scorecard now. I love Durham’s park too but it’s not on the yearly circuit.

Best Indy – PeoplesBank Park. Hey, I can walk here and if I drive I can be home in about 5 minutes. With 6 breweries within walking distance this one takes the award. As long as the Revolution exist they will win this award. Sorry to burst anyone’s bubbles on that.

Best new – First National Bank Field. No, not the one in Harrisburg but instead the one in Greensboro. Found a free parking spot on the street near the stadium and visited a few breweries in town, including 2 right by the park. It was a very nice place to watch a game. Good food and unlimited soda refills. I also got Bingo on Baseball Bingo night but apparently a lot of other people did too so I didn’t win anything. The only miss was a lack of ice cream helmets since I needed to add one to my collection and I won’t be back here for quite some time owing to the distance. Apparently they have never really had them so I didn’t just miss them.

We hope that you enjoyed this years awards. I want to thank well, Weenie Boy for accompanying me this year to most games and getting me some free tickets to the Revs on occasion. Now cue the orchestra and bring up the house lights and go home. No after party on this one.