Double Martin; Double Rios (All the Way)


Fall River’s Rod Strub won the Cy Young Award, finished a close second in the MVP race, and (interestingly) took a third place vote for the Manny Ramirez Award (one vote for every hit he collected this year).

When the TWML introduced the Manny Ramirez Award, it was to allow pitchers a better shot at the MVP award. While this year’s MRA winners also happened to win the MVP Award, pitchers did have a decent showing (with the SSL runner-up and TKL third place finisher being hurlers). But the voters decided that hitters were again the most valuable this season and Anthony Martin of Brooklyn and Vinny Rios of Fall River took both MVP and MRA honors.

Martin’s MVP win was nearly unanimous (he took 7 of 8 votes) while his MRA win was completely unanimous. Patrone’s Lydon Brunstetter, the second place finisher in both races, took the final first place MVP vote. Seattle pitcher Jerry Simms finished third in the MVP race while Mike Morton (RRR) and Rick Loden (PWC) tied for third in the MRA voting.

Rios, however, narrowly edged teammate (and pitcher) Rod Strub for the MVP award, taking 22 points (4 first place votes) to Strub’s 19 (2 first place votes). Fall River’s Craig Wilson also finished tied for third with Chicago’s Ernie Hernandez, each taking one first place vote. In the MRA race, it was Rios over Toribio Fontañez of Long Beach, 34 points to 27. Rios took five first place votes while Fontañez took the other three. Somewhat curiously, Strub managed to receive a third place vote in the MRA race (despite going 1-for-73 on the season).

It was Rod Strub and Jerry Simms taking Cy Young honors, with Strub missing unanimity by one vote (on a ballot he was completely left off) while Simms took six first place votes. In The Kid League, Steve Johnson finished second and Ken Ensminger finished third, each taking a first place vote. Strub finished ahead of Reggie Blizzard, who was a unanimous second place choice—except that he too was left off the ballot Strub was left off. Ken Bollaert and Ernie Hernandez tied for third in the SSL.

Despite the fact that Brent Bakin of Rhode Island took 5 of the 8 Rookie of the Year votes (and was the only player with more than one), he narrowly defeated Brooklyn’s Rigoberto Muñoz for the award, 28-24. Carolina’s Neil Tomaszewski finished a distant third (and collected a first place vote along with Rhode Island’s Oro DeSalvo). In the SSL, Cristian Martinez (then of Denton, now with Vancouver) won the award 34-14 over New York’s Terri Conquer. Fall River’s Willie Gratton finished a point behind Conquer.

Finally, in the Executive of the Year voting, Brooklyn’s Max R prevented a Darowski sweep of the award, beating Mike Darowski of the Rats by two points. Each took four first place votes and were named on all eight ballots. The difference was the Max getting three seconds to Darowski’s two. Adam Darowski of Fall River took the award unanimously in the SSL with Knuckleball Lover of Nagano taking five second place votes and Darren Bertini of Chicago taking three.

See the entire voting results at this Google Spreadsheet.

Class of 2023: Hall of Fame Welcomes Juan Hernandez

The TWML Hall of Fame Class of 2023 invites one more new member today. Longtime Rhode Island Rat Juan Hernandez received just enough votes (11 of 14) to gain induction with 79%. Hernandez, who owned a career slash line of .273/.357/.479 (.836 OPS), clubbed exactly 400 home runs in his career while driving in 1427 runs. He also drew over 1000 walks. Hernandez joines Chipper Jones, Eric Chavez, La-Vel Payne, Adrian Beltre, Troy Glaus, Scott Rolen, and Dave Hernandez as Hall of Fame third basemen.

Vida Williams and Carlos Carraway, who both finished with 69% of the vote in 2022, had strong showings. Williams increased his percentage to 71% (10 votes) while Carraway took a dip to 64% (9 votes). John Rocker, who worked his way back to the ballot with 50% of the vote via write-ins last season, upped his percentage to 57% (8 votes). The last player to remain on the ballot is Monte Brown (7 votes, 50%), who will return to the ballot for a third time. Among the remaining names on the ballot, only Chico Claytor managed more than 25% of the vote (4 votes, 29%).

Complete Voting:

Player Votes Percentage
Juan Hernandez 11 78.6
Vida Williams 10 71.4
Carlos Carraway 9 64.3
John Rocker 8 57.1
Monte Brown 7 50.0
Chico Claytor 4 28.6
Billy Robinson 3 21.4
Darryl Kreutzer 2 14.3
Roy Maughan 2 14.3
Isidro Hopkins 2 14.3
Edgar Martinez (write-in) 2 14.3
Ron Offutt 1 7.1
Hal Rodriguez 1 7.1
Jesse Bob (write-in) 1 7.1
Mike Hampton (write-in) 1 7.1
Kevin Tolar (write-in) 1 7.1
Johnny Damon (write-in) 1 7.1
Charlie Herd 0 0.0
Tim Haynes 0 0.0
Tommy Pepper 0 0.0

2023 Hall of Fame Ballot

It’s that time of year again! Here are the 2023 Hall of Fame candidates:

* denotes returning candidate

Hitters

Name Pos G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI R BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS
Hernandez, Juan 3B 2293 8082 2210 372 45 400 1427 1265 1048 1817 39 9 .273 .357 .479 .836
Carraway, Carlos * CF 2516 9311 2590 448 87 445 1542 1384 554 2165 421 219 .278 .319 .488 .807
Robinson, Billy 3B 1959 7068 1732 328 42 485 1227 1019 658 1583 41 30 .245 .309 .509 .818
Rodriguez, Hal CF 1963 6655 1963 461 30 111 714 1069 998 1564 288 166 .292 .384 .420 .804
Herd, Charlie 2B 1829 6756 1832 278 18 330 974 955 597 1649 207 73 .271 .330 .464 .794
Offutt, Ron RF 1782 6241 1719 319 47 240 859 834 569 1392 18 15 .275 .336 .457 .793
Hopkins, Isidro SS 2061 7273 2039 357 46 213 874 1007 703 1351 182 149 .280 .344 .430 .774
Haynes, Tim LF 1749 6221 1498 302 25 357 956 858 354 1251 90 77 .241 .282 .470 .752
Kreutzer, Darryl SS 2677 9800 2635 470 17 328 1264 1180 892 2681 60 36 .269 .330 .421 .751
Pepper, Tommy CF 2016 7157 1865 309 10 204 781 978 750 1661 296 267 .261 .331 .392 .723

Pitchers

Name G W L SV CG SHO IP ER BB K ERA
Rocker, John * 794 81 40 111 0 0 1049.1 320 531 1396 2.74
Brown, Monte * 1174 100 77 231 0 0 1479.2 513 305 1325 3.12
Maughan, Roy 873 66 64 364 0 0 959.2 354 309 904 3.32
Claytor, Chico 1061 69 84 381 0 0 1174.2 460 389 1341 3.52
Williams, Vida * 593 223 191 0 59 19 3826.2 1514 863 2507 3.56

Award Winners

The following players earned a major award in their careers:

Carlos Carraway
2006 SSL ROY
2011 40/40

Juan Hernandez
2008 TKL ROY
2018 SSLCS MVP

Billy Robinson
2016 TKL MRA

Ron Offutt
2011 SSL ROY

Charlie Herd
2014 WS MVP

Season-by-Season Stats

Want to see the yearly stats? Check ‘em out.

Compare to the Current HOFers

Remember, I have a sortable list of the current Hall of Famers. Use it to see where these guys stand.

Email Adam, not KL

Send your votes to adarowski@gmail.com. Thanks!

2022 Hall of Fame Results: Resto Squeezes By; Bradley a Hall-worthy Owner; Rocker Write-in Campaign Makes Noise

With fifteen ballots received, nobody was going to get elected. It took until the sixteenth and (what would turn out to become the) final ballot for Hooks Resto to push his vote total back to 75%. No more ballots came in, so Resto goes into the Hall this summer as the lone inductee.

Resto gets in with one more vote than Vida Williams. The two were very similar statistically. Resto’s ERA is a bit lower (3.49 to 3.56), as is his win total (219 to Vida’s 223). However, he has the superior winning percentage (.592 to Vida’s .539). Resto also fanned about 500 more batters (in 500 fewer innings). Is the difference enough for one vote? Sure. It just happened that was the vote that determined “yer in” vs. “yer out”.

Also falling a single vote behind was outfielder Carlos Carraway. I’ll admit—I thought all three would sail in with at least 85%. Monte Brown fell two votes behind, actually having a slight uptick in his percentage points over last year’s showing. He will return to the ballot next season for a third try.

We will also have one more name return to the ballot next year. Not Kevin Knisley (5 votes). Not Art Puckett (3 votes). It is write-in candidate John Rocker. Rocker picked up 8 votes, giving him 50% of the vote. While Rocker had previously fallen off the ballot in his first attempt (42.1% in 2013), he has gradually gained support via the write-in. His support goes:

2018: 5 votes (31.3%)
2019: 3 votes (20.0%)
2020: 2 votes (10.0%)
2021: 1 vote (6.7%)
2022: 8 votes (50.0%)

So, he gradually decreased after a renewed push in 2018. But that jump between 2021 and this season was remarkable. The rule says that 50% of the vote gets you back on the ballot, so for the first time ever, a player will officially be reinstated to the “real” ballot.

Enough about players… we’ve got an owner to induct.

It only briefly feels good to induct an owner, because that means we’ve lost a great one. We have four beloved former owners in the Hall of Fame: Cory Muzyka, Jeremy Northrip, Josh Reyer, and Ed Zbinski. Today, they are joined by Ron Bradley of the Dublin Dal Cais. We all know Ron for many things—his gutsy trades, his team’s up and down performance, and… the stories. Yes, Ron could tell some stories. There were times that Ron had to dip out of league involvement for various stretches, but he always came back with even more stories from his interesting life.

We’ll miss Ron, but he’ll always have a home in the TWML. Specifically, in the Hall of Fame. Thanks, Ron.

Voting Results

Player Votes Percentage
Hooks Resto 12 75.0
Vida Williams 11 68.8
Carlos Carraway 11 68.8
Monte Brown 10 62.5
John Rocker (write-in) 8 50.0
Jesse Bob (write-in) 6 37.5
Kevin Knisley 5 31.3
Art Puckett 3 18.8
Edgar Martinez (write-in) 3 18.8
Mike Hampton (write-in) 3 18.8
Rick Asadoorian 2 12.5
Katsy Bartos 2 12.5
Curt Vanatta 2 12.5
Wally Dery 2 12.5
Kevin Tolar (write-in) 2 12.5
Ben Davis (write-in) 2 12.5
Johnny Damon (write-in) 2 12.5
Erubiel Durazo (write-in) 2 12.5
Sammy Sosa (write-in) 2 12.5
Thurman Morrison 1 6.3
Ralph Anderson 1 6.3
Joe Rodriguez 1 6.3
Jim Phillippi 1 6.3
Craig Bruggeman (write-in) 1 6.3
Rafael Furcal (write-in) 1 6.3
Jason Kendall (write-in) 1 6.3
Billy Koch (write-in) 1 6.3
Aramis Ramirez (write-in) 1 6.3
Alfonso Soriano (write-in) 1 6.3
Vernon Wells (write-in) 1 6.3
Estéban Sánchez 0 0.0

Class of 2022 Hall of Fame Ballot

It’s that time of year again! Here are the 2022 Hall of Fame candidates:

* denotes returning candidate

Hitters

Name Pos G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI R BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS
Knisley, Kevin RF 1895 7280 1977 178 64 445 1255 1101 668 1680 152 153 .272 .333 .497 .830
Carraway, Carlos CF 2516 9311 2590 448 87 445 1542 1384 554 2165 421 219 .278 .319 .488 .807
Asadoorian, Rick RF 2259 8197 2251 477 52 313 1109 1363 805 1742 483 181 .275 .339 .460 .799
Bartos, Katsy SS 2102 7741 2078 337 33 350 1180 1089 708 2031 48 19 .268 .330 .456 .786
Phillippi, Jim 2B 2015 7691 2150 319 68 221 894 1099 624 1866 328 164 .280 .334 .425 .759
Rodriguez, Joe CF 1975 6863 1575 294 60 396 1088 1122 634 1435 515 108 .229 .295 .463 .758
Vanatta, Curt CF 1932 7201 2009 350 18 170 675 982 567 1711 156 75 .279 .332 .403 .735
Sanchéz, Estéban 2B 1943 7607 2114 313 25 124 722 1007 691 1538 359 112 .278 .338 .375 .713

Pitchers

Name G W L SV CG SHO IP ER BB K ERA
Brown, Monte * 1174 100 77 231 0 0 1479.2 513 305 1325 3.12
Dery, Wally 898 67 56 125 0 0 903.0 325 437 902 3.24
Resto, Hooks 524 219 151 0 49 16 3325.0 1289 902 3060 3.49
Williams, Vida 593 223 191 0 59 19 3826.2 1514 863 2507 3.56
Morrison, Thurman 490 165 137 2 3 2 2639.2 1096 1006 3337 3.74
Anderson, Ralph 749 128 89 27 0 0 2050.1 884 875 2525 3.88
Puckett, Art 493 197 161 0 19 5 3069.1 1333 792 2950 3.91

Award Winners

The following players earned a major award in their careers:

Kevin Knisley
2017 TKL MVP
2017 TKL MRA

Carlos Carraway
2006 SSL ROY
2011 40/40

Rick Asadoorian
2014 SSLCS MVP

Joe Rodriguez
2011 40/40
2018 WS MVP

Estéban Sanchéz
2007 TKL ROY

Thurman Morrison
2017 TKL CY

Ralph Anderson
2005 SSL ROY

Season-by-Season Stats

Want to see the yearly stats? Check ‘em out.

Compare to the Current HOFers

Remember, I have a sortable list of the current Hall of Famers. Use it to see where these guys stand.

Email Adam, not KL

Send your votes to adarowski@gmail.com. Thanks!

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