{"id":102,"date":"2017-03-09T15:28:38","date_gmt":"2017-03-09T21:28:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usba14.us\/?p=102"},"modified":"2017-03-09T15:28:38","modified_gmt":"2017-03-09T21:28:38","slug":"awards-night-for-the-usba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usba14.us\/index.php\/2017\/03\/09\/awards-night-for-the-usba\/","title":{"rendered":"Awards Night for the USBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Clay Rush Memorial Tin Glove Awards<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sometimes your fielding is so bad that it deserves recognition.\u00a0 All of the guys on this list tried, but they still were not very good.\u00a0 Give them a pat on the back next time you see them though, because they need it after this long year.<\/p>\n

C \u2013 Jeff Green (AUS) led the way for this award with a -5.2 ZR from behind the plate.\u00a0 No one else was even that close.<\/p>\n

1B \u2013 We had a hotly contested race here, but winning out was Todd Blake (ACKC) with a -10.4 ZR.\u00a0 Al Anderson (GRE) and Bart Lewis (FTW) were close with -9.8 and -9.0 ZR respectively.<\/p>\n

2B \u2013 This race was another that wasn\u2019t close.\u00a0 Not because there were not worthy candidates, but because one player showed the lack of ability to play his position even more than those around him.\u00a0 Roland Deschain (PORT) didn\u2019t even log the most innings for his team at 2B, but his -13.9 ZR laps the competition.\u00a0 Honorable Mention: Noel Ballard (CHG) -7.3, Travis Newsome (ATL) -6.9 and John Allen (FTW) -6.3.<\/p>\n

3B \u2013 We saw some truly masterful performances at the hot corner, but Vernon Caw (FTW) could not be outdone when it was all said and done with a -17.5 ZR.\u00a0 Chia-ch\u2019ing Dodman (RM) gave him a run for his money before getting injured amassing -13.9, Felipe Trujilio (CHH) was at -8.1 in very little work and Herman Hayes (PC) put up a respectable -7.5 ZR on a very good team.<\/p>\n

SS \u2013 One of the hardest positions to field had no shortage of dreadful performances led by Cristo Gonzalez (DC) at -12.1 ZR.\u00a0 The PL also had two other impressive performances with We Le (WIZ) at -9.1 ZR and Layton Templeman (ATL) at -6.5 ZR.<\/p>\n

LF \u2013 We go from the hardest position to field to one of the easiest.\u00a0 Yet, some players are still dreadful at it.\u00a0 Juan Gonzalez (DET) ran away with the award here at -18.3 ZR.\u00a0 Some other notable performances include Armando Esparza (BUC) \u2013 10.1, Jose Alonso (LV) -9.3 and David Henderson (ACKC) \u2013 8.0 ZR.<\/p>\n

CF \u2013 Clay Rush (KT\/MON) is going to get the award one last time by racking up a -17.3 ZR while still with KT.\u00a0 Sadly, he has moved to LF for Montana and is passable there.\u00a0 We salute him though with his career -87.3 ZR in CF.\u00a0 You do you, Clay Rush, you do you.\u00a0 Jeffery Campbell (KT) at -13.5 ZR, Emilo Seanz (LV) -13.4 and Eric D\u2019Angle (DET) at -9.3 deserve a tip of the cap.<\/p>\n

RF \u2013 Another close race here, but in the end John Burton (NA) won out with a -13.9 ZR.\u00a0 Honorable Mentions: Enrique Marroquin (FTW) -12.0, Robbie Roach (CHH) at -11.9 and Leonard O\u2019Connor (THB\/DC) at -7.9.<\/p>\n

Team \u2013 The award for worst team defensively overall was actually not even close.\u00a0 Fort Worth ran away with the award by amassing a -62.3 ZR.\u00a0 SS is the only position they managed a positive ZR at 0.67.\u00a0 The next closest team was Detroit with a -36.8.<\/p>\n

The Wiffle Bat<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hitting is half the game, but maybe these guys wish they didn\u2019t have to do it.\u00a0 Just like the Tin Glove, Award winners, give these guys a pat on the back as well.<\/p>\n

C \u2013 Catcher is one of the hardest positions to find good hitters at, so we won\u2019t make fun of these guys too much.\u00a0 One guy did hit worse than everyone else though, so give a hand to Tony Martinez (BUC) who ended the year with a 53.9 wRC+<\/p>\n

1B \u2013 Everyone thinks that these guys should hit well, but Jeff Rutherford (CHH) and his 85.0 wRC+ did his best to show that not everyone can hit well.<\/p>\n

2B \u2013 Middle Infielders have a tough time hitting, and USBA has a lot of competition as teams try to find the best hitting guy for the job.\u00a0 We can safely say Pedro Longoria (CHH) and his 54.3 wRC+ is not going to be seen a great hitter.<\/p>\n

3B \u2013 While this player played at the hot corner, his bat was far from hot.\u00a0 Gabriel Rodriguez (BUC) 41.54 wRC+.<\/p>\n

SS \u2013 Dave King (BUC) 54.9 wRC+ has a storied career, but winning a Wiffle Bat is not going to be something he thinks of first when he wants to tell his kids about his playing exploits.<\/p>\n

LF \u2013 When you think of LF, you think of power hitters who excite the crowd.\u00a0 Hank Scorpio (VAN) 55 wRC+ is not exciting anyone though.<\/p>\n

CF \u2013 This is the most painful one to write, but facts can\u2019t be ignored.\u00a0 Marc Talamente (PC) 70.7 wRC+ is not muy caliente this year.<\/p>\n

RF \u2013 While he might have played right field, he was doing the wrong things while hitting.\u00a0 Miguel Moran (AUS) takes home the award with a 60.7 wRC+.<\/p>\n

DH \u2013 You had one job to do, and you didn\u2019t do it well. Ramon Souza (ACKC) 47.27 wRC+.<\/p>\n

Worst Trainer Award<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sometimes it feels like the guys you paid are being paid more by outside forces to make sure your players aren\u2019t able to help you.\u00a0 This year it really wasn\u2019t even close with one team having 656 days lost to injury compared to the 441 for the next closest team.\u00a0 The Las Vegas Flamingos Trainer is literally the worst at his job this year in the USBA.\u00a0 Rounding out the top 5 was: PHI, ACKC, NoVa and HOU.<\/p>\n

The Jorge Rosa Least Valuable Player Award<\/strong><\/p>\n

Going into the last day of the year this looked like it was Ramon Souza\u2019s award to lose, but then Martin Martinez (PHX) came through with a clutch performance and stole the award with -2.31 WAR overall.\u00a0 Martin Martinez is this year\u2019s least valuable player, even though he didn\u2019t win a Tin Glove or a Wiffle Bat.\u00a0 Lucky for him though, he will get to go home with this award and the complimentary 1971 Ford Pinto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Clay Rush Memorial Tin Glove Awards Sometimes your fielding is so bad that it deserves recognition.\u00a0 All of the guys on this list tried, but they still were not very good.\u00a0 Give them a pat on the back next time you see them though, because they need it after this long year. C \u2013\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usba14.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usba14.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usba14.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usba14.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usba14.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usba14.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103,"href":"https:\/\/usba14.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions\/103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usba14.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usba14.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usba14.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}