| THE 2007 JIM VARNEY TROPHY FINALISTS: SBL PLAYER OF THE YEAR terry shernisky, kathleen turner overdrive after coming up just short a season ago, this could very well be the year that shernisky- or anyone for that matter- knocks off nate tomko to claim the sbl's player of the year award. terry placed in the top three in the sbl in every statistical category save psyche-outs, all while being by far the best player on his team. without a player above a .500 average suiting up in lime green alongside him, sherry still managed 176 runs batted in, one behind tomko for the league lead and good for second all-time. however, sherry did place atop the sbl in homers (53 T-tomko) and batting average at .659, while leading the league in at-bats. under the glass, terry tipped in 8 assists, good for 2nd in the league, and 79 double plays, which placed him third. if this were a most valuable player trophy, it would be hard to make a case for anyone other than shernisky- KTO was a 5-win squad without him. maybe it's finally time to see a fresh face hoist up the earnest. nate tomko, the sparkling wiggles the two-time defending and 4-time career player of the year may have finally met his match in 2007. even while putting up numbers that could well be the very best of his illustrious career, tomko could not shake off the challenge of terry shernisky, who stood right alongside him in every offensive category by seasons end. playing with a much better offensive unit (2 of his teammates finished with batting averages above .500) than his player of the year opponent, tomko put up 177 rbi, a mere one run driven in above shernisky. his 53 homer total is identical to the KTO'ers, and his .658 batting average is actually .001 behind. where tomko shined most was the other categories. he was tops in the sbl in assists (15), double plays (101) and psyche-out (9), and easily outdistanced shernisky in each of those areas. what this years voting will likely come down to is how the voters will weigh shernisky's value to his squad against tomko's overall baseketball performance. THE 2007 ROOKIE OF THE YEAR FINALISTS: THE MARK TARKANICK TROPHY gavin st. john, hot fuzz 14 GP, 6 HR, .550 AVG, 49 RBI, 1 AST, 9 DP, 0 PSYCHE, 6 DUMB realistically, its hard to make a case for anyone other than gavin st. john as 2007 rookie of the year. he's put up the best combination of games played and numbers in the league, topping the sbl in rbi and being no worse than third in the league among rookies in every stat category. however, this is a vote among peers, and more than a couple of the sbl's higher-ups are not totally sold on the young member of hot fuzz, and may look elsewhere for someone to represent thir league. george kovac, team double stuff 5 GP, 10 HR, .566 AVG., 33 RBI, 1 AST, 6 DP, 0 PSYCHE, 2 DUMB based on skill alone, geroge kovac was by far the most dominating rookie in the sbl this season. in addition to having the top homer total and batting average in the league, george was right on st. johns heels for the rbi total. playing in one third the amount of games as the other roty finalists, multiplying his totals by three gives us numbers more along the 30 homer, 90 rbi line, and that may actually have been good enough to get him into player of the year talks. tony mastrian, kathleen turner overdrive 12 GP, 5 HR, .387 AVG, 33 RBI, 0 AST, 11 DP, 0 PSYCHE, 3 DUMB the preseason favorite for this award, tony had somewhat of a dissapointing 2007 rookie campaign. he's got all the tools to be a superstar in this league, and there are few sbl'ers who put forth the effort that he does. however, the big knock on tony was his lack of attendance, quite puzzling considering he spent all but one week of the sbl season living at the league's world headquarters. still, his games played, homerun, average and rbi totals were all third in the sbl, and his 11 double plays were best among freshman. bob spohn, team double stuff 17 GP, 5 HR, .350 AVG, 25 RBI, 2 AST, 10 DP, 0 PSYCHE, 3 DUMB the rookie who appeared in the most games, spohn also had a fairly dissapointing initial campaign. coming into the league from the much-ballyhooed baseketball talent pipeline of quaker steak and lube, from which former sbl rookie of the years ray cataline and mark tarkanick came, bob seemed to have all the tools to be a real ben smith type- above average defender and consistent longball and rbi threat. while he failed to live up to that billing, at least so far, the tattooed one may have had the most balanced attack of all the rooks, being the only one whose defensive numbers were on par with his offensive ones. THE CHICKEN LEG TROPHY: SBL MOST IMPROVED PLAYER terry shernisky, kathleen turner overdrive how does a 2006 player of the year finalists even get on this list? jesus, what a season. 2006: 17 GP, 24 HR, .625 AVG, 113 RBI, 2 AST, 52 DP, 0 PSYCHE, 4 DUMB 2007: 21 GP, 53 HR, .659 AVG, 176 RBI, 8 AST, 79 DP, 0 PSYCHE, 1 DUMB jamie fabian, team double stuff ten times as many rbi....from 1 double play to 29.... increased average by over 100 points... from afterthought to all-star 2006: 6 GP, 1 HR, .387 AVG, 5 RBI, 0 AST, 1 DP, 0 PSYCHE, 3 DUMB 2007: 20 GP, 5 HR, .491 AVG, 50 RBI, 6 AST, 29 DP, 2 PSYCHE, 2 DUMB katie kelly, the sparkling wiggles it's amazing what happens when you step behind that double line. and going 260 at bats without a dumb thing is unreal. 2006: 15 GP, 2 HR, .595 AVG, 39 RBI, 0 AST, 7 DP, 0 PSYCHE, 3 DUMB 2007: 21 GP, 3 HR, .638 AVG, 79 RBI, 3 AST, 7 DP, 0 PSYCHE, 0 DUMB terry hall, the screamin' seagulls from role player to the sole reason the seagulls didn't threaten crackalackalackans loss record. the kid who only hit homers. 2006: 14 GP, 10 HR, .486 AVG, 44 RBI, 2 AST, 30 DP, 1 PSYCHE, 5 DUMB 2007: 19 GP, 23 HR, .333 AVG, 66 RBI, 1 AST, 52 DP, 1 PSYCHE, 6 DUMB 2007 HOME |