The Hawaiian Winter Baseball league ended its season on a rather anticlimactic note. The Championship Game that was scheduled to be played between the North Shore Honu and Waikiki Beach Boys was rained out - imagine that, rain in Hawaii. The Honu were awarded the league title on the strength of their dominant regular season performance.
The Honu's reign this HWB season occured with league offense on the rise. The average batter hit .254/.334/.388, up from .238/.317/.357 a year ago. Despite offensive averages increasing, so did strikeout rates - 9.39 K/9 this year and 9.03 K/9 last season.
With some background of how the league played out, let's take a gander at my top five individual prospects in the league.
1) Matt Wieters C - Honolulu Sharks (Baltimore) 31 games: .283/.364/.415
Wieters was the number 1 guy coming into the season and number 1 at the end. While his overall numbers may not be as impressive as some, when you consider the fact that he was making his professional debut and factor in the position he plays, Wieters stands the best chance on anyone in the league of being an impact player in the majors.
2) Austin Jackson CF - Honolulu Sharks (New York Yankees) 39 games: .271/.368/.489
Jackson
played a tremendous centerfield, was an impact player on the base
paths, and showed prodigious power - half of his 36 hits went for extra
bases.
3) Mat Gamel 3B - North Shore Honu (Milwaukee) 33 games: .333/.410/.608
The
league's Most Valuable Player, Gamel led the Championship Honu with his
big bat. His defensive liabilities hold him back as a pro prospect but
his bat will carry him to the show.
4) Bud Norris P - North Shore Honu (Houston) 24.2 IP 33K 12BB
Norris
continues to improve at every professional stop. He was one of the few
high ceiling American arms in the league and had a dominant winter.
5) Blake Wood P - West Oahu CaneFires (Kansas City) 33 IP 57K 19BB
Wood
struck out 37% of the batters he faced in Hawaii but was really the
victim of some bad luck. Wood's 3.55 ERA would have been substantially
lower if his opponent's average on balls in play wasn't a completely
ridiculous .438.
Honorable
Mentions: Kris Medlen P - Honolulu Sharks (Atlanta), George Kontos P -
Honolulu Sharks (New York Yankees), Argenis Diaz SS - Honolulu Sharks
(Boston), Brian Jeroloman C - West Oahu CaneFires (Toronto), Jamie
Romak OF - North Shore Honu (Pittsburgh), Brett Sinkbeil P - North
Shore Honu (Florida), Antoan Richardson CF - Waikiki Beach Boys (San
Francisco)
There
were a some players who didn't perform as well as a visceral glance at
their numbers would indicate, fortunate to achieve the success they did.
Check Again
1) Brandon Snyder 1B - Honolulu Sharks (Baltimore) 26 games: .378/.398/.544
Snyder
certainly had a fantastic season - leading the HWB in batting average,
but his numbers lose a bit of luster upon closer examination. Snyder
only walked five times - keeping his OBP under .400 despite his .378
BA. The 2005 first round pick is coming off of a fairly disappointing
season in Low-A and his HWB numbers were buoyed by a .453 BABIP.
2) Kyler Burke OF - Honolulu Sharks (Chicago Cubs) 26 games: .333/.402/.483
The athletic Burke put up impressive final tallies that were mostly due to one very, very hot streak. Burke went 14-24 over a week and half just past the half way point of the season. The 19-year-old struggled for most of the season against advanced pitching in the HWB - especially the Japanese pitchers who tend to throw more breaking balls - and struck out in 38.7% of his plate appearances. A common thread among players who were fairly lucky, Burke's BABIP was very high at .483.
3) Daniel Bard RP - Honolulu Sharks (Boston) 16.2 IP 15K 15BB
Bard
put up a sterling 1.08 ERA on the year and allowed just 8 hits. He
unquestionably had the best stuff of any pitcher in the league and
could still end up being the most dominant pitcher from this year's
class of HWB arms. He just wasn't quite as good this HWB season as his
traditional stats would suggest. Even as good as Bard's stuff is he
can't reasonably hope to continue holding opposing hitters to the .140
BABIP he did in Hawaii, particularly if he's walking over 8 batters per
game and hitting over 2.5.
There are some prospects who I performed better than their statistics indicate.
Look Closer
1) Brain Jeroloman C - West Oahu CaneFires (Toronto) 20 games: .237/.378/.356
Jeroloman
has arguably the best zone recognition and bat control of any catcher
in the minors. He walked in over 18% of his plate appearances in the
HWB while striking out in just 12%. After posting line drive
percentages of 23 and 22 over the past two seasons Jeroloman comes
across as a player who should continually hit for a relatively high
average. But his BABIP fell to .212 this winter. The league average
this year was .304 and if Jeroloman's average was even at .280, his
overall line would be upped to something around .322/.463/.411.
Jeroloman also added some pop to his bat, with 35.7% of his hits going
for extra bases.
2) Erik Stiller P - West Oahu CaneFires (Cleveland) 32IP 36K 8BB
Stiller's
5.08 ERA and 1-4 win-loss record belie the good work he did in Hawaii.
After going undrafted out of Princeton, Stiller has shown plus command
and an ability to work in the low 90's. Stiller was much better than
the league averages with 10.13 K/9 and just 2.25 BB/9 but opposing
hitters got on base more often than not when they were able to put the
ball in play. Stiller was the victim of a .521 opponent's BABIP, which
surely is more the result of an unfortunate happenstance than a severe
flaw in Stiller's game.
3) George Kontos P - Honolulu Sharks (New York Yankees) 34 IP 42K 10BB
Take everything above that relates to Stiller and apply it to Kontos as well. The peripheral numbers of 11.12 K/9 and 2.65 BB/9 are outstanding and his .479 opponent's BABIP is unfortunate and what highly contributed to his 3.71 ERA which is good but not as good as Kontos pitched. Kontos has made drastic improvement with his offspeed pitches and now compliments his plus fastball with a change up and a hard, late-breaking slider, all of which come off of nearly the same arm action, release point, and flight path.
Lincoln can be reached at lhamilton@dentonoutlaws.com.