2008 Offseason Begins
Awards
Horton Is Unanimous Pick for Hitter of the Year
UNGODLY. That is certainly one word for Bob Horton's performance this year. The North Pole right fielder was unanimously selected by Alaskan League GM's for the Hitter of the Year Award for compiling these eye-popping stats:
371 AB, 86 R, 135 H, .364 BA, 29 2B, 1 3B, 28 HR, 62 RBI, 48 BB, .444 OBP.
Second in voting points was center fielder Jimmy Williams of Fairbanks, who went .347/.401/.616 with 25 HR in 372 AB, putting up a VORP of 50.3. Corner outfielder Connor Poapst of Sitka was the second runner-up, posting a .296/.402/.616 line with 29 HR.
Hatt Grabs AKL Pitcher of the Year Award
This season he was the best pitcher in the league according to the general managers. Jack Hatt was in command and couldn't do much wrong when he was on the mound. His outstanding 11-6 won-lost mark and 3.05 ERA were big factors in him winning the 2008 Alaskan League Pitcher of the Year Award.
In 141.2 innings of work and 24 starts, Hatt struck out 119 while giving up 123 hits and 32 walks. He held opposing batters to a .236 average.
In a tightly contested vote, Bryan Kendall of the Glacier Pilots was the first runner-up, leading the league in strikeouts with 137 and posting a 7-9 record with a 3.00 ERA. In third was 26-year-old Alan St. George of Peninsula, who posted an 11-7 record with a 2.99 ERA.
(<--What a turnaround!)
AKL's Best Rookie Honored
The AKL's best rookie will be honored this weekend at the annual SBWA awards dinner. The 2008 honoree is Carl Preston of the Mushers. He stood out with a .274 batting average, garnering 94 hits in 343 at-bats to take the Alaskan League Rookie of the Year Award.
The 21-year-old Bethel first baseman completed his season with these stats:
96 G, .274 BA, 343 AB, 72 R, 94 H, 12 2B, 0 3B, 26 HR, 85 RBI, 1 SB, 64 BB, 55 K, .387 OBP.
In second place was 21-year-old Anchorage Bucs shortstop Ken Swerdlow, who hit a stunning .352 but was hurt by his .908 fielding percentage.
Pitcher Don Taggart of the Juneau Senators placed third in the general managers' vote, having posted a 3.45 ERA in 99 IP, with 85 K's.
2008 Reliever of the Year Named
This year's Reliever of the Year vote was a close one, but Bill Colwill of the Miners grabbed the top spot. Colwill put up 19 saves, pitching 43 innings with a filthy 1.05 ERA. He yielded just 3 HR and 8 BB, while putting up 39 strikeouts.
First runner-up was John Adams of the Anchorage Glacier Pilots, who threw 49 innings, snagging 20 saves, allowing just 2 HR and 9 BB while posting 40 strikeouts and a 1.85 ERA.
Second runner-up was Anchorage Bucs setup man Monzaemon Mihashi, one of a handful of Japanese-born players in the league. This rubber-armed reliever threw 55 innings over 47 games, earning a 1.80 ERA.
Finances
The year-end financials were in the Commissioner's office by mid-September, but they were not to be released to the public until the end of the calendar year. The good news was that most teams had made at least a small profit this year. The only teams that actually lost money were the disappointing Glacier Pilots and Jets, both of whom had also lost money in 2007.
However, a number of teams were still on shaky financial ground because of their big losses in '07. Most of them did not plan to be very active on this year's free agent market, so it was a very good possibility that even more players would drop out of the league before the third season. Teams in this position included the Bucs, Goldpanners, and Grizzlies. One of the ironies of the way the financial system was working out was that the small-market teams were getting hit by revenue-sharing and started to press for raising the cash maximum further, while the largest-market teams were actually net recipients in the revenue-sharing game. The Senators, Nicks, Miners, and - more surprisingly - Mushers all bumped up against the cash limit and saw some of their revenues redistributed to loss-making clubs.
One of the biggest financial turnaround stories had to be the Peninsula Oilers. The silver lining from losing all those free agents the previous offseason was that the team had gone from losing over $200,000 in 2007 to making almost $300,000 in 2008. With the second-lowest payroll in the league after free agents filed and a decent-sized market to draw on, the Oilers could afford to spend rather freely in the offseason and perhaps build a winning club.
Here's the payroll report for all Alaskan League teams as of September 22nd, 2008:
1 Anchorage (AGP) Glacier Pilots $893,491
2 Mat-Su Miners $744,741
3 North Pole Nicks $690,446
4 Anchorage (ANC) Bucs $541,325
5 Juneau Senators $539,346
6 Fairbanks Goldpanners $479,953
7 Sitka Sentinels $452,392
8 Eagle River-Chugiak Jets $419,939
9 Kodiak Grizzlies $364,031
10 Ketchikan King Salmon $340,181
11 Peninsula Oilers $292,817
12 Bethel Mushers $275,790
Shockingly, the Nicks had out-drawn the Panners last year, by a fair margin. Apparently, plenty of Fairbanks residents were willing to make the drive out to North Pole in order to see a winning team, even though they were divisional rivals of their hometown club. The Nicks could really be considered a large-market club after the way they had stolen so much of the Alaskan market in this young league. They would probably be a powerhouse again next year.