Welcome to our new feature for 2006 that is
designed as an additional enhancement to our updated statistical
information about Australian players who fly our flag in the US
Professional Leagues
Time permitting, we hope to track the performances of players
for the previous week (or five or six days) and to make our assessment
for Flintoff and Dunn's US "Pro Player of the Week"
We may then be able to expand this into a "Pro Player of
the Month" to add to our "Pro Player of the Year"
that we have published at the end of previous seasons - stand
by!
Like everything we do, we certainly don't expect that everyone
will agree with our assessments from week to week and we don't
pretend to know every intimate event or situation that might affect
a given player from time to time
Our assessment will be based purely on the statistics produced
from the past week with no particular emphasis on at what level
the performance has been achieved
In any case, we will be happy if this effort sparks interest and
debate for Australia's baseball community and we will always be
happy to hear what you think!!
Many thanks to our statistical auditor, Peter Wood, for supplying
the reference data
--Flintoff and Dunns "Players of
the Week"----Monday 31st July 2006----Brett has also been mentioned in other
weekly reports--Monday 19th June
Not quite making into
our "Pro Player" features just yet, but worthy of special
mention for his typical consistency is one of our unashamed favourites,
Brett Roneberg, who is re-establishing his pro career after a
nasty shoulder injury in 2005
He is batting a very healthy 0.310 from 187 at bats with the Pittsburgh
Pirates 'AA' Altoona Curve and he must be in line for promotion
to at least 'AAA' some time pretty soon!!
Monday 17th July
Wow, what a week!!
It is only natural that we should start this week’s 'Pro
of the Week' by mentioning Trent Oeltjen and Brett Roneberg
Trent was the lead off hitter for the World team in the MLB Futures
Game and Brett was the MVP of the 'AA' Eastern League All-Star
Game
Well done, Boys!!
Monday 7th August
Congratulations
to this weeks selection of our FandD 'Pro Player of the Week'
With ten players batting over 0.300, and another six batting over
0.350, the selection this week was as hard as ever
Queensland catcher Joel Naughton with his average of 0.556, and
Trent D'Antonio's outstanding 0.462 would normally win the selection
hands down
And, under normal circumstances,
Brett Roneberg would have been a strong candidate to win for the
second week in succession
But, there is one thing you can say about baseball, it is seldom
"normal"
Another demonstration of power hitting wins Daniel Berg his second
'Pro Player of the Week' award in the last three weeks
Daniel, in his 4 games and 13ABs, had 3 doubles and a HR among
his 6 hits to equal Trent's 0.462, while Berg delivered a power
surge to post an awesome 0.930 slugging percentage
Honourable Mentions
- including
Brett Roneberg (AA Altoona Curve) - 5G - 16AB - 4R - 6H - 2D -
1HR - 10RBI - 0.375AVG
Monday 28th August
Congratulations to this weeks selection of our FandD 'Pro Player
of the Week'
The winner of our prestigious 'Pro Player of the Week' is Trent
Oeltjen who batted .464 in his 8 games, while also slugging .786
in the process
We hasten to add we expect some protests from supporters of several
others, in particular the other Trent... MR. D'Antonio who hit
4 Home Runs in his 8 games - this is not a simple job folks!
Not that this comes into it, but it is somehow fitting for Trent
Oeltjen to win the award for the first time after having been
among the "Honourable Mentions" so many times this seasn
Trent Oeltjen (AA New Britain Rock Cats)
8G - 28AB - 7R - 13H - 3T - HR - 0.464AVG - Season 0.309AVG
Honourable Mentions
- including
Brett Roneberg ( AA Altoona Curve ) - 5G - 14AB - 1R - 5H - 0.357AVG
--Class 'AA' Player for 2006---Monday 2nd October 2006-According to our minimum qualification
marks of fourty at-bats for hitters or twenty appearances for
pitchers, only four hitters and six pitchers qualify for selection
as F-and-D's 'AA' Player of the Year for 2006
In this category it was obvious that our offensive stars would
take the award with Adam Morrissey (0.313), Brett Roneberg (0.303), Trent Oeltjen (0.299), and Andrew
Graham (0.291) all having terrific seasons
While they would appear
hard to split, our analysis of the traditional statistics lists
proved that Roneberg was the clear stand out!
In most statistical categories Roneberg led the lists, topping
the important categories of runs, hits, doubles, home runs and
RBI's
Also playing at 'AAA' level, Morrissey led the averages and slugging,
while Oeltjen's ten triples and twenty-three stolen bases easily
led those categories
It was also significant
to find that Roneberg's numbers improved considerably towards
the end of the season
In the last few weeks of the season he averaged 0.343, while his
slugging percentage also climbed to 0.514!
While all of those players mentioned can be very satisfied with
their efforts for 2006, Brett Roneberg should be really delighted
with a tremendous "bounce back" year after his injury
woes in 2005
It will be a giant source of satisfaction and perhaps relief for
him to have his professional career back firmly on the rails
Among pitchers, only Tristan Crawford had a winning season, but
there were a few other very good performers
Paul Mildren started twenty-eight times and had two complete games,
with one CG shutout, and led the stats lists with seven top placings
Former major leaguer Travis Blackley started twenty-five times
and earned promotion to 'AAA' as a hopeful sign of his return
to better things in 2007
Richard Thompson had ten saves and Ryan Rowland-Smith had a low
2.85 ERA in the regular season, which he improved to 1.35 ERA
in last ten games
Craig Anderson, who won three games with no losses and had the
lowest ERA of 2.28, did not qualify, but he deserves special mention
Craig also boasted a remarkable seven-to-one 'strike out to walk'
ratio
While all of the 'AA'
players mentioned should have plenty to look forward to, it is
with great pleasure that we congratulate all Aussie players for
their sterling efforts and announce that Flintoff and Dunn’s
"Class 'AA' Player of the Year for 2006" is:-