Chris Snelling

Flintoff & Dunn's MLB Australian Player of the Year 2006

There could not be too much doubt about Chris SNELLING taking our vote as Australian Major League Player of the Year for 2006, not just because of his remarkable and courageous comeback from years of injury torment, but also because he was the only Aussie to really cement a regular selection in a big league team during this season.

Chris made 30 appearances for the Seattle Mariners towards the end of the season and, although his performances tapered over the final couple of weeks, he still batted .274 with three home runs, including two in one game.

Next in line was the unlikely Aussie veteran Peter MOYLAN who made 13 appearances for the Atlanta Braves to finish with a 4.50ERA after a some scoreless outings towards the end of a miserable season for his team. ‘Big Pete’ had a couple of nasty innings during his initial stint in the majors, but he did come back stronger during his second term, even though he was often used in meaningless and blowout situations.

Moylan’s Atlanta team mate Phil STOCKMAN seemed headed for even better things until injuries de-railed his promising season after only four games and it was not sufficient for us to consider him at the major league level this year. Likewise for Justin HUBER who made only five appearances for the Kansas City Royals. We will be hoping that both Phil and Justin are given more extensive opportunities in 2007, along with Chris and Pete of course.

Vernon Wells

Flintoff & Dunn's MLB Former AMLB Import Player of the Year 2006

It was a much tougher task to evaluate and separate the former AMLB imports who appeared in the major leagues this season as there are 21 of our “old boys” still kicking around in the ‘bigs’, some more notably than others!

While we were very tempted to give the award to Gary MATTHEWS Jnr., as a sentimental vote for producing such a terrific season with the Texas Rangers after years of struggle to establish himself as a journeyman, in the end we could not ignore the imposing numbers of Toronto Blue Jays All-Star slugger Vernon WELLS.

Matthews batted .316 with 19 home runs and 79 RBI’s as a consistent leadoff guy for Texas, but he was clearly overshadowed by Wells’ tally of .307/32/105 as the cleanup guy for the contending Blue Jays.

Also very close behind was New York Mets catcher Paul LoDUCA who batted .316/5/46 despite the rigours of catching almost every day for the Mets team that could be headed for the World Series (at the time of writing). Wells’ former Toronto team mate Shea HILLENBRAND was also batting .301 before his controversial departure from Canada to join the San Francisco Giants. Hillenbrand hit a combined 21 “jacks” for both teams in 2006.

One player to emerge from relative mediocrity with an impressive power surge in 2006 was perennial backup catcher David ROSS who broke through as the No.1 guy for the Cincinnati Reds and he responded with 19 “big flys”. Another journeyman Preston WILSON was as inconsistent as ever with both the Houston Astros and the St.Louis Cardinals, but he did manage to strike occasionally for a combined 15 home runs.

The only new face to our ‘major leaguers list’ was John HATTIG who batted an impressive .375 from only 16 at bats with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Once again, by far the standout pitcher again in 2006 was the only regular starter Kevin MILLWOOD who continues to be a very reliable “horse” for every team he has represented. ‘Big Kev’ supplied his usual innings-eating service for the Texas Rangers this year and, while he had a slow start and a disappointing finish to the season, he had a sustained patch of sheer brilliance during the middle of the season to finish with a 16-11, 4.52ERA season with 53 walks and 152 strike outs.

Chad PARONTO (Atlanta Braves), Ron MAHAY (Texas Rangers) and Matt Herges (Florida Marlins) were the best of a none too impressive list of middle-relievers during 2006. In this category none of our former AMLB imports owned a winning record or a significant number of saves.

Flintoff & Dunn's CLASS 'AAA' PLAYER for 2006

Once again Flintoff & Dunn congratulate all of our Australian players who were good enough to play at the 'AAA' level in 2006... this is by no means an insignificant achievement in the world of baseball. We certainly hope that this will provide a stepping stone to the big leagues, or back to the 'bigs' for those who have been there before. 

Travis BLACKLEY, returning from injury, Mathew KENT, Richard THOMPSON and Dean ZORN, were all promoted, or given a taste, late in the year and will hope to build upon this in 2007. More seasoned players Craig ANDERSON, Adam MORRISSEY and John STEPHENS, who split time in both 'AAA' and 'AA', are still in the mix.

Of the others who played 'AAA' ball during 2006, Peter MOYLAN and Phil STOCKMAN both progressed to make their major league debuts with the Atlanta Braves and each can be well satisfied with their achievements. Recent major leaguers Glenn WILLIAMS, Justin HUBER and Trent DURRINGTON were not given an opportunity in the majors this year while Chris SNELLING was able to resume his major league career after his litany of injuries. 

Of those who played all season in 'AAA', pitcher Adrian BURNSIDE had the best win/loss ratio of 3-0, but this came as a middle reliever and "set-up guy" as he didn't register a start or a save for the season; nonetheless he was a very good performer for his team. Glenn Williams took a while to get going after his injury from the previous season, but in his last ten games he had a healthy .323 average as a hopeful sign of better things ahead in 2007.

After considering  all performances at 'AAA' level, the final choice rested between one pitcher (the qualification at this level was 30.0 IP) and one hitter. Justin Huber topped the lists for average, slugging, doubles and home runs to easily lead all Aussie hitters and he was certainly close to winning. However, in the final analysis, the performance of pitcher Phil Stockman in his 33.1 innings stood out. Among his credentials for this award were his Ks to BB ratio of 4 to 1, ERA of 0.81, 2 saves and an opponents batting average of .123. Put the package together and his results at 'AAA' level were absolutely first class, to say nothing of his equally impressive debut in the majors. 

While all of the 'AAA' 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 & Dunn’s CLASS 'AAA' PLAYER of the YEAR for 2006 is:

Flintoff & Dunn's CLASS 'AA' PLAYER for 2006

According to our minimum qualification marks of 40 at bats for hitters or 20 appearances for pitchers, only four hitters and six pitchers qualify for selection as F&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 (.313), Brett RONEBERG (.303), Trent OELTJEN (.299), and Andrew GRAHAM (.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 10 triples and 23 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 .343, while his slugging percentage also climbed to .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 28 times and had 2 complete games, with 1 CG shutout, and led the stats lists with 7 top placings.

Former major leaguer Travis BLACKLEY started 25 times and earned promotion to 'AAA' as a hopeful sign of his return to better things in 2007. Richard THOMPSON had 10 saves and Ryan ROWLAND-SMITH had a low 2.85 ERA in the regular season, which he improved to 1.35 ERA in last 10 games. Craig ANDERSON, who won 3 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 7 to 1 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 & Dunn’s CLASS 'AA' PLAYER of the YEAR for 2006 is:

Flintoff & Dunn's CLASS 'A' PLAYER for 2006

We have grouped all 'A' class players together for the purposes of this selection.

Once again we will start with the pitchers and again some consideration will be given to evidence of improvement and the way players may have performed towards the business end of the season.

During the season Major Leaguers Grant BALFOUR and Phil STOCKMAN, while recovering from injury, appeared with distinction at this level but did not have sufficient appearances to warrant consideration for this category.

Wayne LUNDGREN (ERA 2.60), Scott MITCHINSON (ERA 4.20) and David WELCH (ERA 2.41) all had winning seasons. Tim COX had a very good ERA of 2.80 from 103 innings, with a 5 to 1 ratio of Ks to BBs.

By far the standout pitcher was David WELCH. He had a winning season (8-6) and it was significant that he went 6-0 in his last 10 appearances. He led the statistics tables in WINS, ERA, STARTS, and STRIKE OUTS, and was the only pitcher to pitch a COMPLETE GAME SHUT OUT.

It was pleasing to see that most batters showed significant improvement in later part of the season. Many increased their batting average by large decimal points, Trent D’ANTONIO (100) and Josh DAVIES (40) stood out and did even better in their power numbers. Trent lifting his Slugging % from below .400 to .765, helped by his 12 home runs, and Josh, with his 5 triples, from .350 to .590! The consistent David SUTHERLAND had the best BB to K ratio (40/57) although his normally lofty batting average tapered towards the end of a long season this year.

Despite these good performances catcher Michael COLLINS had the best all round statistics amongst the batters. Michael had 7 TOP placings from the 11 statistics used AVG., GAMES, RUNS, DOUBLES, and RBIs included.

It was a tough decision again, but on this occasion we felt that the pitching boys deserved “top billing” for the Class ‘A’ category, so:

It is with great pleasure that we congratulate all Aussie players for their sterling efforts and announce that 
Flintoff & Dunn’s CLASS 'A' PLAYER of the YEAR for 2006 is:

Flintoff & Dunn's ROOKIE LEAGUE PLAYER for 2006

Australia ’s representation In the US Rookie Leagues comprised 14 Pitchers and 8 Position Players for the 2006 season. 
To qualify for consideration as F&D’s Rookie League Player of the Year, we set the minimum qualification marks of 10 appearances for pitchers and 40 At Bats for batters. In addition, with the inconsistent playing time experienced by some players and a sometimes large disparity in appearances, we have also placed some emphasis on the way the season concluded when most rookie players were reasonably active.

Considering pitchers first, only four had winning seasons (Hayden BEARD, Donavon HENDRICKS, John HUSSEY and Matt WILLIAMS), while Bradley TIPPETT had an outstanding ten Saves.  

In a comparison of performances in the usual TOP 10 statistic Lists, HUSSEY led the way, with the next best being TIPPETT and BEARD. Significantly John HUSSEY also had the lowest ERA of 2.44 with Brad TIPPETT very close on 2.53. No other Aussie Rookie League player managed to keep his ERA below 3.00.  

Two of the offensive players really stood out for 2006… Victorian second-season man Daniel BERG and Queensland’s new “Son of a Gun” professional Jay NILSSON. Mathew LAWMAN and Clint NAYLOR also featured prominently among the stats TOP 10 lists and they too can be very satisfied with their efforts this season.

To narrow down the offensive category, Daniel BERG had more first placings in the TOP 10 Lists, but some of these were because he had approximately 100 more ABs than Jay. In the regular season NILSSON had the better AVG (.276 to .253), and the better Slugging % (.474 to .466), although BERG was finishing the season very strongly and his additional at bats also come into consideration here. BERG played in just about every defensive infield position throughout the season but this did not seem to disrupt his offensive output when it mattered most.

While it was a "coin toss", Daniel BERG edged out Jay NILSSON for the offensive honours this year but we can assure you that Jay will also be one to watch in coming years.

It is also our adjudication that, among all Australian Rookie League players, the offensive performances certainly overshadowed our pitchers on this occasion and with this in mind…

It is with great pleasure that we congratulate all Aussie players for their sterling efforts and announce that 
Flintoff & Dunn’s ROOKIE LEAGUE PLAYER of the YEAR for 2006 is:

Congratulations to this weeks selection of our F&D Pro Player of the Week.

With most of the minor leagues grinding to a conclusion for this year, this will be the last PRO PLAYER OF THE WEEK for this season. There should be no questions asked about our selection this week of Alan DE SAN MIGUEL who really came home with a bang after a fairly lean season offensively! His two games (very few had more than two games during this period) produced a batting average of .750, the highest for the season albeit from such a small sample of at bats.

It was also good to see Brad HARMAN finally show his true ability with a .429 Avg from his 7 at bats. 
Only a few pitchers were able to show their wares in this period, but Ryan ROWLAND-SMITH, Peter MOYLAN and Mathew WILKINSON each had an outing and kept the batters scoreless.

KEEP WATCHING THIS SPACE - Next week we will commence a summary of the best Aussies at each level of Pro Baseball, starting with ROOKIES.

Congratulations to this weeks selection of our F&D Pro Player of the Week.

What a magnificent week for batters. Cream of the crop and this week's Pro Player of the Week is Seattle Mariners Chris SNELLING. Recently recalled to the "Show", Chris hammered some top line Major League pitchers, including 2 HOME RUNS in one game. In his 11 game stint, from 24 Aug to 1 Sept, his batting Avg. was .361 and his slugging % was .694.
His stats below speak for themselves.

WHOA!! We certainly sympathise with supporters of  Glenn WILLIAMS (Avg .500 Slugging .938), Danny BERG (Avg .500 Slugging 1.250), Brett RONEBERG (Avg .444), and sensationally Clint NAYLOR (Avg .667). 
But two things stand out in Chris' favour - firstly, had had many more at bats - secondly, while it is not part of our selection criteria, he did achieve it in the 'bigs' which cannot be overlooked as a "tie breaker"!!  
WELL DONE CHRIS... your return to the top level of baseball is a truly remarkable story!

Best of the Pitchers over their last 10 appearances was David WELCH with 6 Wins and a Save from 40IP, (ERA 1.80).

Congratulations to this weeks selection of our F&D Pro Player of the Week.

Before announcing this week's Pro Player of the Week, we wish to thank our good friend and Victorian baseball great Grant Weir who was first to let us know the good news of promotions for Richard THOMPSON to AAA Salt Lake, Travis BLACKLEY to AAA Tacoma Rainiers and Brendan WILSON to Single A Cedar Rapids.  Grant also advised that Josh DAVIES has now played ALL infield positions, left field and DH, while Michael COLLINS in one game this week went 5 for 5, threw out a runner and stole a base. We join Grant in congratulating all of those LA Angels hopefuls.
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 season.

Congratulations to this weeks selection of our F&D Pro Player of the Week.

I know that we say this nearly every week, but it is really hard to distinguish between quite similar performances... and, surprise, surprise, this week has been no different! This week we were unable to separate JOSHUA DEAN and MATT RYAN as our joint PRO PLAYERS OF THE WEEK, by a narrow margin from MATT LAWMAN who didn't match the RBI production of DEAN or RYAN and Justin HUBER who also put up excellent numbers in 'AAA' ball. Some of our other "regulars" on this page were also under serious consideration again, including Andrew GRAHAM, Glenn WILLIAMS, Trent OELTJEN, Daniel BERG and Michael COLLINS

And, while it may not be fully reflected in statistics, we could not fail to mention Australia's 15th major leaguer CHRIS SNELLING who made his long-awaited return to the majors this week with the Seattle Mariners after seasons of injury torment... GOOD ON YOU CHRIS!

We are sorry to report that, due to a dreaded computer crash, our "stats man" unfortunately lost his base stats for pitchers that we need to use for a two-week span, so we are back to assessing this past week alone. Maybe best of the pitchers was CRAIG ANDERSON with two wins from his two starts, while TIM COX also pitched splendidly. Anderson though may not be too pleased to have "slipped" back to playing high 'A' ball at the moment.

Just to round it off, although we don't include our Independent League guys in these awards, we were pleased to note that our 2006 Claxton Shield star BRAD DUTTON has emerged from a miserable season offensively to really heat up his bat this past week. And, while he has cooled off lately, PAUL RUTGERS still maintains some terrific offensive numbers.

Congratulations to this weeks selection of our F&D Pro Player of the Week.

While we would never be swayed by "the power of suggestion", we at 'Flintoff & Dunn' are quite delighted to confirm the enthusiasm of justifiably proud parents Mark & Rosie (who e-mailed us recently) with our nomination of JOSH DAVIES as our PRO PLAYER OF THE WEEK after his quite outstanding form! Yes, we agree that Josh has been able to deliver in spite of inconsistent playing time which can be a fact of life in the US minors. And, it has to be said, young Josh had to be OUTSTANDING to take the award from a host of terrific performances by emerging young Australian stars. Andrew GRAHAM deserves special mention for the way that he has stepped up since his promotion to 'AA' level, while New Britain team mates Tristan CRAWFORD and Trent OELTJEN must be staking solid claims for 'AAA' action!

We are also awarding a belated JOINT Pro Player of the Week to WA pitching prospect BRENDAN WISE after his stats were verified by 'Flintoff & Dunn' devotee Nathan Davis... many thanks Nathan as we had lost some of our background stats last week... I'm sure you'll agree with Nathan and ourselves that Brendan deserves the late accolades!

While they haven't managed to often get among the weekly honours so far this season, 'Flintoff & Dunn' would like it to be known that we admire, perhaps even more, the consistency of SA pitcher PAUL MILDREN (10-7, 3.85ERA) who cannot be too far away from a crack at higher honours and young Queensland giant DAVID SUTHERLAND (.288) who has been an excellent player at every level he has played, both in Australia and among the US professionals!

Congratulations to this weeks selection of our F&D Pro Player of the Week.

With ten players batting over .300, and another six batting over .350, the selection this week was as hard as ever. Queensland catcher Joel NAUGHTON with his Average of .556, and Trent D'ANTONIO's outstanding .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 .462, while Berg delivered a power surge to post an awesome .930 Slugging %.

Because so many pitchers only get one outing per week we have lengthened the qualification period to TWO weeks for pitchers to come up with our Honourable Mentions.

Congratulations to this weeks selection of our F&D Pro Player of the Week.

This week F&D had difficulty in overlooking young Rookie Matt RYAN who had an incredible week, batting .375 in his 5 games for the AZL Angels, but the big decision had to be made between Glenn WILLIAMS .320 for Twins AAA team Rochester Redwings, and the eventual selection Brett RONEBERG.
Brett continued his positive return from injury with a remarkable .348 d1splay for the Pirates AA Altoona Curve, and is this weeks winner of our PRO Player of the Week. Surely Brett must now come under strong consideration for promotion.
Among a number of strong pitching performances was the continued good form of Brad TIPPETT. His 13 games for the GCL Twins have produced 3 Wins, 8 Saves, and an outstanding 1.13 ERA.

Congratulations to this weeks selection of our F&D Pro Player of the Week.

Last week F&D would not have pleased everyone by preferring a young rookie pitcher Brad TIPPETT, to outstanding established performers Justin HUBER and Trent DURRINGTON.
Justin this week increased his season batting avg by .170  points by hitting an outstanding.455 with 2 Homers, and Trent lifted his avg by .150, when he hit an only slightly lower .421. These figures should help Huber press his claims for a return to the 'bigs' at Kansas City, while Trent will always find it tough to crack the powerful Boston Red Sox ML roster.

However F&D has never been afraid to flirt with controversy... so here we go again.

This weeks PRO Player of the Week is Daniel BERG, of the Elizabethton Twins. Daniel lifted his batting average by a whopping 53 points. In 11 games his line read 11 runs, 11 hits, 2 doubles, a triple, and 2 homers. Seldom is it our privilege to see such a fine all round  batting performance. Following his "breakthrough" performance at the 2006 Claxton Shield, the young Victorian is clearly a player on the rise.

Congratulations to this weeks selection of our F&D Pro Player of the Week.

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! For More info, click here.

Is it just an coincidence that Justin HUBER batted .500 for the week in his 4 games? Justin, as our readers know, was the last Aussie player to appear in the FUTURES game as a prelude to him reaching the major leagues. Not far behind was evergreen Trent DURRINGTON, who batted .467 in his 5 games. Normally, either of these would be a certainty for our award of Pro Player of the Week. BUT not this week!

Last week we said we would be keeping an eye on Brad TIPPETT, and we have done just that. In what must be one of the most outstanding starts to a pro career, Brad has now appeared in 9 games, and we have had to check his results several times as they are almost unbelievable. 6 SAVES and 2 WINS, with a 0.00 ERA, and 11 Ks. No wonder his GCL TWINS are clear on top of their league ladder. CONGRATULATIONS Brad you are our PRO Player of the WEEK.

Below you will find other exceptional performances, and I am pleased to be able to include Tim Kennelly. A visitor to the web Nathan Davis, pointed out that we had missed his good performances last week when we used a slightly different time frame for our stats. We hope this makes up for the previous omission Nathan.

If any others have comments we would be pleased to see them. See you next week!

Congratulations to this weeks selection of our F&D Pro Player of the Week.

How exciting it is to announce that Chris SNELLING , the 15th Australian to reach the US major leagues, after being out for so long with injury, really hit his straps this week for the Mariners AAA club Tacoma Rainiers this past week. Batting .538 and Slugging .846, he was the standout amongst the batters, and could well be poised for a return to the "BIGS". F&D certainly hopes that it won't be long!!!
If we were to have a category of " Rising Star", then young NSW Pitcher Brad TIPPETT would have truly earned his nomination. In his first four appearances as a pro, he had the impressive figures of 4 Games 3 Saves and 0.00ERA. We will be watching him with eager anticipation.

Congratulations to this week's selection of our 'F&D' Pro Player of the Week: 

It is with great pleasure that F&D nominates popular Victorian baseballer and former Melbourne REDS backup catcher Mathew KENT as this week's PRO PLAYER OF THE WEEK.

Since being picked up by Boston after his selection for Australia at the World Baseball Classic Mathew has struggled, going into this week with a .111 average, and only appearing in 20 games. Once again, this week, he struggled for recognition, but in the three games he did get, he batted a satisfying .364. Well done Matt. 
As forecast last week, Josh DEAN, Clint NAYLOR and Tim COX were among those starting their season, and they each received an Honourable Mention this week.

We will also use this space to CONGRATULATE a player who has often appeared on this page, TRENT OELTJEN, on his deserving selection for the prestigious MLB "Futures Game" as part of its ALL-STAR GAME extravaganza. Trent now finds himself on the same path that Aussie Justin Huber (a Futures Game MVP) followed all the way to the majors!