Congratulations to the following player(s) selected as our F&D Pro Players of the Year.

Starting with our own Australians of course, let us begin by saying what an extraordinary achievement it is for Australia, as a baseball nation, to have no less than SEVEN of our boys deemed good enough to play in the pinnacle league of world baseball this season. When you stop to think about this, and the growing number of our lads either signed or playing in the minor professional leagues, it is a most remarkable effort for a country in which baseball remains very much a “minority sport”. There is no doubt about it folks, our guys are good!

As far as our major league players are concerned there will be no prizes awarded for guessing that Victoria’s PETER MOYLAN stands head and shoulders above all of our performers for 2007 as, not only a star among the Aussies, but also a genuine star among ALL major league relief pitchers for 2007. Pete was unfortunate to start the season in ‘AAA’ after the Atlanta Braves had re-tooled its bullpen in the off season, but it didn’t take him long to force his way back onto the active roster and into the favour of venerable Atlanta manager Bobby Cox. Pete was to become the Braves key right-hander for the most difficult situations and very rarely did he fail to extract his team out of a jam. His ability to keep the ball in the infield with his wicked sinking pitches produced countless big outs and pressure releasing double-plays. To emerge from this with a sub-2.00ERA from 80 appearances requires little further explanation. There can be no doubt that he helped to keep his team in playoff contention for a lot longer than they would have if he hadn’t been so effective. He was HUGE! Moylan is in line to make some serious money next time he negotiates a contract... and it couldn’t happen to a nicer or more deserving guy!

Maybe next in line this year was one of our new majors, No.24, RYAN ROWLAND-SMITH whose performances lacked a little consistency, but the big league rookie was good enough, often enough to impress the Seattle Mariners. His 1-0, 3.96ERA record from 38.2 innings with a 15/42 walk versus strikeout ratio is far from shabby. We fully expect to see Ryan back in the major leagues to start 2008 and he may have a long career ahead at that level.

CHRIS SNELLING may have been on track for more recognition had he not finished the season exactly as he has finished most during his frustrating career… on the DISABLED LIST! There are two facts about Snelling that are hardly in dispute… one, he is a bona fide major league standard outfielder / hitter… two, his injury record has never allowed him to reach his maximum potential for any sustained length of time. In fact, each time he gets hurt the chances of him climbing back to the big leagues become more and more problematical. After a moderate start to the season with the struggling Washington Nationals, he seemed on the verge of really establishing himself with the Oakland A’s until… well, there is no need to repeat it, is there? We won’t try to guess what 2008 holds for him.

It was great to see both GRANT BALFOUR and TRAVIS BLACKLEY returning to the major leagues after extended periods re-establishing themselves after injury and also changing clubs. ‘Balf’ showed glimpses of returning to his brilliant best, especially after moving from the Milwaukee Brewers to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Travis earned a late season call-up with the San Francisco Giants and he performed well enough to expect more opportunities in 2008. For these guys it was more important simply to see them back and healthy during 2007.

RICHARD THOMPSON, or as the Yanks like to call him RICH, became our 25^th major league player when he pitched in relief for the Los Angeles Angels after the September roster expansions. He didn’t get a lot of opportunity to show his stuff, but he did enough to keep his profile under the noses of the Angels management. In any case, he made it to ‘The Show’ and he should again at some stage during 2008.

The lowly Kansas City Royals seemed to prefer a rag-tag bunch of modestly performed veterans than to give Aussie JUSTIN HUBER much opportunity in the big leagues this year. To be fair, Justin didn’t strike anywhere near his best batting form until the latter part of the season and this didn’t help his claims for promotion. However, after a long season at ‘AAA’ Omaha he was added to their expanded roster in September. With the Royals light-years out of playoff contention, we just can’t imagine why Huber was not given more opportunities to hit, instead of pinch-running and bench-warming… it probably says a lot about why the Royals have been little better than a laughing stock for many years. We still think that Justin has something to offer.
AUSTRALIAN MLB PLAYER OF THE YEAR for 2007:

Congratulations to the following player(s) selected as our F&D Pro Players of the Year.

To complement the record SEVEN Australians who appeared in the US major leagues this season is the also remarkable fact that 18 of our former AMLB import players were also still “kicking around” in the big leagues this season. And, at the unavoidable risk of endlessly repeating ourselves, it was a most difficult task to select our AMLB IMPORT - MAJOR LEAGUE PLAYER OF THE YEAR. There was simply no standout performer, like Vernon Wells last season, among either the pitchers or the position players. After some consideration we leaned towards the New York Mets feisty catcher PAUL LoDUCA who owned the best batting average among all of our former imports despite the rigours of catching nearly every day for a contending team. ‘Paulie’s’ .272/54/9 from 119 appearances won him our award this season.

Maybe next in line was the Los Angeles Angels big pre-season signing GARY MATTHEWS JNR. who batted .252/72/18 with 18 stolen bases to compliment his stellar defence at centre field… he was a close second. Mainly because of his power numbers, Toronto Blue Jays former All-Star slugger VERNON WELLS was next with his .245/80/16 plus ten swiped bags, but the consistency of his output was a disappointment after his recent seasons. We really admired the contributions of GEOFF BLUM who continues to define the role of a versatile backup player by making the most of his rare starting opportunities and whenever he is inserted off the bench. Blum’s .252/33/5 was a solid return from 122 disjointed appearances for the San Diego Padres. Another guy who always intrigues us is Cincinnati Reds platoon catcher DAVID ROSS who never seems to bat much better than his .203 average this year, yet he always seems to break out for the occasional “lightning strike” with another 17 long balls this season.

Yes, yes, we know, you are sick of hearing about our difficulties in comparing starting pitchers with relievers, but it wasn’t such a big issue with our former import pitchers this season. The only genuine starter among these was the perennial “horse” KEVIN MILLWOOD who made 31 starts for the Texas Rangers this season, but he never seemed to find his best form after early season injuries this year and his 10-14, 5.16ERA record was not too flattering. Maybe the best of our former import pitchers was MATT HERGES who looked to be on the outer at the start of the season but he eventually earned a regular bullpen job with the contending Colorado Rockies. Herges managed to cover a few rough outings with many more good ones to own a neat 5-1, 2.96ERA record from 35 appearances. Toss a coin between lefty reliever RON MAHAY and the versatile GARY GLOVER who made a few starts among many relief appearances. Mahay owned a combined 3-0, 2.55ERA record pitching for the Texas Rangers and Atlanta Braves, while Glover finished the season with a 6-5, 4.89ERA record from 67 appearances for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The only other pitcher worthy of mention was Washington Nationals MICAH BOWIE who didn’t appear much after the All-Star break to build upon his 4-3, 4.55ERA record from 30 games.
Former AMLB IMPORT MLB PLAYER OF THE YEAR for 2007:

Congratulations to the following player(s) selected as our F&D Pro Players of the Year.

This time we have been fortunate enough to side-step those incredibly difficult comparisons between starting and relief pitchers by preferring a hitter for our 'AAA' Player of the Year for 2007.

To start with the pitchers and to explain how hard it can be to separate their performances, maybe the best record among them was owned by Grant BALFOUR whose 1-1, 1.69ERA with five saves and a 4/1 strike out versus walk ratio was quite outstanding, but he pitched a total of only 32.0 innings at 'AAA' level. Regular starter Travis BLACKLEY was the undoubted workhorse with 162.1 innings from 28 starts, but his 10-8, 4.66ERA record was not quite as flattering on the face of it. The other two regular starters who impressed this season were Craig ANDERSON with 7-3, 2.98ERA from 15 starts and Chris OXSPRING with his 7-5, 3.56ERA record from 18 starts. Ryan ROWLAND-SMITH is also worthy of mention as a player who virtually split the season between 'AAA' and in the majors and his final season stats may have been more impressive had he spent the entire season in 'AAA' baseball. And, we can only wonder what Phil STOCKMAN may have done if he had been healthier for the entire season? Veteran Brad THOMAS also owned a decent record with his 8-6, 4.87ERA. 

On the offensive side we will start by paying a special tribute to Glenn WILLIAMS whose .235 average was not indicative of his talent, but he did demonstrate that his durability had returned after a sorry run with injuries by appearing in 116 games and showing occasional indications that he could return to his major league best form next season. Trent OELTJEN also made good progress by playing at 'AAA' level this season and his .238 from 97 games is something that he can build upon as a potential Aussie major league player of the near future. We continue to admire the persistence of Aussie veteran Trent DURRINGTON who also started to find some good form towards the end of the long season.

However, our nomination for 'Flintoff & Dunn's 'AAA' PLAYER OF THE YEAR' is Justin HUBER who overcame a very slow start to his season offensively to compile a very decent .276/68/18 record from his 77 games. Significantly, his .517 slugging percentage will be keeping him on the major league radar screens and he did earn a late season recall to the big leagues with the Kansas City Royals. While he was by no means miles ahead of the pitchers in our calculations, we gave him the nod for our award this year.

We congratulate all of our 'AAA' LEVEL players for continuing their progress in the unforgiving world of US professional baseball. ‘Flintoff & Dunn’ will pay tribute to the following player as our
'AAA' LEVEL PLAYER OF THE YEAR for 2007:

Congratulations to the following player(s) selected as our F&D Pro Players of the Year.

Let us start by explaining that we have deliberately overlooked players like Craig ANDERSON, Grant BALFOUR, Adrian BURNSIDE, Phil STOCKMAN and Richard THOMPSON who were promoted to higher levels during the season and who subsequently spent more time in those. Obviously they were each pretty good at ‘AA’ level to earn promotion.

So, leaving them aside, we found it quite impossible and certainly unfair to separate the pitching of Tristan CRAWFORD from the batting of Luke HUGHES who we have voted as joint winners of ‘Flintoff & Dunn’s ‘AA’ PRO PLAYERS OF THE YEAR’ for 2007. Crawford’s 8-5, 5.16ERA from 82.0 innings, we felt, was matched by Hughes’ .283/43/9 from 92 games. Had Luke’s average been just a bit higher or Tristan’s ERA just a bit lower, either one of them could have claimed the award alone. Significantly, the Minnesota Twins' New Britain team mates Hughes (.323) and Crawford (2-0, 3.79ERA) both finished the season strongly over their last ten games.

Other ‘AA’ players worthy of mention were pitcher Josh HILL who owned a winning record with his 3-2, 4.36ERA and the seasoned Adam MORRISSEY whose offence compiled .263/50/9. Another player who rates a mention is our perennial star Brett RONEBERG who may not be overjoyed with his season of .248/35/8, but his .348 average over the last ten games is a more worthy representation of what he can do when healthy. While he owned a losing record, Adam BRIGHT also sneaks in for a mention with his 1-3, 3.72ERA from 52 appearances out of the bullpen.

We congratulate all of our 'AA' LEVEL players for continuing their progress in the unforgiving world of US professional baseball. ‘Flintoff & Dunn’ will pay tribute to the following player(s) as our
'AA' LEVEL PLAYER(s) OF THE YEAR for 2007:

Congratulations to the following player(s) selected as our F&D Pro Players of the Year.

Much like our review of the ROOKIE leagues, it was also evident from our ‘A’ level statistics that life was difficult for our hitters. As far as we were concerned the standout player and winner of our ‘A’ LEVEL PRO PLAYER OF THE YEAR was Victorian short stop Bradley HARMAN whose strong finish to the season reaped a .281 average, including 26 doubles, five triples and 13 home runs… Harman’s .449 slugging percentage in Advanced ‘A’ level stood out like a beacon among all of our hitters and made him a clear winner of our award this year.

Next in line offensively was young NSW catcher Trent D’ANTONIO who batted .285 with much less power, but a very good .390 on base percentage. Another young Queensland catcher Joel NAUGHTON was a fairly distant third with his .259 that included 13 extra base hits.

While our pitchers were far more consistent across the board, there were none that were quite impressive enough to challenge Harman in our view. Top of the bill was Drew NAYLOR who started the season on fire and his 8-6, 3.28ERA record was still excellent at the end of the year… he would be our second overall place getter. Behind him among the pitchers, probably in this order, were Dushan RUZIC, David WELCH, Josh HILL and Brendan WISE. In terms of this award Ruzic may have been "unfortunate" to spend the latter part of the season promoted to ‘AA’ level baseball.

Adam BLACKLEY and Tom ELLIS each had winning seasons at ‘A’ level but Blackley’s ERA was a little too high, while promising rookie Ellis did not pitch enough innings to enter our calculations.

While we congratulate all of our 'A' LEVEL players for continuing their progress in the unforgiving world of US professional baseball, ‘Flintoff & Dunn’ will pay tribute to the following player as our
'A' LEVEL PLAYER OF THE YEAR for 2007:

Congratulations to the following player(s) selected as our F&D Pro Players of the Year.

This is where it gets REALLY tough subscribers, here we are faced with those age old baseball quandaries surrounding comparisons between the statistics of starting and relief pitchers… and likewise for the offensive expectations of an outfielder versus a short stop?

Well folks, we at ‘Flintoff & Dunn’ are not too proud or egotistical to admit that the job was far too difficult for us on this occasion and we have sought the “easy way out” by refusing to separate FOUR of our young Rookie League stars and by naming joint winners of our ROOKIE LEAGUE PLAYER OF THE YEAR. Besides, under the circumstances, why shouldn’t we recognise more of our young stars, rather than fewer?

Let’s start with the guy who, if we had to separate them, would most likely have got the nod this year in NSW pitching star Bradley TIPPETT whose numbers were quite outstanding for the Elizabethton Twins… the only VERY minor detractions for Tippett were the facts that he pitched exclusively in relief and he was in his second professional season. The other pitcher who we thought was deserving of special attention was GCL Twins’ Liam HENDRIKS who also produced terrific numbers but, in his case, he started all ten of his appearances and hitters got to see more of him in games.

We found it equally testing to compare the splendid performances of two rookie league hitters James BERESFORD (GCL Twins) and Mitch DENING (GCL Red Sox). Outfielder Dening owned slightly the better batting numbers with .301 from 47 games, while Beresford spiced his .288 from 45 games with his spectacular defence at short stop that produced 26 eye catching double-plays for the 2007 season. Just behind those among our everyday players was Stefan WELCH of the GCL Mets who batted .288 from 36 games as a third baseman. One thing we could not help but notice was how hard it was to produce good hitting stats for our rookies this year, which may be an indication of the pitching strength in those leagues?

Behind Tippett and Hendriks among the pitchers, we felt, were Gavin DLOUHY, Jarrod EACOTT and Steve KENT who all pitched superbly and who each have plenty to look forward to in their professional futures.

While we congratulate all of our ROOKIE LEVEL players for starting to establish themselves in the unforgiving world of US professional baseball, ‘Flintoff & Dunn’ will pay tribute to the following players as our
ROOKIE LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE YEAR for 2007:

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

OK, we know, you get sick of hearing what a difficult task it can be to adjudicate on our PRO PLAYER OF THE WEEK awards, but it is a statement of fact and this week provides another classic example. With the lower minor leagues grinding to an end, it is still great to see some of Australia’s brightest baseball talents finishing their respective seasons strongly. No doubt this will be important to them in terms of making sure that they get to have another shot in 2008.

It doesn’t sound quite right that we should award our Pro Player of the Week to anyone other than the man who, this week, became the 25th Australian to reach the US major leagues… Richard THOMPSON. Thompson made an impressive debut with the Los Angeles Angels this past week and we have already recognised this mighty achievement elsewhere… well done again Rich! Our other big league pitchers Peter MOYLAN, Grant BALFOUR and Ryan ROWLAND-SMITH are also continuing to impress and each of them now looks highly likely to establish longer-term careers in major league baseball… GREAT effort again fellas!

For the second week in succession we have given the edge to our hitters over our pitchers, even though we try to make allowances for their often small samples of evidence. Among those who caught our eye on the mounds this week were Craig ANDERSON and Drew NAYLOR who each posted winning starts, while Tristan CRAWFORD supplied two tremendous relief efforts. 2007 “Strikeout King” Drew Naylor once again dazzled with ELEVEN big strikeouts over 7.0 innings… WOW!

So what did it take to beat those performances, you are entitled to ask? Let’s start with Brett RONEBERG who posted a .333AVG with two homers and five runs scored. Next, and very close to taking the award again, was the streaking Brad HARMAN with .364AVG and .652SLG%.

For the second week in succession we were unable to split two players with compelling numbers. Short-season ‘A’ catcher Tim KENNELLY (.400, .733SLG%) and our ‘AAA’ star Justin HUBER who is powering home this season after some frustrating times with .391AVG and .696SLG% from quite a few more at bats than Tim. Top effort by all those mentioned!
This week's nominations are:

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

PHEW! What a brain teasing job it was this week to compare some very good statistics for Australian players in the US professional leagues in order to award our PRO PLAYER OF THE WEEK.

The BLACKLEY brothers came under notice with impressive winning starts this week, with youngster Adam BLACKLEY securing EIGHT strikeouts from his 4.0 innings victory. Craig ANDERSON also struck out eight from 7.0 innings and Brad THOMAS also collected a win from his two games. We continue to marvel at the efforts of rookie Brad TIPPETT who had another tremendous week to slightly improve his marvellous record to 7-1, 0.96ERA with two saves. Former major leaguer Phil STOCKMAN continues his climb back towards the ‘bigs’ with a couple more neat performances at ‘AA’ and ‘AAA’ level with the Atlanta Braves.

However, while there were plenty of legitimate candidates for the award among those pitchers, it was our young hitters who stole the show and who were quite difficult to separate this week. There were several batting well above the .300 plateau this week, but we will reserve special mention for Adam MORRISSEY (.381), Luke HUGHES (.412) and Brad HARMAN (.435). Harman was very close to sharing the award again with the addition of his seven big RBI’s.

Most of those who were in our calculations are previous winners of the award and/or regulars among our “Honourable Mentions”.

Standing just above those, we felt, and unable to be separated were previous winner James BERESFORD of the Gulf Coast Rookie League Twins (.500) and Michael COLLINS of the LA Angels ‘AA’ Arkansas Travellers (.471, including a double and a home run). Young Beresford, who is also a standout defensive short stop, continues to thrive in his rookie season with his second Pro Player of the Week award, while Collins has been mentioned regularly and he richly deserves his first nomination… well done to both players and to all those others who also fly the Australian flag so proudly in the USA. 
This week's nominations are:

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

Before nominating this weeks winner, we want to once again highlight the outstanding form of our Major League star pitcher Peter MOYLAN (Atlanta Braves). During the last month Peter appeared in 15 games, pitched 17 innings, allowed only 10 hits and 1 run, with an ERA of 0.53. To emphasise the magnitude of this performance, in the same period, renowned Yankees' closer Mariano RIVERA appeared in 12 games, pitched 13.1 innings, allowed 12 hits and five runs, with an ERA of 3.65. However in the week under discussion Pete only pitched 1.2 innings and he has not been considered.

This weeks award goes to another of our favourite former major leaguers, Trent DURRINGTON (Cleveland Indians 'AAA' Buffalo Bisons). His five game average of .455 and slugging percentage of .663 edged out Rookie League hitter Mitch DENING (GCL Red Sox) who averaged .500 in four games. It is great to see Trent once again proving that persistence pays and quality players who keep working hard will eventually reap the rewards. Trent Durrington has certainly done everything he could to make the most of what has been a most impressive baseball career... he will have no regrets when his time in the game is over.

Our best pitching performance came from Rookie hurler Steve KENT (GCL Braves). He pitched 7 innings, while allowing only seven scattered hits and NO runs and he also recorded a win.

This week's nomination is:

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

We are always delighted to see one of Australia's elite players displaying their true talents and this week we had Brad HARMAN, from the Phillies A+ Affiliate Clearwater Threshers, returning to his best form. His five game average of .364 earned him our Pro Player of the Week award. Harman just shaded Braves' Rookie Matt KENNELLY's five game average of .385, mainly due to his superior slugging percentage of .545. Brad contributed two doubles and a triple from his eight hits, while his four runs also influenced to the result. It was also great to see another of our elite baseballers Brett RONEBERG (Pittsburgh Pirates 'AA' Altoona Curve) back approaching his best after sorting out some recent injury concerns.

Our Major League pitchers were to the fore again with Atlanta's Peter MOYLAN continuing on his merry way after another four games of 0.00ERA. Grant BALFOUR, in his new home at Tampa Bay, continues to improve with his two outings this week yielding no runs while he struck out seven in 2.2 innings of power pitching.

Brad DUTTON was the top performer in the Independent Leagues with an impressive 16 hits from his 38ABs for a .425 batting average over the period. 

This week's nomination is:

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

We are pleased to award this week's Player of the Week to a young fellow who we have been admiring for some time,  Minnesota Twins Rookie pitcher Bradley TIPPETT (Elizabethton Twins), in recognition of his continuing outstanding form. In his three games this week Brad produced two WINS and a SAVE, while allowing only one run from his 7.0 innings. 
This meant that his ERA for the season rose from 0.48 to a still remarkable 0.73. Keep up the good work Brad!

Our regular readers will recognise some consistent performers in the Honourable Mentions below, and will be pleased to see the return to form after injury of Phil STOCKMAN (AA Mississippi Braves), while also noting that Grant BALFOUR has enjoyed some much better form since his trade from the Milwaukee Brewers to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Our other major league pitchers Peter MOYLAN and Ryan ROWLAND-SMITH also continue to fly the Australian flag proudly in the USA.

This week's nomination is:

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

Among some outstanding performers this week it is once again difficult to go past our Atlanta Braves' Major League reliever Peter MOYLAN. Continuing his magnificent season, Peter appeared in another four games with one win, while allowing only two hits in his 5.1 innings of relieving with a 0.00ERA. There can be no argument about Pete's worthiness to win our award for the fourth time this year. 

However, this time, we are also dazzled by the performance of our Kansas City Royals AAA hitter Justin HUBER. It is just great to see Justin rebounding so strongly after a recent injury setback. In his three games he recorded the impressive figures of two runs, seven hits, a double and a home run from his 13 at bats. His batting average of .538 and slugging percentage of .846 should also be good enough to win our award in any week. 

'Flintoff & Dunn' do not subscribe to the theory that we should separate these guys, just because Moylan has already won the award three times this season. This would be a simple solution but one that we refuse to take. No folks, you will never find us taking the easy way out, we have no hesitation in nominating both Peter and Justin as shared winners this week.

In our normal manner we will use this space to also mention a couple of Independent League Aussies who have enjoyed great recent success. Brad DUTTON (Rockford River Hawks) has batted .429 over the past six games, while the ever consistent pitcher Greg WILTSHIRE (El Paso Diablos) has earned another two wins from his last two starts.

You will also note that it required an average higher than .400 for our hitters to rate an HONOURABLE MENTION this week as some of our boys are starting to set a hot standard lately. 

This week's nominations are: