Our 2011 Spring Training Awards

JEWISH BASEBALL NEWS — At least 19 Jews got playing time during Spring Training 2011, including five pitchers and 14 position players.

Here are our awards honoring the best, worst, and most surprising performances:

Best All-Around Offense: Ian Kinsler. The Texas Rangers 2B didn’t look like the same player who sat out nearly 100 games last season with injuries. Kinsler, 28, led all Jewish batters with 7 doubles, 5 HRs, 13 RBIs (tied), and a .389 on-base percentage. Although Jewish batters as a group struck out way more than they walked (94 vs. 41), Kinsler was one of just two players who didn’t, matching his 5 Ks with 5 BBs.

Best All-Around Offense (runner-up): Ryan Braun. The Milwaukee Brewers LF batted only 40 times, but that didn’t stop him from hitting 4 HRs, driving in 11 runs, and leading all Jews with 15 runs scored, a .325 batting average, .700 slugging percentage, and 1.072 OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage).

Best All-Around Offense (honorable mention): Ike Davis. The New York Mets 1B pretty much matched the productivity of his 2010 rookie season, hitting .273 with 3 HRs, 13 RBIs (tied/1st), and a .344 on-base percentage.

Breakout offense: Sam Fuld. At 29, you can’t quite call the Tampa Bay Rays CF an up-and-comer. But Fuld made the most of what turned out to be his best chance in years to make an opening-day roster, hitting .277 with 1 HR, 5 extra-base hits, 8 RBIs, and 4 stolen bases. And he got his wish: a seat on the Rays’ bench.

Most disappointing offense: Kevin Youkilis. Whatever you chalk it up to — bad thumb, the distraction of switching from 1B to 3B, etc. — the Boston Red Sox stalwart, normally an on-base machine, struggled at the plate this Spring. Youk hit  just .175 with no HRs, 4 RBIs, a Jew-high 15 strikeouts, and just 4 walks. Teammate Ryan Kalish was a close second in this category, hitting .235 with 0 HRs and one lonely RBI.

Weirdest stats: Ben Guez. The Detroit Tigers CF has yet to play a regular-season MLB game and saw only limited playing time in Spring Training, getting 12 plate appearances and 7 at-bats. But oh, what Guez did with them. The 24-year-old singled twice, doubled once, and walked five times, good enough for a .429 batting average and .667 on-base percentage.

Nicest surprise: John Grabow. After a dismal 2010 in which he went 1-3 with a 7.36 ERA and “held” opposing batters to a .321 average, the Chicago Cubs reliever must have grown tired of being Public Enemy #1 in the Windy City. How else can you explain Grabow’s 2.57 ERA in Spring Training? A close second to Grabow in this awards category is Washington Nationals starter Jason Marquis, who went 2-9 with a 6.60 ERA in an injury-plagued 2010 season but finished Spring Training with a 1-1 record and a 4.02 ERA.

Worst surprise: Craig Breslow. Arguably the only Jewish MLB pitcher who didn’t embarrass himself last year, the Oakland A’s reliever went 4-4 in 2010 with a 3.01 ERA, holding opposing batters to a meek .194 batting average. But Breslow had an awful spring, with an 11.25 ERA and an opposing-hitters batting average of, believe it or not, .500. The saving grace? We’re only talking about 5 appearances and 4 innings pitched, not a lot to go on. Still, the Freaky Friday switcheroo Breslow and Grabow did this Spring has got us mighty confused.

Here are the final 2011 Spring Training stats for position players:

		TEAM	POS	AB	R	2B	HR	RBI	AVG	OBP
James	Rapoport	STL	CF	1	0	0	0	0	1.000	1.000
Ben	Guez	DET	CF	7	0	1	0	0	.429	.667
Ryan	Lavarnway	BOS	CF	9	1	1	1	3	.333	.333
Josh	Satin	NYM	2B	6	1	0	1	2	.333	.333
Ryan	Braun	MIL	LF	40	15	3	4	11	.325	.372
Danny	Valencia	MIN	3B	65	6	6	1	8	.308	.333
Ian	Kinsler	TEX	2B	63	14	7	5	13	.302	.389
Sam	Fuld	TB	CF	47	9	3	1	8	.277	.333
Ike	Davis	NYM	1B	55	5	4	3	13	.273	.344
Gabe	Kapler	LAD	RF	45	6	3	1	7	.244	.277
Ryan	Kalish	TB	LF	51	4	2	0	1	.235	.316
Jake	Lemmerman	LAD	SS	5	1	1	0	0	.200	.200
Kevin	Youkilis	BOS	3B	57	3	2	0	4	.175	.238
Jason	Kipnis	CLE	2B	18	3	0	1	2	.167	.250
TOTAL				469	68	33	18	72	.269

And the final 2011 stats for pitchers:

		TEAM	W	L	ERA	G	IP	H	BB	SO
John	Grabow	CHC	0	0	2.57	7	7.0	8	3	4
Jason	Marquis	WSH	1	1	4.02	4	15.2	15	6	9
Aaron	Poreda	SD	0	1	6.75	3	2.2	2	5	1
Michael	Schwimer	PHI	0	0	7.20	4	5.0	5	2	4
Craig	Breslow	OAK	0	0	11.25	5	4.0	9	2	2
TOTAL			1	2	5.35

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