Baseball Prospectus writes an annual every year, detailing to the projections for most MLB players. But every year there are players they either don’t write up (perhaps because they missed a substantial amount of the previous season and therefore are difficult to project), or players who get just one line because there is just not that much to say about them.
And every year there are players who, though they didn’t appear at all or hardly appeared in the annual, have really good years – out of seemingly nowhere. So they created the Vogelsong Awards, named after Ryan Vogelsong who, “hadn’t appeared in the BP Annual since 2008 when he returned from a five-year major-league hiatus to go 13-7 in 28 starts for the 2011 Giants, compiling a 2.71 ERA and 3.63 FIP over 179 2/3 innings. His entry in the 2012 Annual began, ‘Vogelsong wins the award for best player unmentioned in the 2011 BP Annual.’
This year, 2 of the 4 awarded players are in the EFL – Jake Cronenworth (currently owned by the Rosebuds), and Jeremy Jeffress (currently owned by the Tornadoes). The two others are Darin Ruf and Andre Scrubb.
In the EFL, some of the most overlooked players are our RP, and so many (almost all) Vogelsong Award Winners in the EFL this year are RP. Because they deserve to have a day, too.
| EFL | ||||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB | RS | RA |
| Kaline Drive | 20 | 11 | .634 | — | 155.9 | 117.9 |
| Haviland Dragons | 18 | 13 | .587 | 1.5 | 178.4 | 149.2 |
| D.C. Balk | 14 | 14 | .487 | 4.5 | 135.2 | 138.7 |
| Cottage Cheese | 13 | 16 | .454 | 5.5 | 140.7 | 154.9 |
| Bellingham Cascades | 14 | 17 | .447 | 5.8 | 153.4 | 182.9 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 14 | 17 | .446 | 5.8 | 161.6 | 186.1 |
| Peshastin Pears | 14 | 17 | .438 | 6.1 | 141.8 | 160.5 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 12 | 16 | .426 | 6.2 | 138.3 | 161.2 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 12 | 19 | .396 | 7.4 | 145.0 | 178.0 |
| Portland Rosebuds | 11 | 20 | .364 | 8.4 | 162.2 | 214.4 |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 8 | 23 | .262 | 11.5 | 121.2 | 201.2 |
Kaline: “W,” 2-3 (49PA; 16IP)
| AVG: 0.170 | OBP: 0.204 | SLG: 0.277 | OPS: 0.481 |
| ERA: 2.81 | WHIP: 1.188 |
Kaline barely lost yesterday. In fact, it was such a slight loss the system though it was a win. But 2 runs scored to 3 runs allowed is, in the end, a loss. Their batting was their weakness yesterday, with Yuli Gurriel accounting for half of their hits – which is an incredible feat considering the team had 49 plate appearances. He went 4 for 6 with a double. But it was their pitching where they really pursued excellence, led by the outgoing Spencer Turnbull, who gave his team one last Drive performance worth remembering – 0 ER over 5.7 IP.
The Drive Vogelsong Award winner is the infamous Burch Smith, whose name in EFL lore is cause for laughter, but whose line this year is cause for rejoicing – a 3.38 ERA in 8IP with 11 Ks.
Haviland: L, 1-3 (54PA; 12.7IP)
| AVG: 0.136 | OBP: 0.296 | SLG: 0.273 | OPS: 0.569 |
| ERA: 3.54 | WHIP: 0.866 |
The Dragons should pretty fortunate to have only lost .1 games on the Drive after such an abysmal hitting day. JT Realmuto hit a nifty 3-run HR (you should watch the video of it) that Adam Eaton had two chances to catch, but little else happened (although they had 10 combined BBs and HBPs). The pitching kept them in the game, though, and close to the Drive. Tyler Glasnow struck out 13 batters in 7IP – pretty impressive!
The Vogelsong Award winner for the Dragons this season is Chad Green, who has thrown 12.7 IP with a .71 ERA and 17 Ks. I don’t even know what team he is on now – the Yankees?
DC: DNP, (-1)-(-1) (42PA; 1.3IP)
| AVG: 0.229 | OBP: 0.357 | SLG: 0.257 | OPS: 0.614 |
| ERA: 0.00 | WHIP: 2.308 |
The Balk took the day off, and managed to climb .2 games in the standings. Asdrubal Cabrera and Danny Jansen each had two hits, but nothing much else happened on their off day.
The Vogelsong Award winner for the Balk is Matt Wisler, who has thrown 14 innings with a 1.29 ERA. Once upon Wisler was a high end prospect – it’s nice to see him having some success as a RP now.
Cottage: W0, L(-1) 10-5 (64PA; 11IP)
| AVG: 0.357 | OBP: 0.438 | SLG: 0.589 | OPS: 1.027 |
| ERA: 5.73 | WHIP: 1.455 |
Yesterday’s Cheese offensive line is something of an anomaly – it was excellent, of course, but what is easy to miss is that they put up that line while amassing 64 plate appearances. That is simply amazing! They had 20 hits one the day, in the following denominations: 13 singles, 4 doubles and 3 home runs. 3 players had 3 hits, 3 players had 2 hits, and 3 players had one hit. How is that for symmetry? The pitching was just so-so, but who cares when you do what Cheese hitters?
The Cheese Vogelsong Award goes to Tony Gonsolin, who has been semi-touted as a Dodger prospect, but who the Cheese snatched up for only 5 million on a Rookie deal. He has thrown 14.7 innings and given up 0 earned runs. That’s right – zero.
Bellingham: W, 5-3 (21PA; 6.3IP)
| AVG: 0.400 | OBP: 0.429 | SLG: 0.450 | OPS: 0.879 |
| ERA: 2.86 | WHIP: 1.111 |
Compared to the Cheese, the Cascades sent barely anyone to the plate, but the outcomes was still very good. Justin Turner came alive, going 4 for 6 to lead the team. Tommy Milone threw another solid game (5.3IP, 2ER) and the Cascades jumped over the Pears and Tornadoes in the standings.
The Vogelsong Award for the Cascades goes to Brad Miller, who has found the secret elixir to career longevity, this year OPSing 1.007 over 34 PA.
Flint Hill: W2, L4 33-42 (38PA; 8.6IP)
| AVG: 0.242 | OBP: 0.342 | SLG: 0.364 | OPS: 0.706 |
| ERA: 3.14 | WHIP: 1.279 |
The undulations continue to cause massive shifts for the Tornadoes, thanks to the Rays and Yankees continually trading places in the standings. The good thing is that there was only a .6 change in games behind the leading Drive, however it is getting tiresome and demoralizing to the players to play 6 games in one day. Xander Bogaerts led the way, going 3 for 5 with a 2B and, get this, no strikeouts! However, the pedestrian Mike Trout added three of his own. Have you noticed that Mike Trout, the best player in baseball, is now hitting .255 on the season? Talk about overpaid!
The Vogelsong Award goes to Jesse Hahn, who has thrown only 4 innings so far but has yet to give up a run. After the past few years he has had, and the difficulties he has already faced this year (unexpected death of a parent), he deserves this award!
Peshastin: L, 3-10 (31PA; 4IP)
| AVG: 0.222 | OBP: 0.290 | SLG: 0.407 | OPS: 0.698 |
| ERA: 9.00 | WHIP: 2.250 |
The Pears couldn’t handle the attention yesterday’s update provided them, and so crept back down in the standings due to a not-very-good-day in every area. Marcus Semien led the way, going 3 for 5 with a 2B and a HR, but that was about it.
The Vogelsong Award winner for the Pears is Tom Hatch, mostly because I have never heard of him and he has thrown 7.7 IP and given up only 3ER, which is pretty good for someone whose name I don’t recall ever seeing.
Canberra: W1, L(-1) 1-(-5)
| AVG: 0.313 | OBP: 0.377 | SLG: 0.521 | OPS: 0.898 |
| ERA: 1.50 | WHIP: 1.167 |
A very good all-around day for the Roos. Austin Nola stayed hot, going 3 for 5 with a HR. I heard an interesting stat the other day – opposing teams are 18 for 18 in stolen bases against the Mariners this season. I don’t if that is an indictment of Nola (because, pitchers), but if he continues to hit like he is hitting it might not matter. Their pitching was led by Rich Hill, who rebounded nicely from his last outing, going 5 innings and giving up 1 ER.
The Roos Vogelsong Award winner is pitcher Taylor Guilbeau, who has a difficult name to spell and apparently an equally difficult to hit arsenal. He has thrown just over 7 innings this season and given up only one run.
Pittsburgh: W, 9-3 (55PA; 3.7IP)
| AVG: 0.262 | OBP: 0.418 | SLG: 0.548 | OPS: 0.966 |
| ERA: 0.00 | WHIP: 0.811 |
On any other day I would tout Alleghenys hitters for their volume of PAs and the volume of their production, which was loud. But the Cheese overshadowed the Alleghenys, and so I am just whelmed by this line. Every batter but 2 got at least one hit, led by Dustin Garneau and Brian Goodwin, who combined to go 3 for 6 with a 2B and a HR. The most impressive stat of the day, though, are the 12 BBs the team earned, led again by Goodwin who got three of them.
The Pittsburgh Vogelsong Award winner is Brad Boxberger (I guess most of the EFL award winners are RP), who has a sparkling 1.82 ERA over 9IP this year, and is on a one year contract with the Alleghenys for 500k.
Portland: L, 0-7 (35PA; 1IP)
| AVG: 0.182 | OBP: 0.229 | SLG: 0.182 | OPS: 0.410 |
| ERA: 0.00 | WHIP: 3.000 |
The Rosebud batters showed up to the field, but it appears went into the batter’s box without their bats. Nick Solak collected a couple of hits, and true Vogelsong Award winner Jake Cronenworth added another, but all 6 team hits were singles and they also grounded into 3 double plays. Thus, 0 runs scored.
The Vogelsong Award winner for the Rosebuds is Jason Kipnis, who in his last days of being a Rosebud is OPSing a shade under .800.
Old Detroit: W1, L5 28-50 (50PA; no pitching)
| AVG: 0.289 | OBP: 0.360 | SLG: 0.600 | OPS: 0.960 |
Talk about being hit on the head by a plum branch! The Wolverine hitters did a valiant job of trying to put a lot of runs on the board, but they were undone by their pitching staff who gave up 50 runs, an average of over 8 runs per game, which is difficult to overcome.
To make matters worse, Eloy Jimenez sprained his ankle while celebrating Lucas Giolito’s no-hitter yesterday after going 2 for 4 with a 2B to help Giolito and White Sox win.
The Vogelsong Award winner for OD is David Phelps, who is 12 IP has accrued as much WAR as he did the entire 2018 season, and 5 times as much WAR as he did last season.