Josh Arhart named VSBB Player of the Year

The bloggers at the Victoria Seals Baseball Blog (VSBB) are proud to announced that Josh Arhart has been selected as the VSBB Player of the Year. Arhart surged past Wilver Perez in the overall standings by finishing second in September's VSBB Player of the Month award.

In the 2010 season, Josh led the Seals in batting average (.352), on-base percentage (.437), home runs (17) and slugging percentage (.626) and his 17 homers ranked fourth in the GBL. Arhart was also the 6th-most difficult hitter to strike out in the entire league, fanning only once per 9.2 at-bats (incidentally, Brian Rios was the 3rd-most difficult batter to strike out in the GBL, with a K every 11.5 at-bats). Arhart also showed fantastic plate discipline by walking more times than he struck out (30 BB's vs 25 K's), a feat that is quite difficult for a power hitter to accomplish.

In addition to Josh's offense, he was also solid defensively, posting a .987 fielding percentage on only 6 errors in 2010. Although the 30-year-old has stated that he will be retiring after this season, I wouldn't be surprised to see him return for another year of professional baseball. His .352 average is a career high, so Arhart obviously has some quality baseball left in him. The Seals could definitely use him at first base and catcher next season.

Matt Kavanaugh capped his breakout season by winning the VSBB Player of the Month award for September. Kavy hit .315 on the year with 7 homers and 38 RBIs. The 25-year-old made huge strides in only his third year of professional baseball. In his first two pro seasons, both in the GBL, Kavanaugh hit .258 and .239 in part-time roles. Last season with the Seals, Kavy only had one homer and 15 RBIs in 184 at-bats. This guy could very well be a future GBL All Star.

Colin Moro, Brian Rios and Jeff Duda finished in a three-way tie for third place in the voting. Duda pitched six innings of shutout ball on the first of September to pick up the win against the Capitals in a must-win game. Moro hit an even .500 in five September games and led the Seals with six RBIs in the month.

The final year-to-date standings for the VSBB Player of the Year are as follows:

• Josh Arhart - 7 points
• Wilver Perez - 5.5 points
• Terrence McClain - 4 points
• Brian Rios - 3.33 points
• Isaac Hess - 3 points
• Matt Kavanaugh - 3 points
• Jino Gonzalez - 2.5 points
• Brandon Villafuerte - 1 point
• Colin Moro - 0.33 point
• Jeff Duda - 0.33 point

Congratulations, Josh! Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!

Photo courtesy of Jonathon Howe,
graphics courtesy of Bubba