JB Websters: Hague, Schimpf, Browning, McBroom, Hissey, Orozco, Obeso
Matt Hague was the Webster award winner at triple-A Buffalo. Photo: Jay Blue.
Blue Jays Announce 2015 Webster Awards
By Jay Blue
Blue Jays from Away
We tried to predict who the Blue Jays would select as their team MVPs for the club’s annual R. Howard Webster Awards. Today, we check our predictions to see how we did!
The final totals had six of the eight winners being hitters with one starting pitcher and relief pitcher picking up their team MVP award. Interestingly, there were no repeat winners this year with all eight players picking up the Webster for the first time.
Dominican Summer League Blue Jays
The DSL Blue Jays’ Webster Award winner is Norberto Obeso who led the Dominican Summer League in hits and finished fourth in batting average, hitting .351. Needless to say, this was not a surprise.
2014 Winner: Enmanuel Moreta
2015 Prediction: Norberto Obeso
2015 Winner: Norberto Obeso
Gulf Coast League Blue Jays
My prediction of Justin Maese as the winner of the Webster Award for the GCL Blue Jays was confirmed. His 1.01 ERA and 1.06 WHIP made him probably the most consistent and best pitcher for the GCL Blue Jays and was deserving of the award.
2014 Winner: Juan Kelly
2015 Prediction: Justin Maese
2015 Winner: Justin Maese
Bluefield Blue Jays
Panamanian Rodrigo Orozco, 20, was, by far, the best hitter on the Bluefield Blue Jays with a .300/.368/.435 slash line before a late-season promotion to Vancouver and our prediction was proven correct.
2014 Winner: Richard Urena
2015 Prediction: Rodrigo Orozco
2015 Winner: Rodrigo Orozco
Vancouver Canadians
This was the award that actually took me by the most surprise. I was thinking that Sean Hurley, with a team-leading nine home runs and .253/.363/.441 line (.804 OPS) was good enough to win the award. Instead, the Blue Jays went with catcher Ryan Hissey, the Jays’ 14th round pick of the 2015 draft. In addition to hitting .269/.363/.372 slash line (a .735 OPS), Hissey threw out 30% of the runners trying to steal.
2014 Winner: Franklin Barreto
2015 Prediction: Sean Hurley
2015 Winner: Ryan Hissey
Lansing Lugnuts
After the leak from Jesse Goldberg-Strassler about a week and a half ago, there wasn’t much suspense about who the Blue Jays would name the Lugnuts’ MVP. As we’ll see in Buffalo, a League MVP award means a team MVP award.
2014 Winner: Mitch Nay
2015 Winner: Ryan McBroom
Dunedin Blue Jays
This one was a little bit surprising, mostly because I’ve never seen the Blue Jays award the MVP to a relief pitcher. Browning made 31 appearances with the Dunedin Blue Jays, posting a miniscule 0.78 ERA and 0.55 WHIP, walking just two batters in 34 2/3 innings with 40 strikeouts. His numbers returned to a more normal line in his 18 2/3 innings in New Hampshire but allowing only three runs in Dunedin and saving 22 games there was enough to earn a Webster.
2014 Winner: Dwight Smith, Jr.
2015 Prediction: Anthony Alford
2015 Winner: Wil Browning
New Hampshire Fisher Cats
This is one that I got right and Ryan Schimpf was awarded the Webster after his third consecutive season leading the Blue Jays’ organization in home runs. Schimpf hit .271/.378/.581 with the Fisher Cats and despite lower numbers in Buffalo, Schimpf’s stats dominated the New Hampshire leaderboard to the point that he was the club’s MVP.
2014 Winner: Jon Berti
2015 Prediction: Ryan Schimpf
2015 Winner: Ryan Schimpf
Buffalo Bisons
I predicted that Dalton Pompey would win, mostly because I was convinced that the Blue Jays looked to their home-grown talent for the Websters. It looks like a league MVP award is enough to convince that Blue Jays that a player is the MVP of the club and Matt Hague wins the award after a fantastic season with the Buffalo Bisons.
2014 Winner: Kevin Pillar
2015 Prediction: Dalton Pompey
2015 Winner: Matt Hague