Midwest League 2000

The Best Players

By late May, it's becoming clear where the League's talent has landed. Here's my selection of the best players, as of May 24, 2000. These are the players I want to see when their teams come to town.

As I compiled this page, the managers' votes were being tallied to select the mid-season All-Star teams. Those were announced in mid-June; you may wish to compare.

You may also wish to compare the post-season All-Stars selected by the MWL managers.

Think of this as my "All-Star" team: As of May 24, these are the Midwest League's best players at each position.

Name              Bats Pos  Tm  AB    R   H  2B 3B  HR  RBI  BB  SO  SB   BA  OBA  SLG
Lance Burkhart     R     C  BEL 131  26  38  12  0   9   44  22  28   0 .290 .396 .588
Matt Frick         R     C  KNC 104  17  32   4  0   5   20  16  21   2 .308 .398 .490

Name              Bats Pos  Tm  AB    R   H  2B 3B  HR  RBI  BB  SO  SB   BA  OBA  SLG
Mark Burnett       L    2B  CLI 137  33  46  10  1   5   18  29  25   8 .336 .449 .533
Jim Deschaine      R    SS  LAN 144  30  44  11  1   6   29  33  23   5 .306 .436 .521
Shawn McCorkle     L    1B  WIS 132  28  42   6  2   7   25  29  27   2 .318 .446 .552
Lyle Overbay       L    1B  SBD 157  23  48  10  2   4   27  16  26   3 .306 .369 .471
Albert Pujols      R    3B  PEO 151  22  48  15  1   7   30  13  16   1 .318 .372 .570
Danny Sandoval     R    SS  BUR 158  23  53   5  3   0   25  12  12  28 .335 .387 .405
Randy Stegall      R    3B  DAY 122  26  42  13  1   2   28  22  23   2 .344 .456 .516

Name              Bats Pos  Tm  AB    R   H  2B 3B  HR  RBI  BB  SO  SB   BA  OBA  SLG
Adam Dunn          L    OF  DAY 143  34  46  10  1   3   27  38  32  12 .322 .471 .469
Shawn Garrett      S    OF  FTW 107  22  33   6  1   4   14  22  18   3 .308 .424 .495
Ben Johnson        R    OF  PEO 117  18  32   9  1   6   23  20  29   8 .274 .380 .521
Jason Lane         R    OF  MIC 158  26  52  24  0   5   38  12  38   4 .329 .382 .576
Pete Zoccolillo    L    OF  LAN 113  17  37   7  0   4   23  18  16   3 .327 .428 .296

Name              Bats Pos  Tm  AB    R   H  2B 3B  HR  RBI  BB  SO  SB   BA  OBA  SLG
Bobby Darula       L    DH  BEL 122  33  54   8  3   1   31  24  14   8 .409 .509 .538

Name                Tm   Th  W  L  ERA   G GS CG ShO Sv    IP   H  R ER BB Ks  OpBA
Calvin Chipperfield WEM   R  5  0 2.61   8  6  2   2  0  41.1  24 14 12 16 44  .167 
Aquilino Lopez      WIS   R  2  0 2.06   7  5  1   1  0  35.0  25  9  8 11 29  .198
Tommy Marx          WEM   L  4  2 1.97   8  8  0   0  0  45.2  30 12 10 25 37  .188
Jose Mieses         BEL   R  5  2 1.74   9  9  1   1  0  57.0  35 12 11 14 52  .180
Chris Olean         BEL   R  2  2 2.59   8  2  1   0  0  24.1  12  7  7 3  16  .141
Juan Padilla        QC    R  1  1 1.04  18  0  0   0 11  17.1  14  2  2 4  21  .215
Jacob Peavy         FTW   R  3  1 2.42   6  6  0   0  0  29.2  21 12  8 13 38  .194
Travis Thompson     CL/DA R  5  2 3.15   7  7  1   1  0  45.2  31 17 16 14 47  .188
J.J. Trujillo       FTW   R  0  2 2.02  22  0  0   0 15  26.2  12  8  6 10 30  .136
Andy VanHekken      WEM   L  6  1 2.42   8  8  0   0  0  44.2  38 14 12 52 45  .222

A few notes are in order, of course:

• Peoria third baseman Albert Pujols appears to be the league's best player. On another day, I might select West Michigan pitcher Calvin Chipperfield.
• The most exciting player? Dayton outfielder Adam Dunn. A complete package.

• This isn't a list of prospects. It's a list of players having excellent seasons; most of them are "prospects," but that wasn't a consideration.

• Batting Order
  • Bobby Darula, DH, BEL
  • Adam Dunn, OF, DAY
  • Jason Lane, OF, MIC
  • Lance Burkhart, C, BEL
  • Albert Pujols, 3B, PEO
  • Shawn McCorkle, 1B, WIS
  • Jim Deschaine, SS, LAN
  • Mark Burnett, 2B, CLI
  • Pete Zoccolillo, OF, LAN
• Rotation
  • Travis Thompson, CLI/DAY
  • Jacob Peavy, FTW
  • Jose Mieses, BEL
  • Calvin Chipperfield, WEM
  • Aquilino Lopez, WIS
• Short Relief
  • Juan Padilla, QC
  • J.J. Trujillo, FTW

• Stats shown are through May 24, 2000.
• Some of this is simple: Mark Burnett's easily the best-hitting second baseman, and Jim Deschaine stands out at short. But Randy Stegall gives Albert Pujols a good run for third base (& "MVP").
• Wish I had room for: If DH Billy Martin (SBD) played at all in the field, he'd be on this team. Position players Casey Bookout (DAY), Steve Scarborough (BEL), and Eric Welsh (DAY) were hard to leave off the lists; so were pitchers Gary Majewski (BUR), Jim Manias (DAY), Matt Childers (BEL), Fontella Jones (BEL), Cliff Bartosh (FTW), Tim Sturdy (QC), and Carlos Hernandez (MIC).

• Obviously, this is just my opinion. Feel free to disagree.