Midwest League 2001

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, 2001. These are the players I want to see when their teams come to town.

The managers were polled in May to select the mid-season All-Star teams, and again in August for the Post-Season Team. Your may wish to compare my selections with theirs....

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

	CATCHERS          Tm  Bats Pos  G  AB  R  H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB  AVG  OBP  SLG
	Dennis Anderson   KC  B    C   20  60 13 19  3  1  1   8 12 13  1 .317 .449 .450
	Craig Ansman      SB  R    C   23  78 18 27  9  0  7  16  6 27  0 .346 .407 .731
	Garett Gentry     MIC L    C   34 120 18 39  2  1  4  26 12 12  2 .325 .396 .458

	INFIELDERS        Tm  Bats Pos  G  AB  R  H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB  AVG  OBP  SLG
	Adrian Gonzalez   KC  L    1B  46 196 37 72 14  1  8  52 23 32  2 .367 .436 .571
	Andy Green        SB  R    2B  43 158 27 49  5  3  1  15 20 17 21 .310 .390 .399
	Luis Maza         QC  R    SS  43 161 38 51  6  0  4  14 13 25  7 .317 .382 .429
	Ronnie Merrill    WM  B    SS  42 163 29 54  8  1  4  30  9 18 13 .331 .383 .466
	Justin Morneau    QC  L    1B  42 156 35 56 11  2  7  32 16 21  0 .359 .418 .590
	Zack Roper        CR  R    3B  37 142 24 47 10  0  9  33  8 25  1 .331 .377 .592
	T.J. Soto         MIC R    1B  40 142 26 42  9  2 10  23 16 44  8 .296 .369 .599
	Chase Voshell     PEO R    SS  22  74 12 23  7  2  3   6  8 13  2 .311 .378 .581

	OUTFIELDERS       Tm  Bats Pos  G  AB  R  H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB  AVG  OBP  SLG
	Chip Ambres       KC  R    OF  44 183 50 60 16  5  3  25 29 38  8 .328 .434 .519
	Jim Kavourias     KC  R    OF  42 165 36 48  9  1 12  38 24 42  3 .291 .395 .576
	Will Smith        KC  L    OF  45 205 48 72 13  1  9  51 12 25  2 .351 .391 .556
	Jamal Strong      WIS R    OF  45 163 39 60 11  1  0  16 35 22 32 .368 .488 .448


	PITCHERS          Tm  Th W L  ERA  G GS CG SHO SV IP    H  R ER BB SO OpBA
	Pablo Arias       WM  R  2 1 1.63  9  6  0   0  0 38.2 29 11  7 10 36 .206
	Willie Eyre       QC  R  3 0 2.42 17  0  0   0  4 22.1 19  6  6  2 21 .226
	Bryan Gaal        FTW R  1 0 0.94 20  0  0   0  2 28.2 14  3  3  3 39 .146
	Hansel Izquierdo  KC  R  5 0 1.34 19  0  0   0  2 33.2 19  6  5  9 28 .164
	Everrett Johnson  WIS R  3 3 1.77  9  9  2   2  0 56.0 46 16 11 11 59 .218
	James Lira        MIC R  1 0 1.62 13  0  0   0  7 16.2  8  3  3  8 19 .140
	Chris Narveson    PEO L  3 3 1.98  8  8  0   0  0 50.0 32 14 11 11 53 .185
	Oliver Perez      FTW L  5 2 2.82 10 10  0   0  0 54.1 37 21 17 17 60 .191
	Chad Qualls       MIC R  5 3 3.12  9  9  2   1  0 52.0 45 25 18  7 54 .224
	Chad Wiles        WIS R  1 0 2.18 17  0  0   0  7 20.2 17  5  5  2 18 .230

A few notes are in order, of course:

• Quad City first baseman Justin Moreau is the league's best player.
• The best pitcher? Perhaps Peoria's Chris Narveson, who's afflicted with a weak team.

• These are my May 24 opinions, and are subject to change. I won't post updated opinions on this page, but may post them elsewhere on the site.

• 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
  • Jamal Strong, OF, WIS
  • Chase Voshell, SS, PEO
  • Justin Morneau, 1B, QC
  • Adrian Gonzalez, DH, KC
  • Craig Ansman, C, SB
  • Zack Roper, 3B, CR
  • Jim Kavourias, OF, KC
  • Will Smith, OF, KC
  • Andy Green, 2B, SB
• Rotation
  • Chris Narveson, PEO
  • Everrett Johnson, WIS
  • Pablo Arias, WM
  • Hansel Izquierdo, KC
  • Oliver Perez, FTW
• Short Relief
  • Chad Wiles, WIS
  • James Lira, MIC

• Stats shown are through May 24, 2001.
• Some of this is simple: Craig Ansman clearly belongs on this team, even though he started the season late. The league has three very strong first basemen, so they're all here. But the best second basemen are a toss-up; I picked one.
• Samone Peters (our home run leader) and Christopher Morris (steals leader) are not on this list.
• None of the Saves leaders have me convinced. So I picked someone else to close for this team. This is the place I'm most likely to be embarrassed.
• Of course there's room for disagreement. That's what makes this fun.

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