1983 HBL Rookies of the Year
9-7, 3.76 ERA, 160.1 IP, 158 HA, 94K, 1.23 WHIP, 3 CG, 1 SHO
It's tough to break into the HBL. With only 12 teams the roster spots are hard to come by especially for just drafted rookies who have a limited amount of time to prove themselves between the December draft and opening day. Although he was drafted third in last year's ammy draft
Evansville's SP
Aaron Kline was considered the second best pitcher on his college team. Not even invited to spring training the Twisters felt pressure to rush Kline to the bigs after he was named the fourth best prospect in the HBL on opening day.
He spent the first month in Double A before skipping Triple A and heading to the big club. He was immediately inserted into the Twisters' bullpen where he thrived posting a 2.70 ERA in four appearances. He was then sent to the rotation where he would not miss a start for the rest of the season. He hit a bit of a wall in July when he gave up 28 of his 67 earned runs and posted a 5.68 ERA. Take out July and his big league ERA would be 3.03 which would have been good enough for third in the South League. Although he struggled a bit against Dayton, Kline was at his best in his three starts verses the South's best. He was 2-0 with a 2.52 ERA when pitching against the Canton Kernels including a three hit shutout on August 12 while facing the great
Zane Carver. "That was the best moment of my life," said Kline at the awards ceremony. "At least up until I won this award."
142 G, .311/.371/.438, 46 XBH, 25 SB, 61 RS, 47 RBI, 46 BB
Duluth 3B
Preston Richards had quite a different journey than that of Aaron Kline. Drafted with the 10th pick in the 1979 draft out of high school by Canton, Richards was traded three different times before settling into the Danger organization and finally making it to the big leagues for 25 games at the end of the 1982 season.
Richards won the thirdbase job in spring training where he hit .367. The hot streak continued into the season where he won three consecutive North Rookie of the Month Awards for his play in April, May, and June. Richards continued see the ball well the second half of the season with his lack of league wide recognition during that span most likely due to the Danger free falling from four games under .500 on July 1 to 26 games under at the end of the season. "On June first we were just three games out of first place and we thought we had a shot," Richards said in a recent interview. "By July we were double digits out and we just couldn't win a game. The team just fell apart."
The biggest knock on the 23 year old is his glove at third base. He committed 23 errors in the big leagues after showing some decent range in the minors. "It's something I know I need to work on," he said when accepting his award. "The ball just gets on you so much faster in the bigs than it did in the minors."