Entering the final month of the 1985 regular season, here are some of the individual stats leaders in the SJL.
We'll start with hitters:
As you can see, 28-year old Pittsburgh first baseman Toby Noguchi is once again the best home run hitter in the game, and is on pace for another 50 homer season (he led the league with 51 in 1983, but fell to 31 last season). He is also on pace to equal the single season record, set by Mike Shervey of San Antonio in 1983, of RBI, which is 161. But Noguchi doesn't do much else well, other than strike out at prodigious rates (he has led the league in K's the past two years with 186 and 190 and already has 192 this season). At 6'4" he has actually become quite a good defensive first baseman (he has a 7.2 ZR this season) and doesn't commit many errors. But he's slow, a very poor contact hitter (.226/.299/.516 slash line), and is only on pace for 3.8 WAR even with near record power and run producing totals.
Pat Thompson, the Chicago Fire's tremendous 24-year old shortstop, is fighting off a challenge from 30-year old Nick Johnson, who has 3 batting titles already, for best batting average in the SJL. Thompson is also battling with Washington's Donovan Hickson for the highest WAR in the league and they are the two most likely frontrunners for the SJL MVP award. A pair of often over-looked veteran center fielders- Mike Florack of Philly and Rick Downey of Washington- are also potential MVP candidates. And young Houston second baseman Wilfredo Garcia will likely be a bit further down in the voting for MVP, but don't be surprised if this young elite hitting middle infielder eventually wins at least a few batting titles and one or two MVP awards. And then there is 38-year old Chris Tobin, 22 hits away from 3,000 and having another MVP caliber year, on pace for 6.5 WAR, hitting .303/.370/.524 with 27 home runs.
But for now, I think it is safe to say that coming down the stretch Washington's multi-positional youngster Donovan Hickson is the favorite for both Rookie of the Year and the SJL MVP award.
Turning to pitching leaders:
It looks like Washington has a pretty good chance to clean up during awards season. Though for the Night Train, if this doesn't come following a Kinsella Classic Series championship celebration, it will be mere consolation prize.
Rich Freeman, at age 24, is having a breakout season. The extreme groundballer with a great curveball and excellent stamina is leading the SJL in many pitching categories, including a significant lead in complete games (14), WAR (7.3) and rWAR (8.9), and the old traditional glory categories, wins (16) and ERA (2.28). Jacksonville's 22-year old David Parker is also impressing at a young age and watch for this hard-throwing, groundball-inducing righty to be a Harris/Lee award contender for years to come. The veteran likely future Hall of Fame lefthander, Luis Ramirez, is also having a fine season, and while he almost surely won't earn his 3rd Harris/Lee he should be a contender in the voting. And don't discount Chicago's duo of Joe Sykes and Mike Low too much just because they pitch their home games in a great pitchers park. Sykes admittedly has been much better at home (10-1, 1.87) than on the road (4-3, 3.88) but Low has gone 9-4 with a 3.84 ERA and 1.12 WHIP, which is quite respectable, if not as good as his home ERA and WHIP of 2.96 and 0.91 respectively. On the other hand, his home record is just 4-7, so the majority of his wins have come away from Sears Stadium.
Ultimately it looks like Rich Freeman is the most likely Harris/Lee award winner in the SJL.