Justin Vargas was the 11th pick of the 1966 amateur draft, chosen by the Los Angeles Spinners. After having a respectable but unspectacular season in the Rookie League that same year he found himself being part of a trade between the Spinners and the Boston Berserkers, which also sent the Spinners 1st round pick from the previous draft, starting pitcher Alex Yllescas, to Boston in exchange for veteran pitcher Brian Bauer, who had gone 16-13 with a 3.18 ERA in 1966 and outfield prospect (4th round pick in 1966) Brett Prather.
Bauer got off to a wonderful start for L.A. in 1967, going 5-2 with a 2.47 ERA in 8 starts. And then tragedy struck when he had to have surgery to remove bone chips from the elbow of his pitching arm. When he was ready to return to action he was a free agent and signed with Detroit. He had a good season for the Falcons in 1968, in spite of leading the league in bases on balls, and then a few mediocre seasons, and his career was over.
Prather was impressive (.375/.423/.500) when he was finally called up to the big league club in 1971 for a 9 game audition. He had been inconsistent in the minors but showed some real bat potential and was a solid defensive right fielder. But as it turned out the 26 plate appearances he got in 1971 ended up being the most he would get in any single season in the WPK. He had a few other cup of coffee callups and also played briefly for Phoenix and Milwaukee, but in the end his big league career amounted to 64 plate appearances and 0.7 WAR.
As for the players Boston got in the deal, pitcher Alex Yllescas, who was considered the 33rd best prospect in the game prior to getting traded, had good stuff and movement but it was his underdeveloped control that was eventually supposed to be his calling card. But it never did develop and his career BB/9 would end up being 4.0 with a career 1.45 WHIP. He did pitch for Boston for 8 seasons, including having a few strong seasons (16-12, 3.16 in 1972, 14-5, 2.97 in 1976) but after becoming a free agent he pitched just one season in Jacksonville, only appearing in 9 games at the big league level, all in relief. He retired from the game in 1982, having put up 9.2 WAR over parts of 9 big league seasons.
And then there is Justin Vargas.
Vargas big league career started a bit slow, with his first big league season being 1969 and seeing him put together a slash line of .247/296/.407 in 374 PA's for 1 WAR, while playing below average defense in center field. In 1970, at age 22, he improved to .278/.365/.422 with an OPS+ of 120 and 4.2 WAR, but his defense in center was below average. His defensive numbers in center got even worse (-11.6 ZR) in 1971. But that was counterbalanced by his offensive performance, as he won the lone batting title of his career with a .353/.405/.548 slash line, an OPS+ of 173 and 7.0 WAR. He also won the SJL MVP award. And that was just the start of a dominant run for the young player as for the next 8 seasons his low point for WAR in a season would be 5.8 in 1972. He would win another MVP award in 1975 with an 8.5 WAR season. And having switched from center field to being full time in right field by 1973 he went from being a defensive liability to winning a Gold Glove award in 1974. He would remain a plus defender in right through the 1978 season, his age 30 campaign, and was mostly solid in right for several years after that, including having +3.1 ZR at age 35 while playing for Portland.
Vargas played most of his career in Boston, heading to Portland as a free agent prior to the 1982 season and playing at least parts of 5 seasons in a Wild Things uniform.
Over the course of his career he was named an All-Star 11 times, a Silver Slugger 3 times, in addition to those 2 league MVP awards and 1 Gold Glove. He is one of just three WPK players to have more than 300 home runs and 300 stolen bases in their career, joining Brad Tesh and the still active Chris Tobin in that category. Of the three he has by far the most stolen bases, with 425.
Justin Vargas is a sure first ballot Hall of Famer. His JAWS score is 70, his Hall of Fame Monitor is in the sure thing area at 173, his HOF Standards score of 58 says Hall of Famer, and his career WAR total of 86.95 is the 7th best in WPK history. He is third in career runs scored at 1,501, 5th in RBI at 1,350, 6th in hits with 2,658, 2nd in Total Bases at 4455, and in the top 10 at least in most important offensive statistical categories.
With the announcement that he is stepping away from the game (as a player, at least) the Boston Berserkers organization announced that they are retiring his uniform number 11 and will honor him with a ceremony early next season.
