Announcing The Ewads!

We here at the Onionball blog are bored. It's snowing like a motherfucker out (we live in Syracuse, N.Y. and received 13 inches of snow today...our office closed at 1 p.m.) and they haven't plowed in hours. So, with that in mind, we are going to crown our first-ever position-by-position player of the year awards — the ewads.

For those of you here in season one, you will remember our friend ewad. For our newer friends, let me just say that ewad was the textbook delinquent owner. At one point, he had one healthy starting pitcher -- Julian Nunez -- who threw more than 4,077 pitches.

So, yes, the award is tongue in cheek.

Anyhow, on to the ewads...

CATCHER: The ewad goes to James Gao. Batting .323 with a .938 OPS, including 30 home runs and 113 RBI. Threw out 61 basestealers. Has 44 doubles and has walked (66) more than he has struck out (61). Also nominated: Duke Harper/BUR, Tyrone Thomas/LR and Mark Yamamoto/MIL.

FIRST BASE: The ewad goes Al Mendoza. Hit .321/1.092 with 36 homers and 94 RBI. Walked nearly twice as many times as striking out (80 to 46). A stud. Also nominated: Greg Ramirez/WAS, Wayne Ramsey/CHI.

SECOND BASE: None. No one stood out to earn an award bearing the name of ewad. Nominated: Henry Cust/CHA, David Park/MIL.

THIRD BASE: Greg Lankford. Came over from Washington to hit .334 with 17 and 73. Almost even K:BB numbers. OPS of .955. Nominated: Philip Jacobs/CLE, Hunter Pierre/KC, Ramon Martin/SFE.

SHORTSTOP: Donovan Milligan. This was a toughy. Only hitting .292 with a .931 OPS, but 47 homers and 141 RBI push him over. Had the best defensive numbers of any of the better offensive shortstops. Nominated: Harpo Dunn/SF, Dennis Howell, SF, Gil Matthews/NY.

OUTFIELD: Ralph Ferguson. Had a nice season. Batting .327 with a .883 OPS, 17 homers and 82 RBI. Mixed in 53 steals with a .987 fielding percentage.

OUTFIELD: Orber Nieto. Hard to ignore his OPS (1.027). 44 homers and 119 RBI along with 43 steas put him on the radar.

OUTFIELD: Stubby Simon. Batting .294 with a .901 OPS. Has 35 homers, 115 RBI and 43 steals. Also, a nifty .994 fielding percentage.

Nominated: Nerio Turner/CLE, Andy Porter/MIL, Sammy Carr/LR, Hector Pettitte/BOS.

STARTING PITCHER: Kyle Merritt. Thank God he's in the NL. 13-8 this year with a 2.73 ERA, 216 Ks and a .216 opponent BA.

CLOSER: Tony Dodd. 52 appearances, 48 save opps, 46 saves. Edges Del Holtz/CLE and his perfect record in 42 save opps.