The West Virginia Power announced today that two players from the 2012 roster have been nominated for season-ending awards by MiLB.com. Alen Hanson is one of 12 nominees for Breakout Prospect of the Year and Nathan Kilcrease has been nominated for the Relief Pitcher of the Year award.
Hanson was one of the biggest breakout players in all of baseball this year, hitting for a .309/.381/.528 line in 489 at-bats in the South Atlantic League. He already has a few South Atlantic League recognitions, being named to the mid-season All-Star team, and being named the top shortstop in the league at the end of the year.
Kilcrease put up a 1.22 ERA over 30 appearances with West Virginia, posting a 35:9 K/BB ratio in 37 innings. He went 15 for 15 in save chances. Kilcrease spent time in Oakland’s organization at the start of the year, and overall had a 1.28 ERA in 49.1 innings pitched.
This is the first year the Power have received any nominations for these year-end awards since becoming an affiliate of Pittsburgh in 2009.
Voting is currently underway at MiLB.com and runs through October 22, 2012.
October 2, 2012 at 3:42 pm
Not sure how you name Hanson and not Polanco. The came-out-of-nowhere factor is much higher with Polanco, although Hanson has the advantage of being a SS.
Twitter: timwilliamsp2
October 2, 2012 at 4:04 pm
Agree. Polanco would be my choice over Hanson.
October 2, 2012 at 4:45 pm
Yeah. That’s interesting..,, especially considering Polanco had a higher average and a monster amount of steals. In regards to the fact that Hanson is a SS, while I agree it’s possibly the most demanding of defensive positions….CF is up there too. Hansons an exciting player, but I find it interesting Polanco isn’t considered to be a bigger deal.
October 2, 2012 at 5:01 pm
Case of first impressions, I expect.
October 2, 2012 at 9:06 pm
Is that the good or the evil Kilcrease?
October 4, 2012 at 6:21 pm
I suspect that the Hanson / Polanco issue is that Hanson had a monster first half and Polanco a monster 2nd half. So the national writers have had more time to digest Hanson than Polanco. All the things I’ve seen so far have have Polanco ranked higher than Hanson, although Alen’s errors probably have a big part in that. Don’t forget, he had less than 80% as many errors in the SAL league than Derek Jeter did.