I know I was asking myself that as I was going through this year’s awards ballot. I was shocked to find out that Pat, who received the fewest votes for hitter of the year of the candidates considered, set the WBH single season record for hits in a season.
The speedy Edmonton left fielder walloped opposing pitchers for 185 hits in 116 hits. In his four years in Erie, prior to coming to Edmonton, he accumulated 223 hits total! He was acquired in a mid-season trade that sent shortstop Louis-Alexandre Roux to Erie during the off-season that preceded the 2016 season. Roux did not disappoint his handlers in Erie, putting up some impressive numbers of his own, including a .330 average in 28 games as a defensive substitute for veteran shortstop Walt Pirieda.
The fact that Wiggins’ trade to Edmonton and subsequent peformance went relatively unnoticed really underscores the mystique of baseball. The fact that a simple change of history, the oft-misconstrued use of team chemisty has a lot of bearing on how well a player will perform or badly they will underpeform. Wiggins had a career year setting personal bests in ABs (513), runs (107), doubles (43), triples (9), home runs (13), RBI (58), total bases (285), walks (49), stolen bases (49), batting average (.361). on-base percentage (.414), slugging percentage (.556), OPS (.970), and of course hits, I guess you could say he really did come out of left field.
Great writeup! Interesting read, and good story. Glad to see something new on the front page!
He was acquired in a mid-season trade that sent shortstop Louis-Alexandre Roux to Erie during the off-season that preceded the 2016 season.
This sentence needs editing.
I am very, very happy with Pat. Roux is ok, but he’s mediocre defensively and while he might hit for some AVG, it’ll be pretty hollow with his 3 for both POW and EYE.