2020 Kevin Mitchell Award winner: Christian Yelich

Christian Yelich secured a triple crown of sorts in 2020, leading the league in batting, on-base percentage and slugging, along with a number of other categories. The offensive explosion in his seventh DMBL season was enough to win the 2020 Kevin Mitchell Award as the league's top batter, comfortably outdistancing teammate Cody Bellinger.

It's the first Mitchell Award for the Sardine City franchise, to go with its first McDonald Award, which went to Lance Lynn.

Yelich and Lynn led the Straphangers to a league-high 105 wins and the No. 1 seed in 2020. It's only the fourth time in DMBL history that a franchise has swept the Mitchell and McDonald Awards:

• 2020: Sardine City -- Christian Yelich/Lance Lynn
• 2008: Vancouver -- David Ortiz/Jake Peavy
• 2000: Arkansas -- Larry Walker/Pedro Martinez
• 1992: Austin -- Danny Tartabull/Nolan Ryan

Yelich powered a lineup that included Bellinger and George Springer, and the trio led the league in runs scored, ranking 1-2-3. Among Mitchell Award voters, Yelich and Bellinger had the most widespread support, both appearing on 9 of the 10 ballots cast by DMBL owners.

Yelich collected 7 1st place votes to go with a 3rd and a 4th. Bellinger received 3 2nds, the most along with Allentown's Mike Trout, and also got the most 3rd-place votes (4). In 2018, Yelich and Bellinger finished back-to-back in Mitchell Award voting but it was 10th and 11th, after each received one vote.

			1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	POINTS
1	Yelich, SCS		7		1	1			78
2	Bellinger, SCS			3	4	2			47
3	Trout, ALN			3	1		1		28
4	Alonso, HIL		1	1			4	2	27
5	Tatis, EP		1		1		3		21
6	Soler, POO			2		1		2	19
7	Alvarez, HIL				1	3	1	2	18
8	Garver, PHI-BR-LIV		1				1	2	14
9	Bogaerts, POO			1		1			10
10	MarteK, TUC				1			1	6
11	Springer, SCS				1				5
12	Gardner, HPG					1		1	4
13	Correa, LIV					1			3

Thirteen players received support across the 10 ballots cast, including three rookies. Pete Alonso of Hillsborough and Fernando Tatis, Jr., of El Paso finished 4th and 5th, respectively, and each secured one 1st-place vote. Alonso tallied the most 5th-place votes (4). Alonso's teammate, Yordan Alvarez, finished 7th, appearing on 7 ballots.

Mitch Garver, who split time between three teams in 2020, was the only other batter with a 1st-place vote, finishing 8th on the strength of 1 5th- and 2 6th-place votes. Two-time reigning Mitchell Award winner Mike Trout was the only previous Mitchell Award winner to receive votes, finishing 3rd with 28 points. Home run champion Jorge Soler finished 6th, collecting votes on 5 of the 10 ballots.

Yelich notched a triple crown of sorts, leading the league in batting (.338), on-base percentage (.436) and slugging (.627). The first batting title of his career raised his career average to .289. The 28-year-old set career highs in most every major batting category but doubles (48 in 2017) and batting average (he hit .351 in 2014 but only 388 ABs).

Prior to 2020, Yelich for his career was average one HR every 40 ABs, with a previous best of 25.17 AB in 2019. In 2020, Yelich 14.17 AB/HR, improving his career mark to one every 31.44 ABs. In his previous six seasons combined, he drew 33 intentional walks but registered a DMBL-high 28 in 2020.

The sweet-swinging lefty has been a key part of Sardine City since he was selected in the 1st round of the 2014 draft, 7th overall, after Sonny Gray and ahead of Hyun-Jin Ryu. Yelich slashed .351/.416/.472 in a solid rookie season but as a part-time player did not qualify for the batting title. He didn't miss a game over the next two seasons as primarily an on-base threat and doubles stroker. He showed more pop by 2017 when he slapped a career-high 48 doubles and finally broke out of the single digits in homers with 24 as the Straphangers reached their first-ever DMBL World Series.