Adames, Bell share MVP honors

Green Lake secured its first championship in franchise history with a 6-3 win in a dramatic Game 7 versus Vancouver in the DMBL Series. SS Willy Adames and 1B Josh Bell, who topped the Gators with 3 HR and 7 RBI in the finals, shared MVP honors.

It's the first time since 2020 that MVP honors have been split (C Willson Contreras, now with Green Lake, and SP Max Scherzer for Tucson).

Adames, acquired from Hoboken for a 6th round pick ahead of the 2024 keeper deadline, led Green Lake in the postseason with a .400 OBP, .750 SLG, and 1.150 OPS in 7 playoff starts. The SS had the big hit in the title-clinching Game 7, with a 3-run HR to put the Gators up 5-2 in the 3rd inning of a game they would go on to win, 6-3.

Bell led all Gators with 9 RBI in the postseason and 4 HR while slashing .276/.300/.724 in 7 starts. A 13th-round selection in this year's draft, he had a big 3-run blast in Game 1 when Green Lake held off the Iron First for a 7-6 win. He also blasted an early HR in Game 5 and delivered the game-winning RBI in the 9th to help secure a pivotal 5-3 victory.

Marcus Semien also swatted 4 HR in the playoffs with a hot bat in the semifinals where Green Lake swept Poovey Farms, 4-0. The 2B blasted 3 solo homers and led the squad with 16 total bases and 1.257 OPS, slashing .333/.368/.889 in the semis. He finished 2nd to Bell with 25 total bases in the postseason.

After a team-leading 34 HR in the regular season, highly touted rookie Jackson Chourio (he was a 3rd round pick in 2023 as an ineligible prospect) made his mark in the postseason, showing up big in the finals. He led the Gators with 17 hits, 8 runs, and 28 total bases along with a .362 BA and .423 OBP in 11 playoff games. His 11.4 RC/9 was highest among batters who played in more than one playoff round.

Much of his damage was inflicted in the finals against Vancouver where Chourio collected 20 total bases and scored 7 of his 8 runs. He matched Adames and Contreras with 7 RBI, trailing only Bell. Chourio went 4-for-4 with a walk in an 11-2 thrashing in Game 2, only missing a triple for the cycle, and then collected 3 hits while pacing the offense to a title-clinching 6-3 win in Game 7.  

Chourio, and Semien were among five Gators to start all 11 playoff games for Green Lake. The others were 3B Nolan Arenado, CF Wyatt Langford, and Contreras.

Candidates on the pitching side couldn't quite compete, given the semi-final sweep. Green Lake SPs made more than 3 starts and only SP Bryan Woo and RP Joel Payamps had 2 wins a piece across 2 rounds of playoffs, accounting for half of the Gators' 8 postseason victories.

Rookie sensation Spencer Schwellenbach had a more than cromulent postseason. He was 1-1 in the finals, with a no-decision in the semis despite a 10-strikeout performance. He led the team in most postseason categories, including 21 IP, 26 Ks and 0.70 WHIP to go with a 2.96 ERA. Woo led the squad 1.48 ERA. 

Had things turned out differently in Game 7, perhaps Vancouver rookie SS/OF Tyler Fitzgerald likely would have been the odds-on favorite to walk home with the MVP trophy. In the semis against Sardine City, the 2025 2nd rounder blasted a big 3-run homer in the bottom of the 9th of Game 5 that pulled the Iron Fist within 1 run, setting up David Fry's series-winning walk-off 2-run homer. Thanks to 15 postseason starts, Fitzgerald led most players in counting categories, including 18 hits, 12 RBI, 36 total bases and 57 at-bats. He had a 10-game hit streak. He led all batters with 12.8 runs created, just ahead of Chourio, with 12.6, and slashed .316/.365/.632 overall.

There was also C Joey Bart, who hit .283/.370/.543 in 15 postseason starts. He was 2nd on the team with 8 RBI and 25 total bases. After a quiet semifinal series versus Sardine City, he batted .300/.364/.700 in the finals, going 8-for-20 overall with 14 total bases. CF Corbin Carroll had nearly the identical line (4-for-11) as Bart through Game 4 and finished .316/.350/.632 after starting just one game in the semis.

On the pitching side, maybe the MVP could have been Iron Fist ace Tarik Skubal, who saved the season by throwing 4 shutout innings on short rest to help secure a must-win Game 6, 5-1. Overall, the lefty was a perfect 3-0 in 5 postseason starts, including 3 quality starts, spinning a 2.73 ERA over 33 innings with 40 strikeouts and 1.00 WHIP. In Game 3 against Green Lake, the left struck out 14 with 0 walks over 7 innings for Vancouver's first win of the DMBL Series.

Logan Gilbert went 2-1 in 4 starts with a team-best 2.17 ERA and 0.76 WHIP. His only stinker of the playoffs was a 5-run, 5-inning outing in Game 1 versus Green Lake. Otherwise, he a sparkling 7-inning, 1-run effort in Game 5 that the bullpen lost. Gilbert tossed a masterful 5-hit, 9-strikeout shutout of Livingston in Game 2 of a second round 3-game sweep.

If you're looking for goats on the Vancouver side, consider Mark Vientos. The 3B helped power the Iron Fist past Sardine City in the semis, going 8-for-19 and batting .421/.476/.737 but then didn't show up in the finals until Game 4. His sacrifice fly helped tie the series at 2-2 but he still went 0-17 before collecting his first hit in Game 6. Vientos had 2 hits in each of the final two games to finish 4-for-25 in the finals. There was also 2B Luis V. Garcia, who had a quiet postseason overall but didn't find his first hit until the last game of the series.