Brighton Bearcats season in review

I have held off on writing this until the final chapter was written for the season. As it is now known, the Bearcats completed an improbable turnaround from league doormat to league champions. Brighton managed to defeat NL powerhouse Reno, overachieving Edgewater, and finally AL champion Colorado Springs. The season went as well as Brighton manager Mark Moilanen could have hoped. Now that the champagne has been consumed (call a cab Cabrera and Choo), the graffiti has fallen, and the stadium has emptied, it's time to look back at how and who is responsible for the rise to the top.

TEAM MVP: Shin Soo Choo. He got out of the gate clobbering 20 HR in the first month. The power tailed off, but Choo turned in a final line of .315/37/100 with a OBP of .410.

TEAM CY YOUNG: Tough call here. Is it Joakim Soria with his league record 52 saves? The 16-6 Fausto Carmona who suprised with an ERA amongst the league leaders. The vote goes to Jon Lester. He had a good ERA, won 16 games and rung up 230 batters.

BIGGEST SURPRISE: The aforementioned Fausto Carmona. 16-6 with 2.40 ERA

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT: Nobody drmatically disappointed. I suppose I expected more from Buster Posey who hit a pedestrain .262 with an OBP under .300. However, all is forgiven as he garnered MVP honors in the World Series and provided solid defense behind the plate.

Brighton tried to field a defensively sound team while also taking advantage of their homefield design that favors left handed power. Management is pleased with this decision.

With all of this said, Brighton had a sense of urgency to win now. The reason for this is that after injury plagued and/or off seasons by Choo, Crawford, Rasmus, Posey, Drew, A-Rod, Carmona, Myers, Soria, Kuo, and Scherzer point towards a backslide in 2012. Management does not expect sympathy and will have to wield some magic to wheel and deal itself back into the playoffs next year. Brighton will not rebuild. More of a retool. Brighton has ammassed extra early-mid round picks and will try to parley some of those picks into some useful talent.