News
Date: Aug 10, 2011
IBL Announces 2011 All-Star Teams, MVP and Rookie of the Year
The Intercounty Baseball League today announced its annual All-Star selections along with its Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year Award winners.
Sean Reilly of the Barrie Baycats was selected as the winner of the John Bell Memorial Trophy as the league's Most Valuable Player, taking the majority of votes from league managers, while Shaun Valeriote of the Kitchener Panthers was chosen as the winner of the Brian Kerr Memorial Trophy as the league's top rookie.
Reilly, one of the many former Guelph Royals players who joined other IBL teams as Guelph suspended operations for this season, enjoyed an outstanding season with the Baycats at first base.
The veteran slugger just missed out on the IBL triple crown this season, finishing third in the league in batting average with a .405 mark, second in home runs with nine and first in RBI with 44. Reilly was just one homer off the league lead and 14 points off the batting title in 2011, helping the Baycats capture the league pennant.
The 34-year-old Burlington native received 33 votes, while runner-up Kyle DeGrace of the Toronto Maple Leafs picked up 16 votes. Lee Delfino of the Brantford Red Sox came in third place with nine votes in the MVP balloting.
Valeriote made quite an impression in his first IBL season. The second baseman finished seventh in the league in hitting with a .385 mark while hitting four home runs and adding 18 RBI and playing solid defensively all season.
The Guelph native had 33 votes, while Adam Paish of the London Majors finished second in the rookie voting with 16 votes. Burlington's Kyle Bolton was third with nine.
Reilly and Valeriote were also unanimously selected as IBL All-Stars, both receiving the maximum 35 votes. Reilly was the first team first baseman and Valeriote was first team second baseman, while Delfino at shortstop and Barrie's Frankie Hare in the outfield were also unanimous selections to the first team.
Joining those four on the first team were Toronto's Jordan Castaldo at third base, Brantford's Terrell Alliman and London's Cleveland Brownlee in the outfield, DeGrace at catcher, Hamilton's Dan Jagdeo as designated hitter, London's Jordi Amargos as right handed pitcher and Toronto's Mel Melehes as left handed pitcher. First team manager is Angus Roy of Barrie.
The Baycats led the way with eight selections on either the first or second team, followed by the Toronto Maple Leafs and the London Majors each with four selections.
The Brantford Red Sox had three selections, with the Ottawa Fat Cats having two and Kitchener, Hamilton and Burlington each having one player voted to the team.
Reilly, Hare and Delfino were all first team selections last year as well.
FIRST TEAM SECOND TEAM
1B - Sean Reilly, Bar 35* Jason Gotwalt, Bfd 17
2B - Shaun Valeriote, Kit 35* Dave Latour, Bar 14
3B - Jordan Castaldo, Tor 30 Matt Logan, Bar 14
SS - Lee Delfino, Bfd 35* Jeff Cowan, Bar 15
OF - Frankie Hare, Bar 35* Branson Joseph, Burl 27
OF - Terrell Alliman, Bfd 33 Ryan Spataro, Bar 20
OF - Cleveland Brownlee, Ldn 29 Allan Cattrysse, Ldn 18
C - Kyle DeGrace, Tor 31 Tyler Graham, Ldn 24
DH - Daniel Jagdeo, Ham 33 Jeremy Walker, Tor 22
RHP- Jordi Amargos, Ldn 29 Matt McGovern, Ott 24
LHP- Mel Melehes, Tor 35* Brad Bissell, Bar 23
MGR- Angus Roy, Bar 24 Tim Nelson, Ott 23
MVP - Sean Reilly, Bar 33
- Kyle DeGrace, Tor 16
- Lee Delfino, Bfd 9
ROOKIE
- Shaun Valeriote, Kit 33
- Adam Paish, Ldn 14
- Kyle Bolton, Burl 6
