The votes are in and the winners have been chosen. The month of June has been an interesting one for the Houston Blood and Mud as individual performances led to a continued climb upwards towards the mark of average amongst the many. The infamous .500 mark, elusive as the team strived earnestly to obtain the goal. Keep working fellas, you’ll get there eventually. One can only hope.
For the June Spike Award, the candidates were Geoff Blum, Jeff Fulchino and Darin Erstad. For the June Star Award, the candidates were Michael Bourn, Miguel Tejada and Lance Berkman. Let’s see who won:
June 2009 Spike Award
This month’s Spike Award winner is a guy who stepped up for the team in many ways, one of which was in the leadership category. So much so that his influence as a manager-like came shining through when he took charge of a potential volatile situation and provided direction and proper management to a young player in order to keep a first inning mistake from escalating into a full blown mess.
The "Boss" takes time to speak to his boys around the batting cages. It's what a manager does.
Geoff Blum is his name, leadership is his game. He’s also involved himself in some memorable Cub-killer situations. In said situations, Blum delivered the death shot each time in walk-off fashion for the Chicago nine. Many wait for the Cubbie meltdown in August, but for the month of June, Blum may of provided the percursor of things to come. That he later mentioned how this sort of treatment against the Cubs was fun for his Chicago southside friends probably earned him extra points in terms of Cub hatedom. Yeah, I’d say he’s a really good Spike winner, so take a bow Mr. Blum, our June 2009 Spike Award winner.
Honorable mention: Jeff Fulchino, a pickup by GM Ed Wade that has paid off, made a run for the Spike Award with his consistent and bullpen steadying performance for June. I’m sure many would question a fan site that would give an award to a middle reliever, but that’s just how we roll.
June 2009 Star Award
Turn on an inside fastball? Check!
Hey, no Wandy Rodriquez three-peat? Hardly, he wasn’t even in the running. But in a rare situation (rare because we’ve never seen it before, nevermind our awards have been around for only three months, so there is that) our last month Spike Award winner made the leap from hard nose wall banging spectacular catch making player to all around good performer for June.
Michael Bourn, having to cringe at his manager’s MVP pronouncement, kept a cool head about him and went about his business of being the leadoff man… nay, breakout player his GM put on him early in spring. A consistent leadoff man doing his job well bodes well for the type of middle of the lineup hitters that the Astros feature. Michael has managed to keep Cecil Cooper from scratching his name off the leadoff spot in the lineup. In fact, finally Cooper is trying to manage the young player instead of just react to so-so performances with the bat as a reason to bench him in favor of a veteran. It is all so much easier for the Astros when Bourn is performing as he has. Keep it up kid!
Honorable Mention: Lance Berkman has had a steady climb upwards from well below the Mendoza line. It’s taken some consistent multi-hit games and some monster offensive nights. The month of June for 2009 will be the month that most will look back on and say “That is when Lance turned it around!” Bank on it!