Freddy Sanchez, 2006 NL Batting Champion

Congratulations to Freddy Sanchez, the 2006 National League Batting Champion. That swing you see above there is the biggest tribute to the monument of poor management that is Dave Littlefield (you can argue that DL traded for him, but he more or less ended up with Freddy dumped on his lap because he complained about Lyon's arm injury). Despite finishing 2005 with a very hot September, DL said Freddy didn't have enough power to play third base and went out and spent $4 million on Joe Randa, a player who is 8 years older than Sanchez. Only one time in Randa's career has he matched the .473 SLG that Freddy put up this year, way back in 1999. Freddy ended April with only 48 at-bats, but took over third base for good on May 2nd, after Randa went down with his hand or foot injury or whatever it was. If my memory serves me correctly, he officially qualified for the batting race after the 18 inning marathon on May 27th, and he hasn't looked back since then. Not only has his batting average been impressive this year, only Miguel Cabrera, David Wright, Chipper Jones, Alex Rodriguez, Garrett Atkins, and Aramis Ramirez had a higher VORP at third base than Freddy did this year. That's an impressive crew of third baseman to be mentioned with and there's no shame in finishing behind any of them. Congratulations are clearly in order here, so congrats to Freddy for showing DL up, congrats to Freddy for overcoming his club foot and being an inspiration to everyone with a similar birth defect, but mostly, congrats to Freddy for being the 2006 National League Batting Champion. He was a bright spot for much of this dark season and he gave us something to cheer for right down to the bitter end, and for that WHYGAVS salutes Freddy Sanchez.