Another month has come and gone. There's just one full month left in this season (and then the playoffs - hopefully we'll all still be interested come October).
Now for the awards:
Pitcher of the Month
Todd Jones was the Pitcher of the Month for July and his numbers in August were even better in August than they were in July. So it's tough not to let Todd keep the award again this month.
But that's not how we play here. Instead, this month's award goes to Dontrelle Willis.
The D-Train (or the A-Train, as we came to know him) was pretty much written off after the All-Star break. Conventional wisdom was that Dontrelle is a first half pitcher and that his high energy approach to the game and to life would catch up with him in the second half. During July, those predictions seemed to be coming true. But August was a different story. Dontrelle made six starts, went 42.1 innings, allowed 28 hits and 13 walks (a WHIP of 0.97), and 5 earned runs (ERA of 1.06).
All of that has vaulted Dontrelle back into the Cy Young discussion. Well, it would have if Roger Clemens wasn't acting like it was 1985.
Player of the Month
Amazingly, considering how "in contention" this team is currently, no one stands out as having had a great month. When looking at the pitchers, names jump out all over the place. You could name one of about six guys as being worthy of Pitcher of the Month honors. Sadly, the same simply isn't true of the hitters.
One name does stand out - particularly because it wasn't expected: Jeff Conine.
Many (ok, maybe it was just me) counted Conine out early in the year. He was recovering from multiple off-season surgeries, he's getting older, and he started off slowly (although he wasn't getting many at bats).
August was a different story though. Due to some bumps and bruises (Encarnacion and Delgado) and slumps (Lowell), Conine was an everyday player in August. He logged about 100 at bats and put up a line of .330/.390/.407. Jeff didn't hit any homers, but it's not like that was expected of him. He did come up with a number of key hits and often even filled in at key times (when Castillo was out of the lineup) high up in the batting order.
Conine also won our Favorite Marlin contest, solidifying himself as Mr. Marlin (but watch out - the A-Train's coming up on you!).
Former Marlin of the Month
This is a bit of a copout.Derrek Lee has won this award every month this season. And while Lee is still legitimately in contention for the Triple Crown (so is Mr. Pujols), he had a rather pedestrian month at the plate (.290/.398/.620 with 7 homers and 11 knocked in) - at least by the standards he set earlier in the year. But in reality, that's still a really great line (possibly more importantly, no other former Marlin really stood out to me - maybe I missed someone - as having had a great month).
Minor Leaguer of the Month
No stats here (as I haven't found minor league splits), but the following players will be participating in the Arizona Fall League this year, so they share the Minor Leaguer of the Month honors: OF Reggie Abercrombie, SS Robert Andino, P Logan Kensing, P Taylor Tankersley, P Nic Ungs, and IF Josh Wilson.
Diary of the Month
For the first time ever, this award was chosen by you - the reader. It wasn't very close, as the winning diary was very popular. Jsprt's Hurricane Party won by a wide margin. While the storm strengthened and turned into something that's hard to joke about, Jsprt's diary was a lot of fun at the time and it also brought many new people to our site. In addition, Jsprt may have become the first person ever to register with each and every SBNation site (there are no universal logins).
Comment of the Month
While it seems totally unfair, one of my comments won for Comment of the Month. This is just wrong. Almost as wrong as it is that some folks found humor in the troubling intern situation that I had to work through this summer.
Prize Details
This month our prize winners receive nothing other than the honor of knowing that they won. I hope that keeps you warm at night. I know that I will sleep well all month (and that I will to defend my title vigorously).