Israel’s Adam Greenberg, Eric Berger, and Nate Freiman at the press conference via @WBCBaseball on Twitter
On Thursday, the Arizona Fall League announced its Dernell Stenson Award nominees. Former Duke baseball player Nate Freiman, who is playing for the Peoria Javelinas, is one of those nominees. A player from each AFL team is nominated.
This award is given out to a player with a good work ethic and good leadership skills. Stenson Award nominees represent the type of players managers love to have.
Created in memory of the late Cincinnati Reds outfield prospect who was killed during the 2003 Arizona Fall League season, the award has been given annually since ’04 to the player who best exemplifies unselfishness, hard work and leadership. The six candidates this year were chosen for those qualities — which Stenson brought to the ballpark every day — rather than their statistics or on-field performances. Each has a hard-nosed attitude, does his job without complaint and plays the game the way it was meant to be played.
The other nominees are David Adams of Scottsdale (NYY), Nick Ahmed of Phoenix (Atlanta), Mike O’Neil of Surprise (St. Louis), Tyler Clark of Mesa (Detroit), and Cole Kimball of Salt River (Washington). The winner will be announced at an on-field ceremony at the AFL Championship Game.
I mentioned yesterday that Freiman and his Peoria teammates were a 1/2 game up in the West Division with one game to play. Well, the Javelinas won the division and will play Salt River on Saturday at 3pm ET for the AFL title. It will be broadcast LIVE on MLB Network.
He went 1-for-3 in the win and surprisingly batted eighth in the order. He scored a run and drove in a run, as Peoria won 3-2.
