Lou Montanez wins EL's Triple Crown
Even though he missed 26 games while with the Orioles, Lou Montanez STILL wins the Eastern League's Triple Crown. That's amazing and he is the first to do so in the Eastern League since 1975. He becomes the League's 5th Triple Crown winner.
Coming into today, Erie's Ryan Roberson needed two homers or Nolan Reimold or Jeff Nettles of the Baysox would have needed to hit three homers to pass him for the League homer title. Roberson went 0-4 in his game but Reimold did hit one to finish second in the League.
Wes Hodges finished tied for the RBI lead but didn't play today, the final day of the regular season. Yes you can win a Triple Crown if you tie for the lead in a category. Here's how it ended up in the Eastern League's Triple Crown categories.
Batting Average
.335 - Lou Montanez
.314 - Lou Marson, Reading
Homers
26 - Lou Montanez
25 - Ryan Roberson, Erie
25 - Nolan Reimold, Bowie
24 - Jeff Nettles, Bowie
RBI
97 - Lou Montanez
97 - Wes Hodges, Akron
Bowie has listed Jason Berken (12-4, 3.58), Brad Bergesen (15-5, 3.11) and David Hernandez (10-4, 2.68) as their starters for the first three games of the playoffs. Bowie will host Akron Wednesday and Thursday in the first two games of that best of 5 series.
That's pretty incredible that he could miss that many games and still win the triple crown. How do you think he'll factor into the O's future?