With the 2019 regular season in the books, the Class AA Texas League is rolling out its list of specialty award winners. The league’s managers (Sports Turf Manager of the Year, Best Visiting Clubhouse and Best Visiting Team Hotel) and umpires (Best Umpire Locker Room and Best Umpire Hotel) voted on the league’s final awards of the year.
For the ninth consecutive season, Brock Phipps of Springfield was named the Texas League’s Sports Turf Manager of the Year. An 11-time winner of the TL’s Sports Turf Manager of the Year Award, Brock has collected the honors in 2007, 2008 and each year since 2011. Springfield’s Hammonds Field has been named MiLB Double-A Field of the Year five times in the previous six years, and Phipps has been the Double-A Sports Turf Manager of the Year honoree seven times as a member of the Cardinals.
In its first year in the Texas League, the Amarillo Sod Poodles claimed a pair of awards for its brand-new, state-of-the-art Hodgetown ballpark, taking the Best Visiting Clubhouse and Best Umpire Locker Room. In addition, Amarillo’s Home 2 Suites By Hilton won the title of Best Visiting Team Hotel.
Tulsa’s DoubleTree by Hilton-Downtown was named Best Umpire Hotel.
Previous winners of the 2019 Texas League’s Postseason Awards included: Springfield’s Dylan Carlson (Player of the Year), Arkansas’ Darren McCaughan (Pitcher of the Year), Amarillo’s Phillip Wellman (Manager of the Year) and Arkansas’ Pete Woodworth (Mike Coolbaugh Coach of the Year).
The Postseason All-Star Team consisted of the following position players: catcher Luis Torrens (Amarillo), first baseman Evan White (Arkansas), second baseman Ivan Castillo (Amarillo), third baseman Abraham Toro (Corpus Christi), short- stop Gavin Lux (Tulsa), and outfielders Carlson (Springfield), Edward Olivares (Amarillo) and Jake Fraley (Arkansas). The pitching staff included: Lake Bachar (Amarillo), Emmanuel Clase (Frisco), Justin Dunn (Arkansas), Brian Howard (Midland), Dustin May (Tulsa), McCaughan (Arkansas), Justus Sheffield (Arkansas) and Art Warren (Arkansas).