Mudcats' Willis
Named National League's Top Rookie
Dontrelle becomes the second straight Mudcat player to capture
NL's honor.
11.11.03 - Zebulon, NC--- For the second straight season, a Carolina Mudcat has won National League Rookie Of The Year award.
Following in the footsteps of Colorado Rockies starting pitcher Jason Jennings, Florida Marlins pitcher Dontrelle Willis won the N.L. honor, easily outdistancing Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Scott Podsednik.
Willis, 21, who spent the 2003 season's first month with the Mudcats, garnered 17 first-place votes. Willis went 14-6 with a 3.30 ERA in igniting the Marlins from a mid-May sub-.500 record to the 2003 World Series championship.
After making six Double-A starts with the Mudcats, Willis transformed Major League Baseball into an epidemic of Dontrelle-mania.
Willis burst onto the big-league scene with a 9-1 record, including winning a rookie-tying seven straight starts, last accomplished by Jason Isringhausen in 1995 while starting for the New York Mets.
Bursting from the gates as prolifically as Willis did eventually landed him an All-Star berth for Dusty Baker's National League team at Comiskey Park in Chicago this July.
In his brief tenure with Carolina, Willis compiled a 4-0 record with an ERA of 1.49. The Mudcats won all six of Willis' starts, including his final minor league appearance in Jacksonville, FL against the Suns on May 3rd, in which Willis three-hit the Suns over eight innings, defeating future Los Angeles Dodger starter Edwin Jackson 4-2.
Willis' former Mudcats teammate Miguel Cabrera, 20, who played an instrumental role in the World Series, finished fifth in the N.L. rookie voting despite playing in just 87 major league games. Cabrera hit .268 with 12 homers and 62 RBI while playing predominantly in left field.
In the American League Rookie Of The Year balloting, another former Mudcat, Jody Gerut, finished third behind winner Angel Berroa from the Kansas City Royals and Japanese import Hideki Matsui of the New York Yankees.
