Three years ago we took a stab at naming the top 5 pitchers to toe the rubber over the years since the Maui Adult Baseball League began in 2009. Since that article was written, a strong case could be made that the list deserves to be revised. However, today instead we look at some of the top hitters to step into the box in the MABL, presenting the stats and personal accolades that were considered while crafting this list. Who else do you feel deserves to be mentioned? Let us know in the comments below!
Anthony Benigno picked up his first two MABL hits on January 15, 2012 and he’s added 441 since then. The all-time leader in hits (443) and total bases (527), Benigno has hit .389 with a .906 OPS over 322 career games. Over that span he’s won a pair of batting titles and has been a part of 2 championship teams, winning titles with the Lahaina Warriors during the Summer 2012 and Spring 2015 seasons. Benigno has a remarkably low 4.1% k-rate over his career and holds the MABL record for the most consecutive games on base (via a hit, base on balls, or hit by pitch) with 69 straight games from April 15, 2012 to April 12, 2015 (at the time of this writing he also has the longest active streak with 18 games). As the only left-handed hitter on this list, is it safe to say he’s been the best to swing from the left side in MABL history?
Tim Page broke into the MABL a season before Benigno, winning Rookie of the Year honors for his performance during the Summer 2011 season (.609 AVG, 1 HR, 9 R, 14 H in just 6 games). Page is a .380 career hitter who ranks second on the MABL home run list with 8. He’s also one of 4 qualified hitters with a career slugging percentage above .500. Tim has earned MABL MVP honors twice during his 21 seasons, following the Summer 2012 and Summer 2020 seasons, and he’s played a major role in the Upcountry Dirtbags’ past 5 championships.
The MABL home run crown belongs to Jeremy Loque, who hit 11 long balls over 21 seasons for the Central Rays. Loque hit .394 with a .996 OPS over his career. He ranks first in career RBIs (268), second in doubles (66) and on-base percentage (.489), and third in slugging percentage (.507) and OPS. Jeremy won 2 MVP awards, 3 batting titles, a triple crown (.567 AVG, 1 HR, 17 RBIs during the Spring 2019 season), and he helped the Rays win an unprecedented 8 MABL titles over a span of 14 seasons (Spring 2010 to Summer 2016).
Enmanuel Yajure is the all-time MABL leader in batting average (.433), on-base percentage (.498), slugging percentage (.597), and OPS (1.095) among qualified hitters*. Over a 4-season span, Yajure won 3 MVP awards, 2 batting titles, and led the West Maui Brewers to 4 MABL Championship appearances (winning the Summer 2018 and Spring 2019 titles). He hit 5 home runs over 102 career games, and holds the single season record for hits (32, also second most with 27), total bases (46), and runs created (30.4) in a season, accomplished during the Summer 2019 season.
While he comes up 8 plate appearances short of the (arbitrary) requirement to qualify for the career leader board rate stats, Frank Lettieri was an easy pick for this list. Lettieri won the batting title 4-straight seasons (every season he qualified), setting a single-season mark of .774 during his Rookie of the Year campaign (Summer 2022). Frank won the MABL MVP award each of the next three seasons, becoming the 2nd player to earn the honor 3 times (the first who did not have pitching stats factoring into the voters decision making). Over 67 career games, Lettieri has a .460 batting average, .521 on-base percentage, .617 slugging percentage, and 1.148 OPS, all which are MABL bests when considering Rule 9.22(a) of the MLB rules (hence the “*” above). During the last full season that Frank played, he became the fastest player to 100 career hits (56 games) and helped lead the Dirtbags to the first MABL Championship title in 7 years.