Was Tucker Frawley the MVP of the Playoffs?

(Memorial Stadium - Boise, ID) - Managers and their respective coaching staffs will more often than not sit around before a game and circle the names of players on opposing teams who might come back to bite them should they not pitch delicately and follow through on a particular game plan.

The general consensus would be among many of the managers in the Northwest League to work around Vancouver's Balbino Fuenmayor, Art Charles and Matt Newman. The bats in the order that can hurt you with one swing.

Canadians manager Clayton McCullough was likely thinking about Boise's Stephen Bruno, Dan Vogelbach and Albert Almora. All this while Hawks manager Mark Johnson prepared for Balbino, Art and Matt.

Among the names being bandied about during these 2012 Northwest League Playoffs, neither Rob Maumau in Everett or Johnson in Boise likely put much thought into Canadians catcher Tucker Frawley.

Frawley's regular season numbers, a paultry .185 (15-for-81) with no doubles, triples or home runs would have suggested he might not even find his way into the starting nine if not for a few good plate appearances against the Yakima Bears in the final regular season series of which Vancouver won four straight to lock up the West Division title.

But this is the beauty of baseball.

Playoff Baseball.

As we all sat around looking at the statistics leading into these games, few would look beyond the number-filled pages to see the work behind the scenes which included Frawley, one of four catchers with the Canadians (Daniel Klein, Santiago Nessy and occasionally Derrick Chung) working tirelessly with hitting coach Dave Pano be it back in Vancouver or on the road.

Frawley would help the Canadians sink the Everett Aquasox in two straight games to win the West Division Championship going 2-for-4 with a pair of walks to keep the lower portion of the C's offense rolling.

Vancouver would sweep Everett 1-0 and 7-4 respectively to book a spot in the NWL Championship for the second straight season.

Against Boise, in Game One, Frawley would pinch-hit in the bottom of the 7th inning out at Scotiabank Field and immediately grab an RBI single off of Hawks reliever James Pugliese that scored Carlos Ramirez as part of a seven-run inning that stunned the East Division Champions who fell to Vancouver 10-7.

In Game Two, runs for both teams came at an absolute premium with the big bats for both Vancouver and Boise falling silent.

Matt Newman would go 0-for-4, Christian Lopes would go 0-for-4, Carlos Ramirez was 0-for-4 as well as All-Star shortstop Jorge Flores would go without a hit in four plate appearances.

Yet as a majority of Vancouver's offense struggled, wouldn't you know it, Tucker Frawley managed a 3-for-4 night with his third single of the inning helping the Canadians try to break a 2-2 tie. A game they would go on to lose 3-2 in the bottom of the 9th inning.

What didn't go into the box score was Frawley's defensive moments that included getting slammed at home plate, not once, but twice as Boise tried to produce runs - both Hawks runners out at home as Frawley wouldn't let the ball drop loose despite taking two significant blows.

With the stage set for a one game, winners take all moment out at Memorial Stadium, the moment was there for the ones who wanted it most. Would it be King Arthur, the hulking Venezuelan Balbino, Jorge or Matt? As the game weaved its way through a blustery start that produced a 4-2 lead for the Boise Hawks, Vancouver ace Taylor Cole was off his game.

With the C's down 4-2 in the top of the 4th inning, Carlos Ramirez would draw a walk and minutes later come around to score on Tucker Frawley's first home run of the summer. In more than 90 at-bats, not one home run. And then on the Northwest League's biggest stage, the soft-spoken catcher would slam a two-run home run over the left field wall off of Tayler Scott to even the Championship Game at 4-4.

Frawley would finish the 2012 Northwest League Playoffs with the best batting average of any player on the four remaining teams hitting an astronomical .500 (7-for-14) in five games including his first home run of the summer, a two-run shot off of Boise starter RHP Tayler Scott that helped propel the C's to a 12-9 victory in final game of the best-of-three Northwest League Championship.

Three RBI, four runs scored and rock solid defense in Game Two of the NWL Championship made Frawley in the eyes of his teammates the MVP of the post-season, something they chanted in unison as the catcher out of Coastal Carolina lifted the NWL Championship trophy above his head in the C's clubhouse at Memorial Stadium.

There will be countless moments from the 2012 Northwest League Championship, that will go down as one of the most dramatic in League history.

But as we all take a deep breath and finally come to look back on this post-season run, perhaps it will be Frawley's name that takes center stage which is what makes the playoffs so special. Where else can you find a player that at one point was lost in the shuffle and make him a key part of history in just a matter of days.