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We weren’t quite sure what to expect during the ’88 season. There were a lot of major changes heading into the season and we didn’t quite know if it was going to come together the way we envisioned. Things looked a little less daunting when defending Porter (and BLB) champion California lost All-World 1B Robby Shannon in spring training, essentially opening the door for a free-for-all for the division crown. We managed to lurk around the division lead for the first part of the season and then seemed to come unglued in a disastrous July before regrouping and running away with the division crown in August and September.
We were up 3-1 over Washington in the ILCS, but lost in 7. That’s disappointing when you just glance at it, but if you examine the series, Washington just took the series from us, we didn’t give it to them. They were the better team and they proved it. Still, you’d like to think you can finish the deal especially when we were able to send our Ace to the mound for game 7 and held a lead in that game until the 6th inning. It took a lot of work to make it to that point, so it’s always disappointing to make it that far and still fall short of the ultimate goal.
Player Reviews
C - Victor Alveraz/Jeremy Windley - Started the year with young, as-yet Alveraz as the starter. This was one spot on the team that we were most concerned with heading into the season. He was fine in April, but just absolutely tanked in May and June. He bounced back somewhat after those two really bad months, but saw his playing time significantly reduced after the addition of Jeremy Windley. Windley looked like a huge disappointment immediately after coming over from Los Alamos. In fact, our nosedive in the standings coincided almost exactly with his arrival. You’d think a team that could absorb the exit of Mel Woodbury wouldn’t bat an eye at a new arrival like Windley, but his addition seemed to throw the team chemistry way out of whack. Windley eventually accepted his reality, stopped sulking and started hitting. He helped carry us during late August and September and was really good in October as well.
Grade - Alveraz - D | Windley - A-
1B - Joe Seagarra - We’ve discussed this ad nauseam in many other writeups. He was two separate players this season. The first half player was not terribly productive, though he was still managing to get on base. The second half version was bordering on Stout Sluggerishness. We’d like to think he can get off to a better start in ’89, but if not we’ll be expecting that second half surge again.
Grade - A-
2B - Jim Newlin - There were a few doubts about Newlin heading into ’88. He was hugely disappointing in ’87 and had to deal with a position switch heading into this season. He responded well and was one of the most consistent producers in the league this year. Led the IL in RBI with 126, a new Freedom franchise mark.
Grade - A+
3B - Juan Coera - Suffered a couple of injuries this season that limited him to 110 games (averaged 159 games played the previous two seasons. This wasn’t totally unexpected since he did play the season at the advanced age of 36. He was productive while he was in the lineup, posting a VORP of 20+ for the 8th straight season (although it did end his streak of 30+ VORP ratings at 7). He has one more guaranteed year and then a team option in ’90. The ’89 season will probably be his Freedom swan song, if not his BLB finale. Never flashy or great, but consistently good for a long time.
Grade - B-
SS - Geoff Scott - One of the best seasons in Freedom franchise history and that’s saying something. He is going to be a force to be reckoned with in the IL for many years to come. His power game will be the last thing to arrive, but once it does he’ll be an offensive beast. Still, have to be worried about his durability as he suffered another lengthy injury this year. He’s never reached 550 ABs in a season, of course walking 113 times this year in addition to the injury made that hard to do.
Grade - A
LF - Orinosuke Takahashi - A key piece of the Woodbury/Arredondo deal in the offseason prior to this season. He was everything we hoped for and more (VORP of 31.8). He’s awkward in the OF (playing out of position), but he did manage to ring up 15 OF assists this season. Hopefully he’ll continue to develop at the plate and be a main cog in the lineup for seasons to come.
Grade - A-
CF - Jose Urra/Dave Ibison - Ibison didn’t disappoint (expectations were low) and Urra did (expectations were slightly higher, but not unreasonable). We didn’t want/need Urra to be a star, only a solid contributor. He struggled for a majority of the season. He seemed to find a bit of a groove in September, but then suffered an injury heading into the playoffs. Ibison had a nice bounceback year after struggling in ’87. He’s not a standout, but not everyone has to be.
Grade - Urra - D | Ibison - B-
RF - Greg Josey - We had a theory on Josey heading into the year and unfortunately it didn’t exactly pan out. He didn’t have a terrible year, but he’s really not living up to his ability (SLG% - .349, really?). This guy was a beast in ’85 and ’86 and we expected a nice comeback year, but he wasn’t able to deliver. He’s still only 29, but we’ll keep a close eye on his scouting/ratings report this offseason to see if he shows signs of having actually lost it.
Grade - D+
SP - Joe Aurillo - The reverse of Seagarra. He was great for the first half then shaky in the second. He was the IL Pitcher of the Month for June when he went 4-0 with an 0.52 ERA. He still has it (most of it anyways), he just seemed to lose his way a bit in the second half. We’ll expect him to be the #1 without a doubt heading into next season . . .if he’s still on the team . . .you never know.
Grade - B
SP - Tim Nathan - Absolute workhorse. The guy just doesn’t break down and gives you his best on a super majority of his trips to the hill. He’s getting up there in age, but hasn’t really shown any signs of slowing down. Quietly, he has the 5th highest win total of any pitcher in the history of the league.
Grade - A-
SP - Joe Arredondo - Led the team with 15 wins and was very, very solid. The guy was nails in the postseason and gave us a solid effort almost every time out (except when facing his old Colonial team).
Grade - A-
SP - Ben Irvin - The best pitcher on the staff this year. All he did was throw quality start after quality start. There’s nothing flashy about Irvin. He doesn’t dominate or pile up huge K numbers, but he’s an anchor for the middle of the rotation.
Grade - A
SP - Ray Minnoz/Doug Little - Minnoz got the ball rolling well out of the #5 spot, then tailed off after May. Still, Minnoz provided 15 quality starts and won 11 games. Not bad for a #5. Midway through the year he was moved to the bullpen in an effort to stabilize a unit that fell apart for a month in July. He performed OK in that role and the bullpen finally woke up from its terrible stretch. Little was brought up from AAA slightly before he was ready, but we wanted him to get a bit of BLB experience this year so he’d be ready for next season. It was rocky early on, but he got into a groove towards the end of the year and more than held his own in his 1 playoff start against Washington in the 3rd game of the ILCS.
Grade - Minnoz - B- | Little - B+
RP - Trevor Broomfield - That’s two really solid years in a row for Broomfield. Our scout has never been in love with him, but if he can continue doing this for the foreseeable future he’ll definitely have a spot as a setup man in our pen.
Grade - A
RP - Cristian Correa - Sophomore season, no sophomore slump. Between Correa and Broomfield we feel confident on most evenings when we have a late lead. For a short stretch he felt like he belonged in the rotation, but it looks like he’s back to being satisfied with his bullpen role. Good, we need him there.
Grade - A
CL - Joe Alveraz - He kind of epitomizes the entire team. There’s nothing flashy about him and he’s not a dominant pitcher (only 6.9 K/9), but he gets the job done most of the time.
Grade - A
LINK
We were up 3-1 over Washington in the ILCS, but lost in 7. That’s disappointing when you just glance at it, but if you examine the series, Washington just took the series from us, we didn’t give it to them. They were the better team and they proved it. Still, you’d like to think you can finish the deal especially when we were able to send our Ace to the mound for game 7 and held a lead in that game until the 6th inning. It took a lot of work to make it to that point, so it’s always disappointing to make it that far and still fall short of the ultimate goal.
Player Reviews
C - Victor Alveraz/Jeremy Windley - Started the year with young, as-yet Alveraz as the starter. This was one spot on the team that we were most concerned with heading into the season. He was fine in April, but just absolutely tanked in May and June. He bounced back somewhat after those two really bad months, but saw his playing time significantly reduced after the addition of Jeremy Windley. Windley looked like a huge disappointment immediately after coming over from Los Alamos. In fact, our nosedive in the standings coincided almost exactly with his arrival. You’d think a team that could absorb the exit of Mel Woodbury wouldn’t bat an eye at a new arrival like Windley, but his addition seemed to throw the team chemistry way out of whack. Windley eventually accepted his reality, stopped sulking and started hitting. He helped carry us during late August and September and was really good in October as well.
Grade - Alveraz - D | Windley - A-
1B - Joe Seagarra - We’ve discussed this ad nauseam in many other writeups. He was two separate players this season. The first half player was not terribly productive, though he was still managing to get on base. The second half version was bordering on Stout Sluggerishness. We’d like to think he can get off to a better start in ’89, but if not we’ll be expecting that second half surge again.
Grade - A-
2B - Jim Newlin - There were a few doubts about Newlin heading into ’88. He was hugely disappointing in ’87 and had to deal with a position switch heading into this season. He responded well and was one of the most consistent producers in the league this year. Led the IL in RBI with 126, a new Freedom franchise mark.
Grade - A+
3B - Juan Coera - Suffered a couple of injuries this season that limited him to 110 games (averaged 159 games played the previous two seasons. This wasn’t totally unexpected since he did play the season at the advanced age of 36. He was productive while he was in the lineup, posting a VORP of 20+ for the 8th straight season (although it did end his streak of 30+ VORP ratings at 7). He has one more guaranteed year and then a team option in ’90. The ’89 season will probably be his Freedom swan song, if not his BLB finale. Never flashy or great, but consistently good for a long time.
Grade - B-
SS - Geoff Scott - One of the best seasons in Freedom franchise history and that’s saying something. He is going to be a force to be reckoned with in the IL for many years to come. His power game will be the last thing to arrive, but once it does he’ll be an offensive beast. Still, have to be worried about his durability as he suffered another lengthy injury this year. He’s never reached 550 ABs in a season, of course walking 113 times this year in addition to the injury made that hard to do.
Grade - A
LF - Orinosuke Takahashi - A key piece of the Woodbury/Arredondo deal in the offseason prior to this season. He was everything we hoped for and more (VORP of 31.8). He’s awkward in the OF (playing out of position), but he did manage to ring up 15 OF assists this season. Hopefully he’ll continue to develop at the plate and be a main cog in the lineup for seasons to come.
Grade - A-
CF - Jose Urra/Dave Ibison - Ibison didn’t disappoint (expectations were low) and Urra did (expectations were slightly higher, but not unreasonable). We didn’t want/need Urra to be a star, only a solid contributor. He struggled for a majority of the season. He seemed to find a bit of a groove in September, but then suffered an injury heading into the playoffs. Ibison had a nice bounceback year after struggling in ’87. He’s not a standout, but not everyone has to be.
Grade - Urra - D | Ibison - B-
RF - Greg Josey - We had a theory on Josey heading into the year and unfortunately it didn’t exactly pan out. He didn’t have a terrible year, but he’s really not living up to his ability (SLG% - .349, really?). This guy was a beast in ’85 and ’86 and we expected a nice comeback year, but he wasn’t able to deliver. He’s still only 29, but we’ll keep a close eye on his scouting/ratings report this offseason to see if he shows signs of having actually lost it.
Grade - D+
SP - Joe Aurillo - The reverse of Seagarra. He was great for the first half then shaky in the second. He was the IL Pitcher of the Month for June when he went 4-0 with an 0.52 ERA. He still has it (most of it anyways), he just seemed to lose his way a bit in the second half. We’ll expect him to be the #1 without a doubt heading into next season . . .if he’s still on the team . . .you never know.
Grade - B
SP - Tim Nathan - Absolute workhorse. The guy just doesn’t break down and gives you his best on a super majority of his trips to the hill. He’s getting up there in age, but hasn’t really shown any signs of slowing down. Quietly, he has the 5th highest win total of any pitcher in the history of the league.
Grade - A-
SP - Joe Arredondo - Led the team with 15 wins and was very, very solid. The guy was nails in the postseason and gave us a solid effort almost every time out (except when facing his old Colonial team).
Grade - A-
SP - Ben Irvin - The best pitcher on the staff this year. All he did was throw quality start after quality start. There’s nothing flashy about Irvin. He doesn’t dominate or pile up huge K numbers, but he’s an anchor for the middle of the rotation.
Grade - A
SP - Ray Minnoz/Doug Little - Minnoz got the ball rolling well out of the #5 spot, then tailed off after May. Still, Minnoz provided 15 quality starts and won 11 games. Not bad for a #5. Midway through the year he was moved to the bullpen in an effort to stabilize a unit that fell apart for a month in July. He performed OK in that role and the bullpen finally woke up from its terrible stretch. Little was brought up from AAA slightly before he was ready, but we wanted him to get a bit of BLB experience this year so he’d be ready for next season. It was rocky early on, but he got into a groove towards the end of the year and more than held his own in his 1 playoff start against Washington in the 3rd game of the ILCS.
Grade - Minnoz - B- | Little - B+
RP - Trevor Broomfield - That’s two really solid years in a row for Broomfield. Our scout has never been in love with him, but if he can continue doing this for the foreseeable future he’ll definitely have a spot as a setup man in our pen.
Grade - A
RP - Cristian Correa - Sophomore season, no sophomore slump. Between Correa and Broomfield we feel confident on most evenings when we have a late lead. For a short stretch he felt like he belonged in the rotation, but it looks like he’s back to being satisfied with his bullpen role. Good, we need him there.
Grade - A
CL - Joe Alveraz - He kind of epitomizes the entire team. There’s nothing flashy about him and he’s not a dominant pitcher (only 6.9 K/9), but he gets the job done most of the time.
Grade - A
LINK
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