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Whoops, totally forgot to submit this after the season. Too busy at work I guess. It's a bit out of place now so forgive me. Plus, I need the cash.
It’s hard to be upset about winning 90 games, but missing the playoffs is always going to be a tough thing to swallow in Philly. The fans get restless, the front office is always restless and it makes everyone on the team take a close look at themselves to see where things went wrong.
Overall it was a fairly successful year. Geoff Scott put up a season for the ages, finishing second to former Freedom superstar Mel Woodbury in the Stout Slugger race. We got good/great production from a couple of other young players (Chad Mullen, Doug Miles, Adam Starks, O.T, etc.). We like the core of this team and think with a little bit of maturity out of some of those young, inconsistent players we’ll see an improvement without much tweaking to the current mix.
Player Reviews
C - Victor Alveraz/Tex McLerlan - One of these days we’re going to have a young catching prospect come up and perform at the BLB level. My scout likes both of these young guys and we’re not asking for an All-Star performance from this position, but we definitely need more than we got. Once again the failure of a young guy to grab the spot led to a deadline deal for a veteran C (Harry Elliott). Next year will probably be another sink or swim opportunity for one of the young guys again. I’m stubborn like that.
Grade - Alveraz - D | McLerlan - D-
1B - Joe Seagarra - He didn’t have nearly the second half as he did last year, but he wasn’t as bad in the first half as he was last year either. Overall his production was slightly lower than 1988, but still a productive season nonetheless. He just turned 28 in September so there’s a decent chance he puts up his best work over the next season or two. Or he could pull a Newlin and disappear for his age 28 season and then explode back on the scene a year later.
Grade - B
2B - Geoff Scott - Some of this is copied from last year, but it certainly applies: 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. Looks like the time has come. He clubbed 31 HR and drove in 125 RBI. He doesn’t turn 25 until a month into next season. He’s good at baseball.
Grade - A+
3B - Jim Newlin - We were really expecting a step back this year, even if just a slight one. He essentially put up a career year in ’88 so a regression in ’89 was to be expected. His counting stats were down a bit (21 to 17 HR, 126 to 100 RBI, 98 to 78 Runs), but some of that was a function of his spot in the batting order. Overall, he actually put up a better OPS in ’89 (.860 to .897) and by some measures matched his great production from a year ago. We certainly had no complaints
Grade - A-
SS - Raul Carbajal - From our season preview: Worst case scenario as we see it, he hits .240 | .300 | .380 and provides stellar defense at the SS position. Anything above that is pure gravy. For a while it looked like even our worst case scenario was aiming high. He struggled through the first half of the year and lost his starting job to Pete Summers for a significant stretch, but he was still being used as a super utility infielder and got a lot of playing time. He finally started hitting and by the end of the year posted a .264 | .301 | .373 line. We expect he’ll kick up his OBP as he gets more experience. We’re expecting a fairly good jump in production out of him next year.
Grade - C-
LF - Orinosuke Takahashi - A slight step back from OT this year, but not so much that we question his future. He actually got a bit of a ratings bump as we went along and produced well in stretches. He’ll probably be a streaky player for the majority of his career, but when he is on he can carry the team for a week or two. He increased his power numbers (6 HR to 14) even though he got 92 few ABs this year. He’ll become more of a fulltime player next year with the aging OFer’s (Campo and Bing) leaving the fold.Grade - B-
CF - Steve Bing/Raul Velez - Bing led the club in steals and time on the DL. Both were to be expected. We weren’t really counting on him, so it wasn’t that big of a disappointment when he was unable to go everyday. Velez was a nice surprise. Our Rule V pickup turned in a fine season as a rookie considering he had less than 700 minor league ABs above the A ball level under his belt. He posted an OPS of almost .700 and actually ranked 5th on the team in RBI (65; 4th if you don’t count Opio who had 33 RBI with the Freedom, but 71 overall).
Grade - Bing - Incomplete | Velez - B
RF - Cesaro Campoveroe - Late addition to the roster, we were hoping for one last hurrah from this once dominant offensive force. He showed flashes, but went through a long stretch where he slugged about his weight. It was a risky investment that we were hoping would pay off with big reward, but his inability to consistently produce led to the acquisition of Angelo Opio.
Grade - D+
SP - Joe Arredondo - Led the team in wins for the 2nd straight year. He’s been everything that we hoped he would be once he was acquired. The guy shows up and takes his turn every time you ask him to. He produced quality starts in 70% of his outings.
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 - Joe Ponte - Picked Ponte up right before the beginning of the season, sending fan favorite (and lifetime Freedom player) Juan Coera in a salary reallocation trade. Ponte got off to a great start, missed time with an injury and then wasn’t quite as effective once he came back. Still, an ERA in the low 3’s and a 12-6 record are good from a middle of the rotation arm.
Grade - B+
SP - Doug “Light” Miles - Young Miles was pushed to the big leagues in an effort to get him experience against the best hitters possible. We knew he wasn’t quite ready, but wanted to challenge him. He pitched the entire season as a 21 year old, and the results were at the very least promising. He went 8-11 with an ERA of 3.62, but struck out 9.7/9 IP. We think he will make a giant leap forward next season, which was the biggest factor in us pushing him this year.
Grade - B
CL - Chad Mullen - We didn’t know if he would be able to handle the pressure of the closer role as a rookie, but he never wavered, winning the IL Last Call award. He was rock solid and made the All-Star team. We’re toying with moving him to the starting rotation next year since our scout has indicated he can handle it. We’ll see.
Grade - A+
RP - Trevor Broomfield - It was a strange year for Broomfield. He’s gotten off to such great starts the last two seasons and then coasted over the second halves to put up overall solid numbers, but this year seemed to scuffle along for most of the year. It may have been because he was pouting about being in the starting rotation. We relented at the end of the year and he produced. Not sure if we want him there again next year, but if he can continue to contribute solid outings there, it’s hard to justify removing him. If he and Mullen both make the rotation it will be as a 6 man unit again. We’d have to split the two of them around an innings eater in order to keep the bullpen safe since both of htem will probably max at 6 IP per start.
Grade - B-
SP/RP - Cristian Correa- He was pretty good this year and did what we asked of him. He was probably a little over exposed in the rotation, but he contributed solid numbers. He decided he wanted to be the closer at the end of the year which obviously wasn’t going to happen with Mullen having the season he was having, but maybe next year? Still, doesn’t K enough people for my liking in that role.
Grade - B
RP - Adam Starks - Solid, solid effort out of a key lefty in our pen. Absorbed 89.1 IP and posted a sub 3.00 ERA. Good effort from the 24 year old. You’ve go to love it when you get good solid production from a young guy (read cheap).
Grade - A
LINK
It’s hard to be upset about winning 90 games, but missing the playoffs is always going to be a tough thing to swallow in Philly. The fans get restless, the front office is always restless and it makes everyone on the team take a close look at themselves to see where things went wrong.
Overall it was a fairly successful year. Geoff Scott put up a season for the ages, finishing second to former Freedom superstar Mel Woodbury in the Stout Slugger race. We got good/great production from a couple of other young players (Chad Mullen, Doug Miles, Adam Starks, O.T, etc.). We like the core of this team and think with a little bit of maturity out of some of those young, inconsistent players we’ll see an improvement without much tweaking to the current mix.
Player Reviews
C - Victor Alveraz/Tex McLerlan - One of these days we’re going to have a young catching prospect come up and perform at the BLB level. My scout likes both of these young guys and we’re not asking for an All-Star performance from this position, but we definitely need more than we got. Once again the failure of a young guy to grab the spot led to a deadline deal for a veteran C (Harry Elliott). Next year will probably be another sink or swim opportunity for one of the young guys again. I’m stubborn like that.
Grade - Alveraz - D | McLerlan - D-
1B - Joe Seagarra - He didn’t have nearly the second half as he did last year, but he wasn’t as bad in the first half as he was last year either. Overall his production was slightly lower than 1988, but still a productive season nonetheless. He just turned 28 in September so there’s a decent chance he puts up his best work over the next season or two. Or he could pull a Newlin and disappear for his age 28 season and then explode back on the scene a year later.
Grade - B
2B - Geoff Scott - Some of this is copied from last year, but it certainly applies: 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. Looks like the time has come. He clubbed 31 HR and drove in 125 RBI. He doesn’t turn 25 until a month into next season. He’s good at baseball.
Grade - A+
3B - Jim Newlin - We were really expecting a step back this year, even if just a slight one. He essentially put up a career year in ’88 so a regression in ’89 was to be expected. His counting stats were down a bit (21 to 17 HR, 126 to 100 RBI, 98 to 78 Runs), but some of that was a function of his spot in the batting order. Overall, he actually put up a better OPS in ’89 (.860 to .897) and by some measures matched his great production from a year ago. We certainly had no complaints
Grade - A-
SS - Raul Carbajal - From our season preview: Worst case scenario as we see it, he hits .240 | .300 | .380 and provides stellar defense at the SS position. Anything above that is pure gravy. For a while it looked like even our worst case scenario was aiming high. He struggled through the first half of the year and lost his starting job to Pete Summers for a significant stretch, but he was still being used as a super utility infielder and got a lot of playing time. He finally started hitting and by the end of the year posted a .264 | .301 | .373 line. We expect he’ll kick up his OBP as he gets more experience. We’re expecting a fairly good jump in production out of him next year.
Grade - C-
LF - Orinosuke Takahashi - A slight step back from OT this year, but not so much that we question his future. He actually got a bit of a ratings bump as we went along and produced well in stretches. He’ll probably be a streaky player for the majority of his career, but when he is on he can carry the team for a week or two. He increased his power numbers (6 HR to 14) even though he got 92 few ABs this year. He’ll become more of a fulltime player next year with the aging OFer’s (Campo and Bing) leaving the fold.Grade - B-
CF - Steve Bing/Raul Velez - Bing led the club in steals and time on the DL. Both were to be expected. We weren’t really counting on him, so it wasn’t that big of a disappointment when he was unable to go everyday. Velez was a nice surprise. Our Rule V pickup turned in a fine season as a rookie considering he had less than 700 minor league ABs above the A ball level under his belt. He posted an OPS of almost .700 and actually ranked 5th on the team in RBI (65; 4th if you don’t count Opio who had 33 RBI with the Freedom, but 71 overall).
Grade - Bing - Incomplete | Velez - B
RF - Cesaro Campoveroe - Late addition to the roster, we were hoping for one last hurrah from this once dominant offensive force. He showed flashes, but went through a long stretch where he slugged about his weight. It was a risky investment that we were hoping would pay off with big reward, but his inability to consistently produce led to the acquisition of Angelo Opio.
Grade - D+
SP - Joe Arredondo - Led the team in wins for the 2nd straight year. He’s been everything that we hoped he would be once he was acquired. The guy shows up and takes his turn every time you ask him to. He produced quality starts in 70% of his outings.
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 - Joe Ponte - Picked Ponte up right before the beginning of the season, sending fan favorite (and lifetime Freedom player) Juan Coera in a salary reallocation trade. Ponte got off to a great start, missed time with an injury and then wasn’t quite as effective once he came back. Still, an ERA in the low 3’s and a 12-6 record are good from a middle of the rotation arm.
Grade - B+
SP - Doug “Light” Miles - Young Miles was pushed to the big leagues in an effort to get him experience against the best hitters possible. We knew he wasn’t quite ready, but wanted to challenge him. He pitched the entire season as a 21 year old, and the results were at the very least promising. He went 8-11 with an ERA of 3.62, but struck out 9.7/9 IP. We think he will make a giant leap forward next season, which was the biggest factor in us pushing him this year.
Grade - B
CL - Chad Mullen - We didn’t know if he would be able to handle the pressure of the closer role as a rookie, but he never wavered, winning the IL Last Call award. He was rock solid and made the All-Star team. We’re toying with moving him to the starting rotation next year since our scout has indicated he can handle it. We’ll see.
Grade - A+
RP - Trevor Broomfield - It was a strange year for Broomfield. He’s gotten off to such great starts the last two seasons and then coasted over the second halves to put up overall solid numbers, but this year seemed to scuffle along for most of the year. It may have been because he was pouting about being in the starting rotation. We relented at the end of the year and he produced. Not sure if we want him there again next year, but if he can continue to contribute solid outings there, it’s hard to justify removing him. If he and Mullen both make the rotation it will be as a 6 man unit again. We’d have to split the two of them around an innings eater in order to keep the bullpen safe since both of htem will probably max at 6 IP per start.
Grade - B-
SP/RP - Cristian Correa- He was pretty good this year and did what we asked of him. He was probably a little over exposed in the rotation, but he contributed solid numbers. He decided he wanted to be the closer at the end of the year which obviously wasn’t going to happen with Mullen having the season he was having, but maybe next year? Still, doesn’t K enough people for my liking in that role.
Grade - B
RP - Adam Starks - Solid, solid effort out of a key lefty in our pen. Absorbed 89.1 IP and posted a sub 3.00 ERA. Good effort from the 24 year old. You’ve go to love it when you get good solid production from a young guy (read cheap).
Grade - A
LINK
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