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1990 will go down as a very bittersweet season in the history of the Philadelphia Freedom.
We laughed: 18-3 record in the first month of the season; racking up 67 wins 100 games into the schedule; setting a new single season franchise high water mark for victories - 97; making the playoffs for the 3rd time in 4 years under current management, including the 2nd Porter crown (4th overall in club history).
We cried: 2nd half flame-out culminating with a “we have reservations on the golf course, can we move this along?” opening round series at the hands of Virginia; Geoff Scott injury during the final week of the season removing the one true superstar we have in our lineup right before the playoffs; the implosion of the bullpen over the last 2 months; Don Alexander coming to Philly in a pre-deadline deal with the look/attitude of “I’m just cashing checks until I can get out of here”.
In the end, it’s not fair to call a 97 win season a failure, but ultimately we did not succeed. It’s easy to say, “There’s always next year”, but given the age that is creeping into our starting rotation any window that we have is clearly closing.
Player Reviews
C - Victor Alveraz - We had seen this before. Alveraz gets off to a decent start for the first 20-30 days of the season and then just goes AWOL. An angry front office initially sentenced Alveraz to AAA to get things straight but quickly realized that no matter his struggles he was still the best BLB option we had going. He never really wowed us with the bat after coming back up (thought the .315 | .402 | .457 June was a treat), but at the end of the year he’d shown us enough to feel ‘Ok’ about him going forward. His batting eye showed tremendous growth and he looks like he’ll be able to provide a decent OBP from the C position for the foreseeable future (he’s 25)
Grade - C+
1B - Joe Seagarra - Seagarra was remarkably consistent during 1990. Historically prone to spurts of baseball genius quickly followed by fits of hacking ineptitude, Seagarra left his bipolarishness for at least this season and provided a calming influence on the lineup throughout the year
Grade - B+
2B - Geoff Scott - It’s hard to be disappointed with Scott’s production in 1990, but not once all year did it ever seem like he was on the other level that he is sometimes capable of going to. His numbers were down across the board (HR: 31 - 14; RBI: 125 - 71; SLG%: .582 - .500), but he still lead the entire league in VORP at 85.5. Basically this means that we’ve become spoiled by getting to watch Scott develop and now our bar for him is ridiculously high.
Grade - A
3B - Jim Newlin - I’m going to slightly modify what was said after last season: We were really expecting a step back this year, even if just a slight one. He essentially put up a career years in ’88 and ’89 so a regression in ’90 was to be expected. His counting stats have come down a bit (21 to 17 to 16 HR, 126 to 100 to 94 RBI, 98 to 78 to 80 Runs), but some of that was a function of his spot in the batting order. He keeps bouncing back and forth between being on the Top Players list and back off of it, and if he played in any other park he’d probably be closer to being considered somewhat of a star (.311 | .375 | .500, 12 HR | 52 RBI | 48 Runs on the road this year).
Grade - A-
SS - Raul Carbajal - A bit of a let down from Carbajal this year, not because of regression, but because of stagnation. We expected a step forward from Carbajal after a “strong” second half during his rookie campaign and he got off to a good start in ’90 that had us thinking he was ready to reach another level. Then came June-July-August when he struggled in just about every aspect of his offensive game. If this is his maximum, we’ll be a bit disappointed, but worst case scenario is we have one of the premier defensive infielders in the league who can go on occasional streaks where he contributes a fair amount on offense. I get the feeling this offseason is going to be make or break for Carbajal in determining if he can ever reach another level. Very important coin flip coming up for him
Grade - C-
LF - Orinosuke Takahashi -A bit of a retrenching year for OT as he was trusted with more of a fulltime role (214 AB’s against LHP compared to 49 the year before) and he really didn’t disappoint (vs. LHP - .276 | .319 | .393 | .711, not outstanding, but considering our lack of depth in the OF this season his ability to produce even a neutral VORP against LHP was a welcomed development. RBI’s are a stat of convenience as well as production, but his 103 RBI are nothing to scoff at, essentially leading the team in the category (Don Alexandar and his big bag accumulated 114 between CAR and PHI). OT’s about to turn 26 during the offseason, so we’re hoping there’s a little bit more growth to come.Grade - B+
CF - Raul Velez - We were counting on Velez to take a step forward this year after putting together a decent rookie campaign last year as a Rule V draftee, but he failed to improve in any appreciable way. He essentially reproduced his numbers across the board and it’s looking like he is what he is: A 4th OFer. No shame in that, but we were hoping for a bit more.
Grade - D+
RF - Pat Gibson - Before he fractured his wrist on 06/20, Gibson was the second best player in our lineup, producing an approximate slash line of .270 | .385 | .460. He was a major contributing factor to our hot start, driving in 22 RBI in 20 games during the month of April despite batting primarily in the #8 spot in the lineup (he was essentially serving as a second cleanup hitter as the number 5,6,7 hitters were getting on base in front of him. The broken wrist and time off trashed the rest of his season as he was never able to regain his early season form. This is another guy facing a very important coin flip this offseason.
Grade - C
OF - Don Alexander - So long.
SP - Joe Arredondo - His best days are behind him, but he is still a very serviceable mid-rotation option. He produced a QS 2 out of every 3 trips to the mound, but failed to win 10+ games for the first time since coming to Philly. We’re hoping to squeeze out at least 1 more good season out of Arredondo before he falls completely off the map.
Grade - B
SP - Ben Irvin - Irvin has won exactly 14 games each of the last 3 seasons. Remarkably consistent and dependable, he’s a great number 2, one again leading the team in QS% at .767. He even pushed his K/9 number back over 7.00 for the first time since 1987.
Grade - A
SP - Joe Ponte - Ponte was having arguably the 2nd best season in the IL (9-1 record, ERA in the low 2’s) before being lost with an elbow injury in late July. His absence was a major reason why we struggled during the last 3rd of the season. Sadly, it appears that he took a bit of a ratings hit with this injury and he won’t ever regain his previous form.
Grade - A
SP - Doug “Light” Miles - Ace. One of the most important three letter words in the baseball dictionary. Every team needs one and if you don’t have one it can be like searching for the Holy Grail until you find one. Miles became the second Freedom pitcher to notch 200 K’s in a season and was on the verge of becoming the second 20 game winner in team history before we tried to rest him down the stretch (keeping him below the 200IP mark). You never know how long an arm like his can stay together before it blows apart, but he should be fun to watch until it does.
Grade - A+
SP - Trevor Broomfield - First year as a fulltime SP and he gave us about what we could expect out of him: 11 wins, 3.90ish ERA and about 6IP per start. I’m not a big fan of using the low endurance guys as starters, but after his performance in the rotation down the stretch last year he deserved the chance. He never really gave us a reason to change our minds during the season
Grade - B-
SP - Dan Jones - He looked like a godsend early on as he came over the week before Ponte was lost to injury. Jones had been a target of ours for a couple of seasons and we were excited to add him to the rotation and were curious to see what he could produce in the pitcher paradise that is “The Ike”. He quickly fizzled, lost his confidence and didn’t produce very good pitching lines during his Freedom tenure. He’ll hit the open market as one of the top available arms, but it will be interesting to see what he can command given the production/ratings gap that he exhibits.
Grade - D
CL - Chad Mullen - Second straight great performance from Mullen in the closers role. He still wants to start and we’ll probably give him another shot at it, provided we can find a suitable replacement for him in the CL slot.Grade - A+
RP - Cristian Correa - A bit of a lost year for Correa. First he wanted to be the Closer, then at the end of the year he wanted to start. One thing seems certain, he’s not terribly pleased with being a setup guy. His numbers/performance suffered all year. He’s due a raise (1st year of arbitration) so at some point soon he may reach the stage of no longer being worth the salary. Next year is going to be huge for Correa.
Grade - D-
RP - Adam Starks - Starks basically epitomizes our entire team. He was unbelievable in the first half, making the All-Star team and was quite possibly the MVP of the pitching staff. The second half was a completely different story as he contributed to the collapse of our bullpen. His numbers look fine on the surface for the entire year, but he was so dominant in the first half that it kind of covers up the performance he turned in down the stretch
Grade - B
RP - Joe Sanchez - See above. He was lights out in the first half and then faded down the stretch. It was his first go ‘round in the BLB, so late season fatigue probably played a pretty significant factor in his late season struggles.
Grade - B
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We laughed: 18-3 record in the first month of the season; racking up 67 wins 100 games into the schedule; setting a new single season franchise high water mark for victories - 97; making the playoffs for the 3rd time in 4 years under current management, including the 2nd Porter crown (4th overall in club history).
We cried: 2nd half flame-out culminating with a “we have reservations on the golf course, can we move this along?” opening round series at the hands of Virginia; Geoff Scott injury during the final week of the season removing the one true superstar we have in our lineup right before the playoffs; the implosion of the bullpen over the last 2 months; Don Alexander coming to Philly in a pre-deadline deal with the look/attitude of “I’m just cashing checks until I can get out of here”.
In the end, it’s not fair to call a 97 win season a failure, but ultimately we did not succeed. It’s easy to say, “There’s always next year”, but given the age that is creeping into our starting rotation any window that we have is clearly closing.
Player Reviews
C - Victor Alveraz - We had seen this before. Alveraz gets off to a decent start for the first 20-30 days of the season and then just goes AWOL. An angry front office initially sentenced Alveraz to AAA to get things straight but quickly realized that no matter his struggles he was still the best BLB option we had going. He never really wowed us with the bat after coming back up (thought the .315 | .402 | .457 June was a treat), but at the end of the year he’d shown us enough to feel ‘Ok’ about him going forward. His batting eye showed tremendous growth and he looks like he’ll be able to provide a decent OBP from the C position for the foreseeable future (he’s 25)
Grade - C+
1B - Joe Seagarra - Seagarra was remarkably consistent during 1990. Historically prone to spurts of baseball genius quickly followed by fits of hacking ineptitude, Seagarra left his bipolarishness for at least this season and provided a calming influence on the lineup throughout the year
Grade - B+
2B - Geoff Scott - It’s hard to be disappointed with Scott’s production in 1990, but not once all year did it ever seem like he was on the other level that he is sometimes capable of going to. His numbers were down across the board (HR: 31 - 14; RBI: 125 - 71; SLG%: .582 - .500), but he still lead the entire league in VORP at 85.5. Basically this means that we’ve become spoiled by getting to watch Scott develop and now our bar for him is ridiculously high.
Grade - A
3B - Jim Newlin - I’m going to slightly modify what was said after last season: We were really expecting a step back this year, even if just a slight one. He essentially put up a career years in ’88 and ’89 so a regression in ’90 was to be expected. His counting stats have come down a bit (21 to 17 to 16 HR, 126 to 100 to 94 RBI, 98 to 78 to 80 Runs), but some of that was a function of his spot in the batting order. He keeps bouncing back and forth between being on the Top Players list and back off of it, and if he played in any other park he’d probably be closer to being considered somewhat of a star (.311 | .375 | .500, 12 HR | 52 RBI | 48 Runs on the road this year).
Grade - A-
SS - Raul Carbajal - A bit of a let down from Carbajal this year, not because of regression, but because of stagnation. We expected a step forward from Carbajal after a “strong” second half during his rookie campaign and he got off to a good start in ’90 that had us thinking he was ready to reach another level. Then came June-July-August when he struggled in just about every aspect of his offensive game. If this is his maximum, we’ll be a bit disappointed, but worst case scenario is we have one of the premier defensive infielders in the league who can go on occasional streaks where he contributes a fair amount on offense. I get the feeling this offseason is going to be make or break for Carbajal in determining if he can ever reach another level. Very important coin flip coming up for him
Grade - C-
LF - Orinosuke Takahashi -A bit of a retrenching year for OT as he was trusted with more of a fulltime role (214 AB’s against LHP compared to 49 the year before) and he really didn’t disappoint (vs. LHP - .276 | .319 | .393 | .711, not outstanding, but considering our lack of depth in the OF this season his ability to produce even a neutral VORP against LHP was a welcomed development. RBI’s are a stat of convenience as well as production, but his 103 RBI are nothing to scoff at, essentially leading the team in the category (Don Alexandar and his big bag accumulated 114 between CAR and PHI). OT’s about to turn 26 during the offseason, so we’re hoping there’s a little bit more growth to come.Grade - B+
CF - Raul Velez - We were counting on Velez to take a step forward this year after putting together a decent rookie campaign last year as a Rule V draftee, but he failed to improve in any appreciable way. He essentially reproduced his numbers across the board and it’s looking like he is what he is: A 4th OFer. No shame in that, but we were hoping for a bit more.
Grade - D+
RF - Pat Gibson - Before he fractured his wrist on 06/20, Gibson was the second best player in our lineup, producing an approximate slash line of .270 | .385 | .460. He was a major contributing factor to our hot start, driving in 22 RBI in 20 games during the month of April despite batting primarily in the #8 spot in the lineup (he was essentially serving as a second cleanup hitter as the number 5,6,7 hitters were getting on base in front of him. The broken wrist and time off trashed the rest of his season as he was never able to regain his early season form. This is another guy facing a very important coin flip this offseason.
Grade - C
OF - Don Alexander - So long.
SP - Joe Arredondo - His best days are behind him, but he is still a very serviceable mid-rotation option. He produced a QS 2 out of every 3 trips to the mound, but failed to win 10+ games for the first time since coming to Philly. We’re hoping to squeeze out at least 1 more good season out of Arredondo before he falls completely off the map.
Grade - B
SP - Ben Irvin - Irvin has won exactly 14 games each of the last 3 seasons. Remarkably consistent and dependable, he’s a great number 2, one again leading the team in QS% at .767. He even pushed his K/9 number back over 7.00 for the first time since 1987.
Grade - A
SP - Joe Ponte - Ponte was having arguably the 2nd best season in the IL (9-1 record, ERA in the low 2’s) before being lost with an elbow injury in late July. His absence was a major reason why we struggled during the last 3rd of the season. Sadly, it appears that he took a bit of a ratings hit with this injury and he won’t ever regain his previous form.
Grade - A
SP - Doug “Light” Miles - Ace. One of the most important three letter words in the baseball dictionary. Every team needs one and if you don’t have one it can be like searching for the Holy Grail until you find one. Miles became the second Freedom pitcher to notch 200 K’s in a season and was on the verge of becoming the second 20 game winner in team history before we tried to rest him down the stretch (keeping him below the 200IP mark). You never know how long an arm like his can stay together before it blows apart, but he should be fun to watch until it does.
Grade - A+
SP - Trevor Broomfield - First year as a fulltime SP and he gave us about what we could expect out of him: 11 wins, 3.90ish ERA and about 6IP per start. I’m not a big fan of using the low endurance guys as starters, but after his performance in the rotation down the stretch last year he deserved the chance. He never really gave us a reason to change our minds during the season
Grade - B-
SP - Dan Jones - He looked like a godsend early on as he came over the week before Ponte was lost to injury. Jones had been a target of ours for a couple of seasons and we were excited to add him to the rotation and were curious to see what he could produce in the pitcher paradise that is “The Ike”. He quickly fizzled, lost his confidence and didn’t produce very good pitching lines during his Freedom tenure. He’ll hit the open market as one of the top available arms, but it will be interesting to see what he can command given the production/ratings gap that he exhibits.
Grade - D
CL - Chad Mullen - Second straight great performance from Mullen in the closers role. He still wants to start and we’ll probably give him another shot at it, provided we can find a suitable replacement for him in the CL slot.Grade - A+
RP - Cristian Correa - A bit of a lost year for Correa. First he wanted to be the Closer, then at the end of the year he wanted to start. One thing seems certain, he’s not terribly pleased with being a setup guy. His numbers/performance suffered all year. He’s due a raise (1st year of arbitration) so at some point soon he may reach the stage of no longer being worth the salary. Next year is going to be huge for Correa.
Grade - D-
RP - Adam Starks - Starks basically epitomizes our entire team. He was unbelievable in the first half, making the All-Star team and was quite possibly the MVP of the pitching staff. The second half was a completely different story as he contributed to the collapse of our bullpen. His numbers look fine on the surface for the entire year, but he was so dominant in the first half that it kind of covers up the performance he turned in down the stretch
Grade - B
RP - Joe Sanchez - See above. He was lights out in the first half and then faded down the stretch. It was his first go ‘round in the BLB, so late season fatigue probably played a pretty significant factor in his late season struggles.
Grade - B
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