Pitcher, baserunner, first
sacker
Piano, bass
drums
laying down inning's
rhythmic line
Scanned from sketchbook, background, watercolor, scanned
Adobe Photoshop
August 1983, 2017
San Diego Hops Season in Belated Review
72-90
Fourteen is a good number if it is, victories, like hovering
around that number from Bin Atif with a team-leading fifteen wins, or career
high single team marks, Pedercini’s and Phillips’ thirteen positive outcomes.
Better yet, San Diego improved by fourteen wins to the 72 victory mark. Now,
many, many teams would look askance at 14, or 72, but this is a team that in
its twenty year history has broken the 80 win mark only four times, and has not
reached playoffs since 2016.
So, how did this happen, and how might another fourteen wins
get notched in the season to come?
Let’s see, backstop, Addy de Zeeuw blasted fourteen (14!)
home runs, a career high. First-sacker, To Taniguchi maintained his stroke,
hitting .295/.355/.493, falling just short of 100 rbis and blasting 24 dingers.
This guy deserves his own paragraph. Jean-Claude Petit.
“Rainmaker” or “Faiseur di pluie”, as in, “I say pluie to your stupid pitches”,
hit .399, but in only 89 games. However, look at some of the math: 78 rbi in 89
games…imagine a full season! His presence in the three slot for even 50 more
games might mean another fourteen game rise in wins.
The hot corner featured a platoon of An-yi Bian and Motoki
Hayakawa that was not only productive at the plate, 19 HR 73 rbi between them,
but had a zone rating of +9 between them. Both are under thirty, which is a
trend on the Hops towards youth.
Shortstop was also a platoon between the freshly signed free
agent, Gerardo Rosa, and scouting discovery, Manny Ríos. Between them, a WAR of
3.0, evenly divided, gives hope for that position.
Robbie Colwill was the featured player in the mid-season
review, and he led the league in hits (210) and doubles (37), as a Rule 5
draftee. His left field position hid some of his defensive deficiencies, but
his arm makes up for a lot of his range issues.
One of the reasons his speed did not translate to such
stellar range, is the +11.8 zone rating of center-fielder, Martin Arias. The
league leader in at bats also led the league in triples (17), so yet another
scouting discovery (thank you, Lorne Wadden) has made an impact in the big
leagues.
Right field, ah, the misery. Jejomar Butardo dropped a
century mark from a career high .320 to a career low, .215, with a miserable
.337 slugging percentage. As a result, young Jason Trude was signed in the
off-season, to challenge “Earthquake”.
DH Nadir Rivzi in his first year in the olive and orange,
had a .286/.362/.526 slash with a career-high 88 rbi in 121 games, limited due
to injury.
So, what was the problem? Injuries, depth and pitching,
pitching, bullpen, relief, and more pitching. Look for SD to continue to
explore options to increase production from both the mound and the bench. Just
maybe, fourteen more wins is in the offing.
