Seattle 2001 Season Review

[LambeauLeap]

"Trader" Jon Robinson's first year as the GM of the Seattle Storm had him clashing with ownership about finances and struggle to a 77-85 record. The record is not indicitive of Robinson's knack at as a general manager, at least not yet. Robinson is very cerebral in his approach to his roster makeup and in any deals, and is shrewd beyond measure. Time will tell if his methods achieve success or failure.

That being said, let's look at the what we may see in 2001 with the Seattle Storm after the numbers that were put up during SPring Training:

Notable Roster Changes:

Signed RP Brenden Meyer to a 5 year, 50M contract.
Lost RP Scott Piippo to free agency.
Lost RP Juan Sevilla to free agency.


Starting Pitching:

The Storm tried eight different pitchers as starters during spring training and didnt' make any offseason moves to really shore things up. Staff ace Russ Vanness didn't have a great spring and he also showed inconsistancy in 2000. THe upside to him though and his potential alone puts him towards the top of the league so Robinson will have to stick with him. Beyond there there still is some potential but even more questionmarks. Bjorn Nepal had a great spring but has never shown consistancy. Hopefully some offseason conditioning will help him to dodge this stereotype in 2001. Dong-Joo Kim may be joining the rotation this year after spending most of 2000 in AAA. He pitched well in a short spurt last year and had a good spring. Beyond Vanness, Nepal, and Kim it's anyone's guess what Robinson and his team will do. Bhatia is young but has been obliterated in two brief shots at the majors in the past. Ramon Ayala has great potential but is known as being lazy and he needs help giving up homers like Palin needs help with geography. ANyone else didn't show much either in the spring.

One question that remains open: Where does Josh Noble fit? NOble has NEVER been able to put it together and lefties just CREAM him at the plate.

This is going to be a tough run for Robinson's team, and if Vanness can't swing it around a bit it's going to be a VERY long season.

Relief Pitching:

Robinson paid a metric sh*t-ton of money for Brenden Meyer, and hopefully he's an upgrade over Scott Piippo. Piippo seemed to play "above his level" last year, but Robinson wasn't able to capitalize on it and move him while his stock was high. Beyond Meyer the Storm are either going with their pen from 2000 or bringing up some marginal players. Pitching in the pen will be a problem, and Robinson needs to find someone who can set Meyer up properly or it will be 50M mis-spent.

Catcher:
Tony Carter and Jean-Claude India return for 2001. Carter cant' hit much but his defense improved substantially from the prior year. India has a bit more pop in his bat but that is at the expense of good "D" behind the plate. NOthing spectacular here but it could be worse.

Infield:
George Mattocks returns after a nice rookie season at the plate. He has some work to do defensively but isn't subpar, which was the fear of Marquette Suns owner Walter Browne when he OK'd the deal to move him. ANother player acquired at the same time had a spectacular sophomore season. Raulo Mora His over .320 with 17HR and over 120RBI! His defense? YIKES! Heinous isn't harsh enough.

First and Second are a bit unclear. The 2000 trade with the Crusaders brought over some talent, including 2B Bernard Maselli and 1B ANthony McHugh. They'll team up with home-growners Augestine Herrero and Ismael Perdomo in some combination. There's room for growth here with the IF and it's quite young, but I like the potential of this group.

Outfield:

The team leader is, no doubtedly Armando Santos. CF is his. Lon Hoch is entrenched in RF, but LF is a bit of a questionmark. Hoch may have ot move to left to accomodate youngster Deivi Contreras but his glove is the leather version of swiss cheese. Christian Martorell
crashed and burned in 2000 after a decent '99 (coming over to Seattle in the midseason Marquette deal) but a decent spring could see his more stable glove out there. Not a bit outfield, but short of depth.

EDIT:

Neglected to see Will Simmons out there on the DL. This will help a great deal since LF was a bit of a downer after Hoch and Santos. In only his second year he showed he can hit and run the hell out of the basepaths. He has pretty decent "D" too in LF, and with that speed it should only improve. I would say that Seattle needs some serious depth in the OF right now with only 4.5 (Martorell right now is a .5 to me) serviceable OFers right now, but that's a fixable issues vs. trying to find someone to fill a hole (see Marquette Suns RF).

Summary and Prediction:

The storm went 77-85 in Robinson's first year, not terrible but not great. The pitching staff is honestly a mess right now, and that's going to really determine where the Storm goes. Ownership is not apt to shell out cash so Robinson is forced to work with cheaper players and kids he grows through the farm system. If the team falters look for him to sell high with some of his higher profile players who aren't uber-young (Vanness as an example).

Prediction: 70-92.

[jumpmancol]

Excellent write up as always Brad!

The only real thing I saw missing was Will Simmons name...he is out for 2-3 weeks to start the season, but then will be back in LF. Deivi looks to be a real find...he improved a TON in the off-season and ST, and is now a righty-masher who is gonna need AB's. OF is definitely my strength at the moment.

Totally agree on the pitching. Meyer was the only impact guy that made sense via FA, so we are gonna have to rebuild the pitching staff the old-fashioned way...painfully!

[LambeauLeap]

BUmped since I edited to reflect Simmons. SOrry I missed that.