Position Players-
Catching- The Tropics had their changing of the guard behind the plate with Frank McMillan donning the tools of ignorance in 120 starts. McMillan responded with a display of his power as he hit a career high 23 homers and was one of the top pitch framers in the association. He had a 3.86 CERA but only threw out 20.4 % of base stealers. He posted a career high 4.3 WAR but struck out too much and didn’t get on base enough.
GOOD
Team Captain Katsumi Matsumoto saw his playing time cut in half with his hitting and defense falling off as he ages. He will be a backup the rest of his career but is a valuable team leader.
OK
1B- Luis Estrada was signed to provide the Tropics with power and he began the season on a tear slashing .252/.324/.506 with 25 HR and 71 RBI through July. The slump began in August as he slashed .162/.239/.257 with just 2 homers and 8 RBI. In went down with an injury 5 games into September ending his season early.
BAD
Young Jake Diamond filled in admirably for Estrada in the final 20 games of the season. He slashed .282/.354/.521 with 3 HR and 14 RBI.
OK
2B- Adhyapayana Mehta is in the final year of his contract and performed like an aging player. The 32-year-old is in decline from his career highs slash line of .312/.353/.431 to a low of .258/.310/.383 in 2058. He was out with injury for a month of the season but still bounced back from a 0.9 WAR 2057 with 1.8 WAR in ’58.
BAD
3B- Mitch Wareham played the bulk of the season at third putting up 1.1 WAR which was influenced by his defense. He struggled at the plate as he slashed .248/.301/.367 and was dropped out of the lead off spot.
BAD
SS- Quintin Trewartha had a nice season defensively at short for the Trops but is just abysmal at the plate. He’s reached the point where he is a late inning defensive replacement or injury backup. BREAK GLASS ONLY IN ERMERGENCY!
BAD
Utility- Julian Rivera played second, third, short, sprinkled with a bit of left and right. He excelled defensively at second but didn’t kill the team anywhere else. He is a work in progress at the plate but had a nice July as he slashed .289/.366.410 in 98 plate appearances.
OK
Outfielders- This is the player group that excelled for the Tropics all season. They were led by the tow corner guys Carlos Sanchez and Vincente Mendez. Mendez was Hawaii’s sole .300 hitter with a .305 average. He slashed .305/.337/.443 with a 110 OPS+ hitting 11 homers and driving in 53 runs. He played solid defense and put up 3.4 WAR.
GOOD
Sanchez slashed .289/.335/.452 with 18 homers and 62 ribbies with a 111 OPS+. He played great defense in right and a bit of center field and posted a 3.2 WAR.
GOOD
Angelo Lucchesi was out with a knee injury for 6 weeks but put up some decent offensive numbers and played good defense in center. He slashed .299/.347/.359 and was moved into the lead-off spot in the order after the failures of Mitch Wareham. He posted a 1.5 WAR.
GOOD
Russ McHaney played some right and DH but only had 419 plate appearances. Even with that limited time he hit 26 homers and drove in 58 runs.
GOOD
DH- Felipe Hernandez was the DH for the majority of the time for Hawaii but due to injuries he had to play some third. His average improved from his rookie season and slashed .269/.346/.469 with 24 HR and 71 RBI.
GOOD
Pitchers-
Starters- The Hawaii Tropics raised the pitch count for Semih Gurani and he responded with an 11-7 record over 31 starts with a 2.68 ERA in 147.2 innings. He posted a 5.3 rWAR and a 3.43 SIERA.
GOOD
Gerardo Rea bounced back from a horrible 2057 with 31 starts and a 3.72 ERA with a 3.9 rWAR. He struck out more hitters and walked fewer in 35 more innings than in 2057. Was he on the verge of an injury? Is he still?
OK
Utbah ‘Crawdad Me’ bin Muta took a big step with his performance in 2058 throwing 163.1 innings in 34 games. He walks too many hitters but relies on his defense to get the job done.
OK
Elvin Hilliard made 32 starts and he may want to forget 20 of them. He began the season slow but not too bad in April but began to get rolling in May. Through May he was 7-2 with a 3.80 ERA with 53 Ks and 19 walks. A bad sign was 10 HR allowed in 68.2 innings. From there it went downhill with the worst month happening in July with an 8+ ERA.
BAD
Manny Ortiz and John Moore shared the 5th starter role with varying results. Moore couldn’t buy a win and Ortiz won 6 but they both walked too many batters and gave up too many homers.
BAD
Bullpen- The best performance out of the ‘pen was Bill Phillips with 59 innings in 40 appearances to a 2.29 ERA. He had 7 saves, 7 holds and a 3-4 record. He fanned 42 and walked 15 with allowing just 4 homers.
GOOD
The worst performance was given by Phil Thompson. He had a great April and May then began to crumble in June but still held it together. In July he imploded with a 6.92 ERA allowing 3 HR in just 13 innings and 12 games.
BAD
The rest of the bullpen was decent and wasn’t a big problem for the team in the big picture.
As a whole this team needs to get on base more and stop giving up the long ball. Some of these guys playing up to their potential would go a long way to improving the team so we can get a better read.
