POSITIONAL REVIEW
CATCHER
Historically, I have valued framing above all else at catcher. The intention was to start the season with Qaseem Kahil returning as our primary catcher. During the offseason, Erik persuaded me to trade for Luis Campos, a right-handed slugger. Could he make the jump from single-A to the BBA?
Last season Kahil hit .274/.330/.497 (131 OPS+) against right-handed pitching and recorded 4.0 WAR and 8.4 framing runs. After his first 36 games of 2064, he was hitting .243/.296/.313 (73 OPS+) with -1.1 framing runs. Meanwhile, Campos hit 8 home runs in May alone. We shipped Kahil off to Yellow Springs in return for defensive stalwart Augusto Annis, whom we planned to use as the personal catcher to knuckleballer Enzo Bouton and elevated Campos to starting catcher. This was not successful; Bouton lost his spot in the rotation but Annis remained.
We finished the season with 3.0 framing runs from Annis, -0.1 from Campos, -1.4 from the left-handed Jim Garrick, and 0.5 from the left-handed Guillermo Espinoza for a total of 0.9, down from last season’s 12.2. This contrasts with 2062’s 27.9 total.
| Player | Games | Zone Rating | Framing Runs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annis | 18 | 0.2 | 3.0 |
| Campos | 85 | -1.9 | -0.1 |
| Garrick | 21 | 0.4 | -1.4 |
| Espinoza | 2 | 0.1 | 0.5 |
| Kahil | 36 | -0.5 | -1.1 |
We need all the offense that we can muster so pitch framing may need to take a back seat.
FIRST BASE
Team captain Dan Wilkinson should win his third consecutive Yogi Zimmer Diamond Glove with a zone rating of 6.4. The first base total was 5.7.
SECOND BASE
We netted a ZR of 6.4 here despite cycling a large number of players through the keystone because of injuries elsewhere. Jaime Serna posted 5.2 ZR and Jeffrey Loring had 3.9. At one point in the season, we had no one with second base experience to spell our starter, resulting in Pedro Hernández making 5 starts at a position that was completely new to him and recording -2.3 ZR. When healthy, Serna is an excellent defender and Loring, his backup, is even better.
THIRD BASE
Denes Terovolas is our starter and he will be the first to admit that he is not Gold Glove material. His ZR of -1.4 in 85 starts was expected. Unfortunately, he missed two months of the season with injuries. Hernandez made 30 starts with a -0.3 ZR, Matt Stoner started 25 games with a 2.6 ZR, Serna filled in for 12 games (1.9), and Loring started 9 games (1.5). Although we’d rather have Terovolas’s bat in the lineup, third base defense benefitted from his absence and we netted 4.3 at the hot corner.
SHORTSTOP
Reynaldo Serrano missed most of the season, starting only 64 games with a disappointing -1.2 zone rating. Serna made 61 starts here in Serrano’s absence with a -3.6 ZR and Loring, Serrano’s normal backup, made 37 starts with a -4.4 ZR. We finished with -9.2 ZR here, largely as a result of the absence of Máximo Gousto, who was also injured. Gousto would normally start at shortstop when Serrano was injured.
LEFT FIELD
Manny Burgus (3.6 ZR) and Teddy Bullock (1.5) split most of the games here. We netted 7.7 ZR in left field.
CENTER FIELD
Clancy Lee (1.1 ZR) and Ed Rooney (0.2) started 147 games between them. After shipping off Rooney, we played six others here, resulting in a net ZR of 0.4. Lee remains the starter; we are shopping for a platoon partner for him.
RIGHT FIELD
Jedidiah Marzuq (4.2 ZR) and Teddy Bullock (1.7) combined for 119 starts here. We finished with 5.5 ZR.
SUMMARY
Our team zone rating of +18.1 was disappointing, ranking 7th among Johnson League teams. We expect better.
| Season | Team ZR |
|---|---|
| 2062 | 37.1 |
| 2063 | 27.3 |
| 2064 | 18.1 |