2047-3 The Calgary Collapse

[indiansfan]

The Calgary Collapse

The Pioneers missed the playoffs finishing 3 games out of the wildcard and in fifth place in the Pioneer Division. This was after winning the Johnson League last season and starting this season at 27-10. What happened?

“The wheels came off the bus,” manager Terry Cochran said. “The hitting failed us and we had several key injuries to the pitching staff. Then Trinidad got hurt.”

When Alfonso Trinidad tore his ACL on August 23rd, the team was still in contention for a playoff spot. Losing your best hitter is never the recipe for a pennant run.

Through April and early May the team posted a 27-10 mark, was averaging 5.2 runs per game and only giving up 3.5 runs. For the remainder of the season the team went 59-66, scoring and giving up an average of 4.1 runs per game. In fact the numbers were virtually identical scoring 513 runs and giving up 512.

Offensively for the team the only bright spot was finishing 4th in the JL in batting average. Finishing 11th in runs scored and 13th in home runs explains just how crippling the offense was.

The pitching, even though not as good as in the early games, held up respectfully. The rotation posted the 2nd best ERA in the JL and the team was 4th in runs given up. This was due in part to a greatly improved defense that finished 4th in Zone Rating without having any Zimmer winners. This is due to the team having no black holes in the field.

Where does the team go from here? This is the second year in a row that the team failed to win 90 games and the team’s 158 home runs were the fewest the team has hit since 2005. The team’s minor league system is ranked 30th out of 32 teams. So the farm is empty. Is this the year that GM Kevin Dickson finally blows it all up or does he try to keep his pitching staff intact while rebuilding the offense. Dickson did not return phone calls so we will have to wait and see.