Long Beach Press Telegram - 10-10-2001

[jcrmoon42]

2001 has mercifully come to an end. Time to put away the royal blue, teal and gold of the Surfers uniforms for another off-season. So, what went wrong? Just writing that sentence makes me laugh. I don't think anything went wrong, exactly. We just suck. So, perhaps a more positive question would be, "What sucked less than other things?"

Chris Malone - The fireballing reliever showed himself worthy of his #2 overall selection in '98 with an All Star campaign. 22 saves on a team with only 57 wins isn't too shabby, especially when he didn't start the season as the closer. This 23 year old sophomore has a bright future and still has plenty of room to grow.

Justin Milsap - 26 year old right-hander with a big fastball and a strong curve was the only Long Beach starter with an ERA under 5.70. He's got control issues and led the league in bases on balls for the second year in a row, this year with 140, the sixth highest total in MBBA history. So, that's a thing. He has suffered through two rough years, going 15-33 in spite of acceptable ERAs. Still, he was the closest thing we had to not being God-awful.

Derrick Gibson - This former Colorado Rockies prospect had a nice freshman year in the MBBA with 33 homers and 92 RBI. That's probably about his ceiling as his secondary skills are all average at best. But he was our best hitter pretty much all year.

Jesus Losada - 28 year old outfielder has been trying to make a name for himself ever since being claimed off of waivers from Montreal in '98. He had a really nice season with a .312 average and an .805 OPS while fighting off younger players for PT.

Duck Latta - He was one of those aforementioned "younger players." Still only 24 years old, Latta has only begun to scratch the surface of his ability with the bat but is already absolutely crushing lefties. He hit off of them at a .417 clip this year in what amounted to a platoon role.

Dave Nilsson - The Aussie saw his playing time eaten in to, but he can still hit. He struggled mightily in June and was replaced in the starting lineup after being horrifically up and down in the first half. Coming off of the bench in the second half, he was miserable, and that seemed to motivate him at the plate.

James Dicus - Young glove man came up in May and hit enough to keep the job, playing mostly at second base. He still has a lot of room to develop, but he is in the Surfers future after coming over from Seattle in the Ramon Ayala deal last year.

Jason Faucette - 25 year old also came over in the Ayala deal and hit well enough in his first full-time big league season. He doesn't like to walk, but he has a little pop, putting up a .274 average and a .462 SLG while playing good D at the hot corner.

I would mention superstar Ted Sale, but even though he was among the team leaders, he had his worst season since 1990. So, I didn't mention him.