Des Moines is a tough team to look at. I mean, really. They should be better. The club has, after all, Both Cisco Arreola (7/7/10/8/9 Ratings) and William Moreland (8/7/10/6/6 Ratings). Put almost anything around those guys and you should win a little, right? The fans certainly entered 2034 expecting more than the 72 wins of 2033 or the 67 of 2031.
And, yet, the 2034 Kernels wound up a 62-100, their worst record since 2023.
There were injuries, of course. And failed development. And competition. Playing in the Heartland says never to bring the weak sauce. The problem here is that at the end of the day, the Kernels brought a lot of weaksauce, particularly in the pitching and defense, where they gave up 817 runs, 12th worst of the 14 team Frick League. The offense wasn’t’ that much better, scoring only 689 runs, 10th in the league.
So, what will we see in Des Moines this year?
INFIELD:
Probably the most important injury of them all last year as far as Des Moines fans were concerned was the torn thumb ligament that second baseman William S. Hardy suffered in May. Hardy is an elite defender, and the injury knocked him back just a bit in the field. That can’t be good for a midline pitching staff (at best). Hardy will be back, though. As will another slick fielder in shortstop Dong-soo Chon (5/6/6/8/4 Ratings), a guy who might be the best shortstop in the league if he could have someone hit for him. At 24, Chon can still wield the leather, but he needs that OBP to be up closer to 2033’s .336 than his 2034’s .286. Our crystal ball says it will happen.
At first, of course, is Moreland, who is prime beef in a corn patty town.
It appears that the Kernels will stick with Ernesto Chavez (5/6/4/6/8 Ratings) again at 3B, though we wonder if baseball insiders aren’t suggesting the team just eat the rest of that contract and give the job to youngster Willie Carter. Chavez can still pick it in the field, but his offense is sub-replacement. Carter’s got the arm for the position, and he’s hit pretty much everywhere. He’s not going to be elite, and at 20, he’s got some growing time. But Chavez can’t be the answer. The only variables are time and losses.
GRADE: Des Moines has always been defensively sound, and this collection is no surprise there. But other than Moreland, you’ve got Hardy, who can hold his own, and Chon and Chavez who can’t. You can get away with one guy with no stick (usually the shortstop). The Kernels have two. C+ Remove Chavez for a positive player and you probably get to B+.
CATCHER:
Two words: Sawyer Silk Winner.
Okay, that’s’ three words. Sue me. Cisco Arreola (7/7/10/8/9 Ratings) is worth it. He's coming off a stellar season, and a well-deserved Sawyer Silk award. He was hit by a pitch in the last game of the season, and has been recovering from a fracture—but he should be ready to go. This is good news.
Jeremy Carter (5/5/8/6/5 Ratings) was signed to provide the back-up, and probably some DHing. Prospect John Hale is two seasons away in AA.
Note: there are some who say the team should trade Arreola (and Moreland). These are people who want Arreola and Moreland on their team. A trade that netted a huge return would possibly make sense, but I see no reason these guys need to go—though the team has some financial constraints that the need to deal with in order to build around them.
GRADE: A+
OUTFIELD:
Keying off center, Roberto Lopez (5/5/6/8/4 Ratings)’s +8.4 ZR is pretty danged good. His .289 OBP in 511 PA is the opposite, proving that if defense is maybe 25% of the game, offense is maybe 50%. He’ll probably play center field just because there really isn’t anyone else.
Hector Cantu (7/5/5/5/6 Ratings) can stand in the place a CF stands in, but really he’s a corner outfielder—and in LF he’s possibly well above league average in that he can still hit RHP pretty well and he can defend the heck out of that position. The problem, of course, is that he needs a platoon mate badly. Enter John Ginn (7/8/6/4/7 Ratings). 21 years old, and ready to play, though really he’s a RF. His 81 plate appearances late in the year showed not much, but we think he’s fine.
GM Edward Murphy traded for 26 year old Dave Brunskill (7/6/6/6/7 Ratings) last season, and he’s pretty solid, too. The kind of Good Guy persona that mid-western fans can appreciate. We expect he’ll provide workmanlike service. 27 year-old Joao Silva (6/5/6/4/10 Ratings) provides the RHB counterpart to Brunskill, so what yo’ve got overall is a fairly well-designed approach to the outfield that can take advantage of the platoon advantage with a fleet of hitters that are all maybe a touch above league average, but not much.
In other words, this offense is put together with a bunch of so-so guys who can get the job down when they work in concert, all orbiting around the planet gassed by Arreola and Moreland. It can work. At least we think it can work much better than it did last season—but, then, that’s not saying a lot. The problem here is that there are no boppers to be seen—leaving Arreola, Morland, and DH Dani Lopez (8/6/7/6/7 Ratings) as the only real sources of power on the team. Lopez is still a quality hitter, but at 32, he’s a lefty masher and merely okay against RHP—something that suggests those days may be coming to an end.
GARDE: A Workmanlike C+. Would be better if Lopez could hit, but CF is a tough place to find “League average” … whatever that is.
THE ROTATION:
Ragnar Lothbrok (9/6/8 Ratings) showed the world that he’s a fantastic young pitcher last season, posting a 7-7 record against a 3.96 ERA for a team that was going nowhere—which showed that Ragnar Lothbrok (9/6/8 Ratings) needed help. He got some in the form of Elwood Blues (9/6/6 Ratings), who converted to a starter in mid-season and gave reasonable service. Look for him to be in the rotation to start 2035 unless something else comes up.
After that the plot thickens. Or thins, as it were.
You’ve still got Don Bird (7/6/5 Ratings), who has thrown some serviceable innings when you judges by ERA, but who has struggled mightily by the FIP-o-meter. Jujlio Negrete (28) has had several years to prove he’s not getting the job, but at least he’s cheap. Ramon “Pizza” Hernandez is likewise as effective, but at $8M-per, not cheap. Flight 93 stadium is a particular hell for a RHP like Negrete, who struggles against LHB anyway. There are other options in the traditional SP ranks, including Rule V pick up Johnny Tucker (6/6/7 Ratings), but none that make most anyone’s heart go pitter patter. Given that the club is in a financial straight-jacket, one is tempted to wonder if the team might get creative and find a rotation spot for a bullpen guy or two, just as a flier anyway.
I mean, what can go wrong that isn’t already doing so?
Aside: Ramon Hernandez (9/6/5 Ratings) and his 101 MPH fastball – Good candidate for a true reliver conversion? Discuss.
GRADE: I mean, who knows? This group needs a lot of work and a little luck, but there’s enough here to see them skimp by for a year. Lothbrok alone keeps it from being totally mired in the horrendous. Maybe. Still, we’ll go with base sanity and call it a D.
BULLPEN:
I think the bottom line is that you have to like the Kernel’s bullpen a bit. You’ve got guys like Colt Anderson (10/6/7 Ratings), who might close or might be a stopper or might just start. Enrique Vazquez (9/7/7 Ratings) and Gilberto Tovar (10/6/6 Ratings) make what could be a pretty deadly LOOGY/ROOGY duo. 26 year old Patrick Pratchett can pitch a little, and though Kernel baseball folks are still waiting for that stuff to come fully in, he has his moments. Rafael Cruz (8/5/8 Ratings) is another LOOGY kind of guy. The team will certainly give 21-year-old Rule 5 selection Yashuhiro Aoki a serious trial, and you have to love his stuff. If the 5 MOV will play, he could stick.
The full truth, though, is that while it seems there’s enough her to be effective, there’s not enough here to be effective ALL THE TIME. It’s also going to be suspect to injury, as depth might be a problem.
The Kernels have three really interesting closer prospects, but all of them are a season or more away.
OVERALL:
The Kernels are not as bad as they looked last year, but they’re probably not as good as their fans are hoping they’ll be this year—which is a key. The front office clearly doesn’t want to deal Arreola and Moreland (which would be a knee-jerk reaction that many GMs would have. But with a tight budget and $16M tied up in Ernesto Chavez (5/6/4/6/8 Ratings) and Ramon Hernandez (9/6/5 Ratings), they need to find a way to keep fans coming to the stadium if they’re going to be able to make the kinds of roster moves they’ll need to make to become competitive with their Heartland brothers.
News that they are building onto Flight 93 ballpark suggests they’re working on that.
Still, the question becomes “how many wins will this team win this year?” The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind. Unfortunately, the wind I hear says 71 wins.
