Let’s face it, the Pacific Division is in ruins right now. With Portland still mired in their expansion fugue state, San Fernando disintegrating before our eyes, and Long Beach doing whatever Long Beach is doing, well … add in Seattle and Valencia seeming to be in a steady-state of under-performance, and you get the idea. The BNN Pre-season projections have the Heartland burying the Pacific by 70 games. Who are we to argue?
Bottom line: It won’t take a whole lot to do well in the Pacific, and, luckily for fans of the Hawaii Tropics, their club has more than a whole lot going on.
This is a team that’s mostly young, and mostly good, fueled by some of the better pitching in the league, starting, of course, with Alaric Wullenweber, who probably needs only to avoid injury to win a Nebraska or three over the next decade. Yes, there’s good competition out there for that award, but Wullenweber is a startlingly brilliant pitcher with four elite pitches he can throw forever. He didn’t win the Gilstrom last year, but it’s arguable that this is only true because we just don’t look at pitchers for that award. He’s brilliant. Add him to Zak Johnson and Jim Wilkenson, and you’ve got a convoy. Oh, yeah…there’s that Steven Taub guy who, at 27 would be the grand-daddy of the group if it weren’t for Maxime Manceau, who is 31 but can still pitch. Those last two combined to go 27-20 last year. Not bad from your #4 and #5, right?
The bullpen is five deep in solid guys, and has a decent collection of second-liners in reserve.
In other words, it’s a staff built to withstand a few nicks and scratches if they come, and there’s even a few guys in the minors who could throw in a pinch if really needed.
So, yeah. The pitching is elite, and elite pitching will go a long way towards making hay in this league. Or any league, for that matter.
Offensively, however, the team struggled last year, scoring only 818 runs in an environment filled with them. This was worse than anyone not Omaha, Long Beach, or Portland. Despite having a decent chunk of salary cap space, the club didn’t seem to do a lot to improve themselves—though admittedly the Free Agent market is a bit of a crap shoot, so who can say that’s bad, right?
Well, I’ll tell you who can say it. The fans, that’s who.
Fans want to see moving and shaking. Rubbin’s Racing, you know? If you ain’t cheatin’ you ain’t tryin’. Blah, blah, blah.
There is, of course, some good news here.
The outfield could be almost okay. I mean, Mike Campbell is a bonafide major leaguer in right, and if Michel Noel could be platooned, he’d probably be a positive WAR guy in center. Jose Camacho is a major league hitter with a Quad-A glove in left. If the staff can strike out enough guys, maybe you can hide the glove with a replacement in the late innings. Bottom line, as a LF he makes a better DH—which is why Yellow Springs dealt him in the first place. Still…he’s a plus to the team that really wasn’t’ there last year.
And you’ve got to like the young infield with Ernest McBride at first, Jack Nichols at second, and Gary Allen at third. If Fernando Rodriguez can’t handle the defensive chores at short, the team has a few guys they can swap out in the later innings to augment the bullpen. Add in the ever-beloved Ettienne Lafitte at either first or as a DH, and you’ve got a collection of infielders who give you a bit of a workaday feel—guys who mostly just get the job done and move on.
I admit I like that in a team.
This is a sport where simply being “average” everywhere can win a lot of games.
The catching slot is kind of a hole, though. To be honest, I half-figured that either Francisco Flores or Luis Barerra would wind up here. One of those two guys would have probably made a difference, because I don’t expect any of the four guys the Tropics put through spring training are going to be game changers, though both Enrique Dominguez and Jacob Brown have nice arms.
At the end of the day, though, the offense should be better by the end of 2042 than it is at the beginning simply because most of the club is young and growing. If they make the post season, which they probably will if the pitching stays semi-healthy, the Tropics could be dangerous.
Hawaii won 82 games last year. Given that their pitching is deeper and their offense is growing, I’d bump them up a few games. Adding in that they play in a division that seems to be going more backward than forward right now, I’ll bump them a few more.
If things go really, really well, this is a Cinderella team to take the division, but let's take a deep breath and stay focused on the luau ... say 89 wins and—with the Heartland eating itself up—a very dangerous post season spot.
