2010 Marquette Suns Preview

[Edward Murphy]

Catchers

Lusi Manuel Berrera is a 12 year veteran, and the one thing you can’t count on from Luis is power. He cleared the fence on 12 home runs last season. No reason to believe that he will improve on those numbers this season. Last season, Lusi played in 142 games with .226 batting avg and 66 RBI’s.

Looking to fill the backup catcher role will fall onto Eric Melton. Eric will be a rookie catcher in 2010. Eric has an outstanding arm and defense rating. If the Marquette Suns have patience with Eric’s low production at the plate for a year or two, it will pay off with a solid catcher.

Outfielders

Christopher Terry post-concussion syndrome did a number on Christopher and he made it on the field for only 117 games. The partial season is nothing new here since Christopher has struggled with injuries in past seasons. It was surprising to see him hit so well for such an extended period of time.

Thomas Katongo came to the Suns via a trade with the Omaha Barnstormers in early July. At age 25, Thomas’s calling card is his elite defense which will get him playing time at the corners. At the plate, the lefty swinger is a pull hitter who does a nice job of making solid contact and he is good on the bases.

Brad Sharples is a free swinger coming off a rough year. He always has and always will have a high strikeout rate, but he does generate a good amount of power when he does make contact. He runs the bases well and gets a little leeway offensively because of his strong defensive play in left field.

Infielder

Jason MacKinney is an average hitter and fielder. He is the type of player you can count on and he has average contact and gap power with the ability to hit many doubles.

The Sun kept Hank Felicetti primarily at second base last season, but this season we may see Hank playing all infield positions. Hank is not a major power source for the Suns. Add it all up and you are looking at a Multi position guy with average cost to the team payroll.

Fraser Dobson is a terrific defender and a patient man at the dish, but it’s hard to imagine the Suns making a long term commitment to a first sacker who is slugging .539 last seasons. Maybe some power is on the way this season for Fraser and we could see him hit 20 plus homeruns.

Fredrick Simon is one of the Suns few young hitters who could still be part of the team when it starts to win again. He is a dead pull hitter with decent power. He has a good approach at the plate working a few walks and generally swings freely with 123 strike outs last season.

Pitchers

Michael Strathallan is a strikeout pitcher more than 180 strikeouts for each of the last three years. He has vastly improved his control over the last three years. This season his ERA could move closer to 3.25 than 3.75 though asking for 18 wins again is a lot. At age 26, he still is developing and has a huge second half of his career ahead of him. He is an Ace.

Cliff Parker gives the Suns mid rotation strength after Michael Strathallan. He gives the team good numbers but nothing spectacular. He doesn’t strike out a ton of batters and doesn’t give up many home runs. He is a perfectly evenhanded pitcher what you see is what you get.

Aaron Miller was claimed off the waivers last season and went 2-7 in 11 starts with a 7.60 ERA. Aaron will give you a lot of innings, but will be a hit or miss in the win-loss column. A nice fill in pitcher, until some of the Suns prospects develop.

Tom Hill was traded to the Suns from Omaha. This will be Tom’s first season at the major league level in triple A, he posted a 3.73 ERA with 108k’s in 161.2 inning pitched.

Sean McVeagh was tapped for the EBA league. When Sean was in London, he started in 75 games with a 38-34 record. In one season in London, he was placed in a closer roll and had 37 saves with 101K’s in 71.0 innings pitched. The Suns have put a key piece in their pitching staff with Sean, but, I don’t know how may save opportunities he will get because the rest of the pen may give up to many runs.

The Marquette Suns still have some key pieces missing from the complete puzzle picture. I feel that they will generate approximately 75 wins this season, and on occasion may play spoiler role against playoff bound teams.

[trmmilwwi]

Thanks for the kind review... it would have been ok for you to completely lay into the team. 75 wins may be a bit high for the squad but I'll take it... Simon is getting a bit long in the tooth but he may have a year or 2 left. My outfield with Sharples and Terry (he'll be a DH upon his return) could be interesting to say the least.