Springfield Mallards 36-40 (Short season A)
For the first time since 2041 the Mallards finished below .500 for the year, abet only two games and if they’d have performed to their expected record, they would have been one game over .500. A 12-15 record in June gave way to an 13-14 record in July and a 3-7 record over the last 10 games of the season dropped our August record to 11-11. The pitchers did their best, Springfield were 4th in the SL2 with only 645 hits allowed and 5th in runs allowed with 364. The Hitters scored 380 runs, which unfortunately was only good enough for 9th in the SL2, our defence was reasonable too, our defensive efficiency was .680, third overall in the SL2, and our ZR of +6.2 was 5th overall.
Ismael Gonzalez, El Paso’s 2045 fourth round pick, had a good first pro year as he went 8-2 in his 13 starts. He allowed just 28 runs & seven homers in 77 innings pitched. Guillermo Roman signed in May as a minor league FA had a 2-3 record with 14 saves in the 36 outings out of the bullpen. He allowed just four homers while striking out 56 batters in 63.2 IP. King of the K’s though was 2045 18th round draft pick Johnny Martin who struck out 91 batters in just 77.1 innings, a K/9 ratio of 10.59.
The Sultan of the Swing was Vincente Diaz, his .277/.429/.511 led the team in all three categories as well as his nine homers, 50 RBI and 94 total bases. Dan Knight, a 2042 third rounder, has bounced around a bit between the levels and at 25-yrs-old he needs to move up quickly. He played in 66 of Mallard’s 76 games, walking 51 times and stealing 30 bases. Springfield weren’t big on running, only 25 attempts, but were successful on 20 of those attempts. Only three players were tagged out stealing, two of them twice.
