New Jersey Athletics Season 2013

[mikezone13]

With Spring Training out of the way it's been a great run for New Jersey. While the pundits have the Athletics tipped to challenge for the league title the lack of offense could prove costly, especially if the rotation gets struck down with injury.

However an 18-6 record in ST has confidence high in the club, but hopefully not too high. We all know the pennant isn't won in March, not even June, it's going to be a long season ahead.

Promising signs for the Athletics during ST were:
- Conceding the least runs of all 16 AFBL teams (74, Texas next best at 83)
- Scoring the second highest amount of runs in the AFBL (153 to Indiana's 162, with North Carolina third with 120)
- Four shutouts
- Veteran starter Bob Thompson going 5-0 from 5 starts
- Star SP Jorge Sepulveda pitching 20 innings without giving up a single earned run (2-0 record, OAVG .106)
- Starting rotation going 13-3, with Thompson, Sepulveda and Soto not losing any games
- Team ERA of 2.93, giving up an average of just .214 and 17 HRs
- Team batting average of .291, OBP .351
- Dan Swain with a league leading 29 hits and 18 RBIs with a .362 average

While we know that the Athletics' GM, Mike Trigwell, is focusing on pitching and the defence, he will have been excited by how well his hitters performed. Especially with Swain and Joe Hunter leading the RBI table (18 and 17 respectively).

The rumours coming out of New Jersey are that there won't be many surprises when the GM names his 25 man active roster, with the only contentious decisions around the pitcher versus position player split and the mix of outfielders versus infielders.

One player in particular who will be vying for one of the bench spots in the outfield is Joe Ross and with the ability to play first base the veteran has to be a good chance, this is what he had to say "I've done everything I can to put my hand up to get a spot on the team, it's all in the GMs hands now. Hopefully he appreciates the effort I've put in and can see how I can contribute to the team".

It's not long now until the roster is revealed for the long away trip taking in Ontario, New York, Ohio and Massachusetts.

[mikezone13]

The End of Spring Training - The Demotions

Some tough choices were made around the halls of the Athletics organisation today.

GM Mike Trigwell decided on an 11 pitcher and 14 position player split.

Carlos LeBlanc has held off youngster Kevin Nelson for the starting 2B spot, while young Josh Talley gets the start at 3B ahead of Bo Morris.

With Raul Dias out injured 6 outfielders have been named, led by Martik Geboyan and Bob Briggs.

Powerful youngster 1B Elvis Lowe missed the cut and has been dropped to AAA in the only major surprise.

[mikezone13]

April - A Solid Start With More to Come

While the month of April proved to be one full of personal accolades with Jorge Sepulveda winning the pitcher of the month and Joe Hunter winning the batter of the month, the team stats looked solid but getting the all important wins proved to be tough.

The team came through the difficult trip away to start the season but seemed to lose the pop when finally getting to play at home, losing to league leaders Kentucky 9-5 despite taking a 5-2 lead into the 6th inning.

As expected the Patriot League is proving to be a pitchers league and while Sepulveda leads the way with a 5-0 record, many starters are making their mark, especially Steve Lloyd of the West Virginia Hollers who has a 3-1 record and a 1.55 ERA with the bottom team in the league.

On the lineup front the youngsters Kevin Nelson and Josh Talley seem to have fought off the challenge for the starting 2B and 3B spots respectively despite both struggling with the bat during the first handful of games.

Another youngster looking to impress is Dave Boyer who has been elevated to the #4 starting spot from the bullpen after a suspension to Luis Soto.

There are definitely many things to look forward to next month as the numbers being recorded by some individuals are very impressive, below we provide a quick rundown of the stats for the Athletics for the month of April.

Pitching Highlights
Jorge Sepulveda 5-0, 2.15 ERA, 51Ks
Stan Craft 2-2, 2.25 ERA
Opponents average of .219 lowest in the AFBL
ERA of 3.10 lowest in the AFBL

Batting Highlights
Three players hit over .300 Martik Geboyan .324, Eric Peters .323 and Dan Swain .304
Joe Hunter leads the Patriot League in HRs (11) and RBIs (26)
Most HRs (33) in the Patriot League
Average of .264, 2nd highest in the Patriot League
Stolen bases 25, highest in the Patriot League

The month of May begins with the second in a 3 game series against Massachusetts with Sepulveda putting his unbeaten record on the line followed by 3 more home games against current playoff rival Ohio.

[mikezone13]

May - 17-12 But Production is Down

Jorge Sepulveda and Joe Hunter both set out at the start of May looking likely to win back-to-back player of the month awards. Jorge got to 8-0 from 10 starts and was looking invincible until the 22nd of May when the West Virginia Hollers kept our hitters quiet and triumphed 3-2 to give Jorge his first loss of the year. This loss was followed up by yet another in his next start, a 2-0 loss at Kentucky.

The main reasons behind both of Jorge's losses were the lack of production from the batting lineup. The entire infield, except Hunter, should be highly disappointed with their output and it's only the great defense that they bring that is keeping the likes of Josh Talley (.155 in May), Dax Taylor (.184 in May) and even Kevin Nelson (.244 in May) in the starting lineup.

For Joe Hunter though it's another story, he added another 9 HRs and 26 RBIs to comfortably lead the Patriot League in both categories (by 7 HRs and 15RBIs) and won his second consecutive Batter of the Month award. He looked to slip up in the middle third of the month but rattled off 5 HRs and 11RBIs in his last 11 games.

On the pitching front, with Sepulveda not getting the wins we all expected it was time for someone else to step up, and this time it was the wily old veterans Bob Thompson (4-2 in May) and Dave West (4-0 in May).

All of the pitchers did play their part though with 4 of our starting rotation having ERAs below 2.00 for the month of May, while the entire pitching staff only had a 2.70 ERA for the month.

They say that pitching wins championships and at the moment New Jersey has a Championship calibre rotation and the 'pen is stepping up, but the lack of production from the lineup should be cause for concern.

Moving into June New Jersey finishes a 4 game series at neighbours New York already with a 2-0 record this series and a 7-1 season lead. Six games against North Carolina (3H and 3A), who are starting to fly and another 4 game series at pennant rivals Ohio will be pivotal in shaping the Athletics as either a true pennant contender or a team destined to fight for a playoff spot, honestly though, anything less should be considered a failed season.

Back next month with more on your Athletics.

[mikezone13]

June - 13-15 Where has all the love gone?

A disastrous end to the month for the Athletics as they lost their first place in the league to Ohio and find themselves in a scrap with North Carolina, Kentucky and Massachusetts for one of the two wildcard spots on offer.

At least the side can rely on Jorge Sepulveda who once again collected the pitcher of the month, his second of the season, after going 3-1 with a 1.65 ERA in his 6 starts.

On the batting side it was just more woe, even though the Athletics initiated a trade with cross-border rival New York to acquire outfielders Mayfield and Pacheco in exchange for Briggs and young prospect Legarth this had negligible effect on the overall output of the team.

Talley (.307, 6HR, 16RBI) and Swain (.300) were the only hitters to step forward with decent numbers, with the whole lineup hitting a paltry .224 and posting only a .296 onbase % for the entire month.

If this production keeps up the GM will have to look to move some of the non-performers on, in this regard I'm talking about players like Dax Taylor who managed to only just hit .200 for the month and has not had a decent run at the plate all season and Martik Geboyan who only managed the team average .224 in the leadoff spot.

July sees the All-Star break arrive and an opportunity for those not selected to reflect on how they are going to change their performances to push the Athletics further up the ladder.

[mikezone13]

The regular season is over and the Athletics have managed to grab a playoff spot. after a great start to the season June, July and August were dismal before the team started firing in September with a 19-8 record to finish the regular season.

Looking back over the year making the playoffs was an impressive feat, LF Raul Dias went down for 9-10 months during spring training and then SP Dave Boyer missed all of September and won't be seen until 2014. That's two of the top 5 picks from the inaugural draft missing a combined 7 months of baseball.

The star for the Athletics was definitely Jorge Sepulveda, the #3 pick in the inaugural draft picked up 22 wins, 268Ks and a 2.23 ERA to win the pitching triple crown, all despite not getting a decision in his last two starts.

Jorge was supported by veteran Bob Thompson who notched up 15 wins and just 7 losses, including a league leading 15 game unbeaten streak from Mid May to early August.

On the offensive side 1B Joe Hunter led the Patriot League in home runs and RBIs, however his dismal average of .218 will ensure he doesn't get many votes in the end of season awards. Unfortunately we didn't make the most of Joe's power hitting with only Martik Geboyan excelling in getting on base. Geboyan was an expert in his selection of what to swing at, and he managed 130 base on balls, 16 more than his nearest competitor in the AFBL. Couple this with a .295 batting average and Geboyan was by far the stand out for OBP in the entire AFBL at .426.

The infield youngsters Talley and Nelson will be much better in 2014 after a season of experience under the belt, but we have to be worried abotu Dax Taylor who had a terrible season (.225 average), however in signs of what he can do, his last 11 games have provided 16 hits, significantly better than his season average of .225).

[mikezone13]

A year to remember and forget...

A year that started out so promising (15-12 and 17-12 in April and May) fell flat before being resurrected with a September run of 19-8. The visit of the Athletics to the playoffs was similar, 2-0 down after the away trip to North Carlina some great pitching from Bob Thompson and Jorge Sepulveda ensured a 5th game decider back in North Carolina.

The home advantage was more than enough with Norberto Leon keeping our hitters quiet and Dave West providing an inept display of pitching, offering up fluffy marshmallows for White, Alfaro, Chavez and Wright to hit out of the park - a 4-0 loss in game 5 was not how we want the season to be defined, however it is what will stick in everyone's memory.

While New Jersey definitely had the rotation to threaten, behind the supreme skills of Triple Crown Winner, Sepulveda and his elderly, but trusty sidekick Bob Thompson. The truth is the injury suffered by up and coming star Dave Boyer, the ineffective bullpen performance added to inconsistent offensive production meant the Athletics were unable to play to their undoubted potential.

Apart from Sepulveda and Thompson, Stan Craft really stood up on the mound, he covered for the poorer performances by Dave West, who is could just be in the market to contact the removalists.

In the bullpen, Sturm, Benton (mid-season acquisition from Ohio) and Hynes can look back on having a decent year, however Sato and Ortega went a combined 3-13, not acceptable from a championship chasing organisation.

Yes there were positives on the offensive side, Josh Talley and Kevin Nelson both saw significant game time and the youngsters will be much better off in 2014 with a year of experience under their belt. Martik Geboyan and Joe Hunter can also stand proud with both leading the Patriot League in a few categories (Geboyan OBP and WAR, Hunter HRs and RBIs).

The biggest disappointment was Dax Taylor at short stop. Defensively quite solid, but offensively, nowhere to be seen. He picked it up in September though and hopefully that's a sign of things to come in 2014 as a guy with his talent should be producing more.

A special mention needs to be made of OF Tim Mayfield. Hitting .233 with an OBP of .275 he came to New Jersey from the Big Brother neighbour, New York. He hit .289 with 15 home runs after the trade proving a very shrewd pickup as did Ignacio Pacheco who come as part of the same package, hitting .325 with a .400 OBP in his 40 at bats predominantly as a pinch hitter.

The outlook for 2014 is pretty good, Dave Boyer will be back fit and only youngster Juan Martinez will be an injury worry, as we speak, heading into opening day. Some improvement and/or trades in the bullpen and some consistent contact with the bat will see NJ fighting at the top of the PL standings once again.

[mikezone13]

New Personnel

It's been a busy end to 2013 in New Jersey with starting pitcher Dave West moving on to California in package deal that sees, currently injured reliever Byron Newbold make his way to the Athletics.

Byron will become the first Australian to wear the pinstripes and is sure to have some rival banter with his New Zealand GM when the Bledisloe Cup is played. Although, in the middle of August we all hope both Byron and Mike will have all of their focus on making a push for playoffs and a shot at the division championship.

Rumours out of New Jersey are that further dealing is going to happen, with a replacement for West in the rotation being sought as well as a short term improvement in the outfield being priorities to make the Athletics a stronger contender in 2014.