CHARLOTTE, NC - On an unusually sunny November day, Jesus Gutierrez, Ken Kerfoot & Bob Sturm all said 'goodbye' to baseball. Three more faces from a franchise that once spent more time winning than losing have left us. And left us with.... what exactly?
"It's a mess," one season ticket holder told us. "I can't tell which guys are supposed to give us hope, because none of them seem any good to me."
Who can blame the fans for their pessimism? Out of the 10 teams in the Patriot League, the Aviators finished dead last in Runs Scored, Batting Average, On Base Percentage, Bullpen ERA, and Defensive Efficiency. They also allowed the 9th most runs and had the 9th worst Starters ERA. When one team is so bad in all three facets of the game (Hitting, Pitching, Defense), there really is nowhere to go but up. But how does one go up, exactly?
"It takes a lot of patience. Winning is a culture we once had, but it crumbled," team manager Chappy told us in a recent interview. "We need to restore that culture."
Team attendance peaked in the team's first year, when they drew 3.9 million fans. That number dipped to around 3.4 million during the team's sophomore slump, but held strong between 3.7 million and 3.5 million from 2017 to 2020. When the bottom fell out in 2021, the fans still showed up at a decent rate (over 2.6 million). But as the team continued to struggle and the bigger stars were traded away, the fans vanished. NC drew under 1 million fans in 2023 and just over 1 million this past season.
The Next Generation
The Aviators have the #4 ranked minor league system in the AFBL, and that doesn't include #1 overall pick Bob Fisher or any other picks from the amatuer draft currently taking place. Hoping to fill some seats late in the season, the club called up several of their top prospects last September. It was an audition for the players, and a glimpse at the future for the fans. But there was little buzz or hope generated from the stunt.
Top prospect Ahilocana Gopalakrishnan, affectionately referred to as "Goppy" by the fans, rolled through rookie league (.380) and had no trouble handling AAA pitchers (.301), but managed just 16 hits in 27 starts for the Aviators (.154).
"As the #1 overall pick in last year's draft, I think he should have been more of a threat at the plate," one fan said. Goppy managed just 1 extra-base hit, a triple, during his call-up.
Rod Mosley, the #1 overall pick in 2022, made more of an impact in his big-league debut. Mosley, a big-time star in college, hit .250 in 20 games (14 starts) with 5 doubles. Still, fans who wanted to see the 22-year-old go deep were left disappointed. Mosley had 21 homers between Greensboro (AA) and Raleigh (AAA), but none in the bigs.
Top pitching prospect Lars-Bjorn Grundvig's debut was worst of all. Grundvig was 9-6 with a 3.81 ERA for the Raleigh Explorers, but 0-7 with an ERA of 8.77 in 9 outings including 5 starts for the Aviators.
It is not all doom and gloom for North Carolina. 25-year-old SP Ruben Soto is coming off of a 9-14, 3.73 season and looks like he has the potential to be a beast at the top of the rotation some day. Don Wilson, once the young phenom on a veteran staff, is now the veteran and default staff ace He's been in the big forever and is not even 30 yet. He lost 20 games last year but most of that was due to poor run support. 22-year-old Chris Beard was 7-15 with a 4.33 ERA in his first full season. 21-year-old Jorge Luna was 4-6 with a 4.27 ERA in 17 starts as a rookie. The staff is young and developing nicely. It's at the plate where the biggest mysteries lie.
23-year-old outfielder Kevin Howard hit 37 homers in his 2nd big league season, although his .216 average is cause for alarm. Jerry King, another young slugging outfielder, missed the entire season with an injury suffered in spring training. He hit just .199 with 21 homers as a rookie in 2023, but big things are expected from him if he is fully recovered for 2025. Mexican phenom Slappy Orozco was an under-the-radar hit for the Aviators last season. He hit .250 and led the team with 35 doubles and 36 steals while playing nice D at second base. At 19, he's one of the youngest players on a young team.
And so the time has come for the youth to begin their upward swing. To bring hope back to North Carolina. Because without hope, the Aviators will never take flight.