Maryland Bridegrooms 2036 Post-Season Run
It?s a season that no one will ever forget as perennial doormats Maryland Bridegrooms escaped from Mountain View Ballpark with the Federation Cup and high-tailed it directly to the airport with minimal celebrations before AFBL officials could change their minds about what they had just witnessed.
This 2036 ?Grooms team was already the best in franchise history prior to the playoffs, posting a club record 91 wins and qualifying for the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. Prior to this season Maryland was the only club in the AFBL to never qualify for the playoffs. Then, to have captured the Federation Cup on the road in Game 9 against the 6-time champions, ?Grooms fans were in absolute dreamland, wondering if what they had just seen was real.
The seeds for this historic victory began in 2029. A young, hard-throwing forkballer from Puerto Rico named Ernesto Candelaria and second baseman and former 2024 first-round pick Earl Whitehead were making their AFBL debuts on a Maryland club that was in the third year of 5-straight 100-loss seasons.
The club selected Cedric Boyd with the #1 overall pick in the First-Year Player Draft that year. It was a bit of a joke, actually. Management thought it would be funny to have a lineup filled with relentless left-handed batters and a pitching staff of just right-handed pitchers. That was the actual mentality in the front office. And, insanely, it kind of worked.
For over a decade from 2022-2034 the Bridegrooms completed just two trades. In both trades they sent long-suffering stud pitchers to the team they would eventually defeat for the Cup in 2036. In 2022 they sent SP Kevin Reynolds to the Bears and in 2032 it was Jeremy Emery. Part of the return for Emery, 22-year old starter Ruben Aguilera, struck out 167 batters in 158 AA innings for Ocean City Crabpots last season.
After completing just two trades in over a decade, Maryland completed four bold trades in 2035 that directly contributed to the 2036 championship, essentially taking a torch to part of the farm system to bring in a couple of pitchers and a couple of power bats who paid huge dividends in the playoff run.
In early April 2035 Maryland sent stud SP prospect Juan Guevara to Idaho for SP Bob Parker and SP Greg Green. Parker has been a consistent part of the rotation since 2035 with 22 wins over 2 seasons and went on to have a 12-10 season in 2036 with 3.7 WAR before going 3-2 with a 4.39 ERA in 6 playoff starts. Green, who can touch 98MPH, spent 2036 at AAA and will get a look as a bullpen piece in Spring Training 2037.
The Bridegrooms then completed two trades with the New Jersey Athletics. In the first, 1B prospect Alex Carter went to the Garden State for power-hitting C Eric Martin and veteran SP Jose Rosario. Rosario ate up some innings at the end of last season but has been a non-factor since. Eric Martin was clutch in Maryland?s 2036 playoff run in a way that will make him a hero forever among the faithful. Martin went .263/.349/.513 in 21 starts with 5 home runs and 20 RBI through the playoffs as part of a relentless Bridegrooms offense.
The second trade with NJ was pricey ? C Bob Holmes, CF Chris Jones and a draft pick were shipped up Route 95 for left-handed SP Stan Harrell (who will be challenging for a AFBL spot in 2037) and 3B Steve Thomas (who played a backup role during the 2036 season and was on the playoff roster for the entire run).
The final trade was a huge one, lefty SP Tim Thompson and power-hitting RF Jose Cervantes came in to Baltimore from the Georgia Titans in exchange for Jeff Arellano, Tony Rios, Akihiro Sato, and a draft pick. Southpaw Thompson has become an integral part of the Maryland rotation, going 14-11 with 3.75 ERA and 2.7 WAR in 2036 as the ?different-look? pitcher before throwing 16 serviceable innings in the postseason. Thompson went to the bullpen after the conclusion of the first round. In total, he started two playoff games and came out of the bullpen for five. 6-time All-Star Cervantes led the team with 27 home runs during the regular season and was extremely cool under pressure in game-changing spots during the postseason run going .283/.411/.500 with 3 HR and 11 RBI.
But these playoffs will always be remembered for 1B Bob Houston. Now, forever, Bob ?Effin?? Houston to Colorado fans. Houston was a former first round pick (6th overall) in the 2026 draft and has been a solid player for the club since breaking through in 2030 in the 2.2-3.5 WAR/season range. From 2032-35 he was the starting first baseman for the Bridegrooms but in 2036 he was displaced by 4th-round draft pick Alain Dubreuil which caused some tension in the clubhouse. In the playoffs all he did was go .400/.455./1.000 with 5 HR and 15 RBI in just 33 plate appearances, including a Grand Slam on the first pitch he saw in the top of the 7th inning of Game 9 of the Federation Cup series against the Bears.
Candelaria, now 30, is a veteran of 8 AFBL seasons and went 2-1 in 5 starts with 24 strikeouts in 29.1 playoff innings. Whitehead, also 30, took over the starting second base role in the middle of the playoffs from struggling Eric Hill and was excellent when making contact, hitting .349/.348/.442.
Boyd, who won his second consecutive Patriot League batting title in 2036, posted a .359/.368/.576 line in 95 playoff plate appearances with 5 home runs and 23 RBI.
