NJ Athletics 2015 Season

[mikezone13]

Onwards and Upwards
That's the theme heading into Spring Training this year. The disappointment felt at bowing out in the playoffs before the big game has subsided and everyone, including injured stars, Geboyan, Sepulveda and Thompson are back to get the Athletics to the big game.

No off-season trades, yet, and after the major transaction of 2014 saw Iganacio Garlez and Jeff Fowler move from Arizona to New Jersey there is unlikely to be any major action this season.

The Athletics take 32 players into Spring Training with very few positions open or under debate on the 25 man roster.

The one interesting player at ST will be catcher Jeff Neilsen. Long touted as a star, the 22 year old has the spot open with Dan Swain moving to Arizona in aforementioned deal. Neilsen will be battling it out with long term backup Jerry Braun and Joe Hunter after veteran Ben Cross was kept in Wilmington.

Spring will also see the fight for the #4 and #5 spots in the rotation. With Thompson back fit, he and Sepulveda are automatic. The #3 spot should go to Dave Boyer while Ron Pratt, Stan Craft and Juan Martinez battle it out for the last two positions.

While ST is a chance to get rid of the rust, it's also imperative that the big performers get through unscathed. The Athletics' depth will be tested this year, however if everyone stays fit they definitely have one of the best rosters in the AFBL.

[mikezone13]

Spring Training - Sleepy GM and Woeful Bats

Spring Training was expected to be a time for the Athletics to warm themselves up for a shot at the Patriot League title in 2015. However GM Mike inexplicably went on leave during the first 2 weeks and left roster notes with his assistant, the only problem was the roster notes were all jumbled and none of the well thought out plans got implemented.

Back for the second half of ST and the damage had been done, the hitters weren't hitting and the pitchers were struggling.

We expected to see plenty of battles in Spring Training, firstly for not just one, but two catcher spots on the roster. Jeff Neilsen did manage to hit a home run, but he hit well below .200 as did both Braun and Hunter. In a really tough call Neilsen will get his chance in the big leagues with Hunter playing backup.

The other big talking point was how to fit 6 quality starters into a 5 man rotation, well the unlucky guy was Juan Martinez who has been put in the bullpen. However there is a major concern over the ageing Bob Thompson who having just hit 40y/o got pelted everywhere in ST. GM Mike has stated that if any starter has an ERA over 4.00 at the end of April Martinez will get his chance.

Another major disappointment with the bat was Tim Mayfield. A major star in 2014, he couldn't even hit .190 in ST and managed just one long ball. His competition, Elvis Lowe, didn't fare much better, but his 3 home runs means he's knocking on the door if Mayfield keeps this up.

The final battle was for the last OF bench spot between Jones, Pacheco and Peters... after the form with the bat of both Peters and Jones it looks like Pacheco may just find himself in AAA to start the season.

The good news story with the bat was Dax Taylor, .433 average was just great for permanent SS in the team. This is a fantastic follow on from hitting .272 in 2014 and should set him up for another strong season.

So, at the end of spring, nothing to really write home about, but as we know, you don't win the championship in spring. Injuries not withstanding we expect another playoff spot, and given a bit of luck a charge into the league championship game.

[mikezone13]

A Star Is Born

Jeff Nielsen, what a start to his AFBL career. In his debut game against Ohio he goes 3 for 5 and gets his first career RBI. When the first 9 games are done he's collected 4 doubles, 7 RBIs and a .355 average.

The only downside being three errors. However his player of the game performance against Ontario where he went 3 from 4 with 2 doubles and 3RBIs is a sign of what he can deliver.

[mstreeter06]

Sounds like we need the DH 

[mikezone13]

Sounds like we need the DH 

While I believe the DH woudl help me immensely (I could fit both Lowe and Mayfield into the lineup), I'm still against it for our league.

[mikezone13]

April - Solid as Beginning's Go

So April is done and the Athletics sit atop the standings tied with North Carolina.

Martik Geboyan has been the star , the leadout man has hit .402 and got on base once in every two at bats. Sepulveda just continues to be Sepulveda, going 3-0 in his first 6 starts, while Ron Pratt has also continued his fine form from last season going 3-1 from 5 starts with a 2.55 ERA. Outfielders Jeff Fowler and Ignacio Garlez have also hit the round ground running and put up some positive numbers to start off the year.

The main area of concern has been the bullpen, and especially Pat Benton. Questions are being asked as to whether or not Pat's slump (11.57 ERA in 9.1 IP) is just a short term form issue or if his 35y/o arm is starting to crumble. The next month or two will likely provide the answer here.

With the bat the ageing Carlos LeBlanc has also started out slowly after his blistering 2014 season.

Jeff Nielsen has been the name on all Athletics' fans lips though. The youngster has made a solid start to his ML career without being overwhelmingly great. Jeff managed to collect his first home run, although he did go through a quiet patch with the bat he is on a 4 game hit streak. Jeff's work behind the plate can be summed up by one word "inconsistent", while he's thrown out 3 runners, he's also been credited with 4 errors in just 25 games, second highest in the league amongst catchers so far.

Taking the momentum into May will be crucial, however the team will be without the talented Tim Mayfield (out for 5-6 weeks) which means Elvis Lowe will get a chance to cement his spot at first base.

[mikezone13]

Milestone!

Jorge Sepulveda was the first player in AFBL history to bring up 50 wins, and he did it in style. Pitching a complete game and giving up just 2 runs from 7 hits, Jorge took his record for the year to 5-0.

While Sepulveda hasn't started has hot in previous years' he's steadily warming to the task.

With a career ERA+ of 172 and 50 wins and just 11 losses Jorge continues to bamboozle the opposition hitters.

[mstreeter06]

Awesome. He definitely deserves to have that honor.

[mikezone13]

Bob Thompson - Is He Gone?

Rumours out of the Athletics office today are that GM Trigwell has had enough of the perofrmances of 40y/o veteran Bob Thompson.

We've been told that Thompson has been relegated from the starting rotation to a bullpen role and young star Juan Martinez has moved from the pen to the rotation.

If this is true Martinez will be due to start on the road against Kentucky. Martinez did collect 5 starts in 2014 with a miserly 1.96 ERA and a 2-1 record. Hopes are high that he can come in and do more than Thompson who has lost 4 of his last 5 starts and given up 21 earned runs during that time.

At the same time the bullpen needs a bit of kickstart and if Thompson brings the right attitude the entire crew may just turn around their performances.

[mikezone13]

The Playoffs Beckon

With the playoffs just around the corner, 5 weeks away to be exact, The Athletics have a 10 game lead over the Railroaders in 4th spot and a 7 game deficit to North Carolina who top the league.

The 7 game deficit will be tough to make up with only 4 games against our rivals during the rest of the season.

We'll be depending on the big guns to get us there, but at the same time we're aware of the injury suffered by star pitcher Jorge Sepulveda in 2014 that kept him out of the playoffs last year and ensured we didn't threaten West Virginia.

Hopefully the injury to Jeff Fowler will heal just in time for the first round of the playoffs and he can continue his top class form from this season.

[mikezone13]

Groundhog Day

I really felt that this year was our year to get to the big show, unfortunately despite dominating North Carolina throughout the regular season we went down 4 games to 3 in the PL League Championship.

We continued to pitch strong throughout the year being first in nearly every team category, while we topped the hitting charts for average and were second in most other categories - a true all round team.

Our Wild Card ride began well winning the first two games of a 5 game series before splitting the next 2 games to send the 2014 Champions, WV Hollers, back home.

The League Champs against North Carolina were just tight. Four games in the seven game series were low scoring one run games. However NC managed to hold our hitters at bay limiting us to only four home runs throughout the series.

The future still looks bright, young Jeff Nielsen didn't quite have a Rookie of the Year season but he was solid in position and by hitting .236 he showed glimpses, 32 doubles and 9 home runs show he can get the ball to the fence and it will be interesting if he can continue to develop in the big leagues.

We're not getting any younger in the outfield and with Geboyan, Garlez and Fowler all between 31 and 33 years of age they are in their prime to lead us to a title.

In the infield, Josh Talley was as strong and durable as ever, Dax Taylor hit well and defended well at SS while Dave Harmon came across from Iowa and performed to expectations with the bat at 2B - a position he had never played before. And of course the final word is for Tim Mayfield who excelled at 1B, but didn't provide as much power as we expected.

Our rotation was great this year, lead by the standout SP in the league, Jorge Sepulveda, we nearly had two players reach 20 wins with Dave Boyer falling agonizingly short with a 19-7 record. Youngster Juan Martinez took over the starting duties from Bob Thompson partway through the season and compiled a winning record (12-10) including three straight wins to finish the regular season. Ron Pratt and Stan Craft were both solid rather than spectacular.

Next Year
Big things are expected in NJ again as we aim to deliver a title to the fans. We had a fantastic injury record in 2015 and couldn't get the job done so I'm just hoping that we didn't miss the boat and will have further chances to win a ring for each of the guys on our roster.