4,166,615 fans which ranked 7th in the ABL saw some exciting baseball this year
in Maple.
Maple was more than 10+ games back at several different points
in the regular season but, they never gave up and ended up catching San
Francisco to win the Billy Martin Division by 2 games in the Thurman Munson
League. Going 7-13 vs. SF did not help.
Maple overcame a slow start that
was bombarded by injuries to their strongest offensive position entering the
season; their OF. However; once everyone was back and healthy things start to
get rolling in fine fashion. The last few weeks of the season though the team
struggled and despite not playing their best baseball were able to over take SF
who crumbled down the stretch.
Maple then went in to the post season
matched up against favourite Boston. Maple played Boston very tough and lost in
7 games after having the series lead 3-2. Maple just couldn't get the key win
in Boston in either Game 6 or Game 7. Despite losing out, we were happy with
the way the overall season went on many accounts.
Great Performances:Frank Powers OF - Allstar - no
big surprise here; 23 HRs, .367 BAVG
Don Strickland 1B - surprise here &
his injury at the end of the year hurt, .332 BAVG, 20 HRs
Eric McSwan OF/DH -
steady performance all season long. .299 BAVG, 34 HRs
Pat Sellers SP -
steady performance all season long; 18 Wins
Roberto Martinez SP - Allstar -
staff ACE pitched like one; 17 Wins, 2.37 ERA; 0.98 WHIP
Millard Marshall CL
- Allstar - was one of the best in the ABL all year; 38 SAVES, 0.87
WHIP
Disappointments:
Anthony Shelton OF -
missing 3/4 of the season due to injury; 14 HRs
Dave Krause SP - only winning
10 games
Top Prospect:
Ernie McCoy INF - he
appears to be ready for Triple A, won't hit for power but, has decent contact
and amazing speed (30 SBs).
Around the
Minors:
Astoria, Sandy Springs and Kingwood all had
disappointing seasons with only Astoria finishing above .500. Kingwood had
several high level prospects but, never got going all
year.
Financials:
Maple has approx $8M for
free agents and approx $6M for extensions going into the offseason.
