Maple finished in 3rd place in the TML, Billy Martin division behind winner in a one game playoff South Carolina and 2nd place San Francisco. Maple entered the last month of the season with an outside shot but, earlier moves to reduce payroll and increase profit hurt their chances down the stretch. GM stated that they felt winning the division this year was a short term fix and didn't feel we had the horses to compete with the top teams in the ABL. Maple finished September 15-13 and closed out October at 0-2.
The 77-85 finish is the worst record in the history of Maple in the ABL. In fact since finishing 93-69 in Season I, Maple has had a worst record in each of the successive seasons, 90 in Season II, 89 in Season III, 84 in Season IV and 77 this past year. Maple clearly needs to regroup with some youth and build back their once dominating SP rotation which at one point and a micro 3.33 ERA!
Maple has a ton of money available for Free Agents and for Extensions, however; team sources indicate that they will not resign CL Johnny Tiller who is recovering from a serious injury and Emmanuel Villa a hard throwing MR. At one during the season it looked like Anthony Lewis OF was a step away from having his contract bought out after he successfully cleared waivers but, he got back on track towards the end of the season to finish the year with 31 HRs. Maple has many needs SP, MR, 2B, 3B & Catcher despite having Bobby Shine make the allstar team.
Our most effective players were LF Billy Greer, C Bobby Shine, SP Dan Wilder who started the season as the teams MR, MR Ken Dixon and MR Chandler Fisher. The teams least effective players were SP Aaron Nelson who missed a majority of the season due to injury, LF Anything "BIG STICK" Shelton who had been the teams Dave Kingman but, passed through waivers and finished the year at AAA Astoria, SP Jesus Ramirez the teams R1 pick last year from University of Florida and was rushed into the SP rotation to see what he had, CF Antonio Alvarez who is a highly touted spec but, due to injury and lineup shakeups and based on his defense was rushed into the ABL a bit early to see what he could do too.
Down on the farm, the following specs have some high upside and could be in the ABL within the next 2-3 years - Manny Palma CL (AA), George Evans OF (AAA) and Brad Thomas OF (AAA). Similar to most teams in the ABL, Maple is just loaded in the OF position with potential.
The Maple organization would like to congratulate the playoff teams for a great season and also a high five to Sir William for his three-peat. I am on record to say I doubt he can win 4 in a row but, it will be fun to see what happens in Season VI in the ABL.
Jason
MAPLE
