Maple continues to show improvements....

As we head into the final month of the season, the Maple Marauders continue to show signs of improvements and optimism heading into next season.  A 16-12 record in August is their best monthly performance of the season.

BULLPEN & OUTFIELD:

Pitching especially the bullpen of late has carried the club to some exciting wins.  Add in some new faces in the batting lineup and the right chemistry appears to be developing on the team.  Maple gave some coffee time at the ABL level to some future players that will be looking to crack the starting lineup namely;  Martin Petersen OF, Floyd Lowery OF and Brooks Petersen OF who is currently on the 60 day DL.  The existing OF of:  Billy Greer 34 HRs, John Powers .810 OPS who is on the 15 day DL and a rotation of youngsters including Antonio Alvarez are already young and performing at a good level in the ABL.  There is a lot of depth in the OF position in this league so it will be interesting to see what moves are available to Maple in the off-season to improve their club at other positions.

DANNY BURRIS:

Danny is finally showing the reasons why Maple management brought him here.  He is hitting .319 with an on base pct of .374 on the year for us.  He is also flashing some nice leather at SS with ZR of +3.7 and only 5 errors and a .990 fielding percentage.

ROTATION:

Maple had to address their rotation last year which was one of the worst in the league.  This year we had a very young, unproven and rushed staff that had its typical ups and downs as predicted.  Maple sits dead last in the TML in SP ERA.  The staff has some promise as indicated by being #1 in Strikeouts.  So the stuff is there it is just a matter of gaining some experience to reach their potential.  Three of the hopefuls have had a miserable season including;  Jesus Ramirez who struggled right out of the gate and now has been demoted to AAA Astoria to work on his delivery.  This phenom out of University of Florida will have to prove that he belongs in the rotation versus a potential change to CL or Setup man.  Dave Blake was transferred to the 60 day DL after being moved out of the rotation to get some work in the bullpen.  Shortly after this stint in the pen he went down with an elbow injury.  Our staff and scouts didn't see this coming as his fastball didn't lose any mph.  Dave just like Jesus may end up in the pen longer term.  Lastly, we have Robert Osborne (no relation to Ozzy) who has been barking at the moon all season long looking to find his release point.  He has struggled as a SP this year and did find his groove in the pen so going into the final month he will be given a chance to earn a job next year.  We have a bunch of prospects in the farm system all around the same type of potential but, the organization is most excited about the recent acquisition of Rob Young from SF at the trade deadline.  Young looks ready to maybe earn a shot at the rotation next season and will no doubt be promoted to AAA by seasons end.  Rob is currently rated as the 48th prospect by the OSA in their top 100 listing.  Rob is pretty consistent with his stuff, movement and control and features a fastball topping the radar gun at 98 mph and gets his fare share of ground balls.  He has a nasty fastball and curve and hopefully his two other pitches continue to develop (Slide & Changeup) so he can be a future #1 or 2 ace rather than a middle of the rotation player.

YOUNG GUNS @ 1B.COM:

William "Cannon" Lee and Michael Knaus at 1B are smashing line drives all over the A level parks these days and the organization is simply "excited" to have them.  Vic "Cold Pillow" Jennings has been just that this season "brrrrrr".  He is likely going to test FA as Maple has already gone on record stating he will not be back next season.  Maple is also excited to see Garrett Bennett at AA step up at 1B as well.  He was acquired from Las Vegas this season in a trade.  Expectations for Bennett are high over the next couple of seasons until either Lee or Knaus develop.  Maple most likely will promote Bennett to AAA Astoria by seasons end.

NO BULL IN THIS PEN:

Maple traded a slew of lively arms from their strong pen this season and also has a stable of young nasty arms waiting in the wings to be called up to the big team next season.  Some of the names you might see over the next couple of seasons include:  Manny "Blitz" Palma who struggled at AAA and AA and is finally finding the right mechanics at A ball to gain some momentum in development.  "We likely rushed him to early in his development", said Maple scout Alfonso Gil.  Zeus Hallman was on a torrid pace this season in A ball Kingwood before starting to show signs of fatigue and eventually went on the DL proving he his no demi god.  Team doctors are confident he will return in fine form and will compete again next year at the A level to be the shutdown closer he was at the beginning of the 2017 campaign.  Maple already features some talented young arms in the pen who have been called up and are making a big splash in the ABL namely;  John "Toad" Jones MR who will be on the TML ROY ballot with 118 Ks in 76.2 IP with a WHIP of 1.17.  He only pitched 4.2 innings in AAA ball before the call up to the big leagues, after he was drafted from the University of South Carolina (Gary start recruiting locally!!).

NICKNAME NEEDED!:

Brad Thomas OF in AAA Astoria is putting together one of the strongest offensive performers of all-time at this level.  Brad is hitting for average, getting on base and has shown some pop while posting a OPS of 1.021.  He has to work on his defensive game and will never be considered a true 5 tool player with his lack of speed.  Maple is very confident his future is bright in the ABL and have posted on their teams' website a contest to come up with a nickname for him!  If you have any ideas please email me directly....

Overall, Maple looks to be heading in the right direction this season.  Their team is playing much better towards the finish line, they rank #5 overall in minor league systems talent and their minor league teams at AAA and AA are contending for league championships.

Improvement in Maple

The outlook in Maple is bright as we head into August of Season #6.  The Marauders will finish with a better record than in they did in June and May.  One game remains in July vs. Eureka and Maple rests at 11-15 for the month.  In June the team was 10-16 and in May the team was 10-17. 

Despite a losing month there are signs of improvement throughout the organization:

Team Improvements:

1. The bullpen is 3rd overall in the TML in ERA
2. The pitching staff is 3rd overall in the TML in HR allowed
3. The pitching staff is 1st overall in the TML in Strikeouts
4. 7-3 in the last 10 games with two consecutive winning sims 

 Minor Leagues:

1. Ranks 8th overall in the Annual Top Systems report
2. Astoria seeking their 1st division title in AAA;  7.5 game lead

 ROY Candidates:

1. John "Toad" Jones MR;  3-2, 1 save, 2.60 ERA, 1.16 WHIP,  89 K in 55.1 IP
2. George Evans DH; .298 bavg, .332 obpct, .535 slgpct, 18 HRS, 68 RBI

Oliver North has the ROY all clinched but, the above two players should draw some votes.

Future Top Prospects:

1. Brooks Petersen OF;  currently on the DL;  was crushing the ball this year
2. Martin Petersen OF; currently on Maple and getting his shot to stick
3. Floyd Lowery OF;  currently in AAA - had a coffee with Maple this season, crushing the ball
4. Brad Thomas OF;  currently in AAA - might get a September call-up, crushing the ball
5. Manny Palma CL;  currently back in A after struggles at higher levels
6. Zeus Hallman MR;  currently in A ball, working more innings and giving Palma a chance as CL
7. Garrett Bennett 1B;  currently in AA ball - crushing the ball since being acquired from LV
8. William "Cannon" Lee 1B; 1st round pick this year, currently in A ball - 0 HRs!?
9. Rob Young SP;  currently in AA after being acquired from SF at the trade deadline
10. Subaru Kishita SP;  currently in AA ball but, struggling

Our team has set a goal to finish within 10 games of SF.  We have started to gain ground sitting 18.5 back after being more than 20+ games back just this past month.  We will have to do better versus SF in our head to head match-ups to achieve this result.  This year SF leads the seasons series 11-2 including winning the first six games.

International Complex Update

Maple made a big splash in the ABL inaugural IFA bidding signing 7 prospects for a whopping $43,940,000 USD including $19,470,000 in tax penalty.

Maple said afterwards, "We were sitting there with ~$43M in projected profit and thought this would be the best opportunity for us to rebuild even if the risks were unknown".

Last year our owner took a lot of money from us with the maximum cash set at $20M and we really didn't want to go out and pick up anymore high dollar players on top of the recent acquisitions of Danny Burris SS and Jesse "Big Ticket" Clark 2B contracts.  We felt we had a decent draft picking up 1B help with the picks of William "Cannon" Lee and Michael Knaus.  We don't feel like Vic Jennings will be around next year so we will need a 1B developed soon to join the big club in Maple.  We also feel very confident about our OF which appears to be a strong position in the ABL for most teams.  Our young SP is having a rough year so just before the Allstar break it was decided to put a couple of the youngsters (Osborne & Blake) in the pen to build some momentum.  Jesus Ramirez (University of Florida grad) will stay in the rotation though to work out some mechanics rather than being demoted.  We are very happy with our bullpen and the future looks tremendous with Manny Palma and Zeus Hallman among a few others that will provide the depth.  We are very pleased with the development of Dave Guenette, 3B since being called up from AAA Astoria.  He is out of minor league options so if he wants to stick around Maple now is his time to shine or risk being waived.  At catcher we are also very happy with the play of Billy Bishop who we acquired from Nottinghamshire.  Billy was one of our top players on our Rule V draft list and we were very sad to miss out on him.  Luckily we were able to work out a deal to bring him to Maple.  We see no risk of him being returned to his original team this year as a Rule V roster player.

So who did we land in IFA?

#1 - Gabresilassie Cherono SP - South Africa
0.5/4.5* potential;  15/12/16 and 3 pitches 11/12/20
We love his very high work ethic and intelligence.

#2 - Felipe Moreno SP - Venezuela
0.5/4.5* potential, 16/16/12 and 4 pitches 16/9/18/7
He has normal work ethic and intelligence.  My scout says he will compete for a #1 SP role.

#3 - Robinson Pedercini SP - Argentina
0.5/4.5* potential, 14/14/16 and 4 pitches 11/13/14/15
We love his high work ethic and intelligence.

#4 - Hayden Capel SP - England
0.5/4* potential, 15/13/14 and 4 pitches 12/18/13/10
He has normal work ethic and high intelligence.

#5 - Seung-Ryong Pak SP - Korea
0.5/4* potential, 13/11/18 and 4 pitches 9/15/6/9
He has high work ethic and intelligence.  We have already moved him to the bullpen.

#6 - Masaaki Koike SP - Japan
0.5/3.5* potential, 16/13/10 and 3 pitches 12/2/13
He has high work ethic and very high intelligence.  We also have moved him to the bullpen.

#7 - Flavio Mansi SP - Venezuela
 0.5/3* potential, 8/16/17 and 4 pitches 11/12/10/14
He has normal work ethic and high intelligence.  We also have moved him to the bullpen.

So it will be exciting watching these kids hopefully develop into something special at the ABL level.

We haven't had an injection of talent into our organization at any point in the past five seasons so, we feel this was our best shot to try to make things happen longer term for our organization.

Only time will tell!