Maple finished the 2019 season with an impressive 85-77 record considering what the expectations were going into the year. For the first few months, Maple had their ups and downs but, things started to change around the trade deadline. Maple acquired several players to help their stretch run when management felt no team in the TML Billy Martin division was going to run away with the division title.
Maple acquired SP Jake Nelson from Eureka, SP Maurice Gould from Montreal, MR Dennis Inman from San Francisco & MR Domingo Pena from Eureka. The key difference makers were definitely Nelson and Gould who combined for 20-10 W/L record down the stretch.
In the post season, Maple went up against Jacksonville the #1 seed in the TML. It was a hard fought series losing 4-2 in games with each of the 4 losses by 1 run. Jacksonville has been renamed "walk off city".
The outlook for the 2020 season looks promising. Marty Silver was acquired from Brooklyn and will most likely see time at 1B, OF and DH throughout the year. Bartolo Valentin was acquired from Dallas and will hold down the starting CF job as Maple looks to improve the defensive efficiency in 2020. Outside of players such as Gould, Pena and 1B Reynolds nobody on the Maple active roster is older than 30. This team should be competitive for the next few years.
Down on the farm, the #1 ranked minor league system took a hit making those blockbuster trades. Currently ranked #17th overall with Rick Hill SP the top prospect. CL Zeus Hallman is the 2nd highest rated prospect followed by Gabresilassie Cherono SP ranked as the 3rd highest in the organization. Some may remember a couple of seasons ago Maple opening the vault to land some big names in the International Free Agency Frenzy. Cherono was one of those names that signed for a whopping $4.4M to leave South African and join the Maple International Complex. It was nice to finally see someone make an impact in our organization from that spending spree.
