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Un-Pacified Wee Willie Goes Pacific – The West
March 28, 2007
by Frank (Parkville)
AL West
2) Compton
2006 Finish: 84-72, 1st in AL West, lost in World Series to Austin
Pitching: Pedro Martinez heads the one of the best starting staffs in the AL, supported by the returning core of Appier, Hearn, and Stratton, who combined to go a stellar 63-38 in 2006. The fifth spot seems to be up for grabs between a sloppy but battle-tested Bert Blyleven and an unknown Curly Ogden. The former has spent the last two years unhappily stuck in the minors after a long career in the majors, but his spring stats aren’t helping, while Curly has deceiving spring stats (2-1-3.63) despite barely throwing more strikes than balls and putting plenty of men on base. After last year’s disastrous performance (a league-leading 26 games lost when leading or tied after 7 innings), management has totally overhauled the bullpen. Whether a single closer will emerge or whether it will be solved by committee remains to be seen.
Offense: Fewer and fewer players survive the annual Compton purge. Among the returnees is the keystone combo of Lou Boudreau, whose bat rang a tad less than management hoped for, and Jackie Robinson, who compiled a career-best OPS in 2006. The infield also includes power-packing Jim Gentile, easily one of the greatest success stories in HoFL history, who has whacked 92 round-trippers over the past two seasons. The outfield shows promise, but needs better production. Fan favorite Bobby Veach (.313) returns along with Danny Tartabull who shocked the world with a career year (42-89-.304). Can the latter repeat? Roberto Clemente has played for seven different teams over the past three years, and really needs some stability if he is to re-locate his hitting stroke. Newbies Rico Carty, who has notoriously killed lefty pitchers in the HoFL, and Will Clark add more punch to the line-up, while fans wonder whether CFer Stan Spence will be given chance to repeat his amazing 2006 minor league stats (38-139-.356) on the major league level this season.
Tidbits: Ryan Bowen, starting pitcher of the famous HoFL season finale slugfests, has been the Crip closer for much of spring training. He is 0-0 with 1 save in 8 games, compiling a 7.94 ERA and 2.29 WHIP.
Outlook: Year in and year out, division rivals challenge but ultimately fall short. Once in the playoffs, this team always competes for the title, but after two straight futile trips to the finals, Crip fans are getting antsy! This year, owner Jeff Nyveen will continue to find the right formula as always and but he won’t sleep as comfortably, and might even wake up from a nightmare. Expect the faithful to drown their misery in plenty of booze!
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