Anatomy of a championship contender – Yuma Bulldozers

[Cole]

For fancier version with links and pictures and such,please CLICK HERE.

Benny Hayden
Gazette Staff

Oct. 22, 2020

For a full decade at the onset of the Planetary Extreme Baseball Alliance’s existence, the Yuma Bulldozers were bad. For the better part of that decade, laughably bad.

From 2009 to 2016, the team lost 110 games or more each season – 120 or more in six of those eight seasons.

Long a league laughingstock, no one is laughing anymore, as the feisty Bulldozers stand as one of the final two teams remaining with a chance to win a Planetary Extreme Championship.

So how did this franchise transform itself from being the butt of jokes, to a feared baseball team that is arguably the best in the entire world?

It’s easy to point to the years of selecting at the top of the draft and being able to acquire the absolute cream of the crop of amateur players as a big reason, but a closer look shows the team was developed in a much deeper way than that.

Make no mistake, the 2020 Yuma Bulldozers are a league finalist due to that decade of futility and the high draft picks that returned as a result, but those draft picks alone weren’t enough to mold Yuma into a champion.

It took a combination of good drafting, trading to fill holes and a whole lot of patience as things have all come together for Yuma at the right time.

The Kalamazoo Gazette has taken a look at 16 of the more marquee players on the Yuma roster this season, to see just how this team was put together.

THE PITCHERS

SP – Gunner ‘Clubhouse’ MacGruder, 26 years old
Acquired: First overall selection in the 2012 draft
2020 Contribution: 19-6, 2.35 ERA, 237.1 innings, 0.91 WHIP 9.2 WAR

The Dozers have been led all year long by Clubhouse, who no doubt is the team MVP and is likely on his way to his second Golden Arm award at year’s end.

As a first overall pick, MacGruder is an example of the current-day Yuma benefiting greatly from the atrocious play of Bulldozers of years gone by.

But credit still must be given to the Yuma front office for developing this player the way he has been. There have been many cases of first overall picks busting throughout their careers, but the patience shown with MacGruder seems to have paid off, as he undoubtedly seems like the real deal and a PEBA fixture for years to come.

There was no guarantee that the high school signee from Ohio would blossom into a star, and the team took its time getting him into a prominent position and credit is due. His first full season in PEBA was only in 2018 – six years after he was drafted – and a quicker path to the majors could have led to the ‘Clubhouse’ seen today not being as effective of an ace.

SP – Felix ‘Bump’ Ortega, 30 years old
Acquired: 2018 trade with the Arlington Bureaucrats
2020 Contribution: 16-14, 3.62 ERA, 236 innings, 1.15 WHIP, 5.3 WAR

Long a team that gladly acquired draft picks to build for the future, in 2018 the Dozers sensed they were on the doorstep and in fact traded two first-round draft picks, a second-round draft pick and prospect Tsuramatsu Ito to acquire Ortega, an already-established star who could help Yuma win now.

The move has paid off, as ‘Bump’ has been an integral part of the rotation and the team’s success.

SP – Alonso ‘Raptor’ Rodriguez, 26 years old
Acquired: Signed by Yuma scout in 2014 after being discovered in Nicaragua
2020 Contribution: 14-9, 3.64 ERA, 210.1 innings, 1.22 WHIP, 5 WAR

Another of the Yuma ‘big three’ starting pitchers was simply found and signed as an international free agent. The anatomy of a championship team always typically involves some luck and in this case, it’s lucky that this talented lefty hadn’t previously been drafted, signed or discovered. The Bulldozers obviously saw something that nobody else had seen before, and that decision paid huge dividends.

He ended up being a mostly finished product, spending only parts of two seasons in the minors before getting called to the majors, but ‘Raptor’ has developed into a workhorse for Yuma in recent years.

CL – Adrian ‘Javelin’ Peterson, 26 years old
Acquired: First overall selection in the 2015 draft
2020 Contribution: 1.99 ERA, 90.2 innings, 0.85 WHIP, 32 saves in 36 attempts, 3.3 WAR

Peterson is another highly-coveted arm the Dozers were able to snag after a year of futility, but it’s the role reversal the team put ‘Javelin’ through this season that might be the biggest success story.

After three consecutive and effective seasons out of the starting rotation, Peterson was transformed into a closer this year.

It may have been concerns over his stamina – despite three consecutive seasons of being near or over 200 innings pitched – or it could have been simply to fill a need, where the team already has plenty of solid starters, but Peterson has taken well to the transition, turning in a season of relief that will no doubt get him consideration in the year-end awards.

Some might argue ‘Javelin’ should still be in the rotation, but he’s been a stabilizing force in a bullpen that boasted the lowest ERA (3.20) in all of the Sovereign League.

MR – Brooks Wallace, 26 years old
Acquired: Seventh round (151st overall) draft pick in 2012.
2020 Contribution: 2.55 ERA, 53 innings, 23 K, 1.49 WHIP

Wallace is good proof that Yuma has not only hit on their first overall picks, but on late round draft picks as well. Another high school draftee who got plenty of seasoning in the minors, Wallace was a solid, albeit unspectacular piece of the Dozers pen this year.

MR – Larry ‘Hulk’ Taylor, 29 years old
Acquired: 2017 trade with San Antonio Calzones of Laredo
2020 Contribution: 2.72 ERA, 56.1 innings, 73 K, 1.19 WHIP

Yuma would perhaps want a redo on this trade if given another opportunity, as Randy ‘Tugboat’ Smith has been solid for San Antonio as a starter, but Taylor himself has been an important part of the bullpen.

MR – Glenn Martin, 28 years old
Acquired: 2019 trade with San Antonio Calzones of Laredo
2020 Contribution: 3.87 ERA, 86 innings, 83 K, 1.34 WHIP

He’s been up and down since joining Yuma in a four-player trade with the Calzones, but Martin was a workhorse for the team this season, throwing the most innings out of the bullpen.

MR – Josh Taylor, 30 years old
Acquired: Fifth round draft pick (103rd overall) in 2012
2020 Contribution: 1.59 ERA, 45.1 innings, 18 K, 1.37 WHIP

Taylor is another example of Yuma hitting on a later-round draft pick, and also a good example of how a championship team’s anatomy typically includes at least a player or two who overperforms, or enjoys a career year.

Taylor inexplicably dropped his ERA by a full three runs in the 2019 season and he’s kept up that momentum in 2020, once again being a reliable arm for Yuma and still performing well above his career ERA of 3.35.

THE HITTERS

CF – Jarrod ‘Merlin’ Ricks, 24 years old
Acquired: First overall pick in the 2017 draft
2020 contribution: .296/.370/.539, 38 HR, 117 RBI, 6.2 WAR

As is the case with the team’s most valuable pitcher, the team’s most important offensive piece is also a first overall pick that has worked out swimmingly.

What’s interesting, however, is that unlike Yuma’s previous preference, with the last of their first overall picks the team took a more polished college player that would be soon ready for the big leagues.

It was thus less risky, and the pick has paid off, as ‘Merlin’ quickly made it to the Bulldozers lineup and after an incredibly underwhelming 2019 campaign, he’s exploded in 2020 to be a cog in the team’s championship run.

3B – Alfredo Vega, 32 years old
Acquired: Signed a one-year free-agent contract worth $4 million in the 2020 offseason.
2020 Contribution: .294/.384/.447, 18 HR, 79 RBI, 4.9 WAR

While Yuma’s success and roster building has mostly come within from drafting and trading, Vega has been an extremely important addition that was acquired on the free agent market.

And he’s been an absolute steal for only $4 million this year, posting one of the best seasons of his career and being a consistent contributor.

RF – Kane Moore, 26 years old
Acquired: Second round draft pick (54th overall) in 2013.
2020 Contribution: .325/.394/.548, 19 HR, 61 RBI, 4.5 WAR

Moore is another one of Yuma’s draftee from their strategy of taking chances on high-ceiling, but higher-risk high schoolers.

Moore played more like a first round draft pick this season and he has improved significantly each of his four seasons in PEBA.

SS – Emilio Manuel, 27 years old
Acquired: 2017 trade with Crystal Lake Sandgnats
2020 Contribution: .290/.417/.430, 10 HR, 61 RBI, 3 WAR

It remains to be seen which side “won” this trade, as there was a lot of talent headed to Crystal Lake in the way of Phil Burns and Jim ‘Bizarre’ Klein, but Manuel has been a key offensive contributor, and building for the future, the Bulldozers also acquired a first round pick in the deal.

2B – Manny De Los Santos , 26 years old
Acquired: Second round draft pick (36th overall) in 2013
2020 Contribution: .271/.371/.461, 18 HR, 65 RBI, 2.6 WAR

De Los Santos represents another example of Yuma finding value in a draft pick that isn’t quite as much a consensus talent of a first rounder.

INF – Luis Renteria, 29 years old
Acquired: 2017 trade with the San Antonio Calzones of Laredo
2020 Contribution: .261/.372/.382, 8 HR, 61 RBI, 2.4 WAR

Already having plenty of starting pitching, Yuma dealt away Oliver Gonzalez in order to acquire another bat and solid position player.

C – Danny Burke, 25 years old
Acquired: 19th overall selection in the 2013 draft
2020 Contribution: .228/.262/.421, 27 HR, 89 RBI, 0.6 WAR

While he has oddly been regressing in the past few years offensively, Burke still hit for good power this season and has still been a good major leaguer for a late-round first rounder.

1B – Rod Johnson, 28 years old
Acquired: 2018 trade with Arlington Bureaucrats
2020 Contribution: .216/.322/.397, 15 HR, 41 RBI, -0.2 WAR

Johnson has had a down year offensively, but he’s come alive thus far in the playoffs, posting a 1.524 OPS, with three homers in 23 at bats.

So in the end, it seems it’s been a balanced approach that has got Yuma where they are today.

Of course, as noted, without the first round slam dunks like MacGruder, Peterson and Ricks leading the way, the Bulldozers would not be a championship team. But for those hits, there have also been some first overall misses, some like Arthur McKenzie, who is still with Yuma but hasn’t been any sort of fantastic offensive impact player, and others like Bill Lewis and Curt ‘Cobra’ Turner. Both Lewis and Turner were traded by Yuma and have had decent levels of success, but nowhere near the levels some of their other first overall picks have had.

For years, Yuma fans were put through misery, with one of the worst series of baseball teams ever assembled and a seeming lack of effort to even attempt to put together a winning franchise.

But for now, the patience has paid off and the future looks bright for the Dozers. What’s especially telling is the youth of the team’s core.

This isn’t a team that is simply built for 2020 and will be dismantled or torn apart at the conclusion of the campaign.

You’ll note that of the 15 marquee players highlighted in the above column, only one of them is 31 or older.

Yuma has a strong core and for now appear poised to not just have a shot at this year’s PEC, but to take a run at a title for many years to come.

[roncollins]

Lots of young and very good players. Yuma has certainly arrived.

[Arroyos]

Mighty nice of you to work up such a generous analysis of our club, Cole. I know the folks in the Front Office back in Yuma have posted copies of it all over the office. I think I'll take a copy out to the Camarillo State Hospital, next time I pay my respects to the old GM there. He's largely responsible for assembling that roster you so carefully described. Do him a world of good to hear someone recognizes the value of his contribution.

[Denny]

The road to the Desert Hills division championship will definitely have to pass through Yuma for the foreseeable future.

[Cole]

Mighty nice of you to work up such a generous analysis of our club, Cole. I know the folks in the Front Office back in Yuma have posted copies of it all over the office. I think I'll take a copy out to the Camarillo State Hospital, next time I pay my respects to the old GM there. He's largely responsible for assembling that roster you so carefully described. Do him a world of good to hear someone recognizes the value of his contribution.

Thanks Bob. I had been thinking of this type of article for a while and I finally ended up crafting it whilst watching Game 3 of the World Series. It was fun to write about a different team for once, plus I need CP for my own team's offseason plans :)

I was hoping to generate some more discussion though ...

I did wonder though, about the lean years of Yuma.. I wasn't around PEBA then, having only started in 2016, so I couldn't write as conclusively about that era as I would have liked. Were you the GM of Yuma from the beginning?

I'm just wondering how the team got into such bad shape? And through those years, were there any big efforts made to improve the major league roster? I just can't fathom having a team win 30 to 40 games for multiple years in a row, as I would assume even scrap heap free agent type guys could be banded together in some capacity to up that win total to 50 or 60 after a couple years.

I'm just curious about what the team was like at that point .. it must have more closely resembled an average AA team or so...

[richard_v]

From 2009 to 2016, the team lost 110 games or more each season – 120 or more in six of those eight seasons.

Geez, I'm still trying to really get a sense of history of the league, I've been busy trying to deal with the present so much I hadn't actually realised until a few weeks ago I was moving division and still don't know all that much about the Statesmen history, yeah there's wins-losses and all kinds of numbers but I mean qualitative stuff rather than just a table of numbers.

I knew Yuma had been fairly bad but 6 120 loss seasons?! Considering where they are now it's a really startling change of events and the quality of the roster should ensure a wealth of success

[Cole]

From 2009 to 2016, the team lost 110 games or more each season – 120 or more in six of those eight seasons.

Geez, I'm still trying to really get a sense of history of the league, I've been busy trying to deal with the present so much I hadn't actually realised until a few weeks ago I was moving division and still don't know all that much about the Statesmen history, yeah there's wins-losses and all kinds of numbers but I mean qualitative stuff rather than just a table of numbers.

I knew Yuma had been fairly bad but 6 120 loss seasons?! Considering where they are now it's a really startling change of events and the quality of the roster should ensure a wealth of success

Yeah it's quite a feat, haha. That's why I'm curious to hear from Bob and also those who were around the league. I've never had experience managing such bad teams in OOTP either online or live and usually if they are that bad it doesn't take much to cause an improvement... I am curious how things got that bad, and what the year to year gameplan for the team was.

[richard_v]

Yeah it's quite a feat, haha. That's why I'm curious to hear from Bob and also those who were around the league. I've never had experience managing such bad teams in OOTP either online or live and usually if they are that bad it doesn't take much to cause an improvement... I am curious how things got that bad, and what the year to year gameplan for the team was.

I've had some absolutely awful teams before but that's like 90 losses, then 100, then back to 90 then improvement. A short rebuild if anything. But maybe, being terrible for a long time is actually the way to do it. Those teams I tried to rebuild very rarely ever achieved anything notable.

[Arroyos]

We Yuman Beings appreciate all the interest in our sudden and surprising success. General Manager Mayberry recently tried to escape from the Camarillo State Mental Hospital, where he is undergoing treatment, so for the time being he is unavailable for comment. The new Dozer GM, Pam Postma, has directed me to anwer your inquiries. Let me see what I can tell you.

First, Cole, I'd suggest you take a look at the historical records (like I just tried to do) but the links don't work.

NOTE TO FRANK & MATT: when I click on Yuma from the history page, I get some minor league team in Louisville!


So let me see what I can remember: GM Mayberry took over Yuma in 2010 and promptly led the Dozers to their record-setting seasons—most losses, most consecutive losses, most franchise losing seasons, etc.

The team was in very bad shape in terms of talent when he inherited it, though financially it was solvent—except for one contract the out-going manager left behind: a $12 million a year deal for a very mediocre infielder named David Goode.

The one gift Yuma inherited was a couple first round draft picks. The GM immediately traded the team's best young player (a rookie of the year winner the team couldn't afford for very long) for more first round picks, and began building. Other GMs were very generous in their initial trades with Yuma, offering first round draft picks for veteran players they needed, and Yuma was able, with help, to trade away Goode and his $12 million dollar, multi-year contract. (Ironically, GM Mayberry traded Goode away--saving the teams millions--and later traded to reacquire that same mediocre Goode! Why? No one is quite sure. But this decision may have been the beginning of the end for the GM. It certainly was interpreted as a sign of his declining decision-making ability by the new consortium that bought the Bulldozers.)

Anyway, it took patience compiling first round picks and waiting for the talent to rise in the organization.

Cole, as best I can tell from the chaotic records kept here in Yuma, the club had a very simple year-to-year plan: acquire first round draft choices and build the best minor league system we could. Then wait until those talents prospered. 8 years after GM Mayberry took over, the Dozers had their first winning season, and in 2019 they made it to the playoffs for the first time in club history. You know the rest.

For several years, the only glimmer of hope in the Yuma organization was the golden arm of GM Mayberry's very first first-round draft pick: Gunner MacGruder.The organization was in no hurry to rush him to the majors, especially since the club had no offense to support a talented pitcher, so everyone in the Front Office monitored his minor league successes. Some years, more attention was paid to Gunner's season than the major league club's. When he was finally ready for the majors, we had a core of talented young ball players one year behind him in the minors. When they came up, the Bulldozers began to rise.

[Borealis]

That was real-time 2010, not in-game, as I want to say that Bob started in-game 2012 (our first year was 2011, along with Jersey Mike). Prior to Bob, I think Yuma was one of the 'merry-go-round' teams with many GMs. I know that JR, Matt, Duane, Dan and the rest of the original cast can speak more on that. I think Yuma was one of the teams run be that trio of brothers involved in the early PEBA days.

[Arroyos]

That was real-time 2010, not in-game, as I want to say that Bob started in-game 2012 (our first year was 2011, along with Jersey Mike). Prior to Bob, I think Yuma was one of the 'merry-go-round' teams with many GMs. I know that JR, Matt, Duane, Dan and the rest of the original cast can speak more on that. I think Yuma was one of the teams run be that trio of brothers involved in the early PEBA days.

Yup, thanks, Michael, PEBA time is sometimes more real than that other time. I took over Yuma in 2012. I confirmed that by checking the year I drafted Gunner—2012.

And, yes, the trio of brothers were involved in the running of Yuma prior to my arrival. Where is John's fine history of the early years of PEBA? I have my hard copy but can't find it online.

[richard_v]

And, yes, the trio of brothers were involved in the running of Yuma prior to my arrival. Where is John's fine history of the early years of PEBA? I have my hard copy but can't find it online.

http://pebabaseball.com/wp-content/peba ... istory.pdf is this it?

[Arroyos]

And, yes, the trio of brothers were involved in the running of Yuma prior to my arrival. Where is John's fine history of the early years of PEBA? I have my hard copy but can't find it online.

http://pebabaseball.com/wp-content/peba ... istory.pdf is this it?

That's it! Where'd you find it? (Besides at that URL. I mean, where is it stored?)

[Alleghenies]

And, yes, the trio of brothers were involved in the running of Yuma prior to my arrival. Where is John's fine history of the early years of PEBA? I have my hard copy but can't find it online.

http://pebabaseball.com/wp-content/peba ... istory.pdf is this it?

That's it! Where'd you find it? (Besides at that URL. I mean, where is it stored?)

On the home page, found by clicking on the "LINKS" tab.

[Denny]

And, yes, the trio of brothers were involved in the running of Yuma prior to my arrival. Where is John's fine history of the early years of PEBA? I have my hard copy but can't find it online.

http://pebabaseball.com/wp-content/peba ... istory.pdf is this it?

I don't think I've ever seen this before! (Cue out-of-touch old person zingers.) Fantastic!

It does confirm what I'd thought I remembered--it was actually a quartet of brothers, all of them running teams in the SL (Canton, Duluth, Omaha, and Yuma). The Yuma brother had some fairly serious health problems if I recall correctly, which I'm sure contributed to the team's on-field woes.

Reading the LRS section made me sad.