Winter Musings
by Olaf Halvorsen, Senior Blogologist
January 1, 2015
Ooh...I Think I Ate Some Bad Surströmming
Another year, another winter in the ol' ice shanty sipping a malted beverage thinking, "Maybe this is the year the
Warriors quit sucking." To be fair, the Warriors weren't really that bad last year, being that they had their best season ever and all. But watching them struggle to score three runs every night did create this chronic feeling of suckitis all the way to the pit of my stomach, even if it was somewhat psychosomatic. I don't want that feeling any more. I sincerely hope the 2015 version of the Warriors can keep me entertained and excited past May 15th this season. And please, for the love of
St. Olaf, no more 8-18 Junes this year!
Take a Cortéz and Call Me in the Morning
Owner
Arne Bong and
GM Bill McKenzie have had several months to fix what ails the Duluth ballclub and my frequent bouts of suckitis. I'm not sure they were able to accomplish that goal, but I can see why they would not want sell the farm, literally and figuratively, just to have a shot to win 90 games this year. The primary move was the acquisition of first baseman
Ángel Cortéz from the
West Virginia Alleghenies. Cortéz has been a perennial top 25 prospect in the
PEBA, but had nowhere to play with established stars
Ronald Harmon and
Ernest Kaufman locked up to big money deals with the club. The price for the phenom was steep and came in the form of SP
Sakutaro Ishida, who had one of the best pitching seasons in club history last year.
"We will certainly miss the contributions of a fine pitcher such as Ishida," admitted McKenzie when asked about the move. "But we could not afford to sit still and let the offense continue to founder as they did last season. I mean, some days I would come to the park and just get this sort of sick feeling in my stomach as I watched our Punch-and-Judy offense." Apparently suckitis is contagious.
Anyway, the Warriors only had so many strengths to draw on and starting pitching was one of those few spots. So they took a risk and grabbed Cortez while the getting was good. The book on the 25-year old Venezuelan is that he is a complete hitter - he's patient, waits for a pitch he can do something with, then he does something with it. The one knock on him is that his swing is a little flat. This is good for hitting line drives, but it has stunted his power growth as he has yet to top 11 homers at any level of the minors. However, the team scouts think he is close to breaking out after hitting well over .330 with more walks than strikeouts over the final 3 months at AAA
Mansfield last year. The converted third baseman is also adept with the glove and will likely take over full time duties in the field while letting
Rubén Cruz become the designated hitter.
Domo Arigato, Mr. Sato
Beyond the addition of Cortez to the lineup, the Warriors are expected to give OF
Tadamichi Sato a shot to win a spot in the lineup this spring. The Warriors top hitting prospect has spent the last two seasons in AAA
Madison honing his craft as a leadoff hitter while the team also sent him to winter ball to work on his range in the outfield and his bunting skills. The team and front office personnel believe it is time to give him a chance to help the big league club in 2015.
If Sato plays well this spring, manager
Miguel Angel Flores will have a tough decision to make on how to squeeze him into an outfield with incumbents
John Mayer,
Roberto Holguín, and
Ron Elmore already in place. Holguín would seem the likeliest candidate to see the bench, but he is the only real true centerfielder. It remains to be seen whether Sato can play CF in the roomy Doyle Buhl Stadium.
Oh...THAT 800 lb. gorilla...
Lost in the focus on fixing the offensive offense is the fact that trading away Ishida now means that essentially the Warriors only have three reliable starters in
Barker,
Sutherland, and
Jones (kinda sounds like a bunch of injury lawyers, eh?).
Jesús González proved pretty unreliable after a decent start to 2014, but seems to have an inside track at a rotation spot if only to earn some of his $8 million paycheck. Duluth picked up
Alberto Vásquez off waivers from the
Gnats, but he's only a year removed from rotator cuff surgery as is
Matt Howard at AAA; these players seem more suited for the occasional spot start at best. The most likely contenders for the final rotation spot seem to be
Tom Carter and
Jitters Guillén. Carter has 27 wins and a sub-3.00 ERA over three levels in the last two seasons. The knock on Carter has been his stamina; the team sent him to winter ball as well with the intention of stretching out his arm to throw at least 175 innings this season. Guillen is a former first round pick that didn't really pan out as advertised, but has continued to work his way up the organization. He's now more of an innings eater type, but that can be of value at the back of the rotation and his screwball gives him an effective pitch against lefties. If both have good springs, don't be surprised to see Gonzalez in the pen. And don't be surprised to see GM McKenzie fill this hole from outside the org if none of the options really pan out. Basically, just don't be surprised - almost anything could still happen here.
)
) and getting another pitcher will help complement Ayers. Good job guys!
