Aruba Disappointment

[Alleghenies]

Entering their 3rd year in existence, the Aruba Wahoo’s were very excited with the team they had. With man y young returning members the coaching staff thought that they had enough to make the playoffs and advance far into them. They were mistaken. Throughout the year the Wahoos were out of the playoff spot until the final week of the season when they played themselves right into contention. Going on the road for the last 3 games, had they won just 1 of the three they would have found themselves in the playoffs. Instead, they lost all 3 games and came home early for the season.

“Throughout the season we just could not get a good streak going, but we were always close. The final 3 games, I think we just ran out of steam. Maybe 1 more day of rest would have helped the team, but what I can say is none of the games were close and I take blame for that. While the pitchers are the ones that throw the balls, I am the one who put the guys in from the pen and it just did not work. I will do some work in the off-season to make sure we don’t find ourselves in this situation again, “said manager Hugh Watson.

The team had a lot of hopes on the pitching and for the most part it let them down with their starting pitching ranked 25th and the bullpen ranked 20th. After the first few games of the year, Song Chu tore his UCL as there had been big hopes he could help lead the rotation. Min-zhong Lou then stepped in as the #1 SP for the rest of the year and struggled with a 3-12 record and a 4.95 ERA. The team is very encouraged by the improvements he made during the season, but they now need him to translate it on the field. Felipe Pinto was then moved into the 2nd spot and did well for an 18, going 6-6. Pinto is expected to start the year in Rookie again next year with him concentrating on improving movement and control. Next was Jose Flores who had an up and down season and due to his age will be in SA next season. If he can improve his control next year, he will be in-line for a spot in PEBA in 2035. The 4th SP for the Wahoo’s Cho-Yeong Kim took a step-back in performance this year. After excelling last year in Aruba, the team kept him there for another season, but it seams that maybe he should have been brought up to help his progression. While he is still on track for the majors, the team has a few more reservations now. The 5th starter was Eiichi Tanaka who was drafted in the 5th round in 2031. Tanaka’s on-field performance was excellent. In 15 games he went 6-2 and had an ERA of 3.59 (last year 7.88). The team hopes that he concentrates on movement and control the next 3 years, because if he does, he might be a great 4th SP or even a setup man. For the last spot it was a mixture of Angel Barrera and Lai-hsiang Wang. Both did an excellent job as starters and rumor is Angel Barrera might be called up to SA next year as an 18-year-old.

Unfortunately, the bullpen did not do much better minus a few bright spots. One of those bright spots was Rodrigo Oracio. He was placed on the roster midway through the year and in 11 games allowed no runs in 12 innings and only 5 hits. He was told to work on his control this off-season, but the team is extremely excited about his prospects. After him, the most consistent pitcher was Miguel Perea who gave up 10 runs in his first 5 innings pitched, but then only 6 more runs in the next 19.2 innings. Mike House in his first year started out great but seemed to tire more as the year progressed. He will be back next year with an even bigger role. Alfonso Cruz was expected to improve on his performance last year, but it turned out to be a dud. While the club still has high hopes for him, it is starting to look like maybe he should have gone to college instead. After that Jesús Ramírez, Arthur Mapstone, Raul Asper, Francisco Torres and Ismael Díaz all were pretty awful all around.

As for the hitting, there was no problem there. Joaquín Hernandez had a great professional debut hitting .298/.342/.511 in 81 games. Luis Gallegos was just as good but has since been traded to Havana for Gareth Van Wandel. Miguel Rodriguez coming back for his second season performed almost exactly as he did the year before and that has made upper management excited. He hit .297/.332/.399 and showed a good ability in the field. At catcher it was Toby Marriott, who like Cruz was an early high school pick. In his 2nd year at Aruba and first as the full-time starter Marriott did not disappoint. He hit .320/.403/.446 and started to show the ability to catch. The organization while lacking a superstar catcher, plan on taking Marriott’s development slowly. Tom Smith did okay in his return after a trade with SS brought him back to Aruba. Smith did hit 11 home runs but that was all he did, nothing much else raised excited on the field. Another returnee Robin Dicker performed well enough to earn a spot back in the organization next season, hitting .301/.349/.441. Tony Cardenas showed why he was signed as an INT and while he probably deserves a promotion (.280/.320/.372), with the backlog of OF in the organization he might get one more year in Rookie. Another new face in the organization was Carlos Garza who was acquired with Smith for Dave Hurley. Garza did very well in his 3rd year in Rookie hitting .328/.417/.393. Michihiro Yamanaka was drafted in the 2nd round and was not the usual type of player that GM Abcarian drafts. Coach Abcarian liked his pure power ability but knew his hitting for average would take a minute. Well in his first year his power was not anywhere to be found, but Yamanaka has been seen watching film night after night in the off-season to improve for next year. Jorge Vargas was an INT discovery and the team decided to play him this year. While his hitting wasn’t where anyone liked, he showed steady progress and looks to have a point to prove next year in Aruba. In his 3rd go around in Rookie William Bell rang up his average, .352/.393/.553. He has already been promoted to S-A and it should be fun to see him progress. Toki Wada another 2nd round pick out of high school by GM Abcarian this year performed about as well as he was his Sr year and that is not good (.219/.311/.303). The team is hoping that he won’t hang his head as 2032 was not a good year for him, but with another season in Aruba, the team is hoping that he will flourish. If he doesn’t improve much next year, he might not find another season in the WV franchise. Xin-fang She was a cheap $233,333 signing in 2030 and the team decided to let him hit Rookie this year as an 18-year-old. In 39 games he hit .309/.336/.374, but he will be back in Aruba to practice his defense. As currently he looks to be a DH only. Seung-Hak Chin played in 21 games as a backup catcher and did an excellent job. Unless a new young catcher appears in the franchise, Chin looks to get a chance to be the full-time starting catcher next year. The rest of the guys on the bench: Shawn Hardin, António Torres, Rody van de Bergh, Fernando Mata, Pedro Salazar, Roberto Rosário, Niek van Aardschot, and Callum MacIvor did not amount to much and if they don’t figure it out soon will be looking for new employment.

While the season was not a total lose, it is unacceptable that they did not make the playoffs. The hitting did their job, but the fielding was atrocious and that then made the pitchers struggle. The team has told the personnel that they are on notice. It is expected that Hugh Watson should be safe do to the fact he was named Manager of the Year the previous two seasons, but Akio Sai job is on the line. Next year Aruba should be a fun team to watch, especially if they find a few more pitchers.