Concluding the 2022 review of the Fishermen’s first season in the South of France is a look at the pitching staff that took the mound in Marseille. In their final year in Gloucester a lot of the rotation disappointed and they drifted along ending up losing over 100 games. When GM Laverick was appointed by the franchise he brought in quite a few pitchers in an attempt to improve this and put an arm around some of last year’s players to tell them at if they just put some more effort in they weren’t really as bad as their figures suggested. Four pitchers arrived via free agency and one was acquired in a trade but without much success.

 The Rotation

26-yr-old Justin Bracey was in his second full year in the Fishermen’s rotation and given the ball on Opening Day he was one of the more successful starters, He turned an 11-14 record in 2021 round and posted a 13-10 record this year lowering his ERA from the 4.27 down to 4.06. Once more he ate over 200 innings and stuckout 181 in the process

25-yr-old Gabriel Hernandez had accumulated a 17-26 record over his past two season’s in Gloucester and his start to 2022 was delayed when he suffered a shoulder injury in spring training. When he finally made his season debut at the end of April he recorded five wins in his first six starts giving up just seven runs in the process. His seventh start on May 27^th saw him go just 2.2 innings before leaving the game with forearm pain. It was early August before he was able to pitch off the mound again but he picked up where he left off. It was August 24^th before he was tagged with his first loss when he gave up only one run in seven strong innings but London shutout Marseille 2-0. Entering September he was 8-1 before succumbing to the teams general collapse, he still finished with a 10-4 record and nearly halved his ERA to 2.49. A new two-year deal with probably see him the team’s #1 pitcher in 2023.

34-yr-old free agent signing Jason Crousse arrived on a four year deal having posted a career 72-78 record at Palm Springs but failed to maintain early promise. By mid-June he had a 4-4 record with a 3.75 ERA in fifteen starts in which he generally went deep in each start before the wheels came off. A run of five straight losses pushed his ERA over five and he never really recovered finishing 8-12 with a 5.36 ERA. Pitching 178 innings in the end he allowed 205 hits with a WHIP of 1.47.

34-yr-old Jesus Costa had posted two winning seasons when he arrived at Gloucester, his third PEBA franchise, but for the last two years he had lost 11 games each year and failed to reach double figure wins. Entering June he was 2-2 with a mid-three ERA before embarking on a run of three straight losses balanced then by three straight wins. His ERA now was nearly five but he did well to get over another three game losing streak in August and by winning his final start he finished 10-10 with an ERA of 4.17. His contact extension though would have meant the team laying out more than $9 million and so the team released him at the end of the season.

28-yr-old Raul Sanchez arrived with a six year PEBA career in Manchester behind him but apart from 2020’s 15-10 season he had only won 12 games since 2017 while losing 34. The change of scenery didn’t help him and although by early June he was 4-5 with an ERA in the threes he only posted one more win the rest of the season. Finishing with a run of seven losses in his last eight appearances he had a record of 5-14 and had bounced between the Rotation and the bullpen.

29-yr-old Katai Ishikawa was entering his seventh year with the franchise but was coming off a 7-17 year. The general feeling was that he was better than that but he never really got going in 2022. Shuffling back and form between the rotation and the bullpen he was 4-6 entering July with an ERA in the twos but he never won again and finished 4-10 with a 3.47 ERA. Fishermen released him in November.

26-yr-old Carlos Icaza and 24-yr-old Yao-bang Wang made five starts between them, their first ever at the PEBA level, as late September call-ups from Beantown but both have only outside chances of sticking with the team in 2023. Carlos went 1-1 after a 14-7 season at Triple-A level while Wang recovering from Tommy John surgery in 2020 went 20-2 at Beantown and went to the Triple-A All-Star game. He couldn’t match it in Marseille though and lost two of his three starts.

 The Bullpen

GM Laverick snapped up two free agent relievers, 37-yr-old Luis Mora and 28-yr-old Chad Fountain, from his former team in London as well as acquiring 33-yr-old Arnaud Thompson from Aurora to strengthen his bullpen. 35-yr-old Bryant Duncan who had 19 saves in 2021 was replaced by Mora as the closer initially but after several blown saves Duncan was returned to the closer role and went on to an 8-6 record with 37 saves and a 3.11 ERA, his lowest since 2015. Mora recovered from his setback too, settled into the setup role and posted a 5-7 record with seven saves and a 3.32 ERA. His save on June 27^th against Havana was his 3,000^th in the PEBA, the fifth player to reach this milestone and the second from the PEBA’s inaugural draft in 2007.

Thompson was solid in the heart of the pen pitching 74 innings in 56 appearances posting a 4-4 record with a 4.72 ERA but he was released as Marseille doubted he was worth a $5 million plus extension. 27-yr-old Tse-peng Yong went 3-9 with a 5.33 ERA in the final year in Gloucester but turned it round in Marseille posting a 5-3 record in 60 appearances before a shoulder injury in August prematurely ended his year. Chad Fountain bombed spectacularly and after 22 outings he was 0-3 with a ERA over seven. He spent the rest of the season in Beantown before being released in November. 24-yr-old Christian Perez who was 4-1, 1.88 ERA in Beantown made his PEBA bow in July but didn’t have things all his own way posting a 0-2 record with one save and a 3.64 ERA. He was a bit wild walking 19 batters while only striking out 17 in 29 innings pitched but is expected not to return to Triple-A in 2023. 26-yr-old Eduardo Herrera was a disappointing 1-0 with a 4.67 ERA in 20 outings and he will not be guaranteed a roster spot in 2023. Finally 25-yr-old Armando Vasquez  after his first 55 appearances in 2021 got a late call-up as well making six appearances without giving up a run.