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.