April 3, 2017 -Fargo, ND – Following one of the worst winters in recent history for the city of Fargo, the sounds of wooden bats hitting baseballs is one of great anticipation. As we now stand ready for the first week of the Planetary Extreme Baseball Associations 2017 season, many questions have arisen about this Fargo squad. Following last season’s deeply disappointing performance that saw the Dinosaurs fade midway through, ending in with an 84-78 record and 12 games out of the final wild-card spot, the Dinosaur faithful have been left to question their expectations for this upcoming season. Largely unchanged from a year ago, the 2017 opening day roster begs the question, “Why should we expect anything better this year?”. It is hard to challenge such a query. The remainder of this column will examine this question and consider some of the possible directions this season may turn as well as what those outcomes will mean as the organization moves forward.

Yoshino Miyata, the highest salaried player in the association, enjoyed most of his 2016 season on the disabled list with a torn posterior cruciate ligament. Miyata, who is set to earn $32.1 million this upcoming season, reportedly was able to rehab during the offseason and was also able to participate in the full spring training. He appears to be well, though noticeably slower in the field. It is likely that the 35 year old, often known for his solid defense in addition to his all-star caliber bat, will have to rely more on his bat to boost his value as the injury and age look to be sapping his body of his speed and range in the field. This creates a problem for an outfield that was already “hiding” the limited range of slugging right fielder Chris Allen. The combined limited ranges of these two corner outfielders will likely push heavily on starting center fielder Larry Million and reserve Fernando Flores.

On the positive side, Miyata has looked well this spring, he’s shown a good eye at the plate, his trademark ability to avoid bad pitches and continues to make it look effortless putting the ball in play. Manager Duncan Walker has already stated that Miyata will return to his slot at the top of the order and will be expected to be the table setter for the power hitters that will follow him in the lineup. One of which, the aforementioned Chris Allen, will start the season on the disabled list as he ended up being the only player to find his way to the list this spring . Allen suffered a minor wrist sprain and is only expected to miss about a week or so. In the meantime it looks like Albert Reyes will get some time up in the bigs again this season, though word out of the front office is that they would like to see him get some time in at AAA Souix Falls in center field with an eye toward the future.

The rest of the position players are basically unchanged from last season. Slugging first baseman Jesus Santos will work in a platoon with Brandon Small. Walker has spoken with high expectations for this tandem and is hopeful that the combination can match some of the numbers that Small, designated hitter Mike Arnopp and former Dinosaur star and first baseman Ramón Flores had been putting up a couple seasons ago when the group had shared time between designated hitter and first base while putting up strong numbers and driving the offense.

A big question resides with starting shortstop, Ken Keddy, who is now three years removed from his breakout 2014 season when he posted a 139 OPS+. He has since languished the past two seasons with a basically league average bat, while also spending some time on the disabled list. The phenom prospect is starting to look like a fading star at the young age of 26. Questions surrounding his work ethic have arisen around the league; some scouts have opined that he perhaps doesn’t have the drive to really be anything more than just a “regular”.

The spotlight will also shine on starting catcher Harry Crawford. In similar fashion to Keddy, Crawford followed up a breakout season in 2015, where the Californian born catcher hit for a 138 OPS+ while splitting time with Raúl Espinoza, during Espinoza’s final season with Fargo. Then given the opportunity to catch full-time this past season, Crawford struggled and ended with a respectable league average performance, but not to the star level many expect of him. In many ways, he and Keddy will answer the questions many have about this team’s offense and outlook into the next few years.

On the pitching side, the starting rotation again will get a minor shake up. Last season saw a solid if not spectacular performance from Fargo mainstay, Javier Encarnación, but the word coming out of spring training is that Encarnacion has struggled with his control and his velocity has dropped markedly. This would appear to have prompted manager Duncan Walker to drop Encarnacion from the rotation and slot him into the bullpen. The hope is Encarnacion can regain his control working out of a long-man role. Encarnacion has had prior success pitching out of the bullpen, and in fact was quite dominant during the 2014 season in a middle relief role. The bottom line though is that this is quite the blow to the team’s plans going forward as the hefty contract extension Encarnacion received a year ago pays him $9.2 million this season and $10.2 million next season guaranteed, which is generally considered “starter” money across the league, and certainly not the type of money that goes to a player in the “long-man” role.

In Encarnacion’s place is a prospect that seemingly came out of nowhere, but now stands to possibly be the future of the rotation. Evan Farr, spent his first few seasons in Fargo’s low level minor league squads as a reliever. Then last season he was promoted directly from single A Bismarck to AAA Souix Falls and converted to a starter. Reports over the offseason where that although Farr held his own last season through the unexpected transitions, he would likely need to return to AAA this season and continue the process of being stretched out to build his stamina for the starting pitcher role. It came as a surprise to see the Dinosaurs tap the young 23 year old to fill in for Javier Encarnacion and begin the season in Fargo instead of Souix Falls. There are still questions regarding his ability to develop a third pitch, his changeup is just “okay” according to scouting reports from last season. If he is unable to develop that pitch we may seem him switched back to the bullpen. A lot seemingly will ride on his young arm for this season. The rotation was had began to fall apart as the season wore on last season and if the Dinosaurs hope to avoid a repeat of 2016 this season, they will need to rely on Farr and on Encarncion figuring it out.

In many ways this is going to be a make it or break it season for the organization at the major league level. There are two prime trade chips currently on the roster if things go south fast. Starting pitcher ace Armando Gallegos is on the final year of his contract with the organization and due to monetary restraints (tied to Miyata’s contract and its team option “hold” on next season’s books) the organization will have to wait until the end of the season to try and negotiate an extension. The same goes for closer Raúl Pinto who has already extended with the team in the past and now is looking to again go for a big pay day. Both would likely be highly sought after players on the mid-season trade market if the organization decides that this season is lost and a rebuild may need to be undertaken. This is also likely the last season that Miyata will be with the team, at least under the contract he currently has, as it is an almost forgone conclusion that the team option for $34.2 million will be declined by the team, particularly because they are not tied to any buyout in this case. If he so wanted, general manager Cristian Shofar could shake things up substantially by next year and possibly not in a way that will be popular with the fan base, who are hoping to warm up to this team this season.