For the first time in franchise history, the Punxatawney Groundhogs were
unable to take a commanding lead into the final weeks of the season. They
won by a large margin in the first season and held on for a decent lead in
the second year. But after a long battle and miraculous comeback against
the Houston Hellraisers, the Groundhogs once again have postseason plans
involving baseball.
In the final game of the season, the Hogs sent reliever Tim Worrell to the
mound as a starter for the first time this season, only his 5th career
start. He answered the call well, allowing just 1 run in 6 innings before
the Hogs bullpen took over to close out a season-ending 4-1 victory.
"It felt good," said Worrell. "I don't get this chance often. I hope this
made my case for getting some action in the playoffs."
Manager Dan Shapiro had a very different perspective on the ramifications of
Worrell's strong outing.
"I didn't want to tell Tim, but I was thinking about leaving him home and
bringing along Jimmy Burright instead. Now I'm not sure what to do," said
Shapiro. "But we will, certainly, have Worrell on the roster."
This season has been a bit disappointing for Worrell. He has seen a lot of
bullpen action, throwing 116 1/3 innings in 65 games. His record is a
mediocre 3-7 with a 5.03 ERA. He has only 6 holds and 2 saves in that time,
and opponents are slugging .496 against him.
In comparison, Burright has a more impressive 2-0 record and 3.15 ERA, but
has thrown only 20 innings. He has also walked 8 while striking out only 5.
"With Tim, we know what we'll get. With Jim, we don't know if he's just
been lucky or he's really something special," said starter Bobby Thomas.
Shapiro is running out of time to make his decision. At the time this
article goes to the press, he has only 11 hours to adjust his initial 25-man
roster. He is not sure, however, why the rosters are due prior to the
lineups. He feels it makes no sense whatsoever, and is putting an
unneccessary and useless time constraint on the playoff owners without any
benefit to the office of the commissioner, and wishes Commissioner Peck
would consider allowing 25-man rosters to be submitted until 6 PM, along
with lineups.
END OF SEASON RECAP
In a drama-filled season for the Hogs, the most exciting regular season the
team has had yet, there were many standouts and peak performers, as well as
many newcomers. Here's a brief recap of the year.
The season began with the FA plan. For the second straight year,
Punxatawney lost a starting outfielder, as slugger Marty Cordova was plucked
from the roster. This affected the team far less than the loss of Rondell
White after the first season.
Owner Shapiro elected to try and replace Cordova with another outfielder,
but settled on DH/1B Geronimo Berroa. He was acquired in exchange for Ken
Hill, who came to Punxatawney late in the 1998 season and never made his
mark. Berroa came off a 1998 season in which he hit .287 with 37 homeruns
and 92 RBI, hoping to bring another big bat to the middle of the order.
After barely holding a lead for the first month of the year, Punxatawney
fell behind Houston during May and remained in second for a long time
thereafter. During that time, Jon Lieber nearly threw a perfect game,
allowing just 1 single, and the acquired Joe Netzel, Charlie Bunker, Jodie
Caffyn, and Webb Messenger in the June amateur draft.
It was not until August that the Hogs began to creep into the pennant race
again. A trade-deadline acquisition of Hartford's Masato Yoshii gave the
team some hope and belief that the management was behind them. He cost the
team prospect Jodie Caffyn and a first round FA pick, but he appears to have
been well worth the cost.
Other acquisitions during the season brought in Juan Guzman for prospect
Mike Hampton and Alex Ochoa for draft picks.
In the final 19 games, Punxatawney not only made up the 6.5 games they
trailed Houston, but even finished the season with a 4 game lead. This was
an amazing 10.5 game turnaround in just 3 weeks. An 11 game winning streak
in which the team scored double digit runs in almost every game facilitated
the efforts.
Now the team is into the playoffs again, this year facing the Binghamton
Mets. Two seasons ago, the Hogs coasted to the DLCS but fell to the Vero
Beach Bums without much of a fight. Last season, Vero once again sent the
Hogs home, but this time it was a 3 game sweep in the division series.
Now, Vero will be watching the playoffs from home while the new Picard
champion, 100-game winner Binghamton, plays the Hogs in round 1.
Washington, the favorite to take the DL pennant, faces division rival
Phoenix.
And who led this amazing comeback? This year, it was truly a team effort.
Certainly, two offensive players stand out from the pack. The middle
infielders, Tony Batista and Jose Valentin, are the offensive leaders of the
team.
Batista batted leadoff and second for most of the season, playing all 162
games. He led the team in the following categories: AB (707), runs (120),
hits (222), and doubles (54). He also hit 23 homers, drove in 88 runs, and
was second on the team with 126 runs created. He also stole 28 bases and
did not make an error in the field.
On the other side of second, Valentin had another incredible year as he
continues establishing himself to be one of the top shortstops in baseball.
He hit .304 with 37 homers and 125 RBI. He led the team with 131 runs
created and stole 21 bases.
Of course, these weren't the only two sluggers. A brief list of the rest of
the roster:
Scott Rolen .294, 28 HR, 83 RBI
Geronimo Berroa .279, 30 HR, 95 RBI
Dave Martinez .297, 28 HR, 69 RBI (139 games)
Alex Ochoa .289, 25 HR, 77 RBI
Ryan Klesko .297, 28 HR, 84 RBI (131 games)
Jason Giambi .275, 17 HR, 50 RBI (135 games)
Dan Wilson .309, 28 HR, 62 RBI (125 games)
Roberto Kelly .281, 12 HR, 46 RBI (100 games)
Truly, the entire offense was responsible for the amazing come and each
player stepped up when needed. They'll need to keep the hot hitting up to
top the Mets in the postseason.
Their pitching staff was a bit less masterful than previous years. In the
early months, Rocky Coppinger, Sean Bergman, and Jon Lieber were throwing
well, but over the season, everyone seemed to average out. Bobby Thomas, on
the other hand, turned into a peak performer in the final weeks, recovering
from an offseason cocaine addiction and even winning the August POTM.
For the year, Coppinger went 17-9 with a 3.59 ERA, improving his career
record to 39-20. Bergman was a top performer all season, going 16-7 with a
2.67 ERA. He is now 35-18 over three years with 57 starts and 64 relief
appearances. Lieber was only 11-10 on the year, but had a 2.80 ERA.
Thomas's late season heroics gave him an impressive 14-6 final record with a
3.92 ERA. These four will make up the postseason rotation.
This allows Masato Yoshii, 3-2 since arriving in Punxatawney, and Juan
Guzman, just returning from injury, to work from the bullpen. They will
hopefully bolster what has been a very weak pen this season. Tim Worrell is
3-7, 5.03. Henry Neale was 3-1, 5.79. Bobby Munoz went 10-6 but had a 5.08
ERA. Dustin Hermanson went 0-4, 6.26. Scott Ruffcorn, prior to injury, was
0-7, 8.24.
Only Ricky Bottalico (3-2, 2.12, 11 saves and 6 holds in 32 games), Curly
Karkovice (3-5, 4.12, 5 saves and 5 holds), and Jim Burright (2-0, 3.15, 1
save and 3 holds) had respectable seasons in the bullpen.
Binghamton will be a very tough opponent. In the PVBL power rankings, they
are ranked 3rd, just fractions of a point ahead of the 4th-place Hogs. The
Mets have a better team ERA and more quality starts. They also have a
similar offense that combines speed and power.
However, the two offenses are a bit different. Binghamton relies heavily on
the incredible trio of Jeff Bagwell, Mark McGwire, and Ken Caminiti while
Punxatawney counts on a team effort. But the big three have quite a
supporting cast, including leadoff man Arnold O'Niell, who stole 57 bases
while hitting .294. It also includes veteran Joe Carter, who belted 31
homers and hit .293 this year.
Their pitching staff also relies on star power a bit more. Andy Ashby is
the top dog after a 16-6, 1.80 year. He also has 16-5 Frank Rodriguez. The
rest of the rotation has been less reliable. David Cone went 13-12 with a
4.46 ERA, Mark Thompson 9-13, 4.28, and Ramon Martinez 10-8, 3.93.
But the Mets certainly have an advantage in the bullpen, at least in the
manner in which the bullpen has performed. While the Hogs may appear to
have more raw talent, the Mets have numerous pitchers with ERA's below 3.00,
and even have veteran Todd Worrell with 15 holds and 11 saves with his 1.89
ERA.
It will be a great series, for sure, and both teams look forward to the
competition. The two cities are located relatively close to each other and
many fans are making the trip to see all 5 games.
"It'll be fun, it'll be intense, and hopefully we'll win," said Shapiro.
"Anything less than a Defiant Championship will be a letdown after all these
great seasons."
Still, their feat of three straight division championships is quite
impressive. Only the Hogs and the Galena Hamsters have pulled off that
feat.
"We are one of the best teams in this league, and we will continue for a
long time," bragged Shapiro. "But we need a series title to soldify that
position."
