(Albany, NY) The Cougars started the 20001 season strong, and by
mid-season were even challenging Galena, but then
their surprise star 1-baseman, Dmitiri Young, became
injured and was out for the rest of the season. The
loss of one player shouldn't have killed
Albany's chances and dropped them into last place,
with a record of 70-90. But Albany's inexperienced
manager saw the tremendous success of Young, and
thought to retake success by giving the youngsters a
chance. As any good manager knows, you can slide
"rookies" into the major league roster, but you can't
succeed by overloading the roster with inexperienced
or those who've played poorly in the past
and now may do better if given a chance.
Even though he played only 50 games, Young put
in the best performance among the batters.
Young reached the majors through the Duluth
organization in 1998, and he played 15
reasonably well, though not outstanding, games.
Young wasn't on the Duluth team for the 1999 season,
he had somehow ended up moving on to the Kamloops
Bears team (predecessor of the Albany Cougars), were
he saw only 6 games, in which he hit one home run and
had an .080 batting average. Young finally saw almost
a full major league season in 2000, on the Albany
team, wherein he put up good numbers.
Now at the age of 24, Young has seen 4 major league
seasons, but has only played in less than
1 and a half.
The other youngsters, or for that matter experienced
major leaguers, did not do as well in 2001.
No pitcher pitched with an ERA below 3.25 nor won more
than 9 games, and no batter hit above .289 (other than
Young, who didn't have enough AB's to count). Three
rookie pitchers were tested, and 3 other pitchers of
somewhat limited experience were allowed to show their
stuff. RHPs Fred Blanche, John Rocker and Joe
Burns were allowed to shine, and mostly failed. LHPs
Kerry Booth and Alex Kucab were also allowed a chance,
and they also both failed to meet the challenge.
Millwood pitched 5 QS out of 12 GS (32 QS out of 73
career GS), Blanche pitched 2 QS out of 10 GS, Burns
pitched 0 QS out of 6 GS (and a career 0 QS out of 12
GS), Booth pitched 2 QS out of 9 GS and Alex Kucab
pitched 0 GS out of 4 GS (pitched in only 1 game,
pre-2001). Millwood reached the majors through the Hartford
Whalers organization in 1998, where he was given a
real chance to start.
Still on the Whalers, Millwood performed at a sub-par
level in 1999,and was allowed to start 1 less game
than in his rookie year. Ending up on the Albany Cougars team for the 2000
season, Millwood was allowed to be one of 6 players to
start at least 20.
Millwood, with all the chances given to him, still
hadn't performed up to the level expected after his
rookie season, especially considering that he pitched
in only 2 more GS in his rookie season than in the
most recent season and yet won 9 games, lost 10 in
that rookie season and won only 2 games and losing 4
in this 2001 season.
Fred Blanche, John Rocker, Kerry Booth and Alex
Kucab faced all or most of their major league games
this season, and their performance is discussed above.
Burns was allowed a chance in 2000, and he played
poorly in his rookie season.
(That covers the season ending rotation; now we'll
cover those that should have been in there: Bartolo
Colon, Bob Peterman, Luis Andujar, Julio Santana, and
Phil Vaughn).
Vaughn has played every year for the same
organization. Instead of him moving around, the team
itself did...
In 2001, Vaughn was used exclusively as a reliever
(and his 2 "good pitches" and 59 endurance would
suggest relief or spot starter), and played poorly.
Vaughn broke into the majors in the PVBL's rookie
season on the Laurel Lynx(a predecessor to Albany?)
and his ėrookieî season was again exclusively relief
work, and poor work at that. Playing with the Laurel Lynx again,
for the 1998
season, Vaughn put together a good, not great, relief
season limiting batters to .226. The 1999 season saw Vaughn's first 16 GS and he
pitched just 3 QS and 1 CG in those starts.
Once again, not particularly good reliever, and now
not good starter though that year saw a number of
Bears having poor starting seasons. The 2000 season saw Vaughn pitch 4 QS, in 8 more
starting appearances. As a reliever, Vaughn continued to underperform, and
as a starter, he hasn't shined.
Santana, like Vaughn has played every year for the
same organization. Instead of him moving around,
the team itself did. Julio Santana pitched 2 complete games in 15 GS, with
8 of them being QS in 2001. Santana has the core
ratings to be a starter, but only has 2 great pitches.
In the 1997 season, Santana played poorly, but
managed 4 QS in 10 GS. The 1998 season saw the same number of starts as the
current season, but in this year, Santana didn't
complete any games and only had 6 QS (meaning that he
has improved this year). The 1999 season saw Santana's work load decrease to
15 total games (the fewest in his career) and he was
allowed to start only 6 games, recording 4 QS. The 2000 year was another poor performance, but with
slightly more work (24 games), the same # of starts
(6), but 2 less QS (with one being a complete game).
Santana and Vaughn make somewhat poor relievers and
might make somewhat adequate starters (though more
likely Vaughn would flop again). Now we move on to
three starters that have a much greater
right to be termed starting rotation pitchers: Luis
Andujar, Bartolo Colon, and Bob Peterman.
Andujar saw limited starting rotation action in the
2001 season, but had in 37 relief appearances, in
which only 5 inherited runners out of 15 managed to
score. In those 7 starts, Andujar managed only 2
QS's. Not the numbers to suggest a starting rotation player,
but that is only 7 GS. Andujar put together a good season with the Montreal
Royals team in 1997, earning 5 QS in 7 GS, and keeping
opposing batters to .220.
Andujar started to slid in 1998, when, apparently in
reward for his 1997 services, Andujar was given 22
games to start, but managing only to throw 9 QS, with
1 complete game; batters also had a much easier time
batting against him, but still only managed .257.
This slide might be one reason that the Royals later
got rid of him. Andujar entered the future Cougars organization in
1999, and had his worst year ever. Andujar's 2000 season wasn't that particularly
remarkable except for his 13 QS's in 24 GS. Andujar, only 25, might make an adequate 4th-5th
starter (though I wouldn't want to trust him in the
payoffs).
Bob Peterman and Bartolo Colon are the real starters
on this team. Neither started
as many games as they should have in 2001, in an
attempt to allow other pitchers a chance
to prove themselves (not that 28 GS is a small amount
of starts).
Colon started his career with the Deadwood Outlaw
team in 1997, where he put together an impressive
little season. Colon joined the future Cougars organization for the
next season (1998), butpromptly collapsed after he had
joined the struggling Laurel Lynx (though two starters
managed to put together good seasons on this team,
winning more than 9 games each; though neither of the
pitchers managed to stick with the team, they had
wanted to much money, and so Reynoso and Karsay were
let go). Colon still hadn't managed to settle in with the
Cougar organization during the 1999 season he managed
only 12 QS in 31 GS. The 2000 season saw Colon start to turn
around his career, managing to break even, and record
17 QS in 26 GS (though, for some reason, he also had
15 relief appearances). The 2001 season saw Colon start to slip again . . .
time will tell if he can become a high caliber
starter. If he hadn't been traded away from Deadwood,
he would likely have had a much different career.
Peterman played with Andujar on the Montreal team for
the 1997, and did much worse than Andujar (though he
never saw a shot in the rotation). Peterman popped on over to the lowly Medina Mustangs
for the 1998 season, and saw his first 8 games in the
rotation, with 4 QS and 1 CG. Playing for such a poor team, he did ok in the 1998
season.
Oddly enough, Peterman actually managed to stay on
one team for two years, and so for the 1999 season, he
returned to the poor performing Medina club, and this
time contributed to their slaughter (a pitcher can
lose 11 games and still manage to have some of those
be QS if playing on a poor team; but Bob managed only
7 QS in 19 GS). Medina had had enough of Peterman, so he was tossed
on over to the Cougars for the 2000 season. Except
for that first season with the Royals, wherein Bob saw
limited action, and no starts, Peterman has bounced
around on poor teams and so his development has
been adversely affected. Peterman's career numbers thus far aren't that good,
but he should eventually bury that past (unlike some
others on this team.
Various other pitchers have passed through the
organization, including Reynoso, Karsay, Castello,
Erickson, Hershiser, Avery, Neagle and the like,
that, if they had been allowed to stay on the team,
would really have changed where the team would have
been standing today.
Other pitchers of note, still on the team, are RHP
Marc Pisciotta, who recorded 14 saves in his 1997
rookie season (and 6 since then) and RHP Matthew
Jacobs, who has managed to do adequately in the closer
job (37 saves). No other pitcher of note is on
the team and Pisciotta isn't exactly good.
Numerous batters have passed through the organization, of note:
Travis Fryman started his career on my
Springfield Panthers team, and is now on my Cougar
team.
