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Duluth
Dukes
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Personnel History The Bill Holmes era was concluded with two good teams that didn't make the playoffs, then the mantle passed to Dean Oliveiri, who spent three years unable to crack the .500 mark, then to Harley Kernal, who was under .500 over 4 years but did have one playoff berth to show for it. New manager Jeff Forman took over for the 2004 season and drafted a youthful roster that came together in the second half of the season, but players like McPherson and Upton took steps backwards in 2005. There were some good players here for a while. Albert Belle lived and died here, and Carlos Delgado spent three years here after he replaced Jim Thome. Barry Larkin also spent his glory years here. But pitching has traditionally been a weak spot here, costing Dukes fans a lot of post season baseball. The 1999 trade of Delgado for Mike Sweeney and Brad Penny helped a little, but that opened up other problems. Up until 2004, drafting was poor. The Sticks wasted many good picks in search of a catcher: Brian Schneider, and Jason Phillips. Kendall was the best, lasting three years. However, home grown players like Upton, Utley, and Martin might lead the way for the Dukes to cross .500 and contend for the playoffs in the very near future.
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2006 The Dukes were a model of inconsistency during the year. They got off to a terrible 11-23 start but then won 15 of 18 to go above .500. Another bad patch followed, and the Dukes were 13 under in mid-July, only to pull themselves together to rally to a 61-63 mark. But that was the last hurrah: another 3-13 streak left the Dukes on the down side of .500 they would never recover from. The team was average offensively and defensively, though it did feature MVP quality seasons from Justin Morneau (.361/.426/.626/147 RBI) and Chase Utley (.302/28/97) and a Cy Young quality performance from Vincente Padilla (17-10, 2.57). Sadly though, the outfield featured very little and almost 100 starts were thrown by pitchers with an ERA north of 5. 2005 Just not a good team. Bobby Abreu had an off year, and Chase Utley and Dan Johnson were the main offensive threats. Overall, the team hit .243 (dead last in the league), though the ranking in OB% and SA was a little better. The pitching staff couldn't find a starter who won more than 10 games or posted a sub-4 ERA (aside from Tim Stauffer's 11 late starts). Scot Shields and Huston Street were good at the end of the bullpen, but getting there was fraught with danger. After a 13-10 April, May was a disastrous 6-21, and the Dukes sank without a trace. 2004 The Dukes started out the season poorly, and by the 27th of June were 12 games under .500. From there on out, they played to a .635 clip and finished 86-76, their best record since their 2001 playoff team. In mid-July, the Dukes won series at Dresden and Seoul, two playoff teams, and won 12 of 15 road games during the heat of the summer. The offense was centered around Bobby Abreu, though Vinny Castilla and Brad Wilkerson each managed 100 RBIs despite batting averages of .260 and .224. Wilkerson also scored 100 runs, thanks largely to his 103 walks. The pitching wasn't much to write home about. Scott Shields was tied for 2nd in the league in saves with 33, though he also blew 11, and wound up with a 1-10 record. Ryan Madson was the star in middle relief: 12-2, 2.60 in 83 high leverage innings. 2003 The Pointed Sticks started out 13-2 but nobody was fooled. Up against stronger opposition, they couldn't improve on that, slipped back a few games, and got back to 11 over again towards the end of June. Things got worse, 7 games under at Labor Day, but a good September restored a winning record. With a team batting average of .236 and nobody with more than 20 homers, it could have been a lot worse, but there was an outstanding bullpen behind a reasonable starting staff that combined for a team ERA in the top third. Scott Shields pitched 154 innings over 80 relief appearances, and Rheal Cormier and Matt Mantei made for an exceptional 8th inning 9th inning combo. 2002 Lakewood, a surprise entrant in the 2001 playoffs, didn’t have the firepower to compete with Sycamore or Hollywood in 2002. The team effectively threw in the towel at the halfway mark by trading their best starter, Paul Byrd (7-6, 3.23 at the time) to Carolina. Although the team was able to peak over the .500 mark at 44-43 in mid-July, it didn’t convince management to take another run at the playoffs - - even when they were tied with Hollywood for the last playoff spot. The Sticks then lost 3 of 4 at home to Dresden, and went into a 3-12 spin which ended all hopes of post-season participation. By the end of the run, Eric Gagne was also gone. Offensively, Lakewood was 8th of 26, while the pitching staff was a little more downmarket. |
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