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Texas
Lightning
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Personnel History Under the Terry Steer period, the Sydney Dodgers dug progressively deeper and deeper into their future to field a contender. The Dodgers were also helped greatly by their home stadium, which turned mediocre talents like Eric Hanson and Jose Lima into superstars. A core of Chipper Jones, Tino Martinez, and Raul Mondesi made for seriousness and five consecutive winning records, but there were only two playoff series and only one foray past the first round. The problems occurred after the Sydney period. Chipper was essentially sacrificed for youth and prospects, and the next iteration featured the quick-peaking Rich Aurilia and Paul LoDuca. Trying to take advantage of the situation, Randy Johnson spent some time here in the 2001-2 campaigns. He cost most of the draft class of 2002, and then was traded on for the return of Sydney Ponson, which wasn't a very good return on investment. The 2003 version was a strange crew. Though there were solid additions in Hideki Matsui, Mark Teixeira, Francisco Rodriguez, and Jack Wilson, the team was way too disorganized to win more than 42 games, finishing as the 2nd worst of all time. The result was housecleaning. Matsui and Teixeira were sent away for pitching, and replaced in the draft with banjo hitters Chone Figgins and Omar Infante. Over the recent years, the focus has been on speed and defense. Though the team rebounded to a winning season in 2005, 2006 was a disaster and the future needs to concentrate more on run production rather than the signing of relievers. |
2006 After the pitching mess in 2005, the Lightning traded their first pick for Curt Schilling, and though he had a top flight problems, a lot of other problems were exposed in Lightning-land. After Schilling and Kenny Rogers, Jason Marquis deservedly lost 20, "closer" Eddie Guardado went 0-6 with an ERA of 9, and the rest of the pitching staff was similarly brutal. On the offensive side, free swinging outfielders Juan Pierre and Jeff Francoeur had OB% below .300, the team led the league in caught stealing, and Texas finished 25th of 26th in runs scored despite a team batting average 7th overall. The high water mark for the Lightning was a 41-53 mark in late July, following a 5 game win streak, but then the team promptly lost 9 of the next 11. 2005 Another strange crew, though one that managed a winning record. The offense stole 189 bases on the year, by far the best in the league, but power production was weak. Individually, Coco Crisp was the star, with a .331/.379/.535 line, and Raul Ibanez hitting behind him, Juan Pierre (73 sb) and Chone Figgins (.307/56sb), managed 125 RBI. The pitching was adequate. Rogers and Marquis were solid, but sometimes in a 4 man rotation, and sometimes not in the rotation at all. The Lightning's high water mark was achieved in late July, when they were 15 games over .500, the best since 2001. However, the offense collapsed after that and August saw the Lightning endure a 6-23 swing, leaving them to struggle for .500 the rest of the way. 2004 Nobody won more than 7 games. Kenny Rogers managed 6 in two-thirds of a season, but you get the point. The offense wasn't very good either, finishing in the bottom 3 in the division, but at least offered versatility in Figgins and Infante. Ben Broussard hit well over his head all season, settling in at .325/24/85, and Chone Figgins contributed 105 RBI. Juan Pierre got 700 AB, becoming the 5th IIBL player to reach that milestone in a season. Texas was 31-55 at the all-star break, but then went 39-37 the rest of the way. The middle of the stretch was punctuated by one of IIBL's best pitching performances: Scott Williamson allowed only 1 hit over his 21 innings of work, winning 4, saving 11, over 20 games. 2003 There were a lot pieces, none of which fit in. When a team loses 120 games, there is not much of a beginning, middle, or end. But there were some good players here that just didn't hit. The Lightning finished last by a good 47 runs despite Mark Teixeira, Hideki Matsui, Ben Broussard, and Raul Ibanez. The pitching was similarly bad, finishing last, but only by a little. There were a few dependable pitchers: Fernando Rodriguez, Brian Fuentes, Luis Ayala, Sidney Ponson, and maybe Luis Silva, but everyone else was awful. Mike Maroth went 2-20, and Aaron Heilman went 0-14. 2002 The Lightning didn’t have a lot to work with in 2002. The draft picks were largely gone in the Randy Johnson trade. Paul LoDuca slumped from .320/33/92 to .241/7/47, and nobody was going made up for 2001 Rich Aurilia’s .321/45/114. Draft picks Raul Ibanez and Mark Bellhorn took over as the team’s two best hitters. Even Bellhorn’s 31 HRs came with a deplorable 57 RBIs. As a result the offense was last in the conference and 25th in the league. The pitching wasn’t much better, but the lack of even a 9 game winner was largely due to the offensive woes. The Lightning sank quickly and were never a factor. They were kept out of last place only because of the presence of the Detroit Wheels. |
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