|
Charlotte Knights
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Personnel History The San Juan Bums were a relatively successful franchise, making the playoffs in 1998 and 2000 but losing both times in the first round. The 2000 team was built around a big three of Tim Hudson, Kevin Brown, and David Wells. Steve Mitchell took over from Ro Jimenez in 2002, and didn't move forward. Dean Oliveiri, who piloted Raleigh to 3 just-under-.500 seasons in the late 1990s, took over and tried to remake the team. There really hasn't been a good trade since 1998, when the Bums picked up Jorge Posada and Brian Jordan for Kenny Rogers and Henry Rodriguez, since then they turned Jim Thome into Carlos Pena (via Kevin Brown), and Posada and Jordan for Tim Hudson. The best players were still Gonzalez and Hudson from the Jimenez years, but they were quickly and sadly turned into Juan Uribe and not much else. As such, the downfall was rather predictable. Drafts have not been strong. 2004 was a bit better, nabbing Doug Davis and Brandon Inge, and the former was turned into Jason Giambi. Matt Holliday joined in 2005. And Ian Snell and John Maine in 2006. But there's still a long way to go, and a superstar or two to find. |
2006 This wasn't too different than the previous year. Jason Giambi was added to the offense, and Doug Davis was subtracted. Matt Holliday had a good year, Brandon Inge and Mark Grudzielanek were respectable, but after that it was very bleak. Ervin Santana and Jeremy Bonderman did their best, but they couldn't do anything with a team that scored only 636 runs on the year. The Knights were 25-29 on June 1, but then lost 17 of 19 to make the rest of the season quite irrelevant. 2005 Even worse than the previous year, the Knights had little on offense and very little in pitching. Jeremy Bonderman showed signs of improvement, with his 3.35 ERA (good for 10 wins on this team), but the back end of the rotation went 13-52 with high ERAs. The high water mark was a 21-24 mark in late May, after that the Knights went 33-83 the rest of the way, including a 14 game losing streak in early September. 2004 Not much offense (22nd of 26), not much pitching (17th). It added up to only 64 wins, the team's worst record since 1995. There weren't any really good months, but July was particularly brutal, when Charlotte went 5-19. First round pick Dick Davis was the only pitcher who won more than 8 games, though Braden Looper was fairly stable at the back end of the bullpen. Offensively, a decent performance was put in by Cesar Izturis, at .307 with 42 doubles and 19 triples, but power was always a shortage. 2003 Tempe was 65-63 at the 3/4 mark of the season, trailing a playoff spot by only five games. But then they lost 4 at Rio Salado, and dropped 6 of the next 8 against sub .500 Chicago and Munich. Overall, the Winders could only win 8 of their last 34 games, sinking them into 6th place. It was a team collapse, as the pitching staff generated only a 5.56 ERA (despite Tim Hudson's 3.10 ERA in his 7 starts) The batting, which was never robust, sank to a O+S of .664 and only 3.3 runs a game. Looking at the lineup, it's odd that Tempe was ever in the position that they were, as only Luis Gonzalez, Bill Mueller, and Tim Hudson were players of quality. That said Gonzalez and Mueller combined for 198 RBI, while Hudson sported a gaudy 1.88 ERA. However, none of the top 7 relievers by innings could crack an ERA under 4.5, while the overall offense was quite mediocre. 2002 Tempe finished in the middle of the pack both offensively and defensively, and outscored opponents by 3 runs overall, while finishing 6 games over .500. There wasn’t really much offense behind Luis Gonzalez, though everyone contributed a little bit. Tim Hudson and Robb Nen were used most effectively, and everything in-between was rather iffy. The team struggled around the .500 mark in the early going, but then got hot in July, mostly on the road, when they ran off a 22-10 streak. They got to 1 ½ games out of a playoff spot at that point but then ran into a tougher part of the schedule (Portland, Dresden, and Nashua) and all of a sudden were 6 ½ out. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
