Maui Stingrays
Andrew Hall, 1st year

Personnel History

The bulk of the history comes from the Donny Ray Swearingen era, when the Carolina Hurricanes won two divisions, won one World Series and narrowly missed a second, all within the first three years. An opportunistic trade for the injured Kerry Wood put them over the top for the Championship. After the second series appearance, the team was overextended and needed to regroup, trading away their stars for draft picks, and then coming back in style with two more 100 win seasons. In 2003 & 2004 Mike Moffatt took over and continued the streak with a two more playoff appearances, though over the last four playoff appearances the Hurricanes/Stingrays have only won two series.

A lot of the glory years paralleled the career of Ken Griffey Jr., who came over for Pedro Martinez in 1997 and left in 2001 having hit 207 home runs and driven in 592 runs. Jeff Kent was also a factor during the glory years, and Jeromy Burnitz and Rusty Greer added to the offense. Kent begat Aramis Ramirez, but there wasn't too much return from the aging of the rest of the offense. The Hall of Fame pitcher was Curt Schilling, who toiled for the Canes from 1994 to 1999 (he and Pedro were together here for 2 1/2 seasons). But Schilling got Mark Buehrle and a first pick.

Scouting has generally been good on the offense, but not so hot on the pitching staff. The team has generally done better drafting comeback veterans than young prospects. Jamie Moyer, Bret Boone, and Kevin Millar all fit into this camp. In 2004, the pitching staff added more of the same, successfully, with Kelvim Escobar and Chris Carpenter. It got them deep into the playoffs, but when Maui tried to repeat in 2005 with essentially the same team, they got old in midseason and fell out of the race.

In 2006, a midseason housecleaning set the direction for the near future, as Vernon Wells, Rob Cano, and Stephen Drew look to be the Rays of the future.

2006

The Stingrays didn't have the horses to compete. Paul Konerko had an MVP caliber year at .339/36/122, but he didn't get too much help most of the year. In midseason there was a complete overhaul, trading away must of the middle aged veteranness that characterized the recent past. Vernon Wells came over from Dresden and hit 19 homers in 64 games, and Robinson Cano hit .325 in a few more. But all of this cost depth on offense and Maui was a frequent visitor to the waiver wire in September. The offense was 11th of 13 in the Conference. After Chris Carpenter was sent for Wells, the pitching staff featured only Kelvim Escobar as a dependable starter. Though the Stingrays were at one point 28-23, they were 30-35 shortly thereafter. Beyond that they were only once more than 5 games from .500 and finished with a 79-83 record.

2005

Buehrle and Carpenter had better ERAs than 2004, yet their combined W-L dropped from 30-16 to 25-28, largely because of offensive dropoffs by Biggio (-.088 O+S), Konerko (-.105), Rowand (-.244), and Ramirez (-.050). As a result Maui scored over a hundred runs less than the prior year (849 -> 743) and wasn't a much of a factor in the second half. It was only the second time the Stingrays had missed the playoffs in 10 years.

2004

After a sweep of New Orleans in August, Maui found themselves at 74-50, only 1 1/2 games off Madiba's pace in the Forbes Division. But September wasn't kind to the Stingrays, as they slumped to a 14-18 record and wound up 3rd but playoff bound. There really wasn't all that much drama to the playoff race as they coasted in by 10 games, with no other Fehr Conference team posting a winning record. The offense was led by Paul Konerko, Aramis Ramirez, and Jose Guillen, each of who drove in over 90 runs, while there were solid contributions up and down the lineup. Mark Buehrle was a classy #1, with 18 wins, and Chris Carpenter and Kelvim Escobar were solid as well. The bullpen was in the good hands of Armando Benitez, though the middle relief was spotty. In the playoffs, Maui surprised division winning Madiba in 7, with 3 of the last four games decided by one run. The magic nearly continued in the Conference Championship series against Kiev, but Johan Santana outdueled Escobar in a classic game 7.  

2003

Maui was the class of a poor division in 2003, although they didn't win pretty. Finally taking the lead in mid-July, the Stingrays gave it back, getting swept at Portland (the first game featured David Wells and Kelvim Escobar (a combined 24-0 at that point). But it was Portland who self-destructed after the series, losing 18 of their next 25 and handing the division to Maui on a silver platter. The midseason trade which brought in Manny Ramirez lessened the dependence on Brett Boone. Meanwhile the pitching was exceptionally solid, as the front four of Wells, Buehrle, Jason Johnson, and Moyer combined for 67 wins. Lefties started 122 of Maui's game. In the playoffs, the Stingrays quickly found out Rosehaven could hit lefties, with Wells getting knocked around for 10 runs in game 1. Moyer threw a shutout in game 2, but then Buehrle and DuBose lost. Maui tried Johnson, their righty, but he couldn't find the strike zone in the 2nd inning, and Maui was a quick exit. 

2002

Carolina beat out Madiba by 3 games in the IIBL’s closest division race, but it wasn’t really all that close, as the lead was 13 ½ games in late July. Even in mid-September it was 8 games, so there really wasn’t much drama. Lance Berkman led the offense, with 50 home runs and 139 RBIs, and Bret Boone and Paul Konerko also drove in over 100 runs. Down the lineup, things got a little weaker, yet the Hurricanes hit 225 homers and were third in the conference in runs scored. Halfway through the season, the Hurricanes picked up Paul Byrd to bolster their predominantly left handed pitching staff (Moyer, Buehrle, and Wells). In the playoffs, the Hurricanes quickly dispatched a Portland team that had snuck into the playoffs. The 5 game series was 33-12 in runs scored. The next round was a complete surprise. Madiba, who had halfheartedly chased Carolina all year, beat the Hurricanes 4 straight, allowing the Canes' only 8 runs in the process.