Galway Galleons
John Glynn   1 Year  60-102

Personnel History

Mike Younkman, after two successful years managing the predecessor of the Maui Stingrays, came back in 2001 to manage the division rivals here, and immediately employed a future is now policy that has offered up three straight playoff berths, but three straight early exits. Twice, Mike has found teams willing to trade great swathes of talent for a first round pick, and this has been good enough to get into the playoffs. In 2004, faced with too much of an uphill climb, the Crush changed tack and razed and rebuilt.

Typically, the team hasn't left much in the way of draft picks, but those the Crush drafted tended to be comeback pitchers. John Burkett, Kelvim Escobar, and Denny Neagle all fit into this pattern, and the 2004 signing sheet showed more of the same.

2005 saw the arrival of Luis Gonzalez, Trot Nixon, and Ben Broussard, designed to take some of the pressure of A-Rod. Though the team contended, it faltered at the end, and a new rebuild for new owner John Glynn started promisingly with the Galleons signing 9 new players of their 12 in 2007, 5 with full rookie status.

2006

Outside of A-Rod, there was nothing. Pitching? Draft picks Jered Weaver and J.J.Putz had nice seasons but the top of the rotation was 20- 51. Jose Reyes was around for the first third of the season, but the Galleons only won 13 of 46 while he was there. He was dispatched for Jimmy Rollins and Troy Tulowitzki, after that there was a little improvement. The low point came in late June when the record was 18-55, after that Mark Buehrle and Paul Byrd each outdueled Dresden's Millwood and Washburn, improving their personal records to 2-10. A rebirth, no. At least it signalled a 21-10 run, showing there was capacity to occasionally play good ball. But a 6-26 run followed, and the Galleons couldn't avoid losing 100 games.

2005

The Crush were in the playoff hunt most of the season, never more than on 12 August when they led division with a 64-50 record. However, they won only 8 of their next 28 games, and managed to finish just on the upside of .500. The bullpen was the primary culprit, blowing 6 saves within a month, which was a result of the trade of their first half closer, Joe Nathan, to Cambridge, for Mike Timlin, who was just awful. Overall, the pitching was mediocre, with a 14 game winner in Dave Williams, and respectable performances from Paul Byrd, Matt Morris, and Matt Clement. The offense was similarly averageish... aside from A-Rod. A-Rod got MVP consideration with a season of .352/53/135. Nobody else created as much as half as many runs, but Jorge Cantu, Ben Broussard, and Jose Reyes were important parts of the offense.

2004

A complete revamp, as the Crush realized the previous strategy was only working so far, and the team was being "found out" in the playoffs. The revamp was thorough. After Alex Rodriguez was brought in to be the core of the future, out went Ray Durham, Kelvim Escobar, Billy Wagner, Dmitri Young, Garrett Anderson, and any reliever who could fetch a decent enough draft pick. The results weren't pretty. It started out 2-17, and the team never had a streak in which they won more than 5 of their most recent 10 games. The high water mark in W-L pct, aside from early April, was .323.

Strong performances were turned in by A-Rod, A-Rod, and did I mention A-Rod. Kerry Wood and Paul Byrd pitched well in limited appearances. The bullpen was a joke. Shawn Chacon saved 8, blew 10, and lost 14. The Crush lost a league high 17 games in which they were leading after 7.

2003

Like in 2001, Portland found a team interested in a misguided building attempt and essentially effected a corporate merger. A fairness opinion would have been on shaky ground. The strength of the team was clearly the bullpen, not only Billy Wagner's record 58 saves, but Guillermo Mota set a record for most wins (17) by a pitcher who did not start a single game. In the interest of completeness, we'll add Jeff Nelson, Joe Nathan,  Sterling Hitchcock, and Mike DeJean, all of whom threw splendidly all year.  Portland only scored 50 more games than they gave up, only 12th in the league, but playing in a weak conference they scarfed up the final playoff spot.

Kelvim Escobar went 19-3 and Garrett Anderson and Edgar Martinez turned in decent years, but there wasn't much else. That was quite evident in the playoffs, when Rio Salado dispatched the Crush quickly. The Crush scored only 6 runs in a 5 game series, 4 of them in a game they lost by 14 runs.

2002

Portland won the division in 2001 due to identifying teams that were interested in massive rebuilding efforts. The Crush followed it up by taking the remains of that team and squeezing into the playoffs with 88 wins, the lowest since Springfield won the 1994 Vincent Division with 84 wins. That said, this wasn’t a very good team. Garrett Anderson was the only long ball threat, while Ray Durham and Omar Vizquel were solid up the middle. Matt Morris, John Burkett, and Denny Neagle were a decent front three to the rotation, but none of them posted a sub-4 ERA. Billy Wagner saved 36 games, but even his ERA was 3.65. In mid-August, Portland was 63-59, 5 games adrift of Grand Mound, holder of the final playoff spot. While a 25-15 finish was applaudable, the playoff spot wouldn’t have been theirs if not for a 10-26 finish by the Greenmen. The Crush’s first round opponents weren’t fooled either. The Hurricanes dispatched Portland in 5 quick games, by a combined score of 33-12, with the only Portland win being Game 3’s 1-0 squeaker.