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Rosehaven
River Dogs
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Personnel History Chester Caulder has been the most successful owner in IIBL history, winning 4 World Series and 8 divisions. Their run of 12 consecutive playoff appearances is an IIBL record. Most of this was built around the big six of Jeter, Sosa, Edmonds, Piazza, Palmeiro, and Rolen, who played together largely between 1996 and 2004. Sosa, Palmeiro, and Piazza rank 1st, 7th, and 10th in lifetime IIBL homers. Edmonds is 18th overall and the newcomer, Scott Rolen, is 42nd. The pitching staff has been less dependable. David Cone did the heavy lifting in the early years of the franchise, and later, for a while, Ismael Valdez and Chan Ho Park provided a core. More recently, anyone decent who can eat innings and keep the ball within the spacious confines of San Diego's stadia has been good enough. Witness the following 15 game winners in River Dog history: Tim Belcher, Ryan Franklin, Steve Parris, Glendon Rusch, Mac Suzuki. With numerous draft picks, albeit without top ones, the River Dogs should have developed at least one other player to go with their big six. They really haven't. Tony Batista and Roy Halladay were solid picks, but were cut before reaching their potential. The 2006 franchise was successful enough to provide 7 of the 12 signed players, as the River Dogs realize that wholesale changes are needed to get them back to their previous standards of glory. |
2006 The River Dogs' high water mark was at 69-56 in late August. That was good enough to lead the division in a close 4 team race, but an 8-17 mark thereafter was enough to drop them from post season consideration. It was a 24 game improvement over the 2005 version of the River Dogs. Offensively, the team was led by Derek Jeter (.353/.414./.500) and Scott Rolen, (30 HR and 120 RBI); after that there wasn't too much as the River Dogs were in the middle of the pack offensively. The pitching was the big improvement from the previous year. First round pick Aaron Cook won 15 and posted a 3.43 ERA and other picks Gil Meche and Jamie Moyer were also respectable. The less said about the bullpen the better. 2005 Ouch! Worst River Dog team in history, losing over 100 games and continuing on the downward trend started the second half of the prior season. The pitching was deplorable, with a team ERA of nearly 5, and only Daniel Cabrera winning as many as 10 games. Three starters lost 16 or more. In the past, secondary starters (see Bere, Jason or Suzuki, Kaz) could win a host of games because there was Rolen, Sosa, Palmiero, Piazza, Jeter, and Edmonds, but only the last two were much of a factor. As such, the offense was worse than average and certainly could not support a pitching staff as bad as the River Dogs. In early June, the River Dogs were 26-32, but then won 6 of their next 22 to pose no threat to .500 the rest of the way. 2004 .500 in the early going, an 11 game winning streak in early June pushed the River Dogs into a first place tie with Seoul. 21 of the next 24 games, though, were with teams who finished with winning records, and Rosehaven was not a match, winning only 7 of them. A 3-17 streak in August sealed the team's fate. It was the franchise's first time out of the playoffs since 1993. Pitching was the main culprit, finishing 19th of 26 despite playing in an extreme pitchers' park. Only Jason Isringhausen had an ERA below 4. Offensively, the big 6 showed signs of breaking down. Derek Jeter hit .252/.321/.367, and Sammy Sosa slumped to a .302 OB%. Raffy Palmeiro hit only 15 HRs, and Mike Piazza compiled a pedestrian .820 O+S. 2003 At the end of July, Rosehaven stood at 65-41 and the Scorpions at 65-42, 1/2 game back. The River Dogs came to Rio Salado and got swept. It was the start of a 44-11 run for the Scorpions, against which Rosehaven could not compete. Ninety-six wins was the worst Rosehaven total since 1995, a year in which the River Dogs, by the way, won the World Series. The big six were reduced to the big five and a half, as Mike Piazza's injuries limited him to only 283 plate appearances. That said, Matt Stairs chipped in handily with 22 homers, the most by a non-big sixer since 1996. In the playoffs, Rosehaven had little trouble with Maui, and then again faced Rio Salado in the Conference finals. In three games at Rio Salado, the River Dogs were outscored 26-7 (4 of the 7 coming after all doubt had been erased), and that was that. |
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