Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Trenton Postmortem Part 2

Now that we've looked at the Traffic as a whole, now we have some individual notes.

Top Performers

CF Watty Miller- made his 3rd straight All-Star game in CF, hit .300 again, set a career high with 30 homers, and added the dimension of the stolen base to his game. He's still only 25 years old.

1B Stephen Mills- set a career high with 111 RBI, hit .300 for the first time in his 7-year career (all with the Traffic)

C Vasco Lopez- followed a bad year (.273-8-52) with a career year (.289-35-98).

SP Dwight Salmon- like Lopez, followed his worst season (12-13, 4.41) with a quality season (16-5, 2.85). Led the Traffic in wins.

Disappointments

LF Rico Valdes- led the team in steals (18) but couldn't hold the LF job due to a OBP under .300.

2B Cap Herrera- not a bad season (.293-21-65), but an OPS of under .800 probably wasn't what the Traffic had in mind when they signed him as the centerpiece of the offense 3 seasons ago.

SP Damion Mays- had a winning record (11-10), but a 5.01 ERA lost him the 5th starter's job. Gumbercules wouldn't start him in game 162 needing a win despite the fact that Mays was the only rested starter.


The Offseason

Trenton signed the big 3 starters (David Dunwoody, Salmon, Jason Sprague) to contract extensions during the season, leaving 3B Enrique Park, SS Ignacio Diaz, Valdes, and Mays as the key free-agents. Valdes and Mays have likely played their way out of Trenton, while Park and Diaz remain possibilities to return to the Traffic. The future is uncertain, as winning 92 games may persuade gumbercules to keep the team together, but he knows the window is limited, as there are very few key contributors under the age of 30 (Miller and Lopez).

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