Kersey Bambinos SL2005 Season Review

Killing the Curse

Summary

I am writing this in 2007, so I hope I can recreate my thinking of that time period. As what happened in 2003, I had a lot of turnover on this team - which is an understatement I guess as I traded my 2nd, 4th, 5th, 8th, 9th, 10th & 11th round draft picks. I finished with good starting pitching, an OK enough pen, good defense other than C and a huge Pythagorean. The team name comes from the ongoing Summer League Curse of the Bambino. Quintyn was born on March 3, 2005 - so, to fight the curse, I took a name from a local town Kersey and added the Bambinos.

The season in a nutshell was highlighted by a 10 game series vs Dave from games 100-109. We split despite my team only scoring 23 runs during those 10 games while I allowed 37. Schilling did not allow a run in during his 19 innings over two starts and twice I won games in extra innings.

2005 Draft

Whether people were surprised or not that I selected Helton with the second overall pick doesn't matter to me. Passing on starting pitching is not too difficult for me. He was my choice as all my preplays had him as by far the 2nd best overall offensive player.

I didn't like my A Rod selection in the 5th. The best part of the draft was getting Jimenez in the 17th and Martinez in the 19th. Both were good enough offensively and played every day.

Lineups:

Helton 1B         .419 OBP 130 BB 5th in MVP. Gold Glove
Jimenez 2B        .340 OBP 20 SH
Lee LF            109 RBI 15th in MVP
Ortiz DH          56 2B
Guillen SS        15 3B
Martinez C        15th in MVP
Cameron RF/CF
Pierre/DaVanon CF/RF
Castilla 3B

I couldn't find any evidence that I used this lineup - other than the playoffs... Helton spent a lot of the season in the 3 spot. Jimenez spent a lot of the season near the bottom. DaVanon led off quite a bit. Guillen hit 2nd quite often. Lee 5th. Nomar started about half the time.

Bench

Ginter 2B/3B/PR         13-14 SB
Dave Roberts PR         52-62 SB
Wilson C
Barajas C
Nomar SS

Staff:

Schilling            9-8 3.35 (my stats only)
Pavano             15-13 3.56 8th in Cy Young
Radke              16-6 3.69 36 BB in 231.2 IP 3rd in Cy Young
Harden
Kennedy

Schilling was traded for Westbrook. While on my team they were a combined 16-11 3.32

Pavano 1st 16 starts 5-9 4.92. Final 16 starts 10-4 2.37

My team led the league in ERA @ 3.71

My team allowed the least amount of runs by 57 (668, New England 725 was 2nd)

Pen:

Hoffman           3.60 16 sv
Isringhausen      11-5 2.12
Smoltz
Kolb              3.46
Brower            9-1 3.51
Stanton

The staff was made up of:

Double Z's - Smoltz, Hoffman, Radke & Schilling

Z's with G's - Pavano, Westbrook, Isringhausen & Kolb (H)

Non Z's with G's - Stanton & Brower

2 other guys that had to start - Harden and Kennedy

So, the double Z's and Z's with positive HR ratings dominated the staff. Likely why I allowed only 2.7 BB/9 and was third in HR allowed @ 1.2 HR/9.

My team:

As noted earlier, I had a completely different team than the one I drafted. The defense improved with every trade while the offense pretty much remained the same but a lot of guys hit in quite a few spots within the lineup. The only pitching change I made was the exchange of starters with Keith - Westbrook for Schilling.

End Game

Our final round robin within our division was quite exciting. Chris taking 3 of 4 from Dave. Then me taking 2 of 3 from Dave. Then me taking all three vs Chris. Then each of them beating me once putting me on top of the division with Dave and Chris tied. I did piece together some lineups as there were enough regulars that needed sits and DaVanon was out for 20 games including the first 5 games of the playoffs.

1st round vs Bob. Bob won the first game by scoring 7 in the 1st inning off Pavano and he never looked back winning 10-3. Game two, Bob won 4-1 in a game that included quite a bit of his pen. The series moved to Coulee and during game 3, BJ Ryan could not hold a Zambrano lead and Kersey cuts the series lead to 2-1. Game 4 includes Coulee getting four in the bottom of the 1st while Kersey answers with four of their own in the top of the 2nd. The Kersey pen holds on while they tie the series at two games apiece. Game 5 goes 10 as Kersey ties it in the 9th then wins it in the 10th with BJ Ryan on the hill. Game 6 is back in Kersey and BJ Ryan is the culprit again as Kersey wins one late and takes the series.

World Seris vs Graham. All Bonds. His runs created per game during the finals was 44.6. Vlad had a nice series as well with 3 HR's and 8 RBI's. The series was close but Graham won the two one run games and that was all that was the difference. Ortiz had a nice series with 7 XBH & Mike Cameron had 3 dongs and 7 RBI's.

This was a pretty good team. 88 wins. I led in runs scored & I allowed the least runs in the league. Radke kept surprising me with quality performances. Pavano had a great stretch of games during the 2nd half. The League had an exciting finish during the final games of the season including two 1 game playoff games. A decent World Series, although I was the one that fell short. Congrats to Graham for accomplishing the feat two seasons in a row.