Well the season played out as expected for my Conspiradores, if anything a few degrees more intensely so, with our pitching nothing short of disastrous but plenty of positives on the hitting side.
19-year-old Juan Soto, our first pick in the ID, was the main story. After a sluggish start to the season that saw him hit just .146 in April, ‘Juanjo’ improved steadily every month thereafter, culminating in a sensational September that earned him the Gulf League’s Hitter of the Month honours. A two-run home run on the final day – his 34th of the season, a team high – gave him 100 RBI on the dot.
Others to impress at the plate included Kike Hernandez (.312 / 24 HR / 94 RBI), Raul Mondesi (lead the team with 5.1 WAR) and Johnny Ray (.293 / 14 / 97), while Elly de la Cruz offered plenty of spark in the leadoff spot, scoring 103 runs (second only to Juanjo's 108) and swiping 61 bases in 71 attempts.
The less said about the pitching the better, where we finished with the worst ERA (5.95) and gave up more than 1000 runs.
We anticipated this facet of our game would be problematic but the extent to which this became reality surprised us all the same and that's where our focus will be during the offseason. No doubt a couple of the hitters we'll not be able to afford for much longer will need to come under consideration for being traded away for some more reliable arms.
We were rooted to the foot of the SUR Sierra pretty much all year, finishing there with a 65-97.
Turning our attention to the rest of the league, players of note included the somewhat surprising Adolfo Phillips (Mexico City), who led all players with 9.1 WAR; Orlando Cepeda (Union Laguna), whose 48 HR were the most for the season; the Robinsons Frank and Jackie, who both look set to dominate the early years of this league; and Marvin Williams (Oaxaca), who topped the RBI chart with 137.
Three starting pitchers were clear standouts in 2001: Willie Powell of Veracruz (20-8 / 1.87 ERA / 10.5 rWAR); Jalisco's Jose Mendez (15-9 / 2.36 / 10.1); and Durango's Willie Spearman (11-11 / 2.65 / 8.6).
Takashi Saito also caught the eye, posting a whopping 5.4 rWAR in relief for Monterrey.
While three of the Grupo races were fairly straightforward, the SUR Maya made up for it as Oaxaca stormed home with 11 wins from its final 12 including a thrilling final day 4-3 home victory against Quintana Roo that saw them progress by that solitary game ahead of the Tigres.
The Guerreros kept that good form going by knocking out El Aguila in four but proved no match for the dominant Acereros, who claimed the very first Gulf League Cup by winning the Serie del Rey in five games.
In the Liga Golfo Junior AAA competition, our Havana Kings won their group but were knocked out by eventual winners Ponce. Aside from Sho Time, players who made an excellent case for promotion to the big club in 2002 included Edmundo Sosa, Sergio Alcantara and reliever Alvin Morman, although our surfeit of middle infielders might play its part regarding the future of a couple of these guys.
A fun season and looking forward to plenty of improvement at Querétaro next year, especially with a high Draft pick headed our way.