With only a few games left in the St. Paul Sluggers regular season we take a look at the starting rotations and some of the relief pitchers making an impact on the team. With a record of 29-20, St. Paul is set to finish the year with a winning record and with some of the recent transactions completed they are set for another successful year next year. We talked with GM Troj about his feelings on the starting rotation and what is the future holds for the men in the rotation.
“First off, great team effort in July, it was huge month for us going 19 – 8, we saw a lot of progress in all phases of the team. With respect to pitching, we added a bunch of free agents to the team when I joined. We brought players we thought had the characteristics to make the lower levels better and add to the competition.”
“I will start with Andrew Baker, he has done some really good work this year, despite spending some time in between two leagues. In 23 starts he posted a 3.43 ERA and a 11-10 record, with a k/9 of 8.1 and a bb/9 of 3.6. We would like to see him develop his fastball more as his changeup is really coming along nicely over the course of the year. We see him at A ball next year if all goes right throughout the off season.”
“For Tim Suber, it has been a bit of a struggle trying to find his groove in the minors. We have been working hard with him trying to get him to limit his mistakes with pitches. A lot of good contact is being made off his pitches which really ruins good outings and then brings down his confidence. We are trying to get him to forget about the last pitch, which we work with all of our pitchers on but especially Suber. This year he posted 5.43 ERA and a 3-11 record, with a k/9 of 9.4 and a bb/9 of 2.9.”
“Another pitcher we really like is Juan Maldonado, the right hander has 4 pitches that we see as being really good at this point in his career. He does need some bit of improvement with his control to take him up to the top levels. In 10 game starts this year he is posting a record of 3-3 and ERA of 3.54, K/9 of 12.3 and BB/9 4.8. Walks are killing Maldonado’s dominance in rookie ball as his hits per 9 is 8.2, if he can get his walks under control we expect to see Maldonado in higher levels really soon.”
“Our project man is Joe Duncan, we took a flyer on him when I join the organization. At 28 years old, this is his first year in the minors of CBL, it was all trial and error with him. He has 6 pitches, we are trying to get him to cut down and become better at 3 or 4 through reps. In 6 games, 4 of those starts, he has put up ERA of 4.18, K/9 of 6.4 and BB/9 1.3 and a record of 1-2 with a whip of 1.43. We would like to see Duncan grow more through the rest of the year, if he works hard and shows progress with his pitch development possibly rise a few more levels. Duncan knows his window is small and my team in player development have talked to him about his limited window here.”
“Last man in our rotation is Jeff Woods, the young right hander, has shown some good progress this year. If you take away 2 bad starts, he has ERA of 3.67 but you don’t get to erase those box scores and Woods knows it. Giving up home runs have been one of his draw backs costing him games this season. We know that home run rates go up and down and we are looking for the next year to have that fixed. With this year in mind, though Duncan has put up in 9 starts ERA of 5.44 going 0-4 and K/9 of 8.5 and BB/9 at 2.6.
In the off season we will have lots of time to review options but we feel no matter what our St. Paul team will be competitive.”
This is Peter Gimmons reporting at St. Paul Sluggers facility.