IAL’s Twin City Thunderchickens look forward to new year

Well, the Twin City Thunderchickens’ 2014 season is over in the Illowa APBA League.  By over, I mean no, we’re not making the playoffs next month.  As if we had a chance.  With our 62-100 record, we’ll be lucky to avoid last place in the IAL’s ten-team league.

Here are the team leaders in some the main categories:

For all my whining, Albert Pujols did make a comeback in the last two series.  He hit .363 with five homers in his last 18 games.  He ended the season with 497 IAL career homeruns.  No hard feelings about losing you eh, Albert?

I’d have to say Jason Kipnis ranks up there as the best offensive player on the team.  He had the highest batting average among the starters (.264) and led the team in runs (79), walks (81) and steals (30).  Thirdbaseman Ryan Zimmerman was a mixed bag.  He hit a paltry .187 but led the team in homers (26) and rbis (77).

Our strength was obviously our pitching though they didn’t get the support they deserved.  We had a decent 3.96 team ERA which wasn’t bad for a team that lost 100 games.  Homer Bailey led the team in wins (11), strikeouts (216) and led all qualified starters in ERA (3.59).  Our pen was pretty amazing with four sub-3.00 relievers.

Other notables

Jose Tabata put in a decent year in a limited role.  He led all players with a .277 average and led the whole league with eleven triples.  With power numbers 3-5-6, he managed to hit six homers in 303 at-bats.

Kevin Siegrist, the famous A&BKW pitcher who I couldn’t resist picking in the draft to my regret, actually did pretty well in his rookie year.  He struck out 41 in 37 innings and had a 1.70 ERA.  His control was kept in check mostly with “only” 17 walks.

Innings eater Scott Diamond had a hard luck year in his last season in the IAL.  He had a respectable 4.96 ERA (there were others with higher) but he went 1-13 for a team that just wouldn’t give him support.

There’s not much nice I could say about Pujols’ platoon-mate, Adam LaRoche.  If this were real life, I be putting him in the Terrible Tuesday column soon.  In 114 games and 291 at-bats, he batted a miniscule .137.  To put that in perspective, Thunderchicken pitchers batted a full nine points better than he did (and actually scored more runs).

Thunderchicken no more

Thunderchicken management would like to thank Scott Diamond, Vernon Wells, Justin Maxwell, Geovany Soto and John Buck for their service to the organization.  They are eligible to be dropped and will not be signed for the coming year.

In addition, firstbaseman Albert Pujols and reliever Jonathan Papelbon have been traded to other organizations.  The Thunderchicken organization felt the need to move in different direction.  Both Albert and Jonathan are quality players and we wish them the best on their new teams.

New guys

Twin City is happy to announce the acquisition of 3B Pablo Sandoval, 1B Eric Hosmer, OF J.D. Martinez,  OF Dayan Viciedo, OF Desmond Jennings and SP Francisco Liriano during the off season.  As part of our youth movement, we hope Hosmer, Jennings, Martinez and Sandoval will make our lineup a little less “grayer”.

The Illowa APBA League rookie draft will take place in Downers Grove, IL on February 21, 2015.