The 2020 Illowa APBA League has now concluded. Yesterday, Commissioner Mike Bunch and I finished up our nine game series. Our series was hardly pivotal. Mike and I went into the series occupying the last two spots in the IAL standings. In fact, there was little chance that the results would change either of our standings. Going into the series, our 2021 draft order was pretty much set.
It was just two long time friends playing APBA over Zoom.
We played our series over three nights playing three games each night. My Thunderchickens got off to pretty awful start losing 1-2 in the first two nights. Yesterday however, we took the bull by the horns and won the last three games, winning the series 5-4. That didn’t take the sting out of our final season record of 69-93.
What went right in 2020
A few hitters went above and beyond for Twin City. JD Martinez (1-1-6-6-7) hit 40 homers and drove home 104 runs and scored 91. Manny Machado (1-5-5) got off to great pre-Covid start but eventually settled down. Still, he drove in 100 runs and hit 35 homeruns.
There were a couple surprises on the Thunderchicken roster in 2020. Would it surprise you if I told you that Kyle Schwarber (1-1-6-6) had the second best batting average on my team? In 235 at-bats, he hit .272 and had a .519 slugging percentage.
Another surprise was Yan Gomes (1-0-0). He was originally going to platoon with Wilson Ramos. All year, he flirted with a .500 slugging percentage and one of higher batting average on the team. I ended up benching Ramos’ 44-7 in favor of him. He ended up with 17 homers in 270 at-bats and a .489 slugging percentage.
How did Aristides Aquino end up? His 1-1-1-0-0 card produced 17 homers in 201 at-bats and the team leading .592 slugging percentage.
On the pitching side of things, there were two highlights and they were both rookies. Dakota Hudson (B) was 13-8 with a 3.63 ERA. John Means (BZ) had a losing record (8-10) but I don’t think it was his fault since he had the best ERA on the squad with a 2.96 mark.
What went wrong in 2020
In one word, pitching.
I don’t think the Thunderchickens had the highest ERA in the IAL but it sure felt that way. We just narrowly missed a 5.00 team ERA with a 4.99 mark.
Check these numbers out
- Liriano BYW 7.61 ERA
- Moronta BXW 6.61 ERA
- Familia CYW 7.32 ERA
- Senzatela DR 8.16 ERA
Yeah, the bullpen had some issues. For his effort, Senzatela who put in a fair amount of starts, went 1-11. Anthony knew his job was the mop-up guy. When the game was out of hand, he would finish it no matter what. You will do better in 2021, Tony!
We also had a wasted bench. We ended up not starting two OF with double ones and four power numbers. One was Schwarber and looking at his stats, I probably should have played him more. As it was, our outfield defense was an issue. Until Aquino brought his OF-2 to the lineup, we often had to play two OF-1 players.
Finally, our prized prospect second baseman in Cavan Biggio (1-5-6, 15-11 and six 14s) was very hit and miss. He would have a great series and then he would go 1 for 28 with 23 strikeouts in the next. I eventually brought back hometown favorite Jason Kipnis who provided decent defense (2B-8) and scored 54 runs in part time play. Biggio ended up with some interesting stats. He batted .196 with 20 homeruns in 306 at bats.
2020 record 69-93
9th place out of 10
The Illowa APBA League is in the process of scheduling the draft weekend for its 47th season. There’s nowhere to go but up!
Following the Thunderchickens is a lot like following the Pittsburgh Pirates; with the important difference that I know that you are committed to winning. Without having all of the league statistics to analyze it seems that the (W) pitching grade had a disproportionate impact on your pitching staff. Best of luck for the upcoming season.