4,166,615 fans which ranked 7th in the ABL saw some exciting baseball this year in Maple.
Maple was more than 10+ games back at several different points in the regular season but, they never gave up and ended up catching San Francisco to win the Billy Martin Division by 2 games in the Thurman Munson League. Going 7-13 vs. SF did not help.
Maple overcame a slow start that was bombarded by injuries to their strongest offensive position entering the season; their OF. However, once everyone was back and healthy things start to get rolling in fine fashion. The last few weeks of the season though the team struggled and despite not playing their best baseball were able to over take SF who crumbled down the stretch.
Maple then went in to the post season matched up against favourite Boston. Maple played Boston very tough and lost in 7 games after having the series lead 3-2. Maple just couldn't get the key win in Boston in either Game 6 or Game 7. Despite losing out, we were happy with the way the overall season went on many accounts.
Great Performances:
Frank Powers OF - All-Star - no big surprise here: 23 HRs, .367 BAVG.
Don Strickland 1B - surprise here and his injury at the end of the year hurt: .332 BAVG, 20 HRs.
Eric McSwan OF/DH - steady performance all season long: .299 BAVG, 34 HRs.
Pat Sellers SP - steady performance all season long: 18 Wins
Roberto MartÃnez SP - All-Star - staff ACE pitched like one: 17 Wins, 2.37 ERA, 0.98 WHIP.
Millard Marshall CL - All-Star - was one of the best in the ABL all year: 38 saves, 0.87 WHIP.
Disappointments:
Anthony Shelton OF - missing 3/4 of the season due to injury: 14 HRs.
Dave Krause SP - only winning 10 games.
Top Prospect:
Ernie McCoy INF - he appears to be ready for Triple A, won't hit for power but, has decent contact and amazing speed (30 SBs).
Around the Minors:
Astoria, Sandy Springs and Kingwood all had disappointing seasons with only Astoria finishing above .500. Kingwood had several high level prospects but never got going all year.
Financials:
Maple has approx $8M for free agents and approx $6M for extensions going into the offseason.
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