Team Tag: South Carolina Bombers

It's a game of tag! Write a Dugout article analyzing another ABL team. The GM of that team then writes an article analyzing yet another ABL team, and so on and so forth. Got the idea? Good!

The South Carolina Bombers are hungry. Their record may be a lackluster 33-44, but with good players returning from injury and young players improving, they feel that they will do better the rest of the way. They are only seven games behind division-leading Maple. Could they be contenders down the stretch?

Sluggers in the Outfield

The Bombers get most of their thump from the outfield. Action Jackson, Orlando Bustamante, and Juan Marín form the heart of the lineup, and they now are joined by Francisco Alfonso.

Stephen Jackson

The 26-year-old Stephen Jackson looks to be a star for years. This winter GM Gary Altman signed Jackson to a contract extension that will have him manning left field in Bomber Ballpark in 2020. A balanced hitter, last year he hit .309/.391/.499 with 50 doubles and 21 home runs. This year he's batting .294/.392/.448. He's currently on the DL.

Orlando
Bustamante

Orlando Bustamante has 17 home runs and 47 RBIs already this season. He's doesn't walk much, but he hits the ball hard, posting a slash line of .305/.339/.537. Too much of a defensive liability to be used in the outfield, Bustamante finds employment at DH and first base.

Francisco
Alfonso

Francisco Alfonso was injured in his very first game for South Carolina. He just returned from his DL assignment, and in his first full week with his new club he went 9-for-25 with a home run. At 39, the question is how much is left in the tank? Acquiring him from Seattle is a clear sign that the Bombers want to win now. A healthy Alfonso strengthens the Bomber lineup considerably.

Juan Marín

Juan Marín has managed to stay healthy this season after missing three months last year. Last year in 207 at-bats he hit .319/.383/.507—spectacular production from center field. This year in 281 at-bats he's hitting .274/.360/.434: good but not great.

If these four can stay healthy and play to their potential, the Bombers will score many more runs in the second half of the season. They will need to hit, too, as the rest of the lineup provides little help.

Light-Hitting Infield

The rest of the bomber lineup basically has three league-average hitters, one big hole, and one massive hole.

Gunner Smart

Catcher Jayson O'Neill is hitting .279 with 5 home runs: last year, he showed the potential to hit for a higher average and to pop a home run or double every now and again, but the 26-year-old has regressed this season. Robert O'Neill shifts between first base and left field. He's batting .248 with some pop. Gunner Smart, who shifts between first and third, has been a bright spot this season. Last year, Smart hit .227 but compensated for that by hitting 30 doubles and 26 homers: his OPS+ was 102. This year, he's managed to keep the pop while raising the batting average to .261.

The offensive holes are in the middle infield. Second-baseman Mario Antonio is batting .251 with two home runs, all while playing below-average defense. But the biggest problem is clearly shortstop. Ángelo Casas and Dave Collins are excellent defenders—the only excellent defenders, in fact, as the Bombers are one of the least athletic teams in the league—but Collins is slugging .267 which, believe it or not, is still a massive improvement over Casas. The 22-year-old rookie from Puerto Rico is clearly out of his depths at the majors: his slash line of .104/.167/.157 in 134 at-bats makes him the worst batter in the ABL to have received 100 at-bats.

With such poor bats at middle infield, even a shortstop with an average bat would represent a big upgrade. GM Altman has shown himself to be a wheeler-and-dealer. Does he have another trade up his sleeve?

Young Pitching

The Bombers have allowed the most runs of any team in the Munson League, so it might seem surprising that their pitching staff looks to be in decent shape. The key is the emergence of the Bombers's young starters.

Víctor Enríquez and Johnny Ratzlaff began the year with the big league club. They combined to go 6-12 in 24 starts: Enríquez posted a 5.88 ERA while Ratzlaff posted a 5.15 ERA. Both now pitch for the Triple-A Bronx Bombers.

Dave Nicholson

Taking their spots in the rotation are a pair of youngsters, Dave Nicholson and Jeremy Rogers. Each of them got roughed up when they pitched in the majors last season, but this season they look to be taking a leap forward. In his eight starts, Nicholson, 25, has gone 3-1 with a 1.24 ERA. Rogers, 26, is 3-3 with a 3.65 ERA in nine starts. The pair are emerging before our eyes and look to be huge improvements in the Bomber rotation.

John Martin

What's more, waiting in the wings are John Martin and Cecil Gibbons. Gibbons, only 21, pitched with the big club last season: he went 7-16 with a 5.73 ERA but had flashes of brilliance. In Triple-A this year, he is 6-6 with a 2.72 ERA. Might he rejoin Rogers and Nicholson in the majors? South Carolina obtained John Martin from So Cal by trading über-prospect Joe Frost. Martin, 23, is the Bombers' very best prospect, and he is currently silencing Triple-A bats: in 16 starts for the Bronx, he is 8-2 with a 1.83 ERA. GM Altman has hinted that Martin will probably see some big league action in the waning months of the season.

Sergio Ramírez

In the meantime, Ed Bell and Sergio Ramírez have been holding down the fort. Bell, 39, is currently the fifth starter on the staff. He's 2-6 with a 5.09 ERA. Ramírez, 29, has had an up-and-down season, and he currently has a 6-8 record with a 4.39 ERA. Neither are great, but these two were at the top of the rotation on opening day while now they are at the bottom. That, in a nutshell, is why the Bombers should find themselves in a lot more games down the stretch.

Bob Robinson

And the bullpen? The Bomber bullpen has been mediocre. There are a couple of live arms, but none of them have excelled this season. Well, Bob Robinson has—if you ignore one game. Through June 13, Robinson had a 0.96 ERA, but on that fateful Friday the 13th, the Bombers lost by the incredible score of 30-6. No pitcher felt the jinx more strongly than Robinson, who pitched one inning, gave up nine earned runs, and raised his ERA over four points to 5.03.

Summary

South Carolina fans have reason to be hopeful: this team will almost certainly be a better team on the last day of the season than they were on opening day. If things break their way—if the young pitching steps up, if the sluggers remains healthy, if GM Altman finds a shortstop—they could compete for the division crown.