{"id":4433,"date":"2023-12-11T17:19:56","date_gmt":"2023-12-11T23:19:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/?p=4433"},"modified":"2023-12-11T17:19:56","modified_gmt":"2023-12-11T23:19:56","slug":"season-review-ottawa-mounties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/2023\/12\/11\/season-review-ottawa-mounties\/","title":{"rendered":"Season Review: Ottawa Mounties"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
69<\/strong> - 85<\/strong>, .448 pct.\n4th <\/strong>in Cum Posey Division<\/em>, 22 games behind.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Overall<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
With low expectations come limited success, or some such.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ottawa has some interesting pieces, a ton of raw talent, and very little to show for it all. Future success hinges on the development of that talent–Ken Griffey, Jr<\/strong>, \u00c1lex Rodr\u00edguez<\/strong>, and Randy Johnson<\/strong>, I’m looking at you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As is often the case with teams that struggle, there were some decent high spots on offense but a bit of a mess on the mound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What Went Right<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Not a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Larry Walker<\/strong>, Tim Raines<\/strong>, and Gary Carter<\/strong> each established themselves as legitimate WBL players, although each of them are just outside the upper tier at their position in the league (Walker only through seemingly being injury prone).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Carlos Beltr\u00e1n<\/strong> did enough to put himself on the roster next year, and Rusty Staub hit well for Ottawa after being acquired in trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Old Hoss Radbourn<\/strong> and, before getting injured, Roy Halladay<\/strong> both look like front of rotation arms for Ottawa. Ryan Dempster<\/strong> stepped into the absence created by Tom Henke<\/strong>‘s injury quite well. Some other starters–Bob Moose<\/strong>, Bob Brown<\/strong>, and Clayton Richard<\/strong> especially–flashed some potential in limited innings, going 14-6 over a combined 30 starts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Mounties are an incredibly young organization: in one sense, merely surviving<\/em> went right if 7 of your starters are 23 or under.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ALL STARS<\/strong>\nSS Freddy Parent<\/strong><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
What Went Wrong<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Roberto Alomar<\/strong> faded and neither \u00c1lex Rodr\u00edguez<\/strong> nor Ken Griffey, Jr<\/strong>. did anything to live up to their massive potential. Across the board, it seemed like the best players could do was meh<\/em> offensively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of the pitching was horrible, and when not poor, greatly inconsistent (with Randy Johnson<\/strong> being the best example). Jim Clancy<\/strong>–whose 0.0 WAR was an accurate representation of his quality–was the only pitcher other than Radbourn and Halladay with over 100 IP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Overall, there was just an absence of quality<\/em> for the Mounties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trade Evaluations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
March<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
None<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
June<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
IF Steve Garvey<\/strong>, OF Spud Johnson<\/strong>, 1B Carlos Delgado<\/strong> to Los Angeles for OF Rusty Staub<\/strong>, P Dave Bennett<\/strong>, OF Carlos Beltr\u00e1n<\/strong>, C Jim Stephens<\/strong> & P Sean O'Sullivan<\/strong><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Seems fine–Delgado’s loss this year hurt, but Staub (a franchise player) and Beltr\u00e1n offer a lot of future value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
IF Freddy Parent<\/strong> to Chicago for IF Sibby Sisti<\/strong>, OF Bob Watson<\/strong>, and IF Rickie Weeks<\/strong><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Parent was Ottawa’s only all star, so the drop in quality hurt. But it does clear the way for \u00c1-Rod (which may or may not be a good thing if his performance doesn’t pick up), and Watson looks promising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RP Gary Lavelle<\/strong> & P Jamie Moyer<\/strong> to Black Yankees for IF Dick Bartell<\/strong>, OF Sam Thompson<\/strong> & 4th Round Pick {Mark Eichhorn<\/strong>}<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Seems fine, maybe a little light if neither Bartell nor Thompson see WBL time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
July<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
P Steve Howe<\/strong>, OF George Van Haltren<\/strong>, 5th Round Pick & 6th Round Pick to New York Gothams for P Jeremy Affeldt<\/strong>, P Bob Moose<\/strong>, OF George Burns<\/strong>, IF Art Devlin<\/strong> & 3rd Round Pick<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
All reasonable, as both Moose and Burns have some promise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Looking Forward<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
SP<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Radbourn and Halladay should be solid for years to come, and there is great excitement over the potential of Randy Johnson<\/strong>. Beyond that, it’s a lot of question marks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RP<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
If Henke can bounce back from injury, he and Dempster should be solid here, and there are some decent arms behind them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
C<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Carter should have this locked up for quite a while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1B<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Long term, a mixture of John Olerud<\/strong> and John Mayberry<\/strong> should handle this, but there are no great immediate options, unless Staub and Bob Watson<\/strong> can handle it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2B<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Even with his late season fade, this should be Roberto Alomar<\/strong>‘s position, especially as Raines shifts permanently to the outfield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3B<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
An area of need, as neither Anthony Rendon<\/strong> nor Larry Parrish<\/strong> impressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SS<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
It’s assumed that Rodr\u00edguez will hold this down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
LF<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Raines should play here more and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CF<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
This gets more interesting, as either Betr\u00e1n or Griffey, Jr. could be here long term, with the other moving to a corner OF position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RF<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Walker as long as he’s healthy, with others, including Staub, filling in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Rookie Draft<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Rounds 1-4<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
There are some tempting choices out there, but Max Scherzer<\/strong> being a franchise selection who looks almost ready for the majors makes him the choice. The 2nd round was a much harder selection, but the Mounties eventually settled on Al Orth<\/strong>, partially because he should be able to help out at the major league level somewhat immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1B is a bit unsettled for the franchise, so Elbie Fletcher<\/strong> made sense in the 3rd round. Fletcher is a ways away from helping at the WBL level, but he could be in the mix eventually. In the last part of that round, they took another arm: 22 year old Dan Haren<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the 4th round, the Mounties took 2B Jimmy Dykes<\/strong> with their final franchise exemption and rubber armed reliever Mark Eichhorn<\/strong> with their other pick that round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rounds 5-8<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Ottawa needs quality across the board, but being limited to franchise selections may make that challenging. They start in the 7th round with OF Warren Cromartie<\/strong> and follow that in the 8th with SP Dupee Shaw<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rounds 9-12<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
IF Joey Cora<\/strong>; OF Leon Roberts<\/strong>; P Billy Koch<\/strong>; and P Chuck Taylor<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
69 – 85, .448 pct. 4th in Cum Posey Division, 22 games behind. Overall With low expectations come limited success, or some such. Ottawa has some interesting pieces, a ton of raw talent, and very little to show for it all. Future success hinges on the development of that talent–Ken Griffey, Jr, \u00c1lex Rodr\u00edguez, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1558,23],"tags":[1479,203,201,728,1583,809,146,455,704,194,1584,1062,1547,1292,1319,1580,1536,202,811,812,730,206,961,1406,928,59,1508,1581,193,192,210,1006,207,1582,1578,1515,763,187,762,456,197,948,69,190,723,987,1202,1329,559,1021,196,736,1579],"class_list":["post-4433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-season-reviews","category-team-news","tag-al-orth","tag-alex-rodriguez","tag-anthony-rendon","tag-art-devlin","tag-billy-koch","tag-bob-brown","tag-bob-moose","tag-bob-watson","tag-carlos-beltran","tag-carlos-delgado","tag-chuck-taylor","tag-clayton-richard","tag-dan-haren","tag-dave-bennett","tag-dick-bartell","tag-dupee-shaw","tag-elbie-fletcher","tag-freddy-parent","tag-gary-carter","tag-gary-lavelle","tag-george-burns","tag-george-van-haltren","tag-jamie-moyer","tag-jeremy-affeldt","tag-jim-clancy","tag-jim-stephens","tag-jimmy-dykes","tag-joey-cora","tag-john-mayberry","tag-john-olerud","tag-ken-griffey-jr","tag-larry-parrish","tag-larry-walker","tag-leon-roberts","tag-mark-eichhorn","tag-max-scherzer","tag-old-hoss-radbourn","tag-ottawa-mounties","tag-randy-johnson","tag-rickie-weeks","tag-roberto-alomar","tag-roy-halladay","tag-rusty-staub","tag-ryan-dempster","tag-sam-thompson","tag-sean-osullivan","tag-sibby-sisti","tag-spud-johnson","tag-steve-garvey","tag-steve-howe","tag-tim-raines","tag-tom-henke","tag-warren-cromartie"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4433"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5154,"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4433\/revisions\/5154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}