2009 Year in Review

What always goes wrong with Lake Champlain? Pitching and Pythagoras. LCC's 874 runs allowed, while not especially high by Cannibal standards, were a figure exceeded only by the league's two 100-loss teams, LVI and GRK. Emblematic of the LCC season was starter Jonathan Sanchez, who managed an 11-11 record despite a 6.38 ERA.

With regard to Pythagoras, the Cannibals once again got a D-minus in geometry. Perhaps due to their perennial ability to win big (31 games with over 10 runs scored) and lose close (17-26 record in 1-run games), Pythagoras once again had LCC's number. And it was negative.

In retrospect, the critical decisions were:
1. A draft-day trade of LCC's #1 selection (Justin Upton, #10 overall) with LVI. The offense-rich Cannibals clearly believed the younger Upton was the best player available. But by the same token, Lake Champlain's needs did not lie with yet another bat. So Cannibal GM Steve Beard decided to bring back former LCC closer Jose Valverde (4-4, 3.58, 24 saves) and the #12 overall pick in exchange for Upton. While Valverde performed well for an LCC closer (a rather low bar to jump over in any event), becoming #3 on the single-season saves leaderboard with 24, and passing former Cannibal fireman Ugueth Urbina for 1^st on the all-time LCC saves leaderboard with 39, the selection of middle-reliever Hong-Chi Kuo (5-4, 3.22 in 61.1 ip with LCC) with the #12 pick did cause some head-shaking around the league.

2. Especially when Kuo did not even finish the season with the Cannibals. Instead, he was dealt to World Series bound Outlaw for OJW's 2010 #2 plus another middle reliever, Jason Frasor (0-0, 4.22, 1 save in 21.1 innings with LCC). In fact, not only did LCC trade away Kuo, they also traded away two other relievers who were supposed to be the cornerstone of a serviceable Cannibal pitching staff: Cory Wade (5-4, 3.22) went to VFS for a #8, and Matt Thornton (0-3, 4.57) went to Springfield for a #3. It is worth noting that in each case the 2010 draft pick LCC received was lower than the 2009 draft pick spent on the pitcher they dealt away. Chalk one up for the old “buy high / sell low” technique...

3. Trading away the 2^nd best hitter in Cannibal history, Chipper Jones (.375/12/66 in 95 games with LCC in 2009) for young 3^rd sacker Ryan Zimmerman (.279/1/11 in 31 games). When it became apparent that Lake Champlain would not be able to make up the consistent 5-game gap separating LCC from the true powers of the Tastes Great East (SPR and HHA), GM Steve Beard made the painful decision to trade the long-time Cannibal during the midst of one of the best seasons of his outstanding career. How good was Chipper going? Had he gotten the 6 more PA's required to qualify for the batting title, his .377 BA would've exceeded that of title winner Albert Pujols of VFS (.372).

All-time Cannibal great David Ortiz was merely mortal in 2009 (.263/18/66).  Was this simply the result of reduced playing time (289 ab's), or is Big Papi no longer the pitchers' daddy?

Looking ahead to 2010

Three key questions
1. Will Ryan Zimmerman be the next Cannibal franchise 3b? It is often said that you don't know what you have in a young player until you see him for 1500 ab's. Given that through 1414 ab's Zimmerman has a career line of .254/.321/.431, it appears he has a lot to prove in his next 86 ab's.

2. Can Troy Tulowitzki (.255/6/25 in 59 games with LCC) be the next Cannibal franchise shortstop? The shoes to fill are large. Lake Champlain's previous two shortstops have been Edgar Renteria (.287 ba in 4 seasons with LCC) and Nomar Garciaparra (.292 in 7 seasons with LCC). Cannibal fans are hoping Tulowitzki, who cost LCC their 2010 1^st round pick, hits more like his rookie season with ILL (.246/31/85) than his split sophomore season (.259/9/43).

3. Will LCC stick to their (young) guns? It is well storied that Lake Champlain is the pitching farm team to the league. Past and future stars such as Ryan Dempster, Javier Vazquez, John Lackey, Josh Beckett, Dontrelle Willis, and James Shields have all gotten their starts down by the Lake, only to be sold off for now-forgotten veteran pitchers (Al Leiter, Curt Schilling) or hitters (Corey Koskie – not even he remembers where he is now). Still, Lake Champlain owner Steve Beard for once appears to be set on waiting to see if a few of his young arms can actually develop in the home dugout as well as they have on the other side of the 3^rd base line. 1^st rounder Clayton Kershaw (4-8, 6.12), 8^th rounders Jonathan Sanchez and Ryan Rowland-Smith (6-3, 3.06), and 11^th rounder Edwin Jackson (5-13, 5.48) all appear to be in line to receive an almost unprecedented 2^nd year to develop.

Projected lineup
C – Brian McCann
1B – Paul Konerko
2B – Rickie Weeks
3B – Ryan Zimmerman
SS – Troy Tulowitzki
RF – JD Drew
CF – Curtis Granderson
LF – Chris Young
DH – Hideki Matsui


Rotation

Clayton Kershaw

Erik Bedard

Randy Wolf

Edwin Jackson

Ryan Rowland-Smith

Closer
Jose Valverde