Portland Beavers the Padres Triple-A Affiliate

Year in Wrap

The Portland Beavers started the year on a bad note that never got into tune, the future of the club staying in Portland was in doubt even before spring training started. Management changes occurred with veteran All-Star Catcher Terry Kennedy being promoted from the Double-A San Antonio and bringing with him staff. Kennedy would fill in the manager gap created the season before by Randy Ready’s promotion to hitting coach with the Padres. Terry Kennedy would be working with many boys he had worked with previously in the organization.

Kennedy would bring with him the small ball game, relying on bunts, sac flies and stolen bases to try and scratch out wins. In the end, the on and off again small ball philosophy would only garner Portland with a 59 and 87 record, the 2^nd worse in the 16 team Pacific Coast League. Offensively, out of the 16 team league Portland would end up ranked 14^th in batting average, 15^th in slugging, 14^th in OBP, 9^th in walks. Although last in doubles and homeruns, Portland would rank 8^th in the rarely hit triples.

Defensively, Portland was a different team and both offensively and defensively, the team looked similar to their parent club, stronger pitching and weaker hitting. Portland was 9^th in ERA and 7^th in WHIP. Portland pitching gave up fewer hits than everybody in the league except Iowa.

It was the odd strength of pitching coupled with weak hitting that created 90 games out of the 144 total games to end up a three run differential.

The team didn’t have to contend with as many player call-ups as in previous seasons but by season’s end Single-A pitchers would be called up from Eugene for spot starts. Mid-season veteran Wily Mo Pena would be signed to the team from independent baseball. Nick Green would come in to help the infield and permit Lance Zawadzki to go back to Double-A. Previous Padre Jody Gerut would come in at the tail-end of the season and Kyle Phillips from the Toronto Triple-A Affiliate would squeeze in right after the All-Star Break allowing Craig Cooper to return also to San Antonio.

Despite the record, bright spots did shine on the season, 28 year old Beaver Veteran, Craig Stansberry would set the modern franchise’s games played, hits and doubles record. Mike Baxter would hit for the cycle, a first for the 9 year old franchise and Josh Geer would pitch a complete game shutout.

Stand Outs

Frieri (RP), the closing pitcher at season’s start, would be picked but not played in the Triple-A All Star Game. Immediately following the game he travelled and stayed with San Diego. The 24 year old from April to July would leave Portland with a 1.43 ERA, 37.2 innings pitched in 34 games, 17 saves, a three and one record, 49 strike outs and a .850 WHIP.  He would give up 6 runs all of which were earned.

Mike Baxter (OF, 1B), an all around great player would end his 2^nd season with the Beavers and play in 136 of the 143 games before getting called up in the 2^nd to last game of the season. He would hit for .301, SLG for .517 and steal 22 bases.  Out of his 145 hits for the season, 30 would be doubles, 10 would be triples and 18 would go over the fence. He would end up playing 1^st, RF and LF through out the season.

Luis Durango (OF), the call up kid, would end up .300 with 35 stolen bases. He would be one of the first players in recent Beaver history that could bunt regularly for base hits. His arm, often inaccurate and often not very strong would be an issue through out the season for the team as he was predominantly centerfield.

Perdomo (RP) and Munter (RP) would be the glue that held the middle innings together until Frieri could arrive and save the game. Perdomo would see 3.40 ERA with 82 innings pitched and Munter with his 2.66 ERA and 71 innings would be the bullpen standouts for 2010.

Corey Lubke (SP) would be the strongest pitching talent seen in the starter roll for Portland since Tim Stauffer’s debut. Corey came in mid-season and ended his season going 5 and 0 in 9 games started with an incredible 2.97 ERA. He would average 1 long ball given up ever 10 innings and hold batters to a .201 average.

Slightly Above Average Players

 Josh Barfield’s (2B, 3B, OF) offense looked above average but his defense would sway from okay to horrible, mostly depending on which position he would be played at. His arm would prove too unreliable for 3^rd the experiment would end with him only looking like Triple-A player from 2^nd base. His 2^nd time around with the Beavers wasn’t as good as the first but he would hit .294 and his moderate power netted him 13 doubles. His hitting coming of the bench in games he didn’t start in would prove to be his most valuable asset to the team.

Craig Stansberry (3B, 2B) would start out slow but finish okay in his fourth year with the Beavers. Unable to adapt to Kennedy’s small ball, Stansberry would go 6 for 12 in stolen bases. He would drop only 9 points in his average from the previous year going .260. He would end up playing 3^rd and 2^nd much like Barfield. He would end up having a .935 Fielding % from 3^rd versus the .986 while at 2^nd.

Kyle Phillips (1B, C) came in on a trade and was batting .258 with his previous affiliated club but with Portland he would see it increase to .324. Perhaps the slowest runner in professional baseball, his slugging and +.300 average and decent 1^st base skills and tolerable catching skills puts him slightly higher than his peers.

Cedric Hunter (OF) would show up mid-season from San Antonio and be the slightly larger Luis Durango. 5 for 6 on the base paths but unlike Luis, he’d have moderate power with the bat.

Chris Stewart (C) would start off the season horribly slow in the offensive ability and often find himself behind the 40 man roster’d Dusty Ryan. In June his bat would heat up to .380, this boost allowed him to replace Dusty Ryan. A .991 FLD%, he would have a 39% success rate in catching base stealers. He would also end the season batting .248 with a promotion to the Padres. 

At the bottom

Dusty Ryan (C) would struggle all season at the plate. Every month he batted under .200 until July, May saw his worse at .103. Fielding was .985% and he would only catch 1 out of every 4 base stealing attempts. He would be removed from the 40 man at season’s end with a .199 AVG.

Aaron Poreda (RP) in just 29 innings of work he would walk 38 batters, multiple times he would end up walking the bases full. He could miss the strike-zone unsurprisingly, 8 to 12 pitches in a row.

Adam Russell (RP) would end up taking over Frieri’s closer job after the being promoted to the Padres. For every strike out there was also a hit. He would end up having the 2^nd highest WHIP on the regular crew of pitchers for the Beavers at 1.74 a huge difference between Frieri’s .850.

Cesar Carrillo (SP) would struggle with every start and most starts would leave the Beavers quickly behind in runs in the early innings as low as 4 and as high as 6 runs before the start of the 3rd. He would only eek out 5 wins and take on 14 loses with an ERA of 5.60 only relief pitcher Greg Burke would end up with a worse ERA on the team.

Greg Burke (RP) would come into middle relief and immediately give up a homerun, so many times in fact that he would average 2 per 9 innings. His ERA of 5.68 puts him in line with the highest ERA of the bullpen.

The Promising

Lance Zawadzki (2B, SS, 3B) he was promoted early to Triple-A to fill-in for the injured Antonelli and he would also be on the 40 man. His first season in Triple-A, we would see him placed in a new role as infield utility and his weeks were often broken up with multiple trips to the parent club. After dealing with a more dynamic infielder role, early promotions to both Triple-A and San Diego, Lance would end his season with the Beavers having a respectable .231 AVG despite the outside interferences.

When Portland was out of Outfielders, Brad Chalk (OF) would come in to save the day. Expectations for Chalk were to bat at the .200 mark; however, in 27 games he would hold steady at .313. He showed a lot of promise on defense, making diving and over the shoulder catches; he would play all 12 games at leftfield perfectly.

Wily Mo Pena (LF, 1B) – Arrived very late in the season and although hampered by many flaws in his hitting mechanics and poor defensive skills, he would show some promise with his power. He averaged 1 homerun every 5 games and in a full 144 game season we might have seen 29 to 30 homeruns from him. The quick glimpse of Wily Mo at 40 games with the Beavers, he ended up with a .324/.390/.557 and an incredible .946 OPS.