In baseball, as in life, there are no guarantees. Finishing the regular season with the best overall record and receiving the top seed in the playoffs guarantees nothing. The Oneonta Yankees learned this lesson last year as they dropped a tough semi-final round series to the wild-card Batavia Clippers.
However, at the minor league level, championships are not the ultimate measure of success. Development is just as important, if not more, than winning, and OneontaΓÇÖs minor leaguers developed in a major league way last season.
OneontaΓÇÖs pitching was, in one word, excellent. Four of the YankeesΓÇÖ five starters had ERAs among the top 10 in the league. Zach Day, the 19-year-old right-hander, led the team in wins with seven, and had an 2.15 ERA, the fourth highest on the team. Thanks to his fastball, he earned a spot on the New York-Penn League All-Star TeamΓÇÖs first team. His rotation mates were no less impressive. Left-hander Randy Choate was 5-1 with a 1.73 ERA and allowed just 49 hits with 61 strikeouts in 62 innings pitched. Scott Wiggins and Jason Henry went 6-2 and 5-4, respectively, and both finished with a 2.56 ERA. The lowest ERA of the pitching staff (1.35) belonged to set-up man Ryan Bradley, and closer Daniel Mota led the league with 17 saves.
Part of the credit for the teamΓÇÖs success can be claimed by the teamΓÇÖs defense. The middle infield of shortstop Marc Mirizzi and second baseman Scott Kidd combined for only 34 errors in all 74 regular season games, and third baseman Allen Butler was one of the most improved players in the Yankees organization. Left-fielder John Darjean and right-fielder Orlando Carey, patrolled the outfield with exceptional speed and skill.
While solid defense and pitching are necessary, you canΓÇÖt win games if you donΓÇÖt score runs, which is something the Yankees did well in ΓÇÖ97. Kidd had team high RBI (45) and hit (74) totals, and finished second on the team with five home runs. First-baseman Matt Purkiss hit a team high six homers and drove in 41 runs, and Mirizzi and Butler drove in 33 and 30 runs, respectively. Vernon Maxwell, Jeremy Morris, and Rene Pinto each added 22 or more RBI.
A few members of last yearΓÇÖs team will inevitably be called up, but Oneonta certainly has the nucleus to challenge for the league title in ΓÇÖ98.
