Pitching, or more specifically, starting pitching, was responsible for much of what went amiss with the 2007 season of the Ottawa Lynx. Too many times manager John Russell was forced to go with relief pitchers in the role of starters or inexperienced lower minor leaguers. What began as a very solid and promising starting rotation in April, quickly turned sour in May and turned into disaster in July. Too often the substitute starters couldn’t go deep into games which had a ripple effect on the bullpen who in turn were overworked and hopelessly behind with no margin for error. The beginning of the end came in May with the departure of Brian Mazone to South Korea, their number one starter and most solid pitcher. This was quickly followed by injuries to the number two starter, Matt Childers, and their most promising rookie, lefty J.A. Happ. Mazone was only around for six starts, compiling a 3-2 record with an ERA of 2.21 and a WHIP of 1.04. No team can afford to lose a starter of this quality and I remain curious to this day as to why the pitching, especially starting pitching strapped Philadelphia Phillies, couldn’t have used him. Couple that with the fact that Mazone is a lefty, a starter and that he had an excellent 2006 season and my confusion grows. Childers, 7-4), usually kept the team in the game and despite a high ERA, (5.17) and a WHIP of 1.60, he usually kept the games close and the Lynx often found a way to win when he started. He had the highest run support of any Lynx starter, (3.06), and the team were 12-6 when he started. Childers had a very good strikeout to walk ratio, (73-26), which helped offset somewhat giving up 138 hits in 102.2 innings. He seemed to, many times, get into trouble and then work his way out.

Continue reading The Ottawa Lynx 2007 Season Review Part Two, (Pitching). →

Category          Total/Percentage(per Game)     Ranking

Avg                     .267                                                     2

Runs                     553(3.86)                                          Last

Hits                       1,287(9.0)                                        First

Doubles                  231(.161)                                         12

Triples                    27(.189)                                            11

HR                            59(.412)                                          Last

RBI                          517(3.61)                                          Last

Total Bases              1,749(12.23)                                    Last

BB                              412(2.88)                                         13

Strikeouts                  760(5.31)                                        Fewest

SB                                 57(.40)                                           Last

CS                                33(.23)                                             Third

OBP                              .332                                                  Eigth

SLG                                .363                                                  Last

OPS                                 .695                                                Last

A season which began with great optimism and started in April with a winning record was followed by a slow decent in May, a quicker decent in June and a disastrous full blown headlong rush into deep last place in the month of July. By the middle of June, it seemed that Ottawa were completely overmatched by the rest of the league and the Lynx were quickly out of the race for the Northen Division in a defence of their 2006 title. The team played poorly and at times indifferently and were often embarrassingly beaten by their opponents. The 2007 version of the Ottawa Lynx had little team speed or power and played sloppy defence after the month of June. Mental errors at critical times on the bases and in the field added to the ineffectiveness of the team. The starting staff were hurt by injuries and personnel changes which often forced manager John Russell to use relievers in the rotation which had a ripple effect on the bullpen. More often than not, these relievers were unable to go deep into games which caused an overuse of the bullpen and which correspondingly lead to the unavailability of these “starters” for bullpen duty. Some of the relievers were simply ineffective all season but Russell had to keep throwing them out there not having any other options. The team was stocked with older players whose skills seemed to have diminished, all at the same time. This was a team which had won the Northern Division in 2006 with essentially the same players. Either the team got quickly old and/or it was simply one of those years in which a team was simply spinning it’s wheels all season.

Continue reading The Ottawa Lynx 2007 Season Review Part One, (Overview and Hitting) →

Please Note:Early next week I will post a 2007 season review for the Ottawa Lynx.

Ottawa finished up the 2007 season with a four game home stand against the Syracuse Chiefs, four games which typified this hugely disappointing season for the Lynx, (at least in the won-lost column). There was a walk off win, a couple of blown leads, mental errors and sloppy defence and the Lynx lost the final three games of the season. Ottawa began this final series of the 2007 season with a 5-4 extra inning victory over the Chiefs with the unlikely hero being Danny Sandoval. Lynx starter Landon Jacobsen lasted six innings and allowed four runs, only one of which was earned. Wayne Lydon tripled to lead off the game for Syracuse and scored one batter later on a single. Ottawa would take the lead two innings later on a one out, three run home run by Joe Thurston, his fifth of the year, hit deep over the right field wall. Sloppy Ottawa defence and a questionable choice of where to throw the ball allowed Syracuse to retake the lead in the top of the fifth. Jacobsen made a bad throw to first, well over the head of Dusty Wathan on a very routine ground ball. The next batter, Al Quintana, hit a fly ball to right, not routine but very catchable which Matt Padgett got turned around on and let drop for a double. With one out and runners on second and third, a routine grounder to third baseman Brennan King would have had Quintana at the plate but King inexplicably threw to first, allowing the tying run to score. A single by John-Ford Griffin gave Syracuse a one run lead. Ottawa tied the game in the fifth on a long Matt Padgett home run, had a chance for more but Sandoval was caught stealing second and Gookie Dawkins struck out leaving two runners on. The game remained tied at 4-4 until the bottom of the tenth. In the Syracuse half of the tenth inning Joe Besinius, (3-4), had relieved Ryan Cameron and had worked his way out of a two on and one out jam, Jason Jaramillo picking off John-Ford Griffin at first and then Besinius struck out Chad Mottola to end the inning. King walked to lead off the Lynx tenth but was forced at second on a poor sacrifice bunt attempt by Wathan. But Wathan would redeem himself one out later, scoring all the way from first on the double by Sandoval, sliding in just ahead of the throw from right and giving Ottawa a 5-4 win in what would turn out to be their final victory of the season.

Continue reading Ottawa Lynx Report Week Twenty Three →

Week twenty began with a rain out that really shouldn’t have been and two loses which could have easily been wins. It rained Friday fairly heavy for awhile during the day and right up until close to game time but the field at Lynx Stadium drains very well. An examination of the forecast that indicated more heavy storms were on the way lead the umpiring crew to cancel the game with Pawtucket with no makeup game being scheduled. However, the additional rains never came and the sun broke through the clouds. No game, sunshine everywhere and the fans left wondering why. Strangely similar to the first two games against Buffalo. Eerily similar to the way the 2007 season has gone for Ottawa. If something could go wrong, it usually does.

Continue reading Ottawa Lynx Week Twenty →

Ottawa began week nineteen on a two game winning streak, (doesn’t sound like much but it had been awhile since they’d won back to back), and had two remaining games in Buffalo before a brief two game series in Rochester. Game one saw the streak end 10-1 but the game was closer than it looked until the eighth inning when the Bisons scored four times off of Lynx reliever Joe Besinius. Although Lynx starter John Ennis, (4-4), wasn’t lights out, he left the game having allowed five runs, (four earned), with Ottawa trailing 5-1 and not completely out of the game yet. Bisons starter Jeffrey Harris, (6-7), pitched seven innings and allowed only four Ottawa hits and one run and the Buffalo pen held the Lynx scoreless over the final two innings.

Continue reading Ottawa Lynx Week Nineteen →

The Lynx opened week eighteen with a four game series against the Syracuse Chiefs at home in Ottawa. Ottawa managed a split in the series and almost came away with victories in three of four, losing the final game in thirteen innings, a game they could have won in nine and a game started by a rehabing A. J. Burnett for Syracuse. The Chiefs came into town 9.5 games in front of Ottawa in fifth place and left town in the same position. All in all, while the hitting continued to be a sore spot, the starting pitching continued to get better and the bullpen were generally effective. Newly acquired infielder Gookie Dawkins, (acquired from the Seattle Mariners), played second, third and short in the series and, although not known for his hitting, even managed to get a couple of those as well as showing off his well known fielding skills.

Continue reading Ottawa Lynx Week Eighteen →

Ottawa began week seventeen exactly as they ended the previous week-losing to Richmond, getting swept by Richmond, and extending their losing streak to seven games. Again, the starting pitching gave up a big inning early, (seven run third), Ottawa lost 9-4 and Matt Childers, (5-2), picked up a loss for only the first time in seven starts. Childers gave up fourteen hits in only four innings and while the bullpen allowed only one Richmond run the rest of the way, the damage was done. Doug Clark hit a three run home run in the third effectively putting the game out of reach as Richmond totalled nine hits in the inning. Although Ottawa scored three times in the next inning, they would manage only one more run. Newcomer Michael Garciapara went 2-3 for the Lynx with a walk and an RBI as Ottawa managed eight hits but seven were singles.

Continue reading Ottawa Lynx Week Seventeen →

Ottawa played the remaining three games of their four game series with Columbus and took on the Toledo Mud Hens, again a four game series, to finish off week eleven of the 2007 season. The Lynx took two of the remaining three games with Columbus and began to show definite signs of life, definite signs that the team was beginning to come around and start running on all cylinders. This was especially true of the offense who, up until now, were not showing much power or clutch hitting. It was also a week of several roster moves for Ottawa as the team continued to get players healthy and make adjustments, especially to the pitching staff which had been struggling with the many injuries and poor performances.

Continue reading Ottawa Lynx Week Eleven →

The Lynx began week ten of the 2007 season by doing something which had eluded them for three games-they defeated the Durham Bulls. The first three games of this series had resulted in losses to the Bulls as Ottawa couldn’t get much going, couldn’t get or prevent the big play, (see Lynx report week nine). The final game of this home stand saw the Lynx finally put one in the win column, this time in a rain shortened six innings, 3-2. Jason Jaramillo continued to slowly drag himself out of his long hitting slump, driving in two runs in the fifth inning with a triple and giving Ottawa the lead for good. Charles Weatherby III, (1-0), and just transferred from Single A, allowed four hits and two runs in five innings in his Triple A debut. Joe Ennis , although allowing a hit and a walk, picked up his first save of the season in support of Weatherby, shutting out Durham in the sixth. Ottawa finished up the home stand 2-5, their home record dropping to 15-14.

Continue reading Ottawa Lynx Report Week Ten →