2006 Scouting Report

Lansing Lugnuts

• Oldsmobile Park, Lansing, Michigan.
• Affiliated with the Toronto Blue Jays.
• Manager: Ken Joyce.
• Coaches: Tom Signore (pitching), Charles Poe.

This page profiles the 2006 Lansing Lugnuts, a Single-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays and a member of the Midwest League.

• History: MWLguide.com

Profile

Unless otherwise indicated, all statistics on this page are through September 4, 2006.

Season Summary

• Second Half: 32-38, .457 (4th place tie, 16.0 behind)
• First Half: 40-27, 597 (2nd place, 1.0 behind)
• Pitching: 72-65, 3.44, 33 saves, no complete games, 1033 strikeouts
• Hitting: .252, 608 runs scored, 98 HR, 122 steals (62% success)
• Defense: 160 errors (1.17 per game)
• April: 17-5 (.773)
• May: 16-13 (.655)
• June: 12-13 (.480)
• July: 11-18 (.379)
• August-September: 16-16 (.500)
• Playoff Round 1: 2-0 (1.000)
• Playoff Round 2: 0-2 (.000)

• Position Players used: 19
• Pitchers used: 25
  • Includes one position player used as a pitcher.
• Pitchers per game: 3.0

Leading Players

• Best Player on the Team: Infielder Anthony Hatch

• Best Starting Pitcher: Aaron Tressler (1.90, 8-4, 96 strikeouts) or Ch-Hung Cheng (2.70, 11-5, 154 strikeouts)
• Bullpen Stopper: Paul Phillips (2.01, 5-3, 14 saves, no holds, 37 strikeouts)
• Strikeout Pitchers: Yesson Berroa, Chi-Hung Cheng, Sean Stidfole
• Control Pitchers: Yesson Berroa, Billy Carnline, Po-Hsuan Keng, Adrian Martin, Aaron Tressler

• Best Hitter: Anthony Hatch (.314, 9 HR, 37 RBI)
• Home Run Leader: Brian Pettway (16)
• High Batting Average: Chris Gutierrez (.320), Anthony Hatch (.314)
• High On Base Percentage: Anthony Hatch (.406)
• High Slugging Percentage: Chris Gutierrez (.493), Cory Patton (.510), Josh Bell (.451), Anthony Hatch (.548)
• Notable Baserunners: Jesus Gonzalez, Anthony Hatch, Luke Hetherington, Yuber Rodriguez, Sean Shoffit
• Notable Batting Eye: none

Mid-July Profile

The wheels came off in July, and the main reason is that the Jays gutted the Luggie pitching staff. This remains a strong offensive team, but the best pitchers have moved away. Oddly, the cumulative effect of the midseason roster changes has been to make this team look even more like last summer's Lansing club.

Infielder Anthony Hatch has developed into an offensive star, with power, speed, and a decent batting eye. First baseman Joey Metropoulos and OF Brian Pettway are strong contributors, and the other regular players are decent MWL hitters. OF Yuber Rodriguez doesn't get on base enough, but when he succeeds he's an excellent baserunner.

Lansing's new pitching staff needs work. Aaron Tressler's working out really well. Chi-Hung Chen's the most talented starter, but his best days don't make up for his bad ones. Beyond these, we'll have to see how things develop; for the past month, it's been pretty ugly.

May Profile

The Lugnuts have scored 236 runs while permitting 176; still a strong differential but no longer are they dominating the league. This is a very good offense; the pitching's among the MWL's best. The Luggies play decent defense; their baserunning's pretty typical for this league.

Outfielder Cory Patton leads a strong offense. Outfielder Jake Butler, catcher Josh Bell, first basemen Anthony Hatch and Joey Metropolous, and outfielder Brian Pettway bring power to the plate, while Hatch, Metropolous, and outfielder Cory Patton are good at getting on base. Third baseman Jesus Gonzalez and outfielder Yuber Rodriguez are the team speedsters.

Lansing's pitching's, well, interesting. Billy Carnline's emerged as the team's star, and although Russ Savickas is a little wild he's been pretty effective--though he rarely lasts long enough to get the win. The rest of the rotation is capable but not exciting. The bullpen's really quite strong, pretty much from top to bottom; Paul Phillips is the nominal closer, but Yesson Berroa, Po-Hsuan Keng, Joey McLaughlin, Sean Stidfole, Jordan Timm, and Aaron Tressler have been at least as effective.

April Profile

The team to beat....

The Jays have given Luggie manager Ken Joyce this marvelous toy: Lansing is second (to Wisconsin) with 114 Runs Scored, and leads the league with but 65 Runs Allowed. If you can put up a run differential like that, you'll win a lot of games. That's what's happened.

By MWL standards, the Lansing lineup's pretty awesome: Second baseman Sean Shoffit leads off with good on-base skills, and he's followed by a string of power hitters with decent all-round skills. First baseman David Hicks is a fine all-round hitter, as is infielder Chris Gutierrez at a slightly lower level. Catcher Josh Bell, 1B Joey Metropoulos, and outfielders Cory Patton & Brian Pettway are power sources. OF Yuber Rodriguez is the team's speedster.

Lansing's pitching's better than the hitting. The rotation--Kristian Bell, Chi-Hung Cheng, Russ Savickas, and Aaron Wideman--are consistently good, though all but Savickas allow too many base runners. They're relieved by a staff of pitchers who are nearly unhittable: Yesson Berroa, William Carnline, Po-Hsuan Keng, and Jordan Timm. Paul Phillips, nominally the closer on this team, is excellent, but not much different from the setup crew.

Pre-Season Profile

Manager

Ken Joyce is an exceptionally conservative manager; his teams rarely bunt, don't steal very often, and he's not inclined to call for intentional walks. For a manager whose teams aren't very aggressive on the basepaths, the success rate is notably low.

First Round Draft Selection

•   none

Team Age Information

• Average Team Age: 22.3
• Pitchers: 22.1
• Hitters: 22.5

• Oldest Player on the Team: Jordan Timm (born 1/15/1981)
• Youngest Player on the Team: Chi-Hung Cheng (born 6/20/1985)

The average player in the Midwest League this season is 21.9 years old. This information is based on opening day rosters as published on the team website and will not be updated.

Where they played last season

This summary is based on the team's opening day roster and will not be revised to reflect roster changes.

The new Luggie pitching staff will look surprisingly like last summer's, at least until the Jays move 'em around. The hitters were mostly at Auburn. If Toronto doesn't mess with this crew a lot, it has a lot of potential.

Team         League              W/L   Place    Hitters Pitchers
                                      (Teams)
Dunedin      Florida State (A+) 82/58  2(12)       1      5
Lansing      Midwest (A)        70/69  7(14)       3      9
Auburn       New York-Penn (A-) 45/30  3(14)      11      8
Pulaski      Appalachian (R+)   34/33  4(10)       3      0

The Jays moved players a lot last summer; about half of the new Luggie pitchers appeared on three rosters last summer, and the position players showed nearly as much movement.