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Summer Stories

Welcome to summer. The 2013 Cape Cod Baseball League season gets underway tonight with a full slate of games. Here are some storylines I’ll be watching as the season unfolds.

No Juice

The way last year went, any discussion of the 2013 Cape Cod Baseball League season has to start with the actual baseballs. As we learned last summer, not all baseballs are created equal. Last year’s crop was different, and it set the stage for a summer full of offense. While it made for a wild season, it didn’t paint an accurate picture. This year, the league can re-establish its baseline – the baseballs are back to normal.

Good Wood

Before it became apparent that the baseballs were largely responsible for last year’s offensive explosion, there were a lot of theories floating around. One that shouldn’t be canceled out just because of the baseball revelation is the idea that college players have an easier time adjusting to wood bats now that they’re using BBCOR bats at school. Those bats have limited offense in a big way in college baseball – watch the College World Series and count the bunts – and the bats’ performance mimics wood. It makes sense that the adjustment to wood may not be as difficult anymore.

Repeat Performance?

No team has won consecutive Cape Cod Baseball League championships since the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox in 2006 and 2007. Before that? Wareham did it in 2001 and 2002, and the Gatemen will be trying to do it again this season. A good nucleus of players return from the championship squad, so the Gatemen will be positioned to forge a similar identity, although they’ll have to weather an early storm. They have an almost unheard of 11 players in the College World Series.

Armed but Not Ready

The summer of 2005 remains the last one that featured dozens of big-school power arms, like Andrew Miller, Daniel Bard, and Tim Lincecum. Since then, more and more every year, big-time college programs are shutting down their best pitchers in the summer, or else limiting them to a few appearances on the Cape or with Team USA. Names like Gerrit Cole and Danny Hultzen stick out as big arms who never came to the Cape. This year, the trend is continuing, with guys like Thomas Eshelman, Alec Rash, Benton Moss and Tyler Beede dropping off CCBL rosters.

Small School, Big Arm

The one positive of the above trend is the opportunity it creates for less-heralded pitchers. Chris Sale and Sean Manaea are the poster boys. They were on the radar prior to coming to Cape Cod but their big summers turned them into stars. Plenty of pitchers will be looking for similar breakouts this summer.

Chasing Sean

Apart from the offense, last season’s other dominant storyline was the performance of the aforementioned Sean Manaea. I had forgotten before doing some draft prep work just how ridiculous his numbers were, namely the 85 strikeouts and seven walks. Just an amazing season. The funny thing is, he did it all in the year of the home run. With the baseballs back to normal, pitchers will reign again. Can anyone catch Manaea?

Feeling The Draft

When new Major League Baseball Draft rules went into effect last year, one of the expected consequences was that more top prospects would head to college as a result of new money restrictions on MLB teams. It’s a little hard to quantify but I think a lot of college coaches feel there are some special players in this year’s freshman class. Many of them will play on the Cape this summer.

The Winning West

East Division teams won six straight CCBL championships from 2003 to 2008, but the West has won three of the last four, getting titles from Bourne in 2009, Cotuit in 2010 and Wareham in 2012.

Return Trip

As of now, 29 players are set to return to the league for a second summer. That’s about average – it was exactly the same number at this point last year – but what stands out this year is the quality. All-Stars Robert Pehl, Sam Travis and Mason Robbins are among the returnees.

All Stars on the Cape

After a three-year stint at Fenway Park, the All Star Game returned to the Cape last season when it was held in Harwich. It’ll remain on the Cape this year and for several years to come. It’s set for Y-D this season.

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2011 Season Preview

ccbl.gifIs it a still a preview when the games have already started? I’ll go with yes.

Some storylines I’m watching as the 2011 season gets going:

Elite Eight

For the second year in a row, eight of the league’s 10 teams will make the playoffs. I’m still not sure how I feel about that, but it does make for a very interesting postseason. Under the old four-team format, 2010 champ Cotuit wouldn’t have even made the playoffs.

Stars on the Rise

The draft class of 2011 was lauded as one of the strongest in recent memory. For Cape League purposes last summer, that meant that rosters were full of guys with long track records, guys who were already stars. This summer is a little different. The 2012 draft doesn’t seem to have the established stars — but that doesn’t mean that stars won’t emerge. A lot of them will be emerging on the Cape.

Small Time

If I were picking the players I’m most excited to see, Adam Brett Walker and Victor Roache would probably be at the top of the list. But they’re not from where you’d think — Walker is from Jacksonville and Roache from Georgia Southern. The Cape League always has mid-major guys making a splash. The splash may just be bigger this year.

Swinging the Bats

College baseball changed dramatically this season with its new regulations on bats. Offense was down significantly, with home run numbers cut in half. Essentially the new bats were designed to perform more like woods. This summer, I’ll be very interested to see if the transition to wood goes more smoothly for Cape League hitters, now that the difference between spring bats and summer bats isn’t so big.

Arms Race

Between Trevor Bauer, Gerrit Cole, Danny Hultzen and many more, this year’s draft class had a lot of big-time arms. And few of them played on the Cape, continuing a trend that saw top-flight arms either pitching for Team USA or taking summers off. For 2012, though, there’s a different feel. There are some very good arms out there, but, as noted above, the stars haven’t really established themselves. I think that makes it more likely that the best sophomores in the country will be on the Cape. Right now, some of them are slated to be, like Mark Appel, Kurt Heyer and Michael Wacha.

Feeling a Draft

Players getting drafted in June and then coming to the Cape isn’t a new concept. But I do think it’s happened a little more often the past few years. Or at least, it seems like those players have had a bigger impact. Last year, Anthony Ranaudo came to the Cap to prove to the Red Sox that he was in good shape. Third-round pick Austin Wood had a great summer for Cotuit. We’ll see if anyone follows the same path this year; there are certainly some candidates.

Fenway Again

For the third year in a row, the Cape League All-Star Game will be played at Fenway Park. Clearly, the league likes having it there. I’ll be curious to see if it can grow into an event that the general public is interested in.

The New Team USA Question

Last year, Team USA trials were at a different time than usual and a number of players came to the Cape first before leaving for USA. Things have changed again this year — there are no trials, and the team’s schedule is unusually light this summer. Right now, Team USA is slated to be done on July 8. So players theoretically could came to the Cape after that.

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2010 Season Preview

ccbl.gifThe 2010 Cape Cod League Baseball season begins tonight, as long as it doesn’t rain.

Sounds kind of like last year, huh? Hopefully this season will be a little brighter.

With just a little time before the first pitch, here are some storylines I’m watching as the season gets underway:

Playoffs?

The Cape League post-season is usually pretty wide open. Between the general parity among the teams and the fact that rosters start changing after the all-star game, a lot can be said for a team that gets hot.

This year, a lot of teams will have that chance.

Eight of the 10 teams in the league will make the playoffs. I don’t love the change, because it takes some emphasis off the regular season, but it’s certainly going to be interesting. I’d say that this year’s playoffs will be the most wide open in the history of the league. Anybody who’s in could win.

The Team USA Question

Team USA is a constant topic in summer baseball, but there’s a new wrinkle this year that could have a big impact on the Cape League. Team USA trials are usually held in early June, around the same time as the Cape League season starts. This year, they don’t begin until July 6, three weeks after the Cape.

As a result, Team USA invitees have the chance to come to the Cape first then go to tryouts. Whether that happens will probably depend on the individual player, but I would expect at least a few of them to do so. USA invitee Matt Barnes is scheduled to start the opener for Wareham.

I talked to one GM who’s hoping his USA invitees will come to the Cape and that, just maybe, they’ll like it enough to stay. That’s a possibility, too.

Whatever happens, it’s clear that the Cape might have a little more talent than it’s had in quite a while. We’ll just have to see how long that talent sticks around.

The Class of 2011

The college crop for the 2010 draft wasn’t particularly strong. That’s what everyone said and you needed only to look at the number of Cape Leaguers drafted to get an indication of that. The number was six, and it was down significantly from past years.

The college class for the 2011 draft is expected to be stronger, and the Cape will mark the starting line for many of the top prospects. If Anthony Rendon comes to the Cape before Team USA trials, it’ll be the first time the consensus top prospect played on the Cape in a few years.

Power Surge

The strength of the 2011 draft class is reflected in the numbers. Last year, three players on Cape League rosters hit 20 home runs or more in their college seasons. This year, that number is 10, and only two of the 10 have been invited to Team USA. Along similar lines, four players hit over .400 last year. This season, it’s eight, and three of them had 20 or more home runs.

Getting Offensive

All those numbers — and one other factor — make me think it’s going to be another offensive-heavy year on the Cape. The other factor? The power arms are once again missing. Three of the top arms in the sophomore class are Taylor Jungmann, Gerrit Cole and Trevor Bauer. None of them are on Cape League rosters. Danny Hultzen, Matt Purke and Sonny Gray are, but their teams are still alive in the college postseason and they’ve been invited to Team USA.

For a variety of reasons, the dominant arms haven’t been on the Cape since Aaron Crow dominated for Falmouth in 2007. Whether it’s Team USA or a need for time off, that’s just the way it’s been in recent years. It looks like that will continue.

Making Their Mark

Two of the guys who put up the most impressive numbers this spring are coming from schools that aren’t exactly Cape League pipelines. Cotuit’s Paul Hoilman plays for East Tennessee State and heads into the season as one of the Cape leaders in average, home runs and RBI. He was a first-team All-American. On the mound, Joe Holtmeyer comes to the Cape from Division II Nebraska at Omaha. He had 30 more strikeouts than any other Cape Leaguer this spring.

Bloodlines

Every year, there’s usually one or two sons or brothers of Major Leaguers in the Cape League. This year, the number is way up. I count six who have fathers who played in the majors, and three with brothers in the bigs. There’s also Cotuit’s Mike Yastrzemski, who’s the grandson of Carl.