RailRiders in Review: MVPs, aces and most improved players
Sep. 23—The first year in a new gig, in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre manager Shelley Duncan's estimation, is when you develop relationships, build trust, learn the environment and the culture and dive into an organization's vision.
"And Year 2 is the place where a lot of that stuff sets in and you can start to feel more comfortable about bringing your own elements to the game a little more, where they match what the organization wants and believes in," said Duncan, who finishes his first year at the helm of the RailRiders on Sunday at 1:05 p.m. in Syracuse. "So, it's been a good step."
Though this year's RailRiders will be the first Scranton/Wilkes-Barre squad since 2014 to finish a season with a losing record, there were many positives. On offense, they set a franchise record for home runs in a season (217 heading into Saturday's game), and they got at least 10 dingers from eight players, second most in franchise history. They went into Saturday with 172 stolen bases, matching last year's SWB-record-setting squad. In an International League where the introduction of the automated ball-strike system stoked run production, RailRiders pitchers have a 4.70 ERA, fifth best in the league and one of just seven teams with a mark below 5.00. They had the fifth most strikeouts and the fifth least walks.
Estevan Florial (28), Andrés Chaparro (24) and Jamie Westbrook (21) each hammered at least 20 home runs. Florial posted a career-best .945 OPS, and Westbrook was right behind him at .897. Right-hander Mitch Spence tied the franchise record for starts in a season (29) and with 153, came up just shy of the strikeout record. Triple-A rookie Will Warren didn't have enough innings to qualify, but his 3.71 ERA over 20 games would've been the second best in the league.
Before looking too far ahead, Duncan and two of his top lieutenants, pitching coach Graham Johnson and hitting coach Trevor Amicone, talked with The Times-Tribune about their picks for most valuable players, most improved players and players with which they wish they had more time.
Manager Shelley Duncan
Who's your MVP? I'd have to say Jamie (Westbrook). As amazing of a season Flo (Estevan Florial) had, you have a guy that has been around .300 all year long with a .400 on-base and .500 slug, you've got to say Jamie.
What does that kind of consistency mean? To have those guys that you can put in the middle of the order and really complement the whole thing, have good at-bats consistently, those are the guys that make others better. That's one of those things that it's hard to notice. Sometimes, the success of people, how they take at-bats; the effect it has on other people; constantly putting pressure on pitchers; driving pitch counts up; being a presence; having the pitcher know this guy's coming up; allowing guys that are hitting ahead of you to feel comfortable passing the baton; I can be patient; wait for my pitch; if I walk, I've got a dude behind me. The ability to take pressure off of other guys is huge. And then success brings a positive attitude to the dugout and that makes the other guys in a better mood, happier, and helps them perform better. I could go and on a million ways where dudes like that make others better. The consistency's been the biggest thing.
Who's your most improved player? Flo, I think there's a lot of elements in Flo's game — Flo has had some great years — there's a lot of elements in Flo's game where he's really improved. The swing and miss has gone down. His game planning as gone up. There's been a lot of parts of Flo's game that have improved from last year.
Best pitcher? (Mitch) Spence. When you have a dude — I've never been around a guy that has been a workhorse in the minor leagues like he is. And it's not like we're forcing it. He just does it. He goes out there, he's been consistent with all of his starts, hasn't missed starts, been consistent with attacking the strike zone. ... I mean, this guy just attacks, gets outs, gets deep into games, gives us a chance to win almost every single time. Has improved over the course of the year. All of his stuff has gotten better.
How about someone you wish you had more time with, whether it be because of injury, promotion or demotion? (Elijah) Dunham. I think Dunham (who was demoted to Double-A on July 4) got bit with some bad luck this year. The first half of the season, it felt like every single starter we're facing is a left-hander, and that probably didn't do a whole lot for his confidence and his success. I really enjoyed him. I enjoyed his intensity. Enjoyed what he's capable of, look forward to spending more time with him down the road.
Pitching coach Graham Johnson
Who's your MVP? Probably Mitch Spence. ... For him it's probably been since that Week 4, Week 5 spot, where he kind of was having some good starts and then it kind of seemed like it just feel apart in one inning for him. Ever since then, he's been a pretty darn good mainstay, and obviously really been able to put us on his back a little bit, save the 'pen.
He's not a guy who will blow hitters away, but there will be games where he's got more than 20 swings and misses. The fastball's kind of got some uniqueness to it. Ultimately, we kind of classify it as a four-seam, but probably it's, from a movement perspective, a major league cutter than he throws three miles an hour (above) the major league average for a cutter. So, it definitely has some uniqueness. ... And then the breaking balls have been plus really for his career, at least since I've known him in that regard. And I think the big thing this year is taking ownership and really figuring out how to use both of them to both bat sides.
Most improved? I think over the course of the season, from what you could realistically expect to what's transpired, especially in the last week, is probably Matt Bowman. I've always been a believer in Matt, but when you miss three years of playing time, probably didn't necessarily have the spring training numbers that he was hoping too have, it was more so for him just getting through a major league spring training and feel good at the end of it. But in terms of what was happening in those outings in terms of what you could realistically expect coming into the season and then what he's become, I would probably say he's the most improved.
Who do you wish you had more time with? Take that last start for Clayton (Beeter, who struck out 13 on Sept. 14) and then kind of just really the last month to six weeks for Will (Warren), and you kind of wish you could let that play out for a little bit more of an extended time. But hopefully, they're both going to get in a spot where they're ending the season on a high note, putting a good foot forward coming into next spring training over the offseason and kind of letting the chips fall where they may after that.
How important is seeing that start-to-start improvement from them? I think it's huge, honestly, for both of those guys but Will more so because he made a pretty big adjustment from what we were doing from a usage standpoint. It's kind of one of those things that probably went away from what the natural progression should be, but it was kind of giving him some more comfort. It's kind of one of those deals where we're going to commit to it, we didn't really know how it was going to really play out, but it's been a game changer for him in that regard, and I think it's put himself in a spot to where now he's got that type of usage but now can adlib off of it a little bit more.
Hitting coach Trevor Amicone
Who's your MVP? Jamie Westbrook. Jamie's been our leader. He has been steady all year long. He is a reliable at-bat no matter where he's hitting in the order. And he's had a career year.
Most improved? It's either Flo or (Oswald) Peraza. I think that Peraza's situation, it's really easy to come down and immediately hit 10 home runs in 18 games or whatever it was and think 'All right, I've got this level figured out.' And instead of doing that, he very proactively said, 'I need to figure out how to master the big league level. Where are my holes, and how can I attack them?' And he was willing to fail at this level knowing all of the eyes that are on him publicly, internally, all of them. Knowing all of the eyes that were on him, he was willing to fail from a results standpoint to try to become a better big league hitter. I think what you're seeing right now up there is him doing that. ... It's hard not to say Flo and Jamie are probably the co-MVPs. What Flo did this year was special. And for a lot of the similar reasons that we talked about with Peraza, he could have come down with a completely different attitude than he did after clearing waivers. ... For how young we got, he was a great example to the younger guys, especially the younger Latin guys, who look up to him and who were going absolutely crazy in the clubhouse, watching him get that big hit in the game yesterday and walk that at-bat with the bases loaded — he was just a great example to those guys on how to go about your business, and how to do it without getting distracted, without being disgruntled when nobody would have blamed him. So, I would say he and Jamie are probably co-MVPs.
Who do you wish you had more time with? Ben Rortvedt. I think he's shown some really good, some glimpses of being a big-league caliber hitter. The defensive side is incredible as a catcher, but I think he's shown some stretches of time where he's capable of being a better big league hitter than even I thought was possible. So, he had a couple of fluke injuries as well as been up and down a couple of times that I wish that I had some more time with him. I think he has it in him to be a big leaguer hitter.
Contact the writer: cfoley@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9125; @RailRidersTT on X/Twitter
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