Topic: Front Page
NOVEMBER 19 - There was a crisis of faith in Forest Hills at the end of October.
The St. Jack’s Crusaders had just dropped five of nine games in stunning fashion to the New Jersey Bandits, a franchise that had just gutted itself after realizing the string of five straight league championships was coming to an end in 2008. The Crusaders’ record was now 31-30 and their lead for the final playoff spot had been shaved down to a half-game.
Owner/GM Jack Flynn made the proclamation then and there – after 61 games of playing over their heads, it was time for some changes.
A flurry of activity followed – four trades in two weeks ended with seven new players joining what Flynn hopes will be a rejuvenated St. Jack’s squad. Four new starting pitchers were imported, three of whom will take regular turns in what will become a five-man rotation over the season’s final 23 games.
Rich Hill and Kevin Correia were the first new arrivals, rescued from the Gramercy Riffs’ minor-league affiliate along with catcher Brian Schneider in exchange for Victor Martinez. Hill had spent the entire season with the Turnbull ACs and Correia had just recently reported there after the parent club acquired him from New Jersey a month before.
Both will get regular starts down the stretch with the Crusaders, reeling from Roy Oswalt’s injury and desperate for pitching help. Hill will be especially important – 10 of the Crusaders’ final 23 games are against the Massapequa Hitmen and the Floral Park Flesheaters. The Hitmen and the Flesheaters are universally acknowledged as the two best teams in the league, but both are susceptible to left-handed pitching.
Martinez has spent several years with the Crusaders and has the highest batting average among qualified players in franchise history (a .312 average in 150 career games). However, with the emergence of Geovany Soto and Dioner Navarro – who split catching duties in 2009 – along with Soto’s highly anticipated debut with the team looming after Game 65, Martinez finally became expendable.
Any sadness that Crusader fans were feeling about the loss of fan favorite Martinez were quickly alleviated when news of a second deal with Gramercy came across the wire – franchise icon Curt Schilling was coming back to town, in a deal that sent Scott Rolen to Gramercy.
Schilling is unlikely to make a start between now and the end of the season, but Flynn jumped at the opportunity to bring back the man who owns virtually every single franchise pitching record. Getting Rolen’s contract off the books – he’s signed through 2009 despite having three men ahead of him on the depth chart – was an added bonus. The Riffs will use Rolen primarily as a defensive replacement for the rest of the season.
Last Saturday, Flynn worked the phones to pull off two more deals before the trading deadline. The first trading partner was the Flesheaters, who parted with Ted Lilly and Brad Hawpe in exchange for Adan Dunn, Chien Ming Wang and Mike Mussina.
Lilly adds a second left-hander to the mix and sets up a potential post-season rotation that would include him, Oswalt and Hill. Hawpe will play right field for the rest of 2008 and has the inside track on the DH job for next season.
Dunn will add even more power to an already dangerous Flesheaters lineup and could see time at first base or one of the corner outfield positions in 2009. Mussina may find himself at the back end of Floral Park’s rotation next year; the only surefire candidate to start for the Flesheaters is Josh Beckett.
Less than an hour after that deal was complete, St. Jack’s addressed its offensive issues at third base for the second time this season, acquiring Mike Lowell from the West Side Stories and shipping away Adrian Beltre and Dan Uggla.
Lowell will bat fifth behind Hawpe in the new-look Crusaders lineup, at least until Soto joins the team beginning in Game 66. Beltre and Lowell profile similarly for 2009 – both are right-handed glovemen who can platoon against lefties.
Uggla brings a lot of power from a middle-infield position, although Stories Owner/GM Ed Price will be reluctant to start him next to real-life keystone mate Hanley Ramirez. No NYLISL team has had success with two 4s starting in the middle infield – could this be a prelude to a trade for Ramirez?
