The 2002 Rookies

Nice meeting you, Anthony.

We hope the 2003 rookies are reading this. The one thing we can take away from the 2002 rookie crop is experience. Experience in how NOT to run things. In 2002, we had seven rookies come out (not counting Dave Cain). Only two of those rookies would get any playing time during Winterball. The end result was only one rookie getting over 100 ABs (John Deatrick). The rest of the field (all six of 'em) combined to pick up 221, which averages out to 38+ per player. And that's including Jeff Register's 79.

Anthony Sanzone and Hart McKenzie were the first two rookies picked, and they combined for 53 ABs. Both were gone for good after gameday #3. Jeff Register, Bob Banos, and Chris Keefer combined for only 27 IP, yet they still managed to combine for 100 earned runs (ERA: 14.81). And 16 Ks. And 71 BBs. Yep, it wasn't our year in 2002.

Still, what we've learned over the years is that you have to learn from your mistakes. This year, we got seven rookies again. However, five of them saw Winterball. If the 2003 rookies have one goal, it's this: Please, PLEASE combine to pick up more ABs then the original seven from 2002. That magic number is: 352. And if you do that, we're sure you'll be able to top the HIT total of the 2002 rookies: 70. Yeah, that's right...they hit .199. Pre-season, we're thinking Curtis Henning and Pat Plummer can combine to pass that by themselves.