Sep

13

A Belated Look Back at the ‘08 Cape League

Posted by Greg | Filed Under News | 

Normally we post about the season that was much sooner than September.  This will not be the normal comprehensive season-in-review we’ve done in the past.  Perhaps CodBall commentors can add to these reflections for a more complete and balanced look back.

As I relaxed this morning with a cup of coffee to review the end of season stats, I found myself looking for gaps and patterns that tell a story or differentiate one team or one organizaiton from another.  Here’s my quick gap analysis:

  • CodBall readers are somewhere between skeptical and harsh when it comes to attendance reports.  So I take my life in my hands when I notice that about 28,000 fans separate Bourne from Orleans.   Orleans reported 48,591 fans.  Bourne just 20,730.  Bourne fans were treated to special players this year as you will see below.  I suppose it doesn’t really matter how accurate these estimates are, but I suspect advertisers and sponsors would like to know a truer number.
  • The symmetry in point gaps between the top and bottom of both the East and West was interesting.  Fifteen points separated the best from the worst in both the East and the West.
  • Brandon Workan’s (Wareham) 67 strikeouts compared with second place finisher Bryce Stowell (Bourne) stood out to me.
  • Marc Krauss’ (Bourne) .473 on-base-percentage also stands out.  Second place’s Tommy Medica (Harwich) at .462 was impressive.
  • Equally, A.J. Pollock’s (Falmouth) slugging percentage of .556 created a gulf above other players.
  • Jordan Henry’s (Bourne) 42 runs scored was tops for the season and created some distance from the other players.
  • We became Chris Dominguez (Louisville) fans this year. Other players were close to his 22 extra base hits but his 3 in one night certainly gave us something to remember.

What are some other statistical highlights?

Comments

13 Responses to “A Belated Look Back at the ‘08 Cape League”

  1. Joseph F. Cavanaugh III on September 14th, 2008 8:31 am

    I’ll throw out one of my personal favorite stats from the 2008 Cape League season. I’m going to guess that no scout, or even CodBall.com reader, is aware of this one. It’s 1 for 4, and it’s the season batting record of a player I’m sure nobody heard about this past season. As far as I’m aware, there was only one player in the entire CCBL who was a native of Cape Cod. That player was Cotuit’s Brendon Kelliher (George Washington) of Sandwich, Massachusetts. I first noticed him about mid-way through the season, and then watched as he helped the big school players warm up and prepared the field for play before games. He got a couple of at-bats during real games early in the season (he walked once), and he pinch ran in a game against Falmouth late in the season. But one the last day of the regular season, after the Kettleers had already clinched the Western Division by defeating the Hyannis Mets in an afternoon game, Coach Mike Roberts put Kelliher in as a pinch hitter during the Kettleers’ second game of the day at Y-D. Kelliher dug in at the plate, put on a good at-bat, and then ripped a pitch into the outfield for a rock-solid single. I happened to be sitting next to the Cotuit bench at the time, and many of the regular players, including Brett Jackson (Cal-Berkeley) and Jason Kipnis (Arizona State) immediately took note of Kelliher’s base hit and began giving it to Kelliher, in a good natured way, as he proudly stood on first base. I may be wrong, but I’m going to guess that it’s the only hit that Brendon Kelliher will ever have in the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League, and I was delighted to witness it. It’s just awesome to see someone put in as much time and effort as Kelliher did, with virtually no hope of actually playing, and then see that work and dedication pay off with a base hit that he can tell his grandchildren about many years from now. Not exactly a Baseball America stat, but one of my absolute favorites from the summer of 2008.

  2. Backstop on September 14th, 2008 9:50 am

    Greg, what part of “Orleans and Chatham lie about their attendance numbers” aren’t you getting? Frankly, I think its embarrassing these two franchises have this quasi-competition to have the top figures while others do their best to play it straight.

  3. mikey d on September 14th, 2008 11:02 am

    Two things:
    1. Everyone from the “honest” franchises to players/coaches and league officials know the attendance figures are mostly laughable.

    2. After reading your first sentence in the post, I hope you will give the teams some major slack in the future about updating respective websites.
    Volunteers-Time-Real Jobs-Families-Life

    PS It does matter if the attendance figures are accurate….if someone had the “you know whats” to enforce accurate figures, it probably means lower overall numbers that will look as if the league has lost fans but in reality it would finally allow the league to kill this farce that shows up on annual basis.

  4. Andrew on September 14th, 2008 11:50 am

    Mikey:
    (1) I think we all agree here.
    (2) While we haven’t done a post-season wrap-up (Greg usually does this), note that we haven’t stopped updating. We all agree and know that volunteers deserve all of the credit for the operation of this league. Our critique of team websites is to be taken lightly. As fans of the league, we appreciate all the updates we can get.

  5. Greg on September 14th, 2008 12:06 pm

    Joseph, you’ve written one of my favorite comments ever on CodBall. Thank you. What a wonderful moment that you captured.

  6. Cale on September 14th, 2008 11:06 pm

    I’m not sure if anyone else noticed this, but it’s Jordan Henry(Ole Miss) not Henry Jordan. The whole last name as a first name threw someone off.

  7. Andrew on September 15th, 2008 1:03 pm

    Thanks Cale, fixed.

  8. Wille on September 16th, 2008 10:06 pm

    have all these players been assigned yet?

    http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/college/awards/freshman-all-america-team/2008/266412.html

  9. Wille on September 16th, 2008 10:07 pm

    or these………

    http://collegebaseball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=822731

  10. Brian Foley on September 17th, 2008 2:12 am

    I see this kid’s name on a bunch of All-American teams but never gets mentioned in CCBL action. Anyone know why Ben Klafczynski is getting overlooked by CCBL GM’s?

  11. Kent Fischer on September 18th, 2008 2:52 pm

    Chatham A’s OF’er Evan Ocheltree sure had an odd year at the plate.

    He didn’t make much contact, having struck out a whopping 55 times. But when he did put his bat on the ball, he showed an uncanny ability to knock it for a hit.

    Check it out. Ocheltree logged 139 AB’s in 38 games. Subtract out his 55 K’s, and you’re left with 84 at bats that resulted in something other than a strike out.

    And what did Ocheltree do in those AB’s? Well, for starters, he hit safely in 37 of them. Which means 42 percent of the balls he put into play fell for hits — 100 points higher than the league average.

    That’s pretty remarkable, especially when you consider that Ocheltree was also striking out 20 percent more often than the rest of the league.

  12. Wille on September 18th, 2008 9:49 pm

    Your Ocheltree example is interesting, but the 55 K’s need further analysis. What were the counts before strike 3, and what led to them. Each at bat usually contains one driveable pitch. If that is fouled off, then the hitter is on the defensive. Correct the reason for the foul-off, and the K’s should decrease.

    BFoley, Ben K just got assigned to Bourne.

    I heard another Ohio boy, Cole Johnson from Notre Dame(RHP), just got assigned to Hyannis.

    I made a few inquiries and found out Cole Johnson and Klafczynski were teammates on the same 18u team, the Ohio Yankees.

  13. Kent Fischer on September 18th, 2008 10:24 pm

    Willie — yes, there’s lot more I’d like to know about these stats. I’ve never seen Ocheltree play, so this is pure speculation: My guess is that he hit left-handed, and is probably (like a lot of young lefties) vulnerable to left-handed pitching. I’d wager that most of his K’s probably came vs. lefties, and most of hits vs. righties. But that’s just a guess.

Leave a Reply