They've been there before and tasted the bitter taste of defeat. Finally, after 9 seasons, 221 weeks of play, 18 playoff series, 5 championship series, it is now time for Bridgewater to celebrate.
2009 Season Review: Bridgewater Weasels
By: Mike Claffey; Bridgewater Weasels' Owner
There were no duckboats available at the time, so they used the B.A.T. buses from the local college for their parade, which upset a lot of the fat slobs who complained that they had to walk around the “ginormous” Bridgewater State campus that day. The parade went all over Bridgewater: Emma’s Pizza, Bogarts, O’Brien’s Pub, um…well that’s about it in Bridgewater but it was a good time had by all. The parade didn’t stop there though - they took it to some other towns. They stop in at Bellingham to pay respect to the fans and the town where the team first started years ago. The team was also honored at a Bridgewater Phenoms game where they raised the plaque to a roaring crowd of fans who left soon after the game got started because, well, the Phenoms are terrible. They also dropped by Rakeville to rub it in their faces. “I don’t expect anything less from a bunch of classless pieces of scum that the Weasels are,” said Rakeville GM Jack Reed.
“We may be scum, but I make millions and have a ring now, so suck it Reed” said Ryan Howard. Suck it indeed as the Bridgewater Weasels celebrate their first EHCC Championship in team history. “It's been a long road but all that hard work and dedication to not sucking has finally paid off” said Alex “Douchebag” Rodriguez, who has the longest tenure on the team. Not being one of their best seasons (a .555 winning percentage, 2nd worst in team history) the Weasels seemed as though they would not make the playoffs for the first time ever. But after making an implausible run at the end of the season, the team found themselves in a very familiar situation.
Being no strangers to the championship series (5th series), the Weasels found themselves matched up against a very tough Golden Gryphons team. After jumping out to a big lead with dominating performances by Aaron Hill, Wandy Rodriguez, Ryan Howard, rookie call-up Wade Davis, the team began to slow down, and the Gryphons began to catch up. As the week went on, the lead began to shrink and the Weasels got nervous. “I’ve seen this quite a few times in the past, so you bet your ass I was scared,” said manager Kenny Beltram. With the confidence beginning to slip away, Bridgewater tried a new strategy they have never done before - not to suck and blow the championship again. The strategy worked and they finally took home the plaque.
With a roller coaster ride of a season that ended in a championship, the Weasels have plenty of Highlights and Lowlights. We know players like Ryan Howard, Andre Either, Alex Rodriguez, and Wandy Rodriguez had incredible seasons, but here are some other spotlights on the team that went all the way in 2009.
Great Signings
Here is a list of get pickups made by the Weasels this year that were key in their first Championship season:
Aaron Hill – Talk about finding a diamond in the rough. The signing of Hill in 2009 could arguable go down as one of the best pickups in EHCC history. With a stat line of R-103, HR-36, RBI-108, AVG-.286, WS should really be kicking themselves for letting this guy go. After a couple of disappointing season, it seemed that Hill just needed a change in scenery and got back to his ‘07 form. Luckily for Bridgewater they were getting subpar play from Placido Polanco and made the move to pick up the 2nd baseman. Hopefully Hill can keep this type of play going for years to come.
Rajai Davis – After the halfway point, the Weasels were struggling to find a reliable 3rd OF, until they stumbled upon Davis. Acquired mostly for his speed, Davis signed with the team after the break and it was love at first sight. Turned out Davis just needed some PT to show he can be an everyday player, giving the Weasel not only plenty of SBs but also scored a lot of runs and hit for average. Not only that but he gave the team the boast they needed to get to and during the playoffs, carrying the team most of the way.
JA Happ – W-12, K-119, ERA-2.93, WHIP-1.23, not bad for a rookie. Happ signed with the team early in the season and never looked back. Speaking of rookie pickups, Randy Wells didn’t do so bad himself pulling in 12 wins as well, with 104 Ks and an ERA of 3.05. Fernando Rodney may not be a rookie, but the wily veteran reliever came up big in the saves department (37 saves), where the team was lacking after BJ Ryan turned into a 5 year old girl. Rodney was signed immediately after FA signings began, which turned out to be a good move in the end.
Disappointments:
Chien-Ming Wang – The usual reliable middle of the rotation guy, Wang was just awful this year. Coming off an injury, Wang was expected to come back to form and he was far from it, with an ERA of 9.64 in just 42 innings before getting injured for the season. Some say the injury was no accident and that Catcher Jorge Posada is the one who caused it. One inside source said he overheard Posada saying that he had to do it because he could not catch his crappy pitching anymore. I think that we all believe it was a good decision.
B(low)J(ob) Ryan- Kept on the 20 man roster even after Tommy John Surgery, Ryan was suppose to be part of a pretty good relief core. Instead he threw as hard as my little brother and he has no arms. I know what you are asking, how can BJ not throw harder than someone with no arms? Well that’s the same question the Weasels were trying to answer and they couldn’t. Luckily for them there were able to pickup Rodney.
Jermaine Dye – Being the Weasels first round draft pick at 11, Dye was expected to be a very productive 3rd outfielder. “We expected him to make an impact quickly here, unfortunately it just never unfolded” said Owner Nastra Diggus. Dye was not putting up the numbers we were accustomed to seeing the last few years out of him. But when god closes a door, he opens up a window when he’s shitting and the Weasels received Rajai Davis.
Berkman, McLouth, Saunders – These 3 stars didn’t have bad seasons, just disappointing ones. Berkman, after putting up a monster season last season, saw his numbers diminish this year possible due to injury. McLouth scored the usual amount of runs and home runs but saw a decline in RBIs and more importantly Steals and AVG. (19;.256). Those numbers are extremely low for the type of player he is. Saunders, after a breakout season last year, gave the team wins, but with an ERA much higher than the norm. You just weren’t sure what type a pitcher you would get from start to start.
Most Surprised:
Derrek Lee – With Berkman not being able to play the OF due to be so fat, the team was stuck with 3 good 1st basemen. Lee seemed to be the odd man out and the team tried to ship him away and was unsuccessful. Boy did other teams miss out on a possible steal. When Berkman got injured, Lee stepped up bigtime, putting up numbers (R-91; HR-35; RBI-111; AVG-.306) that haven’t been seen since his MVP type season in 05. “With the team struggling I knew I had to do more than just hit for average, so I decided to stopped being a pussy and started to hit the ball over the wall and it worked out” said Lee. If it wasn’t for Howard, Lee would have had a good fight for the team’s Jeff Bagwell Award with Aaron Hill.
Another big surprise was 92 year old Trevor Hoffman. I’m kidding, he’s only 54, but pitching like a 24 year old. Hoffman produced 37 saves this year, which isn’t too shocking since he has been doing that for years now. The reason why he is in the surprising section is because of other categories, ERA and WHIP. The Hoff always got the team saves but that was accompanied with a high ERA and WHIP, this year there was a big change (ERA-1.83; WHIP-0.91). Bridgewater at the beginning of the season questioned if he still had anything left in the tank, but with these number they are now hoping he sticks around for a little bit longer.
Chris Carpenter – After Tommy John Surgery and not pitching in almost 2 years, there were many questions swirling around carpenter. Will he return to Cy Young form? Will he stay healthy? Can he build me a house and overcharge me for it? Well the answer is yes, yes, and maybe? Carpenter came back for the last few weeks of last season giving some hope to the Weasels of having an ace. That hope was fulfilled as carpenter put up dominating numbers (IP-192.2; W-17; K-144; ERA-2.24; WHIP-1.01). “We knew he would come back and pitch pretty well, but we had no idea he would be this good, and thank god because everyone else sucked at the beginning of the season” said manager Kenny Beltram.
With the 2009 season at an end, the 2010 season is around the corner. When trying to reach GM Nastra Diggus for comments on any strategy or ideas for the upcoming season, we were informed that he and most of the team were past out drunk from celebrating the championship….still…two months later. Nothing sweeter than the first one.
As most owners realize, the baseball season doesn't end in September. It was an active off season for most teams in the EHCC, either building for the future or trying to add the missing piece to make their roster a contender for the 2010 crown. The Gryphons came so close to their first title in 2009, and they're hoping bringing on some more firepower on offense (Adrian Gonzalez and Kevin Youkilis won't hurt) will give them the boost they need.
