Apalachin Attack 2021 Season - Silver Success

K. Fields
2018-12-23T16:22:00-05:00
Baseball

After winning the 2020 Sigma Eta League championship, the Apalachin Attack were promoted to the Silver .309 League. We started slowly in April and bottomed out in May. At one point, we were 14 games under .500. We never had a losing month after that, however. Our fielding was atrocious at first. We committed 13 errors in the first 8 games. After digging ourselves a deep hole, the playoffs were a long shot. The Attack got hot, however, winning the final six games of the season. Our 84-79 record was good enough to qualify for a wild card spot. Unfortunately, we failed to qualify for the playoffs because we tied with the Budget Gangsters, which had a better head to head record against us.

Our offense was somewhat disappointing. Several players failed to match their 2020 seasons. Javier Baez, in particular, could not continue his torrid production from the past two seasons. I signed Cal Ripken as my new shortstop and he added some punch to our lineup down the stretch. I also signed Kyle Tucker, a promising up and comer, late in the season. He struggled mightily at the plate and was ineffective as a leadoff hitter. Once again, Larry Dierker was tremendous as the backbone of our pitching staff. Dierker led the league in wins with a 22-9 record. Roenis Elias never clicked in 2021 so I eventually called Randy Jones back from the reserve roster to replace him. That move worked out great and Jones really helped keep us in playoff contention down the stretch.

Active Roster (Initial)
SP Larry Dierker, HOU, 1969
SP RP Roenis Elias, SEA, 2018
SP Herb Pennock, NYY, 1927
SP Gaylord Perry, CLE, 1972
SP Zack Wheeler, NYM, 2018
RP Joe A Berry, PHA, 1944
RP Archie Bradley, ARI, 2018
RP Doug Corbett, MIN, 1980
RP Jeremy Jeffress, MIL, 2018
RP James Pazos, SEA, 2018
CL Roberto Osuna, HOU, 2018
CL Sean Doolittle, WAS, 2018
C Wellington Castillo, CWS, 2018
C Jody Davis, CHC, 1984
1B Gil Hodges, BRO, 1950
1B Anthony Rizzo, CHC, 2018
2B Javier Baez, CHC, 2018
3B David Freese, STL, 2011
3B Ryan Zimmerman, WAS, 2009
SS Willy Adames, TB, 2018
LF Eddie Rosario, MIN, 2018
LF Giancarlo Stanton, NYY, 2018
CF Torii Hunter, MIN, 2007
RF Nicholas Castellanos, DET, 2018
RF Paul Waner, PIT, PEAK

Reserve Roster (Initial)
SP Vern Bickford, BSN, 1950
SP Randy Jones, SD, 1975
RP Adam Kolarek, TB, 2018
RP Brad Wieck, SD, 2018
1B Mark Reynolds, WAS, 2018
SS Addison Russell, CHI, 2018
LF Derek Dietrich, MIA, 2018
RF Nick Markakis, ATL, 2018

Acquisitions
SS Cal Ripken Jr, BAL, 1983
RP Craig Stammen, SD, 2018
LF Kyle Tucker, HOU, 2018