TEAM SPOTLIGHT - New York Rippers

In this spot, I will try to do a detailed analysis on individual teams throughout the year.  Our initial installment of the Team Spotlight series will focus on the New York Rippers.  Managed by Billy Hobbs, the Rippers have proven to be a team not afraid to make a deal in the early going.  They started the season out a little slow, but as of this writing, they have won six of their last seven contests.  The surge though has not allowed them to escape the cellar in the tough Metro Division of the Classic League.  Their overall record of 19-23 has them sitting a full six games back of the Boston Beaneaters atop the standings.  Let's dig in and see how the Rippers have gotten to where they are so far.

BEAUTIFUL CAMDEN YARDS - HOME OF THE RIPPERS

DRAFT RECAP

1st Round Pick Kevin Brown is the only
remaining draft pick on the team
from New York's first nine selections.

It's hard to judge how well the Rippers drafted because more than half of the names that were called on draft day have either been traded or released.  Not 40 games into the young season, New York has traded away eight of their first nine draft picks.  The only one remaining of the bunch is 1st round pick Kevin Brown.  To say that Billy has been busy trying to put together the best team possible would be an understatement.  Gone from rounds 2-7 are Mike Hampton, Benito Santiago, Robert Person, Larry Walker, Armando Benitez, Edgar Martinez, Bobby Higginson and Aaron Boone.  In their place are Manny Ramirez, a 1st round pick from Houston, Scott Rolen (2nd round HOU), Jermaine Dye (5th ARZ), Mike Sweeney (6th ARZ), Wade Miller (9th CLE), Rondell White (13th BAL) and Bobby Estallela (14th HOU) to name a few.  The acquisition of Ramirez gives the team two 1st round picks on the roster.  Billy turned his 4th round pick in Person, plus Boone and Cal Ripken into Rolen, a 2nd round selection.  One deal though left New York with a little less value than where they started.  2nd round pick Hampton was traded straight up for Miller, a 9th round selection.  It's hard to keep up with all the player movement on this team, but all-in-all, it looks like the Rippers are making improvements to the roster from where they started initially after the draft.

TEAM OFFENSE

	R	RPG	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG
LEAGUE AVERAGE	201	5.2	368	76	8	41	193	152	279	19	8	.271	.349	.431
New York Rippers	201	4.8	402	66	8	46	191	125	284	46	24	.271	.334	.420
RANKS		19				7				3		13	21	13

As we look at their offense we see that the team currently is slightly below average in runs per game, scoring at a 4.8 RPG clip compared to the league average of 5.2.  They get to that mark despite currently ranking third in the league with 46 stolen bases compared to the league average of only 19 per team.  They are also slightly above average in hitting home runs, ranking seventh in the league.  Where the Rippers fall short is getting on base.  The team batting and slugging averages are right in the middle of the pack, but their on-base percentage is 15 percentage points below the league average, and a full 50 points behind league leading San Francisco.

TEAM PITCHING

	CG	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	WHIP	ERA
LEAGUE AVERAGE	2	10	4	343	368	201	185	41	152	279	1.51	4.84
New York Rippers	2	11	5	381	377	218	196	39	227	330	1.59	4.63
RANKS		8						11		2	20	11

The pitching for the Rippers is a little better than average.  Although the team WHIP of 1.59 is below the mean, the team ERA of is almost a quarter of a run better than the league average.  Where New York excels is at striking out opposing batters.  The team currently ranks second in Ks with 330, second only to division rival Brooklyn, who employ the league leader in the category in Randy Johnson.  The Rippers bullpen is performing slightly better than their starters, with an ERA of 4.35 in relief as opposed to 4.79 for the starters.  With all of the trades and player movement, New York has used 12 different pitchers to start games through their first 42 games.

INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCES

KEVIN BROWN

It's hard to judge the individual performances too well for the Rippers franchise since only a handful of players have been with the team from the start of the season.  One who has is 1st round pick Kevin Brown, who despite having a mediocre 3-3 record, has been very good through his first nine starts.  He ranks 4th in the Classic League with a 2.95 ERA, 5th in innings pitched with 61, and is 4th in strikeouts with 64.  He's pitched well in a couple of no decisions thus far, including a 10 IP performance on April 13th against the cross-town rival NY Bombers where he allowed only six hits and one earned run while striking out 12.  The Rippers ended up losing that game 4-1 in 13 innings.  His only bad outing on the year was a really bad one on April 24th against Cleveland.  Brown couldn't get out of the 1st in that game, giving up four earned runs in 2/3 of an inning.  If you back that outing out of his year so far, his ERA would be a league leading 2.38.


Another pitcher who has excelled in the early going is reliever Dan Miceli.  The right-hander did not save a game in real life in the year 2000, but when New York traded away Armando Benitez, Miceli was forced into the closers role.  He already has eight saves now on the young season for the Rippers.  His total ranks him 3rd in the Classic League.  Miceli has been tough to score on through the first month plus, allowing only two earned runs to cross in 17 innings of work.  That equates to a crisp 1.06 ERA.  Getting the ball to Miceli has been a different matter altogether, as Doug Creek (6.75 ERA), John Wettland (6.05) and Mike Holtz (4.35) have all struggled getting outs.  Billy has acquired help though with recent acquistions Todd Jones, Turk Wendell and Tom Martin.  Those three have combined to toss 25.1 innings while allwoing only four earned runs.


Offensively, the Rippers only land a couple players on the leaderboards.  One did half of his production with another team.  That player is first baseman Mike Sweeney, who came over in a trade with the Arizona Apaches at the end of April.  Sweeney is currently ranked 4th in all of the MBL with 62 hits.  For the Rippers, he's batting .354 with an .854 OPS in 21 games.



The other player who is ranked thus far is Damien Easley, who sits 5th in the Classic League with nine stolen bases.  He has yet to be thrown out on the basepaths.  Easley has played in all of the Rippers 42 games, and while he is only hitting .230, he has clubbed five homers and scored 27 times, both leading the team.  His double-play partner, Rey Sanchez, has also played in all of New York's 42 games.  Sanchez is hitting .260 on the season.


The Rippers offense going forward will be built around outfielder Manny Ramirez, who in the year 2000 was at the beginning of a run in which he finished in the top-10 in MVP voting eight straight years.  For New York, he's only played in 12 games, but he's been on fire.  In 40 ABs, he's batting .425 with a 1.336 OPS, belting four home runs to go along with four doubles.  His future is obviously bright, and he should remain a fixture in the Rippers lineup for years to come.  Unless of course trader Bill gets the urge to deal him away.


ENDING ANALYSIS
It's hard to predict how things will play out in Ripper-Land with all the player movement taking place, but I believe the deals that Bill has made have improved his club in both the short term and long run.  Being able to acquire both Ramirez and Rolen for the lineup is huge, as both are very productive now and in the future.  Kevin Brown remains as a top-flight staff ace.  The bullpen is a little suspect, but who's bullpen isn't?  Although the record is only 19-23, they are moving in the right direction.  They play in a tough division though, with very good pitching throughout.  It's gonna be a tough road to pass all three teams in the division to get to the top.  Billy and the Rippers may be playing out the season in search of a wildcard birth.  Only time will tell if they can make that happen.