Mackinaw Islanders 2012 Preview

Mackinaw Islanders manager Paul Molitor looks forward to anything in the 'W' column during the 2012 Mackinaw Islanders season.  Molitor was part of the management team that led Bartonville to a 93-69 finish last season, which included a 7 game playoff loss to eventual World Series participant Colorado Springs.  This season won't be anything like the last, but there many reason to have fun in 2012.


Bob Vila returned to this Old House, err, I mean this Old Bridge, and tore the place apart.  The review will focus on the remants, followed by our green efforts to recycle players with other clubs, and finally, new additions to the Island.

Remnants
The Islanders front office chose to keep just 25% of the roster intact from 2011.  Some have defined roles for 2012: Carl Pavano will eat starts and innings, anchoring an untested rotation. Aaron Miles, Angel Pagan and David Dejesus will fill the lineup card at 2B, CF and RF.  Management doesn't visualize more than one having a meaningful role come next season. Rafeal Furcal and Ronny Paulino will get spot duty at shortstop and catcher respectively.  Edward Mujica and Octvio Dotel will hold rare Islander leads, with Kyle Kendrick serving as a stopgap for the 5th-8th innings.

There is projection for a handful of Islanders, starting with Kendry Morales. The oft-injured first sacker looks for a comeback season behind Eric Hosmer.  Assuming Morales plays more than 50 games, this would be a net Islander gain in 2013.  Pedro Alvarez's opportunities are wide open, only equaled by his penchant for squandering them.  The poweful slugger is in a three way battle for 2013 starter.  He could just turn out.

Finally, Paul Maholm has been shopped, chopped and dropped, with no bidders.  He'll twirl for the Islanders, allowing us to play for bread and circus every other Thursday, and the occasional Sunday.  He's still available for someone making a post-season drive.

Green Efforts: Recycled Players
Miguel Olivo, Clint Barmes, Brent Morel and Nate Schierholtz were acquired to fill out our lineup, and not embarass defensively.  Management understands with Olivo and Barmes; what you see is what you'll get.  Now, Brent Morel has a bit of room for growth offensively. For 2012, we'll enjoy the glovework.  Nate the Great may yet receive additional reps near the Golden Gate.  We'd be happy with 400 PA and solid glovework, again, soastonotembarasspotentialinvestors.

Ideally, Wade Davis and Chris Volstad would remain starting pitchers that throw 20 more IP, reduce baserunners and improve K-BB.  Realistically, if one remained a starter and both showed incremental improvement, it would help the Islanders 2013 pitching corps.

Brand New Additions to the Island
What do you do with a team that finishes 70-92 for two seasons in a row?  First, guage compeition and the chances of reaching the post-season. Check.  Not happenin'.  Second, ask ourselves: Would one draft get us to that level? Check. Nope.  Third, tear it ALL down and start over.  So that's what we did.

With exception of shortstop, the Islanders stocked the lineup with potential starters or young complimentary players.  I think the additions of Eric Hosmer and Jason Kipnis add two, heady, long-term,offensive players.  Mike Moustakas and Johnny Giavotella could give us extra depth at third base and second base respectively.  Neither are slouches; it's the degree their remaining holes are exposed or filled that they'll help us.

Our outfield and catching situation wasn't addressed by quality, so we opted to try out quantity. Willin Rosario impressed Rockies management enough to gain some PA down the stretch despite a queasy minor league season. Robinson Chirinos came late to the catching party. He just may grab 200 PA and be resourceful with it. 

Joe Benson, Dave Sappelt, Travis Snider and Ezequiel Carrera are either blocked at the MLB level or have shown stretches of middling performance.  We'd be estatic if one part-time player blossomed from this group for 2013. 

So, I'm nearing the end of this preview, and feeling strange, yet having a calm come over me.  We won't surprise anyone in 2012.  There is no amount of platooning or trades that will rescue us and create a winning season.  Our games will be significantly meaningful.........to the opposition.  I began this off-season with the end result in mind.  I won't make a promise as to when that 'end result' will happen. I will promise to help this team play with emotion and grittiness while we build.

We drafted the following rotational hopefuls:

Righties: Randall Delgado, Jordan Lyles, Brandon McCarthy, Lance Lynn.  I forsee one being great, one being good, and two blowing up.  Can't match up the names with the prognostications just yet.

Lefties: J.A. Happ, Travis Wood, Duane Below and Joe Paterson.  Happiness would be someone churning out a nice solid Randy Wolfish season, replete with 220ip. If we could manufacture another 40 ip loogy, that'd be pretty, pretty, pretty good.
Rock Bottom: Joel Piniero and Jon Rauch appear to be in line for jobs in the Phils and Mets pen.  We could use a closer. Not that we'd know what to do with it.  Sort of like my first time walking 42nd Street. These new pitchers will have roles assigned based on block-by-block need. 

All in all, we think we have the foundation of the place secured.  There's a few stories that have a very loose frame. We want to get the walls up and insulated for '13.