A few highlights and lowlights of the season:
Great start in splitting the season opener with the Angels followed shortly after by the shellacking of the Tornados in what would be the only time that the Frogs line up fired on all cylinders. Thought the first 12 games, the Frogs hit .281 with 26 home runs and a whopping 61 runs scored. IF ONLY this were the true FireFrogs. The Fireswamp faithful are hoping this is a glimpse of the future. 3 of the FireFrogs young core were hitting over .400 (E.Rosario, B.Zimmer, and C.Cron). Aaron Alther led the gang with 5 HR's while hitting at a .382 clip. Trea Turner struggled to get going hitting just .170, but he stole 4 bases successfully on his way to a team leading 26. Team ERA is 3.89, Hyun-Jin Ryu leads the team at 2-0 with a 2.12 ERA. Team record was a division leading 9-3.
April brings a dose of reality to the team and the fans. The team average dropped to .251 where it would hover for most of the rest of the season. Remember the 26 HR in March? Well, the team would only get 8 more in April to bring the total to 34. Eddie Rosario continued his hot hitting moving along at a .370 clip belting 4 HRs on the season while driving in 15. Aaron Alther continues to lead the teams HR parade with 6 watching his average dip to .333. Trea Turner gets his average over the Mendoza line for the season by moving the average up to .205, but he steals another 5 bases successfully in only 9 games played this month. Team ERA balloons to 4.58 as the team goes 3-9 for the month to even their record at 12-12. Ryu is still the pitching star posting a 3-1 record, but his ERA swelled to 3.94.
May watches the FireFrogs continue to waver and drop in the standings. Average drops a couple of points to .248, but the home runs are coming back as they belt 17 this month, Eddie Rosario and HGH boy R.Cano lead the team with 8 apiece. Rosario and Zimmer are still hitting north of the .360 mark to lead the full time squad. Trea Turner only gets into one game this month, but manages to increase his team leading stolen base total by 1 to 10. Pitching comes back to the party this month as the team ERA drops a few points to 4.54. Ryu still leads the starters with a 5-1 record and a 3.43 ERA. The starters have been doing a fairly good job of keeping the bullpen fresh as they have completed 17 of the teams 36 games. Team now has a 17-19 record on the season. This is the closest that they will be to .500 for the remainder of the season.
June brings on the heat! The frogs are still averaging better than a homer a game as they belt 13 in June. But their lack of dominance over the cellar dwelling Rattlers convinces the faithful that this isn't going to be their year. Trea Turner continues to shake off his early season slump by raising his average to .219. He has now swiped 16 bases without being caught! Rosario and Cano still lead the home run parade for the Frogs with 9. Nick Castellanos is hot on their heals have belted his 8th during the month. Team falls to 22-26. Ryu and Teheran lead the team with 5 victories apiece.
July, wait a minute. Don't count these guys out yet. A glimmer of hope shines as the Fire Frogs hold their own against the Tggrs. FireFrog pitching holds the first place Tggers scoreless for 22 consecutive innings recording the only shutouts from Frog pitching this season. The big question here is which FireFrog team will show up for the remainder of the season. Bradley Zimmer and Michael Taylor are the only Frogs still hitting better than .300. Eddie Rosario is close at .299 with 11 HR, 1 behind Cano for the team lead. Through 33 games played, Trea Turner is hitting .237 with 17 bags stolen without being caught. Team falls to 26 and 34, ERA rises to 4.99. Ryu is only starter with a winning record at 7-3 and a 3.65 ERA.
August, hope is starting to fade. The team average dips to .240 on the season, but they have now belted 93 home runs to this point. Trea Turner gets real hot driving his average to a respectable .260 with 22 consecutive stolen bases without being caught. Eddie Rosario leads the home run parade with 14 HR followed closely behind by Castellanos (13), Cano (12), and then Duda and Alther (10). FireFrogs go a paltry 2-10 for August. Now at 28 and 44 with a 5.11 ERA the team is now shooting for the second to worst record in the league and the most historic collapse in league history.
September, Oh what a finish! Eeyore brought his rain cloud to the stadium every game this month as the Frogs put up a season worst 1 - 11 record. The bright side is that at least they were losing to teams that are close to or in the playoffs. Season ending totals to talk about, team average at .241 with 107 HR, 12 Triples, 159 Doubles and 60 stolen bases. Trea Turner swipes 26 bases without being caught, Rosario hits 17 HR to lead the team while batting .311, Alther leads the team with a .567 Slg %, and future 2B star Yoan Moncada leads the team in OB% at .393. Final record for this pathetic year, 29 and 55. Maybe next year we can reverse those numbers. A 5.24 ERA is just to much for the offense to overcome on a regular basis. Ryu is only pitcher with a winning record at 8-5 with a 4.61 ERA. Juerys Familia records 10 saves (as a CYWLV!)
Well, here is to waiting for 6 months till the 2019 Draft....
FireFrogs continue their losing ways in dropping 4 of 6 to the Sharks. The Frogs were ice cold in the first 4 games of the series hitting a whopping .186 with only 3 HR's.
It got a lot better in Game 5 behind the stellar pitching of Hyun-jin Ryu. Ryu scattered 5 hits in giving up just a single run in the 9th to the Sharks.
Things were starting to look pretty dismal in the 4th as Ryu walked to first two batters.
He then gets Justin Smoak to line one to Cano as he was heading toward second, tags Trout coming back to the bag before relaying it to Duda to force Freeman at first to complete the TRIPLE Play.
The Frogs would send 7 to the plate in the sixth putting 3 on the board and add an insurance run in the 7th, Frogs would win game 5, 4 - 1.
Game 6 is a 1-1 tie going into the bottom of the third. The Frogs send 9 men to the plate in route to scoring 6 runs, the big blow was a bases loaded double of the bat of Eddie Rosario. The frogs would add single runs in the 4th and 8th to win this one easily 9 - 4. Trey Turner appears to be breaking out of his season long funk going 3 for 4, with 2 dbls and a stolen base.
