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Huskies Look For Stability, Improvement in 2000 ALVA, Fla. - February 18th -- The Yukon Huskies have had three owners in the past three years. The Huskies desperately need stability in the owner's box. Over the past two seasons, the team was left drifting rudderless when the managers were unable to complete the season, leading to management by committee for the Huskies. That's never as good as having a single manager with a plan and vision for what the team needs to do to win. The league hopes that with Rusty Pape, the fourth time is a charm. How much talent do the Huskies have? Do they have enough to make a run at the Alaska Rowdies, who have won the North Division the past two seasons? Well, they have a record of 66-96 over the past two seasons, and while they have a few good players, most of their talent is average or below. They do have a few good young prospects with high ceilings, as well some possible rehab projects. Realistically, the Huskies are probably looking at a rebuilding season, considering that some of their regulars have on-base percentages (OBP) around .300 or worse. With one notable exception, the previous owners drafted fairly astutely. That one exception, however, was the worst blunder by the team in recent years: John Sweeney going against the advice of league veterans and drafting firstbaseman Travis Lee with the team's first round pick in 1998, leaving thirdbase prospect Adrian Beltre to fall to the grateful Windermere Apaches with the next pick; this despite the fact that the Huskies already had Kevin Young at firstbase and were desperately in need of a quality prospect at the "hot corner." Lee has been a horrible flop so far, although he is still young enough that he might be able to turn things around. Beltre, meanwhile, is a rising star with the Apaches, and the Huskies still have nothing better than a stopgap measure at thirdbase. The Huskies are in a good position to improve themselves via the draft, having all of their own picks except for their third-rounder as well as an extra second-round pick. Here's a position-by-position breakdown on the Huskies: Catcher: The catcher of the future is Ben Petrick. He is excellent offensively and plays his home games at Coors Field. He is not a good defensive catcher and doesn't have a strong arm. Unfortunately for the Huskies, Petrick only gets 77 at bats. Dan Wilson and Alberto Castillo will soak up most of the rest of the playing time. Wilson is the better hitter, Castillo has a much better arm to nail enemy baserunners. Scott Servais, the team's fourth catcher... Well, if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. We aren't saying anything about him. Firstbase: Kevin Young suffered through a season marred by injuries and personal tragedy. He had a poor year offensively and defensively. Travis Lee didn't have any excuses, he just had another poor year at the plate. Defensively, however, Lee is a better-than-average firstbaseman. Young does better against lefties, Lee against righties, so they look like a likely platoon. Lee is also adequate in the corner outfield positions and can play centerfield in a pinch, although he is below-average there defensively. Butch Huskey might play here some, too, although he is a dreadful defensive firstbaseman and is better kept in leftfield. Secondbase: With Tony Womack's likely move from rightfield to shortstop, Orlando Cabrera gets bumped to secondbase. This is unfortunate for Cabrera, since he's much better defensively at shortstop, and is better there than Womack. Cabrera has a pitiful OBP of only .279, but has to play because he has 222 at bats. Utility infielder Wilson Delgado is Cabrera's likely backup. Thirdbase: The Black Hole. Russ Johnson is the best they have, adequate defensively but sporting a pitiful .620 OPS. He only has 121 at bats. Kevin Jordan is even worse, poor defensively and with on OPS of only .580. He has 177 at bats. The only other option is claiming Butch Huskey at thirdbase from last year, which would give him the worst possible defensive rating, 5e65. He has 161 at bats, but any punch he might add to the lineup would probably be given right back on defense. No good choices here. Shortstop: Tony Womack has improved defensively at shortstop all the way up to "adequate." He's a dangerous baserunner, but has a terrible on-base percentage of only .307. He has been miscast as the Diamondbacks' leadoff man because of that fact. Cabrera and Delgado are the likely backups in case of injury. Leftfield: Luis Gonzalez proved that 1999 was no fluke, putting together the best overall season of any Huskies hitter. He is good defensively, although his weak arm keeps him in leftfield. He hits for good average and power. Like most of the Huskies, he's better against righties than lefties. Alex Ochoa or Butch Huskey could see a complementary role, playing here against some lefties while Gonzalez moves across the diamond to rightfield. Centerfield: This position should belong to rookie Terrence Long, since Doug Glanville's OBP is a pitiful .307. Both hit righties better than lefties. Ochoa, who is one of the team's most dangerous hitters, can also play here. Rightfield: Ochoa will probably play here as much as possible. He has 128 at bats. Al Martin will play here as well, but only against righties, since he doesn't have a clue against lefties. He's below average defensively. Rotation: The Huskies have two excellent starters, as well as hope for some younger pitchers to develop. Darryl Kile switched beer brands from Coors to Busch, and the change did him good. He's the ace of a staff that mostly features younger prospects, and will match up well against other teams' top pitchers. Ryan Dempster had a breakout year and will be the #2 starter. After that, the quality drops off. #3 starter Matt Clement had a year in which he took a step backward in his development, with control problems leading to 125 walks and 23 wild pitches, both of which led the National League. He has great stuff, but is still a work in progress with a lot to prove. Brian Meadows is an innings-eater and pretty much the opposite of Clement: He doesn't have great stuff, but has decent control, especially against righties. He allows a lot of hits and more than his share of home runs. Jimmy Anderson is the team's best lefty starter. He was actually a bit tougher on righties than lefties, who were more prone to knock the ball out of the park against him. John Halama and Pat Rapp are also available to start if needed. Bullpen: The Huskies have a nice collection of right-handed relievers, including Dave Weathers, Jason Isringhausen, Matt Morris, Mark Petkovsek, Vicente Padilla, Wayne Gomes and the almost unhittable Byung-Hyun Kim. The only decent lefty reliever on the roster is Bobby M. Jones, and he only has a few innings, but some of the other relievers are better against lefty hitters anyway. Morris's long term future may be in the rotation. Pre-Draft Cuts: David Cortes, Wilson Delgado, Brian Edmondson, Kyle Farnsworth, Derrick Gibson, Ray Holbert, Butch Huskey, Cole Liniak, Calvin Murray, Patt Rapp, Scott Servais 2000 Outlook: The Huskies are unlikely to get strong offensive production from their catcher or any of the infield spots on a regular basis. With that many weak spots in the lineup, their pitchers will have to be almost perfect to win. Kile and Dempster will be able to pull that off on occasion. The lesser starters on the staff may have more trouble. It could be a long season in the Yukon. |