Inland Empire 66ers finishes hopefully not spam
By Brian Robin |
April 6, 2017 at 12:39 a.m.
SAN BERNARDINO >> One of this year's new promotions coming out of San Manuel Stadium is "Spam Turns 80 Night," where on July 5, the Inland Empire 66ers will celebrate the wonders of the processed mystery meat by featuring it in concessions limited only by the creativity and imagination of team officials.
As the concepts of fried Spam nachos and Spam Dogs percolates in the minds of team officials, Inland Empire manager Chad Tracy can only hope any on-field Spam references are confined to that day's on-field eating contest and that his team will resemble filet mignon in 2017 and not a mystery meat product – as the 66ers did in 2016.
"You don't want to go through that again. Nobody does. The players don't, I didn't want to go through it, the coaches certainly don't," said Tracy, who returns for his second stint piloting the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim's top Class-A farm team. "But you definitely learn the most through the trying times. When everything's going great, you're winning games, the players are performing exactly how you want them to, that's easy. When it's tough, you learn things as a manager."
That indisputable fact being the case, the effervescent, outgoing Tracy learned enough in 2016 to pick up a doctorate in dealing with adversity. The 66ers went 48-92 last year, the second-worst record among all full-season minor league teams.
Why? Well, there was pitching; Inland Empire was ninth out of the 10-team Cal League in ERA (4.93) and dead last in saves (15), strikeouts (1,092) and WHIP (1.46).
So in the high-octane offensive Cal League, the 66ers made up for it at the plate? Wrong.
They were ninth in team average (.250), doubles (198), runs (599), on-base percentage (.317) and RBI (547). They were dead last in home runs (a mere 80), slugging (.360), OPS (.677) and total bases (1,694).
"When you combine poor starting pitching and not a lot of offense in this league, that makes it awfully tough," said Tracy. "This is a hitter's league. It always has been. When you go into it and you're at the bottom of the league in power, you're not hitting a lot of home runs and your starting pitching really struggled, you're playing behind the eight-ball before the first pitch is thrown."
So to get in front of the eight-ball, Tracy spent his offseason pondering how to change things within the framework of his perpetual mandate of player-development. He came upon an interesting concept.
"Baseball all-around is so separated as far as pitches and hitters. At the end of the day, you look up and start playing the game and realize we haven't done anything as a team at all," he said. "I'm going to structure things different at home. I'm going to have them stretch together, throw together, do all that together so it's more than a pitcher/hitter thing. We're a team and everything at home will be structured as far as our team doing everything together."
The team Tracy has at his disposal in the Angels' fallow farm system has some promise of making that happen, starting with first baseman Matt Thaiss, the Angels' No. 1 draft pick in 2016 and No. 2 prospect in the organization, who brings power to all fields on the field and leadership skills off it. Supporting him in the lineup are infielders Connor Justus and Jake Yacinich and outfielders Jared Foster and Michael Hermosillo.
Thaiss, Justus (No. 14), Hermosillo (No. 16) and Foster (No. 18) are all among the organization's top 29 prospects, joining starting pitchers Grayson Long (No. 7), opening-day starter Jaime Barria (No. 10) and Jake Jewell (No. 29). Rounding out the nine top prospects is reliever Adam Hofacket, the Corona-Santiago and Cal Baptist product who returns to San Bernardino and figures to get plenty of opportunities to pitch in all situations.
Inland Empire 66ers
Brian Robin | Correspondent