Chows Season a Mixed Bag

News and Notes from Around the Chows

The Doctor is In – Roy Halladay was a horse for the Chows setting franchise marks in pretty much every category. Below are the franchise single season records set by Halladay with the old record in parenthesis. Doc has an outside chance of becoming the first Chow to win the Cy Young Award.

Wins – 19 (15)
CG – 22 (13)
Sho – 4 (2)
ERA 3.28 (4.24)
IP 268.2 (246.1)
K 221 (183 – also broken by Volquez)

Is That how You Spell Shawn? – Morandini was convinced all season that Chone Figgins would turn things around and start getting on base. Figgins continued to lead-off against RHP all season despite batting just .234. Chone’s On-Base percentage was only .312 and his OPS was a barely believable .576. “We kept waiting for Chone to approach his MLB numbers but he never came close.” In the majors in 2008, Chone had an OBP of .378.

Driving Them In – The Chows failed to have anyone on the club drive in 100 runs. Beltran came close with 93. The worst part is that departed chow Huff still managed to come in 4th on the club with 64 despite only playing in 82 games. Ramirez and Pena were barely able to best Huff – driving in 69 and 76.

Too Bad you Can’t Steal 1st Base – Rushed into the starting line-up late in the year after the departure of DeJesus, Bourn was clearly not ready for prime time. He batted only .204 with an OBP of .248 but still managed to lead the Chows with 23 steals.

Power Arm – Rookie hurler Edinson Volquez struck out 219 hitters in 213 innings and won 13 games for the Chows. He was either very good or very bad finishing the year with a 5.43 ERA but hurling 5 complete games and posting a winning record.

Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, K-E-L-L-Y – Why did GM Brad Sherlag think Kelly was a 1st Round talent? Johnson essentially lost his job to Mark Ellis by the end of the year. Kelly was supposed to be the heavy hitter of the Chows 2B combo but posted an OPS of only .696 for the season. Rumor has Prado moving over from 3B and Johnson being cut. Can you say bust?