Beavers Year in Review

2012 was a very different year for the Beavers.  As the years pass by, the injuries pile up.  Injuries this year kept Jimmy-D to 12 games, Kid to 14 games and PT to 18 games.  Beyond injuries, travel and personal decisions also sapped the lineup; Tanner played only 18 games, Mobilly played only 21 and Gee did not once step foot on the field (more on that in a bit).

To fill the voids the Beavers reached out to several "rookies".  Link, Louie, Jeremy and Sean were all penciled into the lineup 10 or more times.  This new blood definitely helped fill the void as three of the four of them were 1-2-3 in batting average this season.

Despite the lineup shuffling and the and new blood the Beavers strung together their longest winning streak to start a season at 18.  It helped that we did not play the #2 or #3 team in the league until the playoffs, but it was an impressive streak none-the-less.

The final record for the Beavers for Summer and Fall was 25-6 but that was a bit misleading as four of the losses were due to forfeits when we were playing for the championship in Clayton.  We later finished a combined 3-1 in games-played against those two opponents we had to forfeit to.  So, it is safe to say that we could have added a few more wins to the record had we had the opportunity to play.

A new hitter emerged this year in Protege.  While he only his about .460 in his 2011 rookie campaign he followed that up with an impressive .614 average in 2012 and owned 6 "yellows" (i.e. led the team in 6 categories).  Another hitter returned as Dupske shed his disappointing 2011 campaign where he hit sub-.400 and led the team in 2012 in RBI (and of course SACs).

A new power hitter was found in Jeremy (aka "Ron") as he hit 9 HR in only 32 AB for a monstrous 1.469 SLG.

But even with all of those impressive hitting numbers, pitching was the name of the game early in the season.  Over the 19 total games in the summer session (including playoffs) only 4 times did an opponent score in double digits.  And when they did; twice it was 10 runs and twice it was 14 runs.  Unfortunately our offense did not step up in the championship game where we only plated 6 runs.   

The summer league championship means another trophy gets awarded this winter at the annual Beavers N Hooters Winter Warmup.  Speaking of the winter warm up, a poll will be sent out shortly to choose a date for the event.

As always, career stats will be shared at the winter warmup.  Here's a sneak peek at a few interesting stats I noticed while tallying them up:

• In 2011 Dupper overtook Belle as all time games-played leader.  After two straight dormant years by Belle, Jimmy-D has now overtaken him as well.
• Dupper leads in Games, AB, Hits, Doubles, RBI, Runs, SAC
• We have a 2-way tie for the lead in triples with 49
• Mobilly and Kid have now both played more games than Gee thanks to Gee's year off.
• No one's leadership in a category is in jeopardy for the 2013 unless a leader sits out - leads are all substantial
• Kid is only player with at least 1000 AB to have a career average OVER .550 - Dupper is at .550
• The last time Jimmy-D hit over .400 was 2006.  That year he hit .405.  Just wait for his proclamation for him hitting .500 this year soon.
• For the first time since at least 2006 neither Kid nor Mobilly hit a HR this season
• PT still has more triples than HR

Happy New Year!  I'll be signing the Beavers up for Clayton this coming week.