Second half preview

The Barnstormers will start the second half with two new faces. One is P Jason Scobie, whose addition was reported last week. The other is OF Luis Perez. Both will be signed and with the club in Bridgeport, pending physicals.

Perez is a six-year pro who spent the first five seasons of his career in the A’s system. He started this year with the Lincoln Saltdogs of the independent American Association before being released last week. Von Hayes, who never managed Perez, is familiar with the outfielder from his days with the A’s.

“I remember he’s the type of hitter who uses all fields,” Hayes said. “He has some power, not raw power, but certainly enough to reach our right-field porch. More important, he’s an RBI guy we’re looking to fill the fifth or sixth spot. We hope he can give us a shot in the arm.”

The Barnstormers desperately need a boost in outfield production. Between Jutt Hileman, Jarred Ball and the recently-added Jordan Herr, this team has given more than 400 at-bats to outfielders who have provided an on-base percentage below .300. That’s not going to work.

Perez – who missed all of 2007 because of injury – batted .280 with five homers and 15 RBIs in 43 games with Lincoln. His on-base was .328 and his slugging was .439. Based on those numbers, this doesn’t look like a huge upgrade. It’s worth noting that Perez was a lifetime .301 hitter in affiliated ball, although he never advanced above High-A. He doesn’t strike out too often, which is a good fit for this roster.

The Barnstormers have to improve their lineup. The batting order they employed during the weekend games in York is not acceptable by Atlantic League standards. It included only two hitters – Matt LeCroy and Lloyd Turner – who have played at Double-A or higher in the last three years. It included three guys – Herr, Kevin Kotch and Joe Evans – who have never played above rookie ball.

It’s fine for the Barnstormers to gamble on Herr, a young athlete with a big-league pedigree. It’s OK to roll the dice on Kotch, an energetic, left-handed hitting catcher with obvious talent. It’s even somewhat defensible to bring back Atlantic League veterans, such as Hileman, Lance Burkhart and Danny Gonzalez, year after year.

But if you’re going to follow that route, you better have some big-time bats to complement them – like the team had at the beginning of the season. Otherwise, the offense is going to sputter and the team is going to look like the JV competing against the varsity when it plays a powerhouse like Somerset. We’ve seen this show two years running.

The next few weeks are a test for the Barnstormers, who clearly have the worst position player talent in the league. They need to make significant upgrades or they need to acknowledge that what they’re putting on the field is not a Double-A quality product.

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LINEUP HOLES:

To his credit, Hayes has openly admitted the team’s shortcomings. When asked if the Barnstormers could win the second half title, he offered this candid response:

“No, not the way the team is right now. I don’t believe we can. If you ask me in a week from now, we might have three new players and I’ll say, ‘Absolutely.’ I hope I can be able to say that in a week or so from now.”

The Barnstormers have encountered more problems than any team should have to endure. They’ve lost five players to affiliated ball and have put eight players on the disabled list. Atlantic League teams need to overcome these issues to some degree. They need to find answers.

The turnover and lack of position player talent has become frustrating for everyone involved.

“When you’re scuffling and you’re losing players and you know in your heart that particular day — because you lost players you’re not going to be competitive — that’s the hard part,” Hayes said.

Hayes sees one glaring need: a starting catcher. The Barnstormers gave Kotch, who was a third-stringer at York before being traded to Lancaster, the bulk of the starts last week. Manny Mejia, the presumed starter with Burkhart injured, has struggled defensively.

The hope is that once the Barnstormers get everyone healthy, including 1B Ian Bladergroen, they can field a lineup that looks something like this …

Mike Woods, lf
Lloyd Turner/Juan Francia, 2b
Danny Gonzalez, ss
Matt LeCroy, dh
Ian Bladergroen, 1b
Luis Perez, rf
Manny Mejia, c
Turner/ Ivanon Coffie, 3b
Jutt Hileman, cf

Although it’s still not top-notch, that looks a lot better than the lineup that saw the field Sunday. It also creates some versatility with Herr and Kotch on the bench, rotating in to give players days off. The Barnstormers haven’t been able to give their starters a rest and that also results in slumps.

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PITCHING IN:

Ultimately, the Barnstormers’ second-half fate will be determined by their pitchers. This team likely won’t rank in the top half of the league in offense, so it’s going to need to pitch well to succeed. When the Barnstormers had their only decent winning stretch – four in a row and nine out of 13 – it coincided with the team’s best display of starting pitching.

Josh Hall and Eric Ackerman are a decent 1-2 at the top. Hall has shown flashes of dominance and has the rotation’s best ERA at 4.28. Ackerman’s stats took a hit when he was knocked around in his last outing, but he’s a worthy All-Star with a solid K/BB ratio and WHIP.

The key will be the other three spots. Shane Youman looks like he has the stuff to dominate, if he can just put it together consistently. Nick Renault has ridden a roller coaster and his last two starts have been a struggle. It’s impossible to know what to expect out of him going forward. The fifth spot will eventually belong to Scobie.

The bullpen will have to prove it can overcome the absence of Jose Cabrera. Some of that void will be filled by Judd Songster, who has a 2.65 ERA and hasn’t allowed an earned run in his last 21 2/3 innings.

“Unfortunately, we’re almost back to square one with our bullpen also,” Hayes said. “We sputtered at the beginning of the year without our closer, Jose Cabrera. Now that he’s gone, we kind of have to hope that the struggles we had at the beginning of the year don’t resurface.”

While the Barnstormers would like to ride their pitching, there are obvious concerns. The team allowed 62 runs in the final seven games of the first half and that included a shutout against York Thursday night. Over the last 13 games, Lancaster has been outscored by 44 runs. That’s the kind of number you expect to see from the Road Warriors.

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BOTTOM LINE:

The Barnstormers have a long way to go to catch Newark, the presumed frontrunner in the Freedom Division in the second half. When it comes to position player talent, the team also lags significantly behind York, which has done an excellent job of fine-tuning its lineup over the past month.

Barring some big-time additions, it’s hard to envision Lancaster being a contender over the final 70 games.