After the Rednecks claimed the 2012 TALL championship, management identified three needs to give the team a chance for success in 2013. Firstbaseman Derrek Lee had retired and Troy Tulowitski sustained an injury that would severely limit his availability. Alexi Ogando’s move to the bullpen created a hole in the starting rotation and Jaime Garcia’s elbow problem was going to limit him to about a half of a season. Since Livingston would be selecting last (24th) in the annual player draft, management knew they weren’t going to have the opportunity to land any of the “phenoms” breaking into the Majors. They decided on an “under the radar” draft strategy and to garner as many lefthanded starting pitchers as possible.

The key to the entire plan was to engineer a trade for a quality firstbaseman prior to the draft. GM Wool accomplished that by trading reliever Tim Collins to Pine Hill for the “old man” Paul Konerko. True, there weren’t many holes to fill and the strategy worked perfectly. The Rednecks selected Junichi Tazawa (19*XYZ) with their first pick and Eric Stults (12G lefty, 460 mbf) with the 48th pick. They grabbed Tyler Moore at number 72 for spelling the aging Paul Konerko and quality relievers Nick Vincent and Justin Hampson to shore up the bullpen. Reserve outfielders Quintin Berry, Mike Baxter and Brandon Barnes were also acquired along with several other relievers who never made it to the big club during the season.

GM Wool filled the last hole by trading Michael Cuddyer to Bayou LaFourche for lefty Chris Capuano (9Y, 923 mbf) innings eater as a fifth starter. That set the roster. The team looked set.

The 19 offensive players came into the season with a .279 BA, .337 OBP, and .439 SLG with a 5.93 R/G average and a total of 227 home runs. On paper, the 23 pitchers combined for an ERA of 3.55 and 7.1 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9. During pre-season analysis, management compiled the stats for the players most likely to actually contribute at the MLB level. That analysis produced the following:

                BA OBP SLG R/G HR
• Batters: 0.281 0.339 0.441 5.8 R/G 220
• ERA BB/9 K/9 STARTS
• Starters: 3.36 2.16 7.03 163
• Bullpen 2.63 2.22 7.62
Actual Season Stats
Management settled on a rotation of: Games Started W-L ERA IP
• Kyle Lohse R15Z 32 22-2 1.62 244.2
• Madison Bumgarner L12XZ 33 21-8 2.55 239.2
• Jon Niese L11YZ 31 21-4 2.70 223.1
• Chris Capuano L9Y 31 17-7 3.40 198.2
with split starts for
• Eric Stults L12G 18 9-6 2.57 115.2
• Jaime Garcia L6YZG 17 13-2 2.73 105.1
Ultimately, they were the only pitchers to start games during the season.

The starters combined for 7.7 K/9 2.6 BB/9 .79 HR/9 119 QS OBA of .212
The bullpen posted combined totals of 43/54 saves 22-8 2.77 318.2
The bullpen combined for 8.1 K/9 33 BB/9 .79 HR/9 and OBA of .204

In all, the Rednecks won 125 and lost 37 for a win percentage of .772

Number 1 draft pick Tazawa finished with a 2-1 record and 32 of 33 save opportunities, fanning 11.1 per 9 innings and walking only 1.9. Number 2 pick Stults combined with Garcia for 35 starts and a 22-8 record. Number 3 pick Tyler Moore not only spelled Konerko but posted a .270 BA, a .484 SLG and chipped in 20 RBI in his 149 plate appearances. Nick Vincent and Justin Hampson also made significant contributions to the bullpen. All in all, the draft strategy proved to be a key to the Rednecks’ success.

Offensively, the Rednecks led the TALL in team batting (.292), slugging (.468), on-base percentage (.349), runs per game (5.9), and had the fewest strikeouts (1,074). They also led in team ERA (2.60), quality starts (119) and lowest opponents’ batting average (.210); and finished second in fewest walks allowed (416) and home runs allowed (127). To top it off, Livingston led TALL in fielding percentage (.987), committing only 77 errors.

The Paul Konerko trade may go down in TALL history as the best deal ever made. Pauly wildly exceeded expectations; finishing third in the batting race (.327), ninth in OBP (.386), and third in multi-hit games (60). He also belted 32 doubles and 24 home runs and drove in 106, slugging at a .519 clip for the season. To top it off, he committed only one error and led all full-time firstbasemen with a .999 fielding percentage.

The offensive output of 5.9 runs per game was fueled by consistency. The everyday lineup had real “Punch” in eight of the nine positions in the batting order. Only Ichiro Suzuki, with his 5 homers didn’t pose a power threat to opposing pitchers. And even Ichiro contributed to the offense with a .286 batting average, 28 doubles, and 8 triples, 28 stolen bases in 33 attempts, and a team-leading 9 sacrifices. The rest of the batting order was dangerous from top to bottom.

 

* denotes split time at SS

 

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