[MAW] 2020/2021 Offseason Notebook #2

A New Look for the Yaks

The York Yaks saw their 2020 Mid Atlantic season come to a disappointing end on August 15th, when the Goon Squad slipped passed them to secure the 10th and final spot in September’s Mid Atlantic Championship tournament. 2020 marked the first time in MAW’s four-year history that the Yaks failed to reach post-season, placing the original MAW franchise at a crossroad. Rather than opt for incremental improvements as they had over the prior few seasons, the Yaks chose to majorly overhaul their roster going into 2021.

The Yaks will return three of their players from 2020 — Dan Potter, Adam Milsted, and Noah Silverman — next season. That means they are returning the top hitter (Milsted) and top pitcher (Silverman) from a team that went 5-9 during the regular tournament season and reached the elimination round in half of the four regular season events. Milsted led all Mid Atlantic hitters in OPS last season while Silverman [further] cemented himself as a top of the rotation pitcher.

With that solid — if not thin — base to start from, the Yaks added the former Lemonheads & POC duo of Tim Beck and Ray Lutick to their 2021 roster. In Beck and Lutick, the Yaks gain another proven hitter and another big-time power arm to go along with the ones they already have. Beck’s .669 OPS would have been the second best on the 2020 Yaks by a comfortable margin. The team has hurt for offense the past few seasons, but the addition of Beck — even if Milsted regresses some in 2021 — moves them in the right direction. If nothing else, they now have a couple of hitters who can turn a game around with one swing, which is a valuable weapon for a team that does not expect to give up very many runs. Silverman and Lutick allowed just nine earned runs in a combined 56 innings pitched during the regular tournament season last summer. At tournaments where the Yaks have both Ray and Noah available, they will have more than enough firepower to make it through the entire day with just those two pitchers.

The Yaks are not necessarily done – if Chris Scipione is active this summer, the team anticipates he will be a Yak for at least a few tournaments — but are clearly much improved already even if they don’t make any additional moves.

The Dragons Mean Business

Competing with just three players per tournament all season long ­– and often not knowing where their third teammate would come from until just before an event – the NY Dragons were the biggest surprise team of the early-2020 tournament season. At the first three 2020 MAW events, the Dragons reached the quarterfinals all three times including a semi-final appearance at the Opening Day Tournament. Nick Lea, Mike Bucci, and Rob Longiaru formed a solid core. Lea and Longiaru formed a reliable pitching tandem and the left-handed Bucci found a way on base all summer long.

However, the lack of depth eventually caught up to them. The Dragons demonstrated they had a contending core in 2020 but were one or two pieces away from being season-long contenders. Making incremental offseason additions would have been a reasonable path, but the Dragons went all-in at the end of 2020, acquiring John Polanco and Pete Slater and reacquiring Jose Marte for the 2021 season.

The resulting roster is both deep and flexible. It is unlikely that the Dragons have their full six-person roster at every or maybe even most tournaments. Longiaru and Marte in particular could be semi-regular players. The additions, however, give them enough of a pitching cushion to compete even when they only have two-thirds of their roster available. For example, a roster of Slater, Bucci, Polanco and Lea has enough pitching between Lea and Polanco to make a deep tournament run. On the flip side, there is enough flexibility on the roster as to not cause many issues when/if the Dragons have all six of their players at a tournament. Slater is a natural DH and both Polanco and Marte qualify as candidates to be hit for while pitching. That is a sign of a balanced roster and should help the Dragons avoid the roster management issues that other stacked six-player teams have encountered in the past.

The Dragon’s offseason signings have sent a clear message they mean business in 2021 and fully intend on replicating their early-2020 success all summer long and into the fall.

Here and There

• Voodoo Revealed: Late last year, teases for “Vodoo Wiffle” began appearing on social media pointing to a January 1, 2021 announcement. Sure enough, no sooner had the calendar flipped over to 2021 did the big reveal come, which simultaneously answered two of the young off-season’s most pressing questions — what is the deal with this Voodoo thing and who is going to be on Jordan Robles’ new team? In his first season as an MAW team captain, Jordan’s search for players that can help win a 5th straight Mid Atlantic championship took him all over the country. The result is a roster full of big-name players. Joining Robles on Voodoo next season are Dan Haverty, Ed Packer, Ben Schafer, Sean Steffy, and David Wood. The hope with this roster — per Jordan on the Shut Up, Stein podcast — is that innings can be spread around among the four pitchers so that no one pitcher is carrying the workload. Robles has been rather durable during his career but started feeling some effects of all those innings a couple of years ago. Toast will be about 14 months removed from Tommy John surgery come Opening Day, Steffy has that further in his rear view but still needs to be cautious, and Haverty’s arm is beat up having thrown competitively since he was in the middle school. Anyone of those players can pitch in any spot of a tournament, which will provide the team with a lot of flexibility as to how they set up their rotation, at least at tournaments where they have their full complement of pitchers.

  For more information on Voodoo — including plans for the Voodoo brand that go beyond “just” winning tournaments — check out the January 1st episode of Shut Up, Stein.

• Bull Market: You might have noticed Jarod Bull’s name is conspicuously absent from the lead story on the Yaks’ 2021 plans. While he may not be a Yak, Bull intends to play next season and should be available for (at least) each York tournament. Jarod only threw three games in MAW last season and his final numbers were anchored down by the first game of the year where he struggled mightily with his command. However, he is still the owner of a career 1.24 ERA in just under 123 innings pitched and could reasonably fit with any number of teams in any number roles. Bull finished the year on a solid note, allowing two earned runs in a little under 15 innings pitched for the Yaks at United Wiffle®Ball.

• Clark Considering his Options: Although he has not said much publicly, Brice Clark has been active behind the scenes this offseason as he tries to find his 2021 home. Clark is attempting to put together a team for next season and has explored several different options ­­­– including some very interesting ones – to that end. If nothing comes together in that regard, he should not have much trouble finding a team to join after finishing the 2020 Wiffle®Ball year strong with quality play in August, September, and October. If Brice does ultimately join another team in MAW, the Waves would have to be considered the favorites to land him. Brice played with the Waves in United Wiffle®Ball last October, where he and Austin Berger formed a formidable pitching combination. Brice could end up playing alongside Mothmen teammate Wyatt Zuspan – with both joining another team as free agents or as part of their own team – provided that landing spot is conducive to Wyatt being able to get the necessary reps (on both sides) to aid in his progress.

• Juggernauts add with an eye on the post-season: The Juggernauts — winners of back-to-back regular season championships — did not need to make wholesale roster changes this offseason and they haven’t. However, they also have not completely stood still. The team previously announced the addition of two-time national champion, Brian DiNapoli, to their 2021 roster. DiNap is expected to be a part time contributor during the regular tournament season — likely not much more than the two tournaments necessary to qualify for the post-season — with the hope that he can get them over the hump in the post-season and help finally turn their regular season successes into a Mid Atlantic championship.

• Longballs trim down: This time of the year teams are usually adding to their rosters, not subtracting from them. The Longballs, however, recently announced that they are trimming their six-player roster from 2020 down to four players. The plan next year is to go with a regular quartet of Sean Bingnear, Dylan Harshaw, Tommy Loftus, and Colin Pollag, with Greg Myers competing when (of if) he is able. The hope is that the added offensive reps that result from a leaner roster will led to increased offensive productivity from the four remaining members. Pitching wise, the Longballs are taking a calculated chance that Pollag and Bingnear can provide enough quality innings to avoid overworking Loftus. Both are more capable of doing so – and have in MAW in the past – but took a backseat last year to Loftus and Cam Farro.

• Swapping one Ace for Another: The Four Aces were already down one pitcher when they lost Noah Silverman back to the Yaks after announcing Noah as part of their 2021 roster. Last week, the Aces were informed by Gino Joseph of his plans to join another team in 2021. Faced with the possibility of going from four arms to two before the season even started, the team (Zane Johnston, Cam Farro, Dennis Donegan, and Jack Liberio) reached out to fellow Ridley Parker Teddy Drecher, who had previously committed to ERL. Teddy accepted the invitation to replace Gino on the Four Aces’ roster. This essentially turns the Four Aces into a leveled up version of the 2019-2020 Shortballs, with every member of the team – except for Cam Farro – having played on the Shortballs in at least one of those two seasons.

• Free Agents: The Mid Atlantic free agency market is moving rapidly – some of the names mentioned over these next several sentences may already be off the market by the time you read this – but there are still some quality players out there. Among those players who have thrown their names into the free agent mix – in addition to those mentioned above like Bull and Zuspan – are Brian Adam, Sean Erhardt, Jimmy Flynn, and Colin Prentiss. All are accomplished players in their own right. Adam, for example, was a member of the 2018 GSWL pro division champions and Prentiss had one of the more impressive pitching outs at October’s United Wiffleball National Championship. If interested in any one of these players – or interested in adding a player in general – please feel free to reach out to MAW officials who can help facilitate.

• The Rest: It looks like RPWL will have a 3-team presence in MAW again next year. A yet-to-be-named team of Nate Smith, Frankie Campanile, Vinnie Albanese, and Pat Farrell is a near done deal . . . Despite losing Drecher to the Four Aces, ERL is not necessarily looking to replace him and might head into the season as a four-man . . . While nothing is final yet, there are whispers of a team out of BWBL in Wilkes-Barre making some tournaments this summer. Among the names being branded about are Brett Caladie, Anthony Caladie, and John Kotsko . . . Similarly, there are industry rumors that a Wiffaholics squad led by (naturally) Ryan Patnode could make some tournaments next summer . . . The oft-rumored Devin Torres’ led team appears to be taking shape with Torres, Kenny Stengel, Rob “Wiffman” Piervinanzi and a fourth yet unannounced (but significant) player locked in . . . The New School Risers have been quiet about their 2021 plans, but Dave Capobianco, Jerry Hill, and Chris Owen are all believed to be returning at this time. With the Ocean City tournament in the Risers’ backyard, another one-off (at least) appearance from Dave’s brother Jason seems likely and Cap has also hinted that old teammate Paige Hurley could be talked out of retirement for that event.