[MAW] Tournament PreCap: Opening Day / Philly Special

Fresh off their triumph at the 2021 Opening Day Tournament, the Juggernauts return to the site of their biggest victory of 2020, Ridley Park.

It has been more than a year – about fourteen months – since a team last won back-to-back regular season tournament titles in MAW (ERL at Wiffle Wars & Wiffle Bash in June & July 2019). For the Juggernauts to break that streak, they will have to make their way through a very similar field to the one that they outlasted two weeks ago in York.

Or at least, it is a similar field in terms of team names. The composition of those teams has not remained nearly as static. 

The 2021 Opening Day champs are one example of that. The Juggernauts received significant contributions from Brian DiNapoli on both sides of the ball in York but will be without his services in Ridley. DiNap led the Juggernauts’ offense with a .324/.439/.735 slash line and 4 home runs. Perhaps even more significantly, the 2011-2012 national champion picked up 14 important innings for the two-time defending MAW regular season champs, including 13 innings the semi-finals and finals. If the Juggs are to repeat, they will have to find a way to replace – or do without – those contributions from DiNapoli.

The best example of “same team, different roster” between Opening Day and the Philly Special is the Great Lakes Legion. The Legion are turning over a significant portion of their roster, with Evan Sibbet and Cam Smith being traded out for Justin Gregory, Kyle Owen, and Nate Thompson (Mike Hogan and Grant Miller are the two holdovers).

Among teams that will be without key Opening Day contributors are the OG Goon Squad, East Coast Elite, Voodoo, and the Stompers. Most teams are at full strength – and completely fresh – for the first tournament of the year. Few are afterward. Over the course of a long season, it is the ability to play quality Wiffle®Ball at less than full strength that separates the champions from the rest of the field.

Not all of the roster changes between the first two tournaments of 2021 have been purely of the subtraction variety, however. Some teams will be adding to the lineups they ran out on Opening Day.

The Dinos limped into York back on April 24th with a diminished roster consisting of captain Mike Sidorov, pitcher Danny Morra, and 7th man Michael Baumhauer of Way Too Beautiful fame. Given how undermanned they were, the Dinos played reasonably well, taking OG Goon Squad to extras and hanging in there against the Aces & Stags. For Ridley Park, the Dinos are breaking out the “A-squad”. Joining Sidorov in Ridley will be veteran Scott Thomas, Fanway Park Giants’ ace Steve Colella, and Chicago veteran Derek Radek. 

Colella – who is one of the best players in Fanway Park and had a nice showing for the Mountain Vibe at last year’s United Wiffle®Ball tournament – will give the Dinos the secondary arm they were missing at the Opening Day tournament. Radek will look to continue his career renaissance that began last October when he pitched the K-9’s to within a run of knocking off eventual national champions, the Usual Suspects, in the round of 24. With veteran hitters Thomas & Sidorov in tow, this is a far more dangerous and complete Dinos squad than the one we last saw back in April.

The Dinos are not the only team entering the second tournament of the year with an upgraded roster. After finishing fourth on Opening Day, the defending Mid Atlantic champions went out and made a signing they hope will lead them to another tournament title. A week ago, ERL announced the addition of hard-throwing Mike Stiles. Stiles’ fast pitch experience is limited but he got his feet wet last October at PeoplesBank Park as a member of Devin Torres’ East Coast Bomb Squad. ERL essentially used two pitchers on Opening Day – Dan Whitener and Connor Young. Playing Monday morning quarterback, you can see where ERL might have benefited from a third arm that day. Connor threw really well – well enough that he started the semi-finals for his team – but he was already in double-digit innings by the time that game rolled around. Whitener likewise had thrown more than twelve innings just to get ERL to that point. Had they had Stiles, ERL easily could have shaved five to ten innings off Whitener and Young’s arms and positioned themselves better for the stretch run. They hope Stiles’ presence in Philly will allow them to do just that this weekend.

Voodoo – without David Wood this go-around – have also added to their roster. This veteran fast pitch squad has gone in somewhat of a different direction, adding Golden Stick Massachusetts Yard League mainstay, Jeff Lopes, to their roster. This move appears to be both a long and a short term play for Voodoo. In the near term, another arm allows Voodoo to [potentially] avoid having Jordan Robles and Sean Steffy reach the 30-inning mark before the calendar reaches mid-May. Any innings Lopes provides on Saturday will be big. That’s not to say that Lopes won’t also be effective in his first MAW tournament – he flashed some nice fast pitch stuff at United Wiffle®Ball last fall – but this is also certainly a long-term play. By getting Jeff in the mix now, Voodoo can afford to bring him on slowly and give him plenty of time to sit under the learning tree with Steffy and Robles before the summer stretch.

Then there are those teams who are more-or-less opting to play it back. Teams like the New School Risers and Aces are banking that their second go-round in 2021 will yield better results, now that they have one tournament together under their belts.  

The Wiffaholics are also expected to carry the same or very similar roster to the one they used in their Mid Atlantic debut two weeks ago. The New England-based squad were just getting warmed up when their tournament was abruptly ended by Mike Hogan and the Great Lakes Legion. The Wiffaholics came within a run of reaching a play-in date with Voodoo with Dan Haverty completely fresh and Mike Tuohy having just one lights-out outing on his arm. Likewise, Ryan Patnode and Troy Parks both seemed to be one pitch away from a big hit all tournament long.  It was not to be, however, and the Wiffaholics were sent home with a disappointing 1-2 finish. The team has redemption on their minds a they head to Philly this weekend. The odds are strong they won’t leave before the elimination round this time around. Dillon Koster may make his MAW debut this Saturday, but otherwise the Wiffaholics won’t – and do not really need to – make any additions to improve their chances. The talent is already there, they have been able to settle into the 2-strike count, and simply getting the ball into Haverty’s hands sometime on Saturday make them a more dangerous team then they were two weeks ago even with essentially the same roster. Sometimes it is not about what you add, but what you have in reserve.

Which brings us back full circle to the Juggernauts.

Although the Juggs will be without a key cog in their recent victory, they are banking on an internal “addition” to offset the loss. Tim McElrath was a man possessed on Opening Day, but he did all of his damage at the plate and in the field. In Ridley, there is a very decent chance that we will see – for the first time in 2021 – what Tim can do on the rubber. Like Haverty for the Wiffaholics, Tim represents an opportunity for the Juggernauts to roll out a fresh arm in tournament number two. It is a luxury that not many teams in the field have and certainly improves the Juggernauts’ chances of repeating even without DiNapoli.

Here and There

MAW would not be what it is right now without the Ridley Park Wiffle®Ball League. Nothing illustrates that better than the fact that this Saturday – at RPWL’s home facility ­­­– an astounding 19 RPWL homegrown products and a total of 21 current RPWL players will be in action . . . Fresh off 17 1/3 innings of quality pitching on Opening Day, Y2B’s Jarod Bull was hoping for an encore on Saturday. Unfortunately, a non-Wiffle® related ankle injury has Bull listed as day-to-day heading into the weekend . . . Who is the 2021 OPS leader heading into tournament #2? No, it isn’t Brian DiNapoli, Ben Stant, or Kenny Rodgers, Jr. but the Aces’ Cam Farro who currently possess a league leading 1.231 OPS. If you think this is a small sample size mirage, think again. The 2019 MAW Rookie of the Year looks calm & comfortable in the box with two years of MAW experience and three overall years of Wiffle® experience now under his belt. It would not surprise anyone who has been paying attention the last few years if Cam ends the season has one of the better hitters in the region . . . Another team getting a boost post-Opening Day is the NY Meats. After going at it as a trio in York, the Meats will have Ryan Bush back in the fold on Saturday. The big question around Bush is how the Meats’ will utilize him after he expressed a desire to work exclusively as a closer over the winter . . . Congratulations are in order for the York Yak & RPWL Player, Adam Milsted, on his wedding this Friday! . . . The Aces’ offense was widely seen as their biggest issue entering the season, but after one tournament, the team has the 5th highest OPS, 2nd best batting average, and 3rd bet slugging percentage in MAW . . . Do not overlook the Bigballs on Saturday. Led by former Dirtball Mike Collins, the team has enough veteran Wiffle®Ball talent that they could make things tough on their opponents. Keep an eye on Brendan Boass in particular. This RPWL rookie homered off Sean Bingnear in his very first league at bat this past weekend and is said to poses a big-time arm . . . Single tournament stat lines do not always tell the whole story. Noah Silverman was light outs for the Yaks through his first 3 games & 14 innings on Opening Day (4 H, 2 BB, 0 R) before the Juggernauts beat him up for 9 runs in the quarterfinals after a short layoff and location switch. Noah’s current stat line does not indicate how overpowering he was for most of the day two Saturdays ago.