The 2014 Atlantic League of Professional Baseball season has officially come to a close. After winning back-to-back Atlantic League Championships, the Long Island Ducks, unfortunately, will not be a part of the playoffs this. Despite missing out on the postseason, the Ducks still had plenty of reasons to feel positive.
From welcoming their six millionth fan to Bethpage Ballpark, to selling out their 639th game to their 1,000th win in their 15th year history, it has been a very fun year for the Ducks and the Faithful Flock. The Ducks completed the season with a 73-67 record – their best since 2011. They had a handful of players who played well, including three who represented Long Island in the Atlantic League All Star Game in Sugarland, Texas. “We hit the ball well as far as average and stolen bases go, but our situational hitting wasn’t good this year” Ducks skipper Kevin Baez spoke about his 12th season with the ball club. “The defense was good and had much more range than in previous years and our starting pitching was outstanding this year.”
Some of those positives are what kept the team in the mix in a heated Atlantic League. The rotation consisted of team ace and 2013 MVP John Brownell, Atlantic League All Star Shaun Garceau, Bobby Blevins and Jared Lansford. Brownell finished tied for second in the League with Garceau for 13 wins and struck out 130 batters, which is also impressive for second. Garceau struck out 117 batters and ranked seventh in the League, two behind Blevins with 119. Lansford, who started the year in the bullpen, has been outstanding since sliding into the rotation and posted 123 strikeouts, which was good for third in the League. Blevins and Lansford also finished second and fourth in earned run average with a 3.00 and 3.22 ERA, respectively.
For the offense, All Star outfielder Adam Baileyhas been impressive during his second year on Long Island. Bailey led the Flock with 20 long balls (tied for third place in the league for that category) and posted a .301 batting average, third on the team and sixth overall. He also has driven in 89 runs, placing him fourth in the league and second on the Ducks.
It wouldn’t be a surprise for Duck fans to label All Star outfielder and hitting coach Lew Ford as this year’s MVP. Ford became the first player in Atlantic League history to play in all 140 games in the regular season. He also set a new record for hits in a single season with 189, which was previously set by Victor Rodriguez of the Somerset Patriots ten years ago. The fifth year Duck still holds on to the all-time lead in batting average in franchise history with an average of .336. This season his average is .347, which is terrific for second in the league and first on the Ducks. Not only did he lead the league in games played and hits, Ford also led the league with 40 two baggers, and is second with 95 runs batted in, 100 runs, 278 total bases, and has an on base percentage of .416. Ford is second on the Ducks in home runs with 15 behind Bailey. He is third in slugging and fourth in at bats and extra base hits. Ford was named Atlantic League Player of the Month in May, where he led the league in batting average, hits, total bases and on base percentage. From May 3 to May 30, Ford compiled an on base streak of 25 games and a 13 game hitting streak from May 13-25.
The Ducks would have loved to become the first team in AL history to win back to back to back championships. Unfortunately, problems that plagued the team ultimately kept them from making such history. They went 6-11 in extra-inning games and started off the second half with a 13 game losing streak, their longest of the season. Long Island Ducks finished the season 3-7 in their last ten games. They ended the month of September with an 8-12 record after finishing August with an impressive month 18-11, which featured their highest winning streak of the year of eight games. Although the offense looked deep on paper, the Ducks had a lot of trouble in situational hitting with less than two outs, especially in the grueling one run games. “We didn’t produce that good with men in scoring position with less than two outs” said Baez. “We had a lot of tough gut wrenching losses where we were in the games and then we had a couple of bad plays like making a bad pitch or fielding a bunt that didn’t go our way”.
o
Now that the season is over, Baez, Ducks General Manager Michael Pfaff and Co-Owner and Senior VP of Baseball Operations Bud Harrelson will look to the offseason to address the team’s needs and continue to build on the strengths for the ball club next season. “We’ll address everything. We’ll look at what went right and what went wrong and try to get better” said Baez. “We’ll try to improve on those weaknesses that we have and you got to see whose out there and available and what fits your needs on your team. That’s what we do in the offseason.”
