2019 Year In Review

Hopes were sky high for the South Carolina Bombers coming into the 2019 campaign.  After finishing the regular season with the best record in the TML and then pushing the defending champion Kansas City to a 7th Game in the TMLCS and losing that game late, The Bombers fully anticipated returning to the post season for the 3rd time in 4 seasons.

But it wasn't to be.

The Division was tight all season seeing all 4 teams (Maple, Jersey and San Francisco) holding 1st place at various times during the season.  But an 0-7 SIM at the beginning of September was too much to overcome, and the Bombers finished 1 game behind Maple and shared 2nd Place with Jersey.

Before the deadline the Bombers picked up two quality players.  One was two time Gold Glove Winner Rod Brown from SF for minor leaguer's Pat Ashe and Leonard Rutledge.

The second move echoed throughout the league, when the Bombers acquired 3 time Cy Young Winner, 3 time All Star, with 1 Gold Glove to his credit from Cabo, along with stellar reliever Jack Hall for a string of quality minor league talent (Jason Davis, Mulia Kathirirthamby, Egagara Manasi, Joe Ward and Matt Murphy).

Both players played pivotal roles in their short stay with the Bombers, with Perez going 8-6, 4.36 ERA and a WHIP of 1.15 while Brown played 43 games, hitting 291, belting 9 HR (161 AB), and 21 RBI.  OPS a solid 862.

Pitching was a nightmare, league wide in 2019, and the Bombers saw what should have been a strength in their rotation and bullpen ranked near the top in 2018 slip all the way to 11th and 12th in 2019.  The moves acquiring Hall, and Perez moved the rankings to 6th in SP and 9th in Bullpen.

Offensive was NOT a problem for the Bombers as they ranked 1st in RS, HR, 2nd in OB and 3rd in AVG.

Leading the Offense was the 2019 Rookie of the Year, David Lewis, who also lead the entire ABL in HR's with 51.

2018 Rookie of the Year, Lowell Anderson put up great numbers when he was on the field, hitting 334, 21 HR's and 72 RBI's in just 71 games!

Stephen Jackson had a renaissance season offensively, hitting 362, with 17 HR, 73 RBI's in just 107 games.  His OPS of 1.005 was a career high for the 33 year old Original Bomber.

Injuries took a toll on the Bombers, as they do the entire league, seeing Anderson (LF), Jorge Rosas (2B), Mike Woods (SS), Jackson (DH) all miss time in September and that probably was a contributing factor in the Bombers missing the playoffs.

But based on what else is out there, the Bombers decided to push their payroll to 2nd in the League and put money back into this team.
Signed to an extension was Raul Perez (37 over 2 seasons), picked up the option on Rod Brown (7.5 for 1) and Byron Bryant resigned to a (10.5M over 3).
Gary Altman also gambled on Gary Payne by declining his 18M Option and was able to resign him as well (20 over 3).

All told, the Bombers spent 75MM this off season and return with a relatively intact roster.

Altman also made one trade so far this off season, picking up Ted Mills, along with LF Calvin Tyree and some cash for C Morgan Cairnes, SP JR Murphy and MR Bryn Embree.  Rumors are circulating that there might be another player added to this deal.

All in all the South Carolina media is reporting that the Bombers have no holes in their ABL roster, returning all fielders and now have a stellar starting staff of Perez, John Martin, Aaron Harris, Mills and the 5th rotation spot being a battle between Jason Adams and rookie Didier Fernandez and possibly Tim Harris as a late season call-up.