The Victoria HarbourCats aim to win the arms race on the mound this season in the West Coast League of baseball. On offence, they plan on bombs away.
Here is a look at the team heading into Friday鈥檚 season opener against the Sweets in Walla Walla, Washington:
PITCHING: The HarbourCats were thin on the mound last year and vowed it wouldn鈥檛 happen again.
鈥淲e recruited hard and are a lot stronger, just on the basis of depth alone,鈥� said Victoria head coach Graig Merritt.
Concurred team president Jim Swanson: 鈥淲e鈥檙e a lot deeper than last year. We have throwers who are high on [MLB] draft radars and generally in college circles.鈥�
Carrying the load this year should be strapping James Kannenberg out of the University of San Francisco Dons, who will get the start Friday in the opener, and Dalton Erb from Chico State, Blake Hannah, Skyler Henderson, Josh Walker and returnees Josh Mitchell from Pitt and Austin Dondanville from Cal Poly.
The wildcard is Josh Burgmann of Nanaimo, headed to the University of Washington Huskies, and touted for the 2016 MLB draft. The Nanaimo Pirates graduate, who pitched sa国际传媒 to sixth place at the 2015 world U-18 championship in Osaka, Japan, won鈥檛 be finished Grade 12 at the Vauxhall Academy of Baseball in Alberta until late June.
鈥淭here are so many variables, but we hope to get Josh [this summer],鈥� said Swanson.
OFFENCE: The book on the HarbourCats is they can pound it with the bats. The most intriguing plate prospect is six-foot-four Matt Smith, who led all high school players in the U.S. with 14 home runs in 2015, and hit .289 in 51 games this season as an NCAA freshman at Sacramento State. Other newcomers of note include Mark Warkentin from USF and Junior College World Series MVP Dakota Dean from New Orleans. Key returnees are P.J. Floyd from Sacramento State, A.J. Alcantara out of UC-Irvine and Nanaimo product Griffin Andreychuk from Seattle University.
鈥淥ur offence is stronger than last year,鈥� said Merritt.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a good mix of hitters,鈥� concurred Swanson.
DEFENCE: This was the strongest aspect of the HarbourCats game last season, and is likely the most problematic to start this season, with the loss of efficient infielders such as Alex DeGoti, Michael Gretler from Oregon State and Scott Jarvis from UCLA.
鈥淭hose were gold-glove type guys,鈥� said Merritt.
鈥淲e can compensate by swinging the bats and scoring runs and not having to micro-manage the games as much as we did last year,鈥� added the sophomore Victoria dugout boss, who is a Tampa Bay Rays scout.
鈥淲e will look to out-slug the [other] teams.鈥�
Who needs defence when you can do that?
Not that the HarbourCats don鈥檛 have players who can turn plays. Swanson said to look for infielders Andreychuk, Scott Silva from Fresno State, Cameron Cannon from Arizona and third-baseman Brad Pluschkell of UC-Davis. The catching will be handled by Nick Meyer of Cal Poly, Joe Prior out of Fresno State and Hayden Jaco form Vernon College in Texas.
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