Saturday, September 13, 2008

Decade of Dominance - Seattle Seacows

Buster Gunns - Cobb Times Herald

Decade of Dominance - Dude, Who Stole My Draft Picks?

The Seattle Seacows started life in Cobb World as a playoff contender known as the Tacoma Boogity Boogity Boogity. Despite their gutwrenchingly awful name, the franchise had one of the most gifted pitching staffs in the league. Then they lost on a tiebreaker for a playoff spot, and everything collapsed after that, bringing in an era of franchise abandonment, high draft picks, and losing records. Owner stability has helped to keep this team drafting well, but those picks have not paid off with a winning record yet, but there is hope for the future.

#30 - Seattle Seacows
Franchise Power Ranking: 18
Best Year: 93-69, s1 - Worst Year: 44-118, s9
Postseason Achievements: None
Best Player: Bobby Griffin - Griffin is the only player in Seacows history to post a single season OPS above 1.000, with a 1.049 in season 1.
Best Pitcher: Bernie Wyatt - Wyatt is the only 20 game winner in Seacows history, and was the best pitcher on the team for the first half of the decade.
Best International Prospect:
Rico Cruz
Best Draft Pick: James Cole
Franchise Theme Song: Where Have All the Good Times Gone by Van Halen
Franchise Highlights: Finished tied for 1st place in season 1, but missed the playoffs in a disputed tiebreaker. Season 1's starting rotation featured Bernie Wyatt, B.C. Steenstra, and Nate Rodgers. Seattle has been one of the best drafting teams in Cobb history, with picks such as Elvis Christman, James Cole, Zephyr Burns, Roger Sanders, Pedro Chavez, Trent Billingsley, Larry Sabel, and Reggie Serafini.
Franchise Lowlights: Missing the playoffs in what seemed to be a winning tiebreaker in season 1 was a bummer. The franchise was abandoned in season 2 during its stint in Honolulu. The_Kid was a manager of this team for season 3. Only James Cole remains on the Seacows team from the laundry list of talented draft picks listed above. Franchise posted a record low win total of 44 in season 9.
Franchise Outlook: Iffy. Seattle is a franchise in flux, it has lots of young talent, but none of the players seem like they will arrive within a year or two of each other. A trickle of talent to the majors is ok for franchises with lots of veteran talent, but not for a team where the best players are all under 26. Once the draft picks start arriving in droves then Seattle should get on the upswing, especially if they keep their high picks through their entire development.

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