Looking Back: 2014 season in review
In 2014, the West Virginia Power celebrated ten seasons at Appalachian Power Park. The baseball season, itself, was an up-and-down ride with the club winning a franchise-low 54 games, though 34 of those wins were garnered during a productive second half.
Manager Michael Ryan returned from an 82 win 2013 season that saw West Virginia win the Northern Division crown in the second half with 45 wins before falling to Hagerstown in the playoffs. Pitching Coach Jeff Johnson joined him on the staff once again while newcomers Keoni De Renne and Miguel Perez served as the Hitting Coach and Player/ Coach, respectively.
West Virginia was slated to have one of the top prospect-laden lineups at any lower level of baseball, thanks to the stout farm system of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Outfielder Austin Meadows, the fourth-best Pirates prospect according to Baseball America, was lost to a hamstring injury during Spring Training and the club lost the remainder of its starting outfield to hamstring troubles during the fourth game of the season. Barrett Barnes (13th per BA) and Harold Ramirez (9th) left in the same game within ten pitches of each other. Barnes did not play another game for the Power while Ramirez miss a month of the season.
The Power began the season with an entirely converted infield. First baseman Edwin Espinal began his professional career across the diamond at third, Erich Weiss moved from third to second, shortstop JaCoby Jones was moved permanently from the outfield and third baseman Wyatt Mathisen was West Virginia's Opening Day catcher in 2013. The roster also included top prospects like Reese McGuire (8th), Luis Heredia (10th) and Cody Dickson (20th according to Baseball America).
West Virginia went 9-17 during the first month of the season, hit .254 and had a staff earned run average of 3.75. Unfortunately the month saw the team deal with losing streaks of five and eight games. Bright spots included Weiss and Jones, who hit .337 and .306 respectively. Starting pitcher Buddy Borden went 0-1, but held a 1.37 ERA over five starts spanning 19.2 innings.
In May, the team upped its win total by two, going 11-18. West Virginia suffered through another long losing streak, spanning seven games from May 4 through 11. A hallmark of this streak and the season as a whole were one-run losses. The Power went 19-28 during the 2014 season in games decided by one run, ultimately playing more one-run games than any other team in the league except the Rome Braves.
The Power hit .260 as a club in May and the staff ERA rose slightly to 4.03 during the 29-game stretch. Reese McGuire went on a tear during May, threatening the franchise's consecutive game hitting streak mark. The catcher hit safely in 19 straight games, the longest streak in Power history since Starling Marte hit safely in 22 straight during the 2009 season. McGuire batted .351 during his streak and, coupled with one of the league's best arms, turned himself into an All-Star backstop.
The Power won their final game of the first half on May 30 at Greensboro; a 12-inning affair with the victory secured by a Jones grand slam. Over the course of the season, the shortstop hit seven of his team-best 23 home runs at the Grasshoppers' NewBridge Bank Park. West Virginia then closed the first half with a franchise-record 14 consecutive losses. The Power closed the first half with a team batting average of .255 and a staff earned run average elevated to 4.47.
Two players were selected to represent the Power at the annual South Atlantic League All-Star Game. Weiss hit .307 during the first half with one home run, the only inside-the-park- grand slam in team history, and 20 runs batted in. McGuire was also tabbed as an All-Star reserve after batting .277 with one home run and 19 runs batted in.
The second half began on the road at Lakewood with a 2-1 win and was a sign of things to come. The Power took six of eight on their road trip to start the half and were paced by the prospects. Harold Ramirez, who had returned to the lineup in early May, began a lengthy hitting streak on June 5. The outfielder passed McGuire's streak on June 28. Three days later, Harold Ramirez would pass Marte and set a new single season hitting streak record at 23 straight games. Unfortunately, Ramirez was saddled with another injury and would not play another game during the 2014 season.
Jones became the first Power player during the season to be honored by the South Atlantic League with a weekly award, garnering Player-of-the-Week regards for June 30 through July 7. Buddy Borden then won Pitcher-of-the-Week honors for the time period from July 7 through 14.
Meadows' much-anticipated South Atlantic League debut fell on July 12 against Greensboro. His addition helped ease the loss of Ramirez as Meadows was quickly placed in the third spot of Ryan's shuffled lineup. Just under a week later, the Power won their first game via walk-off. On July 18, West Virginia rallied to beat Rome 9-8 at Appalachian Power Park as McGuire scored on a Danny Collins walk-off walk. The club beat Rome again 9-8 three days later on a McGuire walk-off single.
The club again tallied 11 wins, finishing July 11-17 while batting .271. The staff ERA remained elevated at 4.46, though Dickson began a resurgence. After a successful 2013 campaign in the New York-Penn League, the southpaw went 2-8 during the first half with a 5.58 earned run average over 13 starts. During the second half, Dickson was an impressive 5-1 with a 2.45 ERA over 14 starts. Teamed with Borden, West Virginia had one of the better 1-2 pitching tandems in the entire South Atlantic League.
August was the best month of the season for the club, despite several games being canceled due to weather. West Virginia was 15-11 in August with a staff ERA of 3.13, fifth best in the 14-team league. Jones, Meadows and Mathisen each hit about .300 while Borden, Dickson and Heredia paced the staff with earned runs average at 3.06 or under. The team blanked Asheville's league-best, record setting offense on August 9 by a 10-0 final. On August 28, Edwin Espinal drove in seven runs against Lexington to match the franchise record for a single game, keying a 12-7, ten-inning victory.
For the first time in the franchise's five-plus year affiliation with the Pittsburgh Pirates, West Virginia swept the weekly awards. From August 4 through 11, Austin Meadows hit .480 with four doubles, two home runs and seven runs batted in. Borden added his second award of the year by going 2-0 with an 0.69 earned run average, allowing just one run on four hits over 13 innings.
At the end of the month, JaCoby Jones was named as the league's best shortstop on the South Atlantic League's Annual All-Star list. The 22-year-old finished the season with a team-best .288 average and second on the club with 70 runs batted in, leaving him one behind Espinal. Jones also finished one home run shy of matching the club record, set at 24 by Stephen Chapman during the 2007 season while the Power were affiliated with the Milwaukee Brewers.
The Power ended the season with a .262 team average, fifth best in the South Atlantic League, and the pitching staff closed the year with a 4.15 ERA, finishing tenth. Jones and Weiss led the club with 72 runs scored while Weiss stole a team-best 21 bases. Borden paced the pitching staff with a 3.16 earned run average and was matched by Dickson for a team-high seven wins apiece. The duo were the only two players who recorded over 100 strikeouts. Borden finished with 122, third most in the entire league, while Dickson capped his season with 104. Isaac Sanchez led the bullpen with six saves.
West Virginia finished the first half of the season with a 20-48 mark and finished seventh out of seven clubs in the Northern Division. The second half turnaround produced a 34-33 record and a fourth place finish within the division, seven-and-a-half games back.
Over the course of the season, six former Power players were promoted to the Major Leagues. Casey Sadler was the first player to debut this season, appearing on May 2 for Pittsburgh. He was followed by Rudy Owens (May 23- Astros), Gregory Polanco (June 10- Pirates), Zelous Wheeler (July 3- Yankees), Dilson Herrera (August 29- Mets) and Hunter Strickland (September 1- Giants). That brings the total to 43 players who have once donned a West Virginia Power jersey that went on the play in the Major Leagues.
On September 9, the Power front office announced a four year extension of the team's Player Development Contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates. This guarantees that the pipeline of Minor League talent will continue to flow through Charleston to Pittsburgh through at least the end of the 2018 season.
The 2015 season will begin at home against Savannah on April 9 at 7:05 pm.