After the French Elite League and German Baseball-Bundesliga we’ll now continue with our ‘2008 in Review’ series with the Italian Baseball League and the Dutch Hoofdklasse.
Montepaschi Grosseto
The 2007 Italian champion GROSSETO couldn’t defend their title last season. They won 28 of 42 games during the regular season for third place in the Italian Baseball League standings. In the playoff round the club only got three victories in nine games to finish in fourth place and to miss the Italian Championship Series. Management even tried to wake up the team during the stretch run, when they fired Mauro Mazzotti midway through the semi-final round.
MONTEPASCHI also hosted one of the European Cups, losing in the final against CORENDON KINHEIM. At the European Cup Final Four in Barcelona, Spain, they were able to beat host FC BARCELONA in the bronze medal match. They also reached the finals of the Coppa Italia, the Italian cup competition, but lost the best-of-three series against FORTITUDO BOLOGNA.
What the stats say
GROSSETO had a run-differential of 247 scored to 168 allowed during the regular season. Their offense was ranked first in the league with a .292 batting average, was tied for third in on-base-percentage (.370) and tied for second in slugging (.392). The pitching staff had a third-best ERA of 3.43 with 291 strikeouts (5th in league) and 148 walks (4th) in 385.1 innings pitched. The defense committed 49 errors, which led to 21 unearned runs.
Jairo Ramos was the team-MVP, batting .342 (OBP .456/SLG .555) with seven homeruns, twelve doubles, 33 runs scored and 40 RBIs in 42 games. Only Richard Austin of BOLOGNA drove in more runs. Jorge Nunez (.299/.377/.418) was tied for the league lead with 43 runs scored. He also led the IBL with 22 stolen bases. Davide Dallospedale (.277/.389/.337) scored 35 runs. Seven different players had batting averages over .290, ten scored at least ten runs, ten also had double digits in the RBI total.
Chris Cooper, who split time between the rotation and the bullpen, led the staff with an ERA of 1.57. He had a 6-2 record in 16 games (seven starts), while striking out 51 (15 walks) in 63 innings. Lincoln Mikkelsen, who opened the year with a rain-shortened six-inning no-hitter, had a 6-2 record with an ERA of 2.01 in 14 starts. He struck out 81 in 98 2/3 innings, walking 22. Six other hurlers also made starts. Riccardo De Santis (1-0, ERA 1.96, 18.1 IP, 14 SO, 4 BB, 4 starts), Yovany D’Amico (1-3, ERA 3.18, 39.2 IP, 41 SO, 13 BB, 5 starts), Emiliano Ginanneschi (6-1, ERA 2.60, 45 IP, 19 SO, 13 BB, 2 starts) made the best impression among the half dozen. David Preziosi (ERA 2.13), Leonardo D’Amico (ERA 4.82) and Anthony Ferrari (ERA 6.75) were part of the bullpen.
The offseason hasn’t heated up yet for the ORIOLES so far. They introduced a new manager and pitching coach in October. But since then, it is quite in Grosseto. If they can hold on to their players from 2008 it is fine. They had a championship worthy team.
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