German Bundesliga – 2008 in Review – Solingen Alligators

The German championship is over. In the next few weeks we’re starting with our reviews of the 2008 season. This week Dirk Fries is looking at the playoff teams of the northern division in the Baseball-Bundesliga.

by Dirk Fries

Solingen Alligators

The Alligators went wire to wire in 2008. After winning the Championship in 2006 the Club was considered a favorite to repeat as Champions in 2007. After faltering in the semifinals against Mainz, Solingen looked to regain its 2006 form with a new head coach at the helm. Craig Spilker was brought over to replace Zeke Mitchem.

For 2008, the Club was picked to run away with the Division title. Only Paderborn was able to keep pace with them. Still the Division crown was never really in jeopardy for the Alligators, as they cruised to a 27-1 record. Their only loss of the season came against Paderborn. This dominance meant that the Alligators needed to be considered a favorite for the title. After they were able to beat nemesis Mainz in the first round, the second championship in three years seemed possible. But a doubleheader loss in Regensburg put them into a hole that they were unable to crawl out of, as they dropped their semifinal series 1-3 against the Legionaere.

What the stats say:

The jewel of the club is its starting pitching. With Enorbel Marquez and André Hughes the Alligators arguably have the best all-German 1-2 punch in the country.  Both hurlers are dominating national and international forces, and it shows in the league stats. Marquez went undefeated all year (10-0) while Hughes went 11-1. The Alligators hardly ever needed a bullpen, but do have a corps consisting of national team player Jens Cornelsen and Youngsters Bastian Bernards and Robin Drache. Solingen’s team ERA is tops in the league, edging out Paderborn by a .17 margin (1.63 to 1.80).  Marquez narrowly lost out on the league-lead in ERA. His 1.00 ERA was just a tad higher than Paderborn´s Ozona’s (0.96). Marquez did pitch twice as many Innings, though.

Solingen´s Offense was thought to dominate, and it did. Just not quite as much as people thought it would. Put another way, people just didn’t expect the Untouchables to be able to keep pace.

Possibly the effects of losing top player Kai Gronauer in the middle of season were felt. Still, with Dominik Wulf, newly acquired Ernie Nsien and foreigners Chris Beck and Derek Malikian the offense was very dangerous. Especially Beck turned out to be a hitting machine. He led the league with an incredible .531 AVG. Gronauer, even while missing half of the season, actually came in second. Wulf had a bid of a down year by his standards at .347. The offensive surprise was Dustin Hughes, younger brother of starting pitcher André. The first baseman started almost every game and hit .337 for the year.

Looking ahead the future looks bright for the Alligators. Depending mostly on homegrown talent the Alligators will have a good team for years to come. As we saw this year some of their young guys can already contribute. Together with the veteran players that are mostly still in their mid-20´s, the team should stay intact for some time.

Photos of the 2008 Alligators Season at Eisenhuth-Photographie.de.

Tomorrow: Paderborn Untouchables