Pitching was key element for team

Mahoning Valley will play on the road Monday against Staten Island.

Vindicator staff report

NILES — Pitching depth has been a strong suit of the Mahoning Valley Scrappers and a main reason for the team’s success in 2009.

A measure of that success, to this point, is the Scrappers’ return to the New York-Penn League championship series for the first time since their title-winning season in 2004.

Quality pitching through a game’s first five or six innings has been a huge contributor, manager Travis Fryman said.

“In our league, the team that led after five innings won 80 percent of the time,” said Fryman.

Subsequently, Mahoning Valley has avoided any prolonged losing streaks over the course of the season.

“If you have good starting pitching and can score runs, that’s a huge advantage,” said Fryman, who noted that the Los Angeles Angels haven’t lost four games in a row all season because of the strength of their starting pitching.

Mahoning Valley will play on the road Monday against State Island. The Scrappers haven’t played since last Wednesday’s 3-1 win that wrapped up the semifinal series against Brooklyn.

The Scrappers will travel 71‚Ñ2 hours back from New York to play at Eastwood on Tuesday night.

“It’s going to be tough,” said Fryman, who noted that both Lowell and Staten Island have pitching staffs ranked above Mahoning Valley’s but not by much.

“Our pitching is ranked third, but our team offense is No. 1,” Fryman said of the statistic based on batting average.

“We led in walks, runs scored and hits even though we don’t have any hitter in the top 10. And you don’t win games in the postseason without a highly-ranked pitching staff.”

The combination of the arms and bats has translated into a NYPL-best 49-27 record for the Scrappers.

Because of the Class A short-season league’s nature, an affiliate’s parent club could pluck a player. But that wasn’t the case for 2009.

“At this level, you can’t be overly optimistic about keeping a club together if guys get moved on,” Fryman said. “But the [Cleveland] Indians are good about not pushing first-year players too quickly.”

Mahoning Valley’s starting rotation comprises: Marty Popham, Clayton Cook, Brett Brach, Vidal Nuno and Preston Guilmet.

Brach will be the starter on Monday, Fryman said. Popham will pitch game 2 at Eastwood Field.

Before the Scrappers swept Brooklyn, Brach was scheduled to pitch game 3 of the semifinals.

The long break [Thursday-Sunday] isn’t good for a baseball team, Fryman said.

“You’ve got to be hitting every day and seeing pitching, so I don’t like that element, but the upside is that guys have a chance to heal,” he said of outfielder Greg Folgia and Popham.

Folgia missed the first playoff game with a strained hamstring, while Popham also sat out to recover from a bout with a fever.

Fryman looked back at the 76-game regular season.

“We got off to a great start with a 5-0 record and looked like we’d be a decent club.”

He said the Scrappers were nip-and-tuck with Williamsport in the battle for the Pinckney Division lead, a position Mahoning Valley relinquished for a day.

“Three games separated us at the all-star break, then it opened up.”

Fryman said he wasn’t overly comfortable at that time, partially because Mahoning Valley had accrued more than 100 errors.

“We were giving others a lot of extra outs, but our pitching was strong when we hit a lull. As a result, we were able to avoid any lean times and that allowed us to keep the [division] lead for 99 percent of the season.”

Injuries to Australian Jason Smit, Kyle Bellows and Kyle Smith added to Fryman’s tenuousness.

“That was our everyday third baseman, everyday shortstop and everyday right fielder,” Fryman said of the last 31‚Ñ2 weeks of the regular season.

Smit, however, missed the last six weeks with a strained shoulder. Fryman didn’t expect the Aussie to return, but Smit was in the lineup against Brooklyn during the semifinal series-clinching game last Wednesday.

Fryman considered Smit among his top three players until the injury.

The manager was very complimentary of the players who stepped in during those weeks.

“We played better after those injuries than before,” Fryman said. “I didn’t anticipate that we’d play that well. When I thought we would have struggled, we played better, so that’s a credit to my players.”

Another plus was the late arrival of Jason Kipnis, a second-round draft pick who signed late and was still rehabbing from an injury until late summer.

“Had he been here at the beginning, I don’t think we would have kept him,” Fryman said of Kipnis’ circumstances and late availability. “That was good for us.”

In 2008, Mahoning Valley was 31-44 — its second-worst record in franchise history, but Fryman cautioned against comparisons.

“At this level, there’s usually no continuity and you have a complete turnover — you don’t know who the players are going to be from one year to the next. Basically, 90 to 95 percent of the club will be new.”