Fresno named 2015 Team of the Year
FRESNO, Calif. (November 4, 2015) - The Fresno Grizzlies have been selected by Minor League Baseball and the fans as the 2015 Team of the Year. The club won a franchise record 84 games on way to winning their first-ever Pacific Coast League and National Championships in what was their first season as the Triple-A affiliate of the Houston Astros.
"Back when we signed the player development contract with the Astros in September 2014, we met internally and imagined how the upcoming season would go and the idea of what winning a championship would be like," stated Derek Franks, Grizzlies General Manager. "To actually live the experience and feel the emotions of it all is unlike anything any of us dreamt up that day. We truly feel that the 2015 season is the beginning of an extremely historic stretch.
TURNING POINT
Back in early May, the Grizzlies fell to 12-13 after a 9-7 loss to the Rainiers on May 11th. However, it marked the only day of the season they sat below .500 as the team proceeded to win 16 of their next 24 games to recapture first place in the Pacific Northern Division division for good. A key ingredient during those 24 games was Astros shortstop Carlos Correa, who was promoted to the Grizzlies from Corpus Christi and instantly changed the tone in the clubhouse and on the field.
Fresno ended up leading their division for a total of 139 days (91.4% of the total season) and 119 straight from May 12th to the end of the season. That incredible feat was possible due to the team turning in a winning record each month despite the Astros rotating 54 total players on the Triple-A active roster.
The 84 wins were the most by an affiliated team in the city of Fresno since 1985 when the Fresno Giants won the same amount and the California League Championship.
CONFIDENCE ESTABLISHED
Plenty of moments throughout a baseball season stick out, but few topped the June 14th performance at Salt Lake when the Grizzlies ripped the Bees by a score of 17-0. The offense collected a franchise record 27 hits and saw newcomer Mike Hauschild toss 5.1 scoreless IP in his first career Triple-A start. Alex Presley became the fourth Fresno player to record a five-hit game, while Matt Duffy, L.J. Hoes and Jonathan Villar each put together four hits.
None of the 27 hits were homers and only five went for extra bases as the team scored a run in the first, two runs each in the second and fourth, four in the sixth, three in the seventh and five in the ninth. They went 14-for-28 with runners in scoring position, while Salt Lake went 0-for-12 and left 11 men stranded.
AUGUST RUSH
A historic 19-1 stretch that included win streaks of eight and 11 games opened the month of August and allowed the team to build their division lead to a season-high 14.5 games. The Fresno starting staff combined to go 13-1 with a 2.75 ERA over the 20-game span, while the bullpen went 6-0 with a 2.87 mark and eight saves. Working together, those arms limited opponents to 3.3 runs per game and were a large component in making the Grizzlies become the first minor league team to clinch a playoff spot come late August.
HELPS TO HAVE A LEAGUE MVP
Corner infielder Matt Duffy became the first Grizzlies player to receive the Pacific Coast League MVP honor since Calvin Murray in 1999 and the first Astros Triple-A player since right-hander Donne Wall received it with Tucson in 1995. Duffy spent the entire regular season with Fresno and batted .294 (144-490) with 29 doubles, two triples, 20 home runs, 104 RBI, 48 walks, 90 strikeouts, four stolen bases, and 94 runs scored.
The 94 runs scored led the PCL, while the 104 RBI were second to only Reno's Peter O'Brien and were four shy of tying the franchise record. The 26-year-old University of Tennessee product received more than half of the votes from the 16 field managers, as well as media representatives from across the league to become the 79th MVP in Pacific Coast League history.
INDIVIDUAL MOMENTS PROPEL SIGNATURE VICTORIES
Plenty of franchise records were either set or tied throughout the 2015 season. One of the more notable accomplishments came on May 13th at Albuquerque when Jon Singleton drove in 10 runs during a 17-6 thrashing of the Isotopes. The 4-for-6 performance included a grand slam and two-run homer off Ryan Arrowood, as well as two run-scoring singles. L.J. Hoes matched a franchise record in the same game by scoring five times despite only recording two official at bats (three walks, one HBP).
Not even three weeks later, outfielder Alex Presley established a new club record by generating six hits in a 14-1 victory over Oklahoma City on June 1st. The career-best performance read 6-for-7 with three doubles, a homer, five RBI and three runs scored in the box score, leaving him only a triple short of the cycle. He stepped to the plate 6-for-6 with two outs in the ninth, but position player Ralph Henriquez, who took over on the mound at the beginning of the inning, was able to get him to fly out to center to prevent a seventh hit.
Four different pitchers tallied 10-strikeout games over the course of the season. Mark Appel set the tone for a 21-win August by whiffing 10 Isotopes' batters on August 1st in a 9-7 victory and matched the performance weeks later in a decisive Game 5 victory over Round Rock that secured the organization's first-ever PCL title. Dan Straily became the first to accomplish the feat during the 2015 campaign when his strong 10-strikeout outing on May 30th propelled the team to a 2-1 win over an Oklahoma City team that owned a league-best 33-14 record. Lastly, Mike Hauschild and Asher Wojciechowski paired their 10-strikeout games two days apart in road victories at El Paso.
Reliever Jordan Jankowski stood out among the bullpen arms throughout the regular season by not surrendering a single home run over 55 appearances (62.1 IP). Since August 15, 2014, Jankowski has only allowed three homers (two in the '15 postseason) and all of them have come off the bat of Padres' No. 1 Prospect Hunter Renfroe.
ONE OF THE BEST AT THE HELM
Manager Tony DeFrancesco made bold statements before and during the 2015 season about the success the Astros farm system would bring to the city of Fresno and the results over the course of the year backed all of them up. The memorable season gave the skipper his second Triple-A National Championship, fourth PCL title, and 10th division title. Already scheduled to return to the helm for the Grizzlies in 2016, he'll enter the upcoming season only 47 wins shy of 1,500 for his minor league managerial career.