2016 Nashville Sounds Season in Review
The Sounds finished with a record of 83-59 record, the best in the Pacific Coast League. The 83 wins were tied for fifth-most in franchise history, and were the most a Nashville team has had since the 2007 team won 89 games. They returned to the playoffs for the first time since that 2007 season and won the franchise's fifth division title since joining the PCL in 1998.
Nashville met the Oklahoma City Dodgers in the American Conference Finals where the season came to a dramatic end in game five. After winning game one at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, the Sounds dropped game two the next night. They came back to win game three at home to take a 2-1 series lead, but the Dodgers won game four, 7-1, to set up a deciding game. In a game that featured five lead changes, the Sounds blew a 9-7 lead in the eighth inning and lost game five, 10-9.
The 2016 campaign marked the second season of play at First Tennessee Park. The Sounds sold out 14 times and drew 504,060 fans, including the one millionth fan in the two-year span on August 13. The 504,060 fans was sixth-highest total in the PCL. In 71 openings, First Tennessee Park hosted an average of 7,099 fans, good for seventh best in the league. The Sounds welcomed three crowds exceeding 11,000 spectators, including their biggest crowd of the season on July 3, drawing a record-breaking 11,759 fans. In the two-year history of First Tennessee Park, the Sounds have welcomed 1,069,608 fans through the gates and have amassed 33 sellouts.
A total of 61 players played for the Sounds in the regular season (27 batters, 34 pitchers) and three more players joined Nashville in the playoffs.
From the beginning of the season to the end, Nashville made 191 transactions. Three have happened since the Sounds were eliminated from the playoffs as Matt Olson, Renato Nunez and Dillon Overton have joined the Athletics. Seven players were with the Sounds from start to finish (Rangel Ravelo, Olson, Nunez, Ryan Brasier, Angel Castro, Tucker Healy and Eduard Santos).
A total of 15 players were with Nashville before making their Major League debut with Oakland this year (Andrew Triggs, Sean Manaea, J.B. Wendelken, Zach Neal, Daniel Mengden, Dillon Overton, Patrick Schuster, Ryon Healy, Bruce Maxwell, Chad Pinder, Joey Wendle, Raul Alcantara, Jharel Cotton, Matt Olson and Renato Nunez).
Eight players made Major League rehab assignments with the Sounds throughout the season, including Henderson Alvarez, Josh Phegley, Jed Lowrie, R.J. Alvarez, Liam Hendriks, Josh Reddick, Sean Doolittle and Jesse Hahn.
Of the 61 players during the regular season, only five found their way to the disabled list. They include Bruce Maxwell, Bryan Anderson, Andrew Lambo, Ryan Doolittle and Bobby Wahl.
Outfielder Jaycob Brugman was named the Team MVP in a pre-game ceremony on September 1. Brugman began the season with Double-A Midland before being promoted to Nashville on May 21. With the Sounds, he hit .295 (114-for-386) with 67 RBI, 50 runs scored, 26 doubles, 7 home runs, 4 triples, 36 walks and 5 stolen bases. In 132 games overall in 2016, he hit .285 (155-for-543) with 87 RBI, 77 runs scored, 33 doubles, 12 home runs, 7 triples, 52 walks and 7 stolen bases. He set career-highs in average, RBI, runs, hits and doubles.
Manager Steve Scarsone was named Pacific Coast League Manager of the Year as voted on by the league's managers and media representatives. The team spent over 100 days in first place in the American Southern Division standings throughout the regular season. He's the fifth Sounds manager to win the Manager of the Year award in franchise history.
Sounds second baseman Joey Wendle was named the 2016 Community MVP. Throughout the season, Wendle took time out of his personal schedule to assist in several community endeavors. He participated in numerous trips to Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt to visit with patients and their families, the Hope to Dream Event and the Girl Scout Camp Day. Wendle excelled on the field as well as he posted a .279 (137-for-491) batting average with 81 runs scored, 61 RBI, 31 doubles, 12 home runs, 9 triples, 26 walks and 14 stolen bases. He was recalled by the Athletics on August 30 and his made big league debut with the A's on August 31.
Four Sounds were honored with Pacific Coast League weekly awards. Dillon Overton was named PCL Pitcher of the Week for his play from April 18-24, Jaycob Brugman was named PCL Player of the Week for his efforts from June 6-12, Bruce Maxwell was PCL Player of the Week for his play from July 11-17 and Jharel Cotton was named PCL Pitcher of the Week for his play from August 8-14.
Nashville's pitching was a key ingredient to their success. They finished with the best team ERA in the PCL at 3.42, well ahead of Oklahoma City who finished second with a 3.72 ERA. The staff also allowed the fewest hits (1,130), fewest home runs (93) and had the lowest WHIP (1.24).
The Sounds finished with a 148 home runs, second-most in the Pacific Coast League behind only El Paso's 156. Renato Nunez led the way with 23 and joined four other Sounds who had at least 10 on the season (Matt Olson - 17, Chad Pinder - 14, Joey Wendle - 12, Bruce Maxwell - 10). The 148 homers are the most since the 2011 Sounds team clubbed 153.
While the Sounds scored runs and hit homers at a rapid rate, they did the opposite on the base paths. They were second-last in the Pacific Coast League with 57 stolen bases, only ahead of El Paso's 56. Joey Wendle led the team with 14 and Arismendy Alcantara swiped 11 despite playing in only 48 games with Nashville.
Three Sounds players had 13-game hitting streaks during the season. From May 17-June 1, Lambo hit .333 (19-for-57) with 12 runs scored, 4 RBI, 2 home runs, 2 doubles and 5 walks during his streak. From July 6-29, Arismendy Alcantara hit .450 (27-for-60) with 12 RBI, 8 runs scored, 6 doubles, 2 home runs and 2 walks during his 13 game streak. From August 1-15, Renato Nunez hit .352 (19-for-54) with 13 RBI, 7 runs scored, 5 doubles, 4 home runs and 3 walks. Chad Pinder had a 12-game streak, Rangel Ravelo hit safely in 11 straight games and Jaycob Brugman had a 10-game streak.
Jaycob Brugman had the longest on-base streak of any Sounds player at 29 games from July 30 - August 30. It was the seventh-longest on-base streak in the Pacific Coast League this year. During the 29-game stretch, Brugman hit .347 (41-for-118) with 20 RBI, 16 runs scored, 7 doubles, 2 home runs, 1 triple and 16 walks.
Dillon Overton led the Sounds with 13 wins - good for third in the Pacific Coast League behind only Ty Blach of Sacramento (14) and Joe Wieland of Tacoma (14). Overton's 13 wins is tied for 10th-most in Sounds franchise history and is the most since R.A. Dickey won 13 in 2007.
Overton had a nine-game winning streak with the Sounds from May 17 - July 10. During the stretch, Overton went 9-0 with a 1.71 ERA. In 58.0 innings, he allowed 50 hits and 16 walks while racking up 47 strikeouts.
Starter Daniel Mengden had the longest scoreless innings streak at 19. Mengden pitched in three games from May 2-13 and gave up a total of 10 hits and 3 walks while recording 15 strikeouts. He held opponents to a .157 batting average over that span. He lost the scoreless streak when Iowa's Willson Contreras hit a solo home run in the seventh inning on May 13.
19 different pitchers started for the Sounds during the season, led by Chris Smith's 22. 10 different pitchers had a save, led by Tucker Healy's 8.
With a 22-8 mark in May and a 21-9 record in August, the Sounds were the only team in the Pacific Coast League to win 20+ games in two separate months. LeHigh Valley is the only other team in Triple-A Baseball to accomplish the feat with 20 wins in both June and July.
The Sounds finished with a .978 fielding percentage - 12th in the Pacific Coast League. The fielding improved as the season went on for Nashville. On May 1st, the team fielding percentage was .966. Joey Wendle led all second basemen with a .986 fielding percentage. He's the first Nashville second baseman to lead the PCL in fielding percentage since Eric Farris in 2012. Nashville catchers finished 8th in the PCL by throwing out 30% of runners (56-for-186). Prior to being called up to Oakland, Bruce Maxwell threw out 39% of runners.
Shortstop Chad Pinder was the only Sounds player to participate in the Triple-A All-Star Game in Charlotte. He started for the PCL and went 0-for-2 in five innings of playing time. Reliever Patrick Schuster was selected to the PCL squad but was called up to Oakland the week prior and did not participate.
Third baseman Ryon Healy participated in the Sirius XM Futures Game as part of All-Star Sunday in San Diego. Healy played with the U.S. Team that took on the World Team in the game that features top minor league prospects around baseball. Healy's season started in Double-A Midland before joining the Sounds in May. In 85 games between the two levels, he hit .326 (110-for-337) with 64 RBI, 60 runs, 28 doubles, 14 home runs and 31 walks.
Over the course of the season, the Sounds racked up 11 walk-off wins at First Tennessee Park. It started on April 8 when Renato Nunez's RBI triple in the 11th inning gave the Sounds a 2-1 win over Oklahoma City. The final walk-off win came when Franklin Barreto's RBI triple scored Josh Rodriguez in the 9th inning to give Nashville a 6-5 win over Iowa on September 1.
On July 22, the Sounds had a regularly scheduled 7:05 p.m. game against Omaha. The team experienced travel delays on their way back from Albuquerque. While waiting for the team to arrive in Nashville, gates opened at the normal 6:00 p.m. hour for fans to capture Pokémon. The Sounds activated lures every 30 minutes. First Tennessee Park is an official PokéStop with a Pokémon Gym located near the iconic guitar scoreboard in right-center field.
A pair of firsts came for First Tennessee Park in a two-day span in mid-August. On August 12, Bryan Anderson hit the first grand slam in park history in a 10-0 win over Reno. The next day, Arismendy Alcantara drilled the first walk-off homer in park history in Nashville's 2-1 win over Reno.
Nashville won a franchise-high 47 road games and finished with a 47-23 record away from First Tennessee Park. The team finished at an even .500 record of 36-36 at home. On the road, the team hit .281 with 100 home runs, 176 doubles and 19 triples. At home, they hit .241 with 48 home runs, 106 doubles and 18 triples. The Sounds scored 430 runs on the road compared to 285 at home.
The Sounds matched a few individual records during the 2016 season. On July 16, Bruce Maxwell collected five hits against El Paso, matching a record set by multiple players and most recently by Erick Almonte on June 6, 2011. On August 1, Brett Eibner drew four walks against New Orleans to become the 16th player in Sounds history to collect four walks in a single game. On September 3, Matt Chapman launched three homers against New Orleans to become the seventh player in Sounds history to hit three home runs in a game.
On August 9th in Round Rock, Sounds' pitcher Jharel Cotton narrowly missed a perfect game. Cotton retired the first 26 batters he faced before allowing a two-out triple to Doug Bernier in the bottom of the ninth inning. The right-hander struck out a career-high 12 in the dominant effort. The Sounds have two of the three nine-inning perfect games in Pacific Coast League History (John Wasdin - 4/7/03 vs. Albuquerque & Manny Parra - 6/25/07 at Round Rock).
The Sounds' longest winning streak during the 2016 season was nine games from May 23-31. The team swept an eight-game road trip in Las Vegas and Salt Lake, and won the first game of a homestand against Round Rock. During the streak, they outscored their opponents 72-34.
Most Starts by Batting Order
1 - Jaycob Brugman, 56
2 - Chad Pinder, 43
3 - Chad Pinder, 42
4 - Renato Nunez, 48
5 - Renato Nunez, 29
6 - Matt Olson/Joey Wendle, 32
7 - Rangel Ravelo, 40
8 - Rangel Ravelo, 47
9 - Bruce Maxwell, 53
Most Starts by Position
C - Bruce Maxwell, 58
1B - Rangel Ravelo, 71
2B - Joey Wendle, 121
SS - Chad Pinder, 98
3B - Renato Nunez, 90
LF - Max Muncy, 28
CF - Jaycob Brugman, 75
RF - Matt Olson, 80
DH - Renato Nunez, 30
Batting Leaders
| Batting Average | Jaycob Brugman | .295 |
| Games Played | Matt Olson | 131 |
| At-Bats | Renato Nunez | 505 |
| Hits | Joey Wendle | 137 |
| Total Bases | Joey Wendle | 222 |
| Runs Scored | Joey Wendle | 81 |
| Runs Batted In | Renato Nunez | 75 |
| Home Runs | Renato Nunez | 23 |
| Triples | Joey Wendle | 9 |
| Doubles | Matt Olson | 34 |
| Stolen Bases | Joey Wendle | 14 |
| Walks | Matt Olson | 71 |
| Strikeouts | Matt Olson | 132 |
Pitching Leaders
| Earned Run Average | Dillon Overton | 3.29 |
| Games | Ryan Brasier | 26 |
| Games Started | Chris Smith | 22 |
| Wins | Dillon Overton | 13 |
| Losses | Angel Castro | 8 |
| Saves | Tucker Healy | 8 |
| Complete Games | Jharel Cotton/Dillon Overton/Angel Castro | 1 |
| Strikeouts | Chris Smith | 121 |
| Innings Pitched | Chris Smith | 130.2 |
| Hits Allowed | Dillon Overton | 132 |
| Runs Allowed | Chris Smith | 64 |
| Walks Allowed | Chris Smith | 45 |
| Home Runs Allowed | Angel Castro | 13 |