by Carl Coffee
The Whiteford Wicked Aces have always pretty much had the same roster since entering the league in 2012. They made a splash in 2013 when signing Evan Bortmas, but for the most part the team has always ran with the same Core Five: Austin Bischoff, Evan Bischoff, Joel Crozier, RJ Fisher, and Justin Hughes. That core won two WSEM Championships, along with two Ringler Division Titles. This year, we expected the Wicked Aces to have a rebuilding year, but is that truly the case?
CON: Contact Hitting — POW: Power Hitting — ROT: Pitching Rotation — PEN: Bullpen Depth — DEF: Defense — OA: Overall
Longtime captain Austin Bischoff is living in the deep North this season, and Joel Crozier is sipping tea in Boston, so that left Evan Bischoff to put on the captain ‘C’. He decided not to keep anyone, and through the draft and a trade has assembled one of the best teams ever seen on paper. The roster has five Dads from the NWLA Championship team last year (Austin, Evan, Bortmas, Sam Hatt, Alex Shore), and the all-time leading hitter in NWLA Tournament history (Jeremy Ratajczyk). Filling out the roster are two guys who in their first WSEM appearance took home a tournament championship (Mike Giguere, Tyler Ford).
So why aren’t people excited about the Wicked Aces? Well, as previously mentioned, Austin is out this year and was drafted to be a keeper for 2016. Sam Hatt lives in Chicago and won’t be a regular. Ratajczyk lives in Indiana and runs another league. Shore will start Dental School in late June. Bortmas is always a question mark. So that leaves Little E with Ford and Giguere as the only three regulars. The other guys will play, and we probably won’t see the Aces running with three guys, but I see that 4th and sometimes 5th spot as a revolving door.
The Aces ratings are extremely consistent. Their highest number is 86, and their lowest is 83. 86 came from Contact, and when you have guys like Hatt, Shore, and Bortmas, the WSEM Dads 1-3 hitters, you can understand why. They were rated 83 in both Power and Defense. The Aces have historically never had to be good at Defense since they always relied on power pitching, but with Giguere who looks to be more of a contact pitcher getting a lot of action this year, that will change. Their overall rating of 84 is the same number as both of the pitching categories, Rotation and Bullpen. Little E is a proven Ace, but Giguere did look shaky in the Wind-up Tournament. Sam Hatt was technically classified as part of the Bullpen, and he will give the Aces a big boost when he travels east to play in some games.
The Aces won’t have a rebuilding year, but their streak of winning 20+ games also should end. This will be a competitive team, who will win because of good accurate pitching and clutch hitting. So did anything really change?
