CWL 2008
CWL Special Feature
THREE ACES....AND PATTY

By Erinn Andrews
3.11.08





When thinking of how he was going to build his team, Patrick Key thought of the one constant in any championship baseball (in this case it would be wiffleball) team, and that is a solid pitching staff. After that, he thought "well wait, I SUCK at pitching". It was after this thought that he acquired some of the better pitchers in the CWL.

The first thing he did was get Andy McMahan on board. McMahan is historically one of the best pitchers in the CWL. A former Cy Young winner, McMahan will look to rebound and return to his 2006 form. He posseses some of the best "junk" pitches in the CWL and when he is throwing consistent strikes with those pitches, he is very tough to hit against. If McMahan can work out some of the issues he had last season, it will be an excellent first step toward the Goodfellas' drive to the CWL World Series.

After McMahan, Key looked to last year's Rookie of the Year and Cy Young candidate, Bryan Stafford. Stafford established himself as one the more formidable pitchers in the CWL very early in the season. Don't let the 3-6 record fool you, Stafford was the victim of a weak offensive performance by his supporting cast on most occasions. If you must focus on his stats, then focus on his 3.29 ERA and 54 strikeouts, both numbers put him amongst the league leaders in each category. A big question that he faces again, is run support. The Goodfellas must provide the necessary offensive support to not only assist Stafford, but themselves.

Kyle Copeland was poised to be a strong newcomer to the CWL. He signed to play with the Goodfellas but due to outside conflicts, opted out of the Goodfellas and the CWL.

Upon Copeland's departure, Key wasted no time in adding another strong arm to the Goodfellas' arsenal. None other than the controversial Mike McDowell. I say controversial because McDowell was the subject of many discussion on pitching velocity in the CWL. McDowell's performance could well rest on how adjusts to the radar gun that the CWL has put in place. However, if he can adjust and be able to execute at the same level as he did last year, then McDowell could find himself as a leading candidate for the Cy Young trophy.

As stated before, Key is pretty much not a threat to be a pitcher. One of the main factors in the Goodfellas' championship run is that Key never even approaches the pitcher's mound. Key's main job is to be able to evaluate the talent he has acquired and construct a solid top to bottom rotation and then support the individual pitcher with consistent hitting.

If you ask anyone why the Atlanta Braves were able to run off such an impressive string of playoff appearances and championships, they would immediately tell you it was their pitching throughout that run. The Goodfellas hope to take that similar strategy into the 2008 season as they are poised to not only be a contender, but a dominant force in the CWL. A lot of intangibles and "what ifs" are in the mix and time will only tell if these either will contribute or hinder the Goodfellas on their road to the CWL World Series.

Erinn Andrews ESSPN (In addition to her sideline reporting duties, Ms. Andrews took on the newly formed and highly coveted CWL correspondent position with ESSPN)