Goldeyes’ winning season came up just short

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This article was published 03/09/2019 (2238 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In 2016, the Winnipeg Goldeyes went 58-42 in the regular season and went on to hoist the American Association’s championship trophy.

This year, the Goldeyes had a similar record, 57-43, but it wasn’t enough to get a spot in the playoffs. In fact, it wasn’t even close.

The regular season came to an end on Monday with the Goldeyes capping off their 100-game schedule with a 9-5 win over the Sioux Falls Canaries. But the game didn’t matter as the Fish were eliminated from playoff contention a week prior — with eight games left on their schedule.

The top two teams from each division qualify for the post-season and the Goldeyes finished six games behind the second-place team in the North Division — the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks (63-37). The St. Paul Saints took the division crown with a 64-36 record. The Chicago Dogs also found themselves on the outside of the playoff picture as their 59 wins put them in third place in the North. To make things sting even more for the Goldeyes, and especially the Dogs, the Kansas City T-Bones captured the South Division with 58 wins, while the Sioux City Explorers grabbed the second and final playoff spot in the division with a 57-43 record.

“Fifty-seven wins is a heck of a season in this league,” said Goldeyes hitting coach Tom Vaeth, who will not return to the Fish next year.

“In our division, it’s just there were teams that were a little bit better than us. St. Paul and Fargo had a great year and the Chicago Dogs had a great year. It was definitely unbalanced in the league. The South Division wasn’t as strong. When it’s kind of tilted like that, somebody in the North Division is going to miss out and unfortunately, it was us.”

If it’s any consolation, the Goldeyes had a much improved season from 2018. Last year, the Goldeyes had their worst winning percentage in franchise history with a dreadful 41-59 campaign. The return of third baseman Wes Darvill, who was a key member of the team’s championship runs in 2016 and 2017, helped the Fish get back to winning baseball this season as the Langley, B.C., native hit .317 with seven home runs, 39 RBIs and 26 stolen bases.

They also had an incredible season from left-handed starting pitcher Mitchell Lambson, who was named the league’s 2019 Pitcher of the Year after going 13-3 with a 3.11 ERA in his third year with the Fish. The Goldeyes also benefited from a bounceback season from starting pitcher Kevin McGovern, as the fourth-year Goldeye went 12-7 with a 3.85 ERA. But outside of Lambson and McGovern, the Goldeyes struggled to get consistent pitching from their rotation.

As for the offence, the Fish likely would’ve been able to make things interesting in the playoff race if it wasn’t for the decline of veteran outfielders Josh Romanski and Reggie Abercrombie. Romanski was the league’s player of the year in 2017, but 2019 was a different story for the 32-year-old California native. Romanski was released in late June after suffering an upper-body injury, but the team didn’t bring him back when he got healthy. Romanski hit .266 with zero home runs and eight RBIs for the Fish in 33 games this season. St. Paul picked Romanski up, but they released him on July 29 as he continued to struggle at the plate. Abercrombie led the Fish with a .316 batting average last year, but that number dropped to .256 this season. The 39-year-old former Major Leaguer finished with 16 home runs and 70 RBIs and has announced his retirement. Abercrombie and Romanski were the Goldeyes’ two-headed monster the past three years, but their magic seemed to run out in 2019.

“We’re very proud of the way the guys battled all summer and it was a really good group,” Vaeth said. “A lot of years, this would’ve been good enough for a playoff spot. It just wasn’t meant to be this year.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31