Diamondbacks Minor League Season in review: Mobile BayBears

The Mobile BayBears had made the Southern League playoffs in each of the previous five seasons, but fell just short in 2015, despite a winning record; however, their post-season push did last until the penultimate game of this year's campaign. Manager Robby Hammock, having moved up from Visalia in 2014, oversaw a roster which included some of the organization's top prospects, such as Braden Shipley, with other Baybears' players also helping out the club at the big-league level, notably Silvino Bracho and Socrates Brito.

Overall

• Team record: 70-67 (2nd of five)
• Runs scored: 552 (4.03 per game)
• Runs allowed: 545 (3.98 per game)

Hitting

• Age: 23.9 (league average: 24.1)
• BA: .250 (.253)
• OBP: .319 (.330)
• SLG: .369 (.369)
• OPS: .688 (.700)
• SB/CS: 93/60 (102/47)

Mobile ranked fourth in runs per game, but were still below-average, as the overall numbers were skewed by the Toronto-esque offenses of Chattanooga and Montgomery The BayBears were placed in the middle of the pack for most offensive categories, with the notable exception of walks, where they were last in the league. A walk-rate of only 8.2% compared to the Southern League average of 9.6%. Strikeouts were slightly above average as well, with a 20.4%, with average being 19.4%. All told, the offense ranked sixth in OPS, so was probably a little lucky/clutch in terms of overall production, especially since they weren't great on the bags, with a 39% caught stealing rate.

Leaders (min 200 PA for rate stats)

• Runs: Socrates Brito (70)
• Hits: Brito (147)
• 2B: Rudy Flores (24)
• 3B: Brito (15)
• HR: Flores (14)
• RBI: Flores (65)
• BB: Sean Jamieson (40)
• K: Flores (138)
• BA: Zach Borenstein (.314)
• OBP: Borenstein (.394)
• SLG: Borenstein (.511)
• OPS: Borenstein (.905)
• SB: Brito (20)

After going 7-for-16 to open the season, Borenstein got a quick promotion to Reno, but struggled there, hitting just .154 over 18 games before being sent back down. But the left-handed outfielder continued to hit for Mobile, including his second cycle in little more than a year, but didn't play after August 10. Rudy Flores led the team in production, with more HR and RBI than anyone else - but also had fifty more strikeouts, A K-rate of 28% will need to drop if he's to progress. That opens the door for Socrates Brito, who not only sports the coolest name in our farm system, but also plays a very capable outfield, as we've seen.

Pitching

• Age: 24.5 (24.3)
• ERA: 3.65 (3.81)
• WHIP: 1.331 (1.359)
• K/9: 7.3 (7.5)
• BB/9: 3.5 (3.7)
• K/BB: 2.07 (2.02)

Middle-of-the-road numbers for Mobile in most pitching categories too, with a strikeout to walk ratio which was a little better than average, and that was the case for most of the peripherals as well. Strikeouts were a little low, but so were the walks, so that balanced out. Not really much worthy of comment, to be honest, though the 52 unearned runs allowed were the lowest in the league, which helped keep the overall runs per game rate down, with Mobile being one of only two teams to allow fewer than four per game. Fielding, they made about nine errors fewer than average, and threw out 31% of base-stealers, which is close to par (32%).

Pitching leaders (min 50 IP for rate stats)

• Wins: Braden Shipley (9)
• Losses: Shiipley (11)
• ERA: A.J. Schugel (2.21)
• Saves: Silvino Bracho (19)
• K: Shipley (118)
• BB: Shipley (56)
• WHIP: Gabriel Arias (1.031)
• K/9: Adam Miller (10.1)
  
• BB/9: Schugel (1.7)
• K/BB: Arias (3.75)

The problem with Double-A pitchers is that good ones tended to move on up. Aaron Blair is a case in point, putting up a 2.70 ERA in 13 starts before going to Reno. Same with Schugel, who had an even better ERA (2.21 in 12 starts), although was awful above Double-A (9.19 ERA(. Johnny Omahen moved up from Visalia, and had similar figures to Blair (2.78 ERA, 12 starts), and Bracho K'd 11.9 per nine IP before his promotion to the majors. The only person who hung around was Braden Shipley and the 23-year-old did a great job of turning his year around after an awful May (7.89 ERA). In July and August he had a 1.91 ERA over 12 games to restore hope he can be a significant part of our future.