Beloit Snappers Take a Look Back at Season Piled with Injuries, Missed Opportunities

MLN Newswire - www.mlntherawfeed.com – Entering the 2008 season, the Snappers were primed for a very successful year. Considered by many to repeat as Western Division Champs, at the very least, Beloit’s Opening Day roster had 11 returning players from the ’07 team. Two of the 11 included 2006 first-rounder Chris Parmelee and ’06 second-rounder Joe Benson, a couple of the Twins’ highest rated prospects in their farm system. Under new manager Nelson Prada, the Snappers got off to a surprising 2-7 start and finished the month of April with a record of 10-16. What looked like a promising season, started off on the wrong foot. Enter Ben Revere.

April 28th proved to be the most important day in the Snappers’ season and maybe the most important day in the entire Midwest League. The Twins’ sent their 2007 first-round draft pick Ben Revere to Beloit to begin his first full minor league season, and boy did the Snappers need it.

Ben struggled in his first game as a Snapper, committing a fielding error, misplaying another ball and going 0-for-3 with two strikeouts against the South Bend Silver Hawks on April 28th. From that point on, the rest has been history. The Snappers went 28-17 from the moment Revere was added until the end of the first half, finishing just three games out of a first half playoff spot. Still, the emergence of Revere and the Snappers had fans holding high hopes for the second half.

The Snaps got out to a fast start in the second half, winning seven of their first eight games. However, June 28th would mark the beginning of the end for the defending Western Division Champs. Chris Parmelee, Joe Benson and Jair
Fernandez were all placed on the disabled list with injuries, forcing each one of them to be done for the season.

Beloit went 9-9 from that point until July 18th, when another big injury would end the season for the Snappers’ biggest power threat. Deibinson Romero fractured his right leg on the 18th making a spectacular catch while falling into the home
dugout. Romero’s injury not only ended his season, but it also sent the Snappers into a downward spiral, something they would struggle to get out of for the remainder of the season. The Snappers lost eight of their next ten games to fall back to .500 (19-19) and in sixth place in the Western Division. The Snaps hung around the .500 mark for the next couple weeks until a 2-6 road trip (8/16 – 8/24) sent them back in the standings and virtually out of second half playoff contention.
ADVERTISEMENT

Beloit finished the second half right at .500 (35-35), five games out of the second half wild card spot. This season marked the first time since the Snappers have been affiliated with the Twins that they failed to reach the postseason. They did, however, finish with a 71-67 overall record, their third straight season of winning baseball.

All in all, the Snappers had 16 different injuries to deal with on top of seven promotions of their players to the Twins’ High A Affiliate Fort Myers Miracle. The ’08 Snappers did have an impressive year on the individual side of things. Mike McCardell was the Twins’ Minor League Player of the Month (June) for going 4-0 with a 2.45 ERA and David Bromberg ended up as the MWL leader in strikeouts with 177.

Statistically, everything seemed to take a back seat to Ben Revere’s unbelievable run. The ’07 first-rounder flirted with the .400 mark all season long and ended up with more awards than he could count. The speedy outfielder was awarded the
following:

- Midwest League MVP
- Midwest League Prospect of the Year
- Midwest League All-Star
- Midwest League Post-Season All-Star
- Best Batting Prospect (Baseball America)
- Best Strike Zone Judgment (Baseball America)
- Fastest Baserunner (Baseball America)
- Most Exciting Player (Baseball America)
- Topps Co-Midwest League Player of the Month (May)
- Minnesota Twins Minor League Player of the Month (May)

If you like the daily news of the Raw Feed, SUBSCRIBE TODAY to the nation's only alternative professional sports magazine, SZ, with original features and great action photography in baseball, hockey, basketball, and football. Just $11.99 per year for an e-zine like you’ve never seen!