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Fort McMurray, Alberta -. For those who thought that the 2015 Canadian Baseball League season for the Fort McMurray Roughnecks was supposed to be filled with a lot of excitement and good baseball on the field, sure sobered up pretty quickly after things went from bad to worse at the start of the season. The Roughnecks have been plagued by poor ownership and countless bonehead trades which crippled any chance of the team rebuilding while ripping the hearts out of some of their loyal fans. Having not finished higher then 4th in the division since the inaugural 2001 season, and fan support once again dwindling, team owner Chris Wilke, had no choice but to move the team from Sherwood Park to Fort McMurray prior to last season. Once again a fresh start was needed and this marked the franchise's fourth move in the fifteen years of their existence in the CBL. Moving the team wasn't the only thing that was going to change the club's fortunes. Things were so bad for the team that they were forced to trade away their only star player, C Dario Crawford. 2015 was not a good year for the Fort McMurray Roughnecks, as they only accumulate 43 victories and finished dead last in the entire league.
Now that the honey-moon is finally over and the new season is about to get under way, the Fort McMurray Roughnecks finally have a whole lot to look forward …starting with the 2016 CBL Amateur Draft. By finishing last in the league last season, the Roughnecks have the privilege of selecting first overall in the 2016 Amateur Draft. With the selection, the ownership has made it no secret that they will be taking 20 year old RHP Paul Manis from the Brandon Bobcats. Manis finished with a 12-9 record and a 2.12 ERA in 234.0 innings pitched. He's got a lot of control striking out 267 while only walking 75, 28 of his 36 starts were quality and pitched 6 complete games. The Roughnecks will most likely be looking to fill another pitching slot with their second round selection (29th) as this draft seems to be pitcher heavy. Fort Mac also holds the 56, 57 and 84th overall picks.
The 2016 season's excitement doesn't end with the draft in Fort Mac, there are going to be many new reasons to cheer on the team. Gone along with Crawford was young pitching prospect, Greg Cavanaugh, who was the 32 overall pick in the 2014 Amateur Draft. In losing Crawford and Cavanaugh to the PEI Argonauts, the Roughnecks gained two outfielders, and four draft picks including the 7th overall in the 2015 Amateur Draft. The two outfielders just so happen to also be brothers, RF Zack Smith and LF Warren Smith. These two are fairly similar and bring speed and good batting to the plate. With the 7th overall draft pick last season, the Roughnecks selected RHP Jose Cortez out of Acadia. The 20 year old will start the season where he left off last year in the Low Minors but may get called up to AAA by years end.
Also gone are many aging veterans who were only able to crack a poor team’s lineup. These fillers have been replaced with some great young players. Along with the Smith brothers, there are three other new position players who are about to see their first CBL action. After surprisingly being passed over with the first two selections in the 2015 Amateur Draft, the Roughnecks had no choice but to make a move and trade up one spot to guarantee selecting the man that they wanted. The man that they just couldn’t pass up is 3B Mike Camphor. “Mike is going to be an amazing player, he instantly replaces the bat that we lost in Crawford, this guy has the talent to break a lot of rookie records this upcoming season!” an elated Wilke said of his new power hitter in spring training. With a 99CH and a 90PH, 23 year old Camphor will be looking to bat in a lot of RBI this year. Camphor is easily one of the Rookie of the Year frontrunners going into the 2016 season.
One of the players that Camphor hopes to be batting in is the Roughnecks first round and 4th overall selection, the team's new DH Angus Yant. Angus isn't you typical designated hitter, who boasts big time power but no speed, he is in fact almost opposite, he's a pure speedster who led the Pioneer League in stolen bases with 90 last season. Angus was a pitcher when he was played high school ball, but his coach used him too much and he damaged his arm and in college was no longer able to pitch. His love of the game and his pure athleticism prevented him from quitting the game of baseball. He was moved to the outfield in college and has become a very good batter with extreme speed.
Another new face is behind the plate. In Dario Crawford, the Roughnecks had thought that they had a catcher for years to come. Bad mistake, after drafting Crawford, the Roughnecks hadn't selected another decent catcher to replace him until he was dealt. Last season the two catchers were selected, Newt Stevens and Mike McIvor, neither of the two will be mature enough for the big league this upcoming season and possibly not for another two seasons. When C Malcolm Pooley was still available in the Supplemental Draft, the Roughnecks' quickly snatched him up. Pooley boasts one of the league's strongest arms and should be able to throw many potential base stealers out. He also has some pretty hefty batting abilities and will be a good fit to bat after Camphor. Any teams looking to intentionally walk the team's cleanup hitter might be in for some trouble.
Now, not everything about the new season is full of promise, this is however the same team that finished dead last in the standings in 2015. The biggest weakness for the Roughnecks is once again, their pitching staff. LHP Byrdak, entering his 4th season as a regular starter, will be looking to improve on his career 3.80 ERA and try to win more games then he loses for the first time in his career. Trade rumors were flying around last season that Byrdak was on his way out of town, but nothing came of that and the team is glad he is around. "We've got 4 guys coming up in our system who are going to be phenomenal starters in the league sometime in the next 5 years. They are going to need a leader like Harold, who can get them through their growing pains."
Aside from ace Harold Byrdak, there is not another strong starting pitcher on the team. The rest of the rotation will consist of Reg Holzshu, Sandez Uzzle, Jamie Moisman and likely Vladimir Zosky. Together the four of them have a combined 127-243 Win-Loss record. Don't look for things to change much there, even with the better offensive players on the team, these four pitchers allow a lot of runs and accumulate a lot of losses along the way. With pitching like this, the team will not challenge for the Beer this season, if they can finish with 50 wins this year, it'll be considered a success.
The bright spot for the Roughnecks pitching is that they have some really good prospects coming up. Look for more information on the team's prospects in their farm system and the rest of the returning players in your next edition of Fort McMurray Roughnecks Quarterly.
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