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Canadian Baseball League
2022 Articles


Farmers West Preview 2022

a view from Owen Sound

(CBL Newswire) - by Dorian Lines of the Owen Sound Sun Times

Kelowna Okanagans
Division Last Season: 1st
Wins Last Season: 112

Batting
Kelowna hit 295 home runs in 2012, 142 of them hung their gloves during the off season. Losing Taj Bredesen, Barney Shannon, Charlie Bodie and Martin Balke to retirement is going to hurt any team and the perpetual performing Okanagans are no different. Taj Bredesen was a 5 time All Star, the 2012 All Star MVP and leaves the CBL on a high note after winning the Farmers League MVP award. Barney Shannon was also a 5 time All Star and also leaves the CBL on a high note after winning the 2012 Silver Slugger award for the right field position. Charlie Bodie was similarly decorated as he was a 4 time All Star and the 2007 Farmers League Rookie of the Year. Kelowna still has some fire power in the lineup but they will struggle to get near last season’s .288 team batting average.

Pitching
With only the retirement of Chance Laronda in the off season and the continued development of Ripper Chaberlin and Morgan Brinkle, Kelowna’s pitching will continue keep the team in the game. Brinkle was throwing 100mph plus pitches with some consistency during his spring outings and continues to throw an excellent sinker. And with more starts we can expect Chaberlin to go deeper into the game this season thereby easing the load on the relief corp.

Overall
Everything adds up to 2021 being the last hurrah for Kelowna. Not only did they lose 4 of their star position players, the whole batting team exceeded expectations in 2021. We just can’t see the remaining players performing to that level again in 2022. Kelowna’s run of 10 division titles on the trot will come to an end in 2022 … but it was a truly monumental achievement.

Transactions
Balke, Martin, 1st Base - retired
Bredesen, Taj, 2nd Base - retired
Bodie, Charlie, 3rd Base - retired
Shannon, Barney, Right Field - retired
Shew, Mark, 3rd Base - called up from LOW
Provis, Wattie, Left Field - called up from AAA
Queen, David, Centre Field - called up from LOW
Laronda, Chance, Middle Reliever - sent to AAA
Adamson, Andujar, Long Reliever - called up from AAA

Prediction
Division Place: 3rd
Wins: 86

Victoria Islanders
Division Last Season: 2nd
Wins Last Season: 107

Batting
Victoria continue to be one of the best hitting clubs around with their depth and experience. The team is blessed with infield players and the competition between Chris Anderson and Carl Bouchelle for the 3rd base position is hot, leaving either one of them on the bench seems a crime. But the Islanders do have a weakness in the outfield and they’d be wanting to stay injury free there. Injuries aside, we can easily see Victoria putting up similar numbers, if not better, than last season.

Pitching
Left handed starter Kit Nieves returns to the rotation after suffering a late season injury in 2021. Overall Nieves had a poor season but suggests he is better than that, we expect his ERA to be a lot lower than his 2021 4.45. Nieves takes the place of Tiago Livingstone who seemed to thrive in the starting role despite having never started in his previous 7 seasons. Also gone is Al Huking who was effective in relief. Victoria has a lot of depth in their pitching with plenty of experience vested in their start pitchers.

Overall
Victoria are a very strong and well rounded ball club and we think the will perform to a high standard throughout the season. They also have a lot of quality players coming through so have to resources to get them to the top. The division title is theirs for the taking.

Transactions
Anderson, Chris, 3rd Base - sent to AAA
Taumoepeau, Hickey, Right Field - sent to AAA
Shirley, Geno, 3rd Base - called up from AAA
Holmes, Alberto, Short Stop - called up from AAA
Jones, Matt, Left Field - called up from AAA
Huking, Al, Long Reliever - sent to AAA
Livingstone, Tiago, Starter - sent to AAA
Nieves, Kit, Starter - called up from AAA

Prediction
Division Place: 1st
Wins: 103

Creston Kokanee
Division Last Season: 3rd
Wins Last Season: 106

Batting
After all of the activity in Creston over the off season the batting lineup can best be described as below average. It was a bold to trade away last season’s Farmers League Player of the Year and 7 time All Star Joaquin Oberkfell. And then they trade away their other top 1st baseman and 2021 All Star, Cedric Wichman. The replacement must be amazing I hear you say … Colin Edwards would just be happy to get tickets to an All Star game.

Pitching
There were similar antics in the pitching department. Gone is the reliable Frank Clark who was equally effective for Creston starting or in relief. Did we mention All Stars? Frank Clark was a 4 time All Star including last season. And then the biggest legend of them all … Jovon Yakow was traded away. The chances that this is Yakow’s final season is high and the chance that his numbers would fall way were reasonable, but any team contending would have him in their starting rotation. Bruce Timlin retired after 2 seasons in Creston. Timlin had a role to play in their Beer success of 2020 but you couldn’t say it was a major one . Was he the catalyst for all of this?

Overall
Creston traded too much away and didn’t get enough immediate help in return and in doing so they traded away their shot at another Beer in 2022. We can’t say we know what’s going on at Creston but hey, how can you question a guy who took the team to the top from the bottom?

Transactions
Heisey, Justin, Catcher - sent to AAA
Oberkfell, Joaquin, 1st Base - traded to Charlottetown Blues
Wichman, Cedric, 1st Base - traded to PEI Argonauts
Dunning, Jimmy, Left Field - traded to Quebec Bulldogs
Harper, Ken, Catcher - called up from AAA
Edwards, Colin, 1st Base - called up from AAA
Mejia, Sherman, 3rd Base - called up from AAA
Frederick, Buzz, Short Stop - called up from AAA
Clark, Frank, Middle Reliever - traded to PEI Argonauts
Timlin, Bruce, Starter - retired
Yakow, Jovon, Middle Reliever - traded to London Mustangs
Ford, Bo, Bullpen - traded from PEI Argonauts AAA
Luuloa, Pascual, Middle Reliever - called up from AAA
Moryl, Leopold, Bullpen - traded from Quebec Bulldogs AAA

Prediction
Division Place: 2nd
Wins: 90

Vancouver Orcas
Division Last Season: Last
Wins Last Season: 61

Batting
It looks like it will be another difficult season for Vancouver as the only thing of real interest is the progress of last season’s Rookie of the Year. Right fielder Daniel Arango, who was the 19th overall pick in the 2019 draft, pick up the award after hitting .275 over a full season of 162 games which included 27 home runs. Arango was hitting the ball hard over spring but it will be asking a lot of the young man to shoulder the weight of the batting for the team.

Pitching
Closer Andy Pereira was a major talking point over spring as he dominated the batsmen with his nasty fastball. Pereira looks to be a very exciting prospect for the Orcas and should start to rack up the saves as he did for the Brandon Bobcats in the college league.

Overall
With the current lineup it’s hard to see Vancouver breaking out of the Cellar of the Farmers West. They will improve however over last season and they do have an impressive pool of young players coming through so the future looks a lot better.

Transactions
Harrison, Anthony, 1st Base - sent to AAA
Edwards, Harry, Left Field - sent to AAA
Kaneko, Yuuki, Catcher - called up from AAA
Aldous, Kevin, Right Field - called up from AAA
Seiloff, Barry, Long Reliever - sent to AAA
Assenmacher, Tom, Middle Reliever - sent to AAA
Neufeld, Troy, Starter - sent to AAA
Brickland, Jamie, Middle Reliever - called up from AAA
Lincoln, Alfonso, Setup - called up from AAA
Switala, Joakim, Setup - called up from AAA

Prediction
Division Place: Last
Wins: 68

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