American Association Daily provides insights, features, and recaps of the action from around the American Association of Professional Baseball League, as well as player and coaching profiles and transactions. In today’s edition, Robert Pannier continues in his quest to answer 24 key questions that many will wonder entering the 2024 American Association season. Here is Par II.

We Are Underway

The 2024 American Association season is underway, and it is time to look at Part II of important questions to ask entering the season. Last time, we looked at such things as who will be the MVP, are any managers on the hot seat, and if the Monarchs will repeat. You can look at yesterday’s addition in the link below. However, time to start looking at Part II.

Who Are These Broadcasters?

Players and managers were not the only ones who saw a lot of change over the off-season. There are four new No. 1 guys calling the broadcasts for their respective teams this season, the most turnover at the position in more than a decade.

Some were natural selections. Connor Clark takes over for Michael Dixon in Lincoln as Dixon moves on to the radio in Dallas. Clark has been the No. 2 guy for the Saltdogs, and his selection is a perfectly natural fit. No doubt he has big shoes to fill, but Clark is up to the task.

The same can be said in Chicago where Aaron Shelan takes over for Sam Brief. Brief joined NBC Sports to cover the 2024 Olympics, so Shelan moves to the No. 1 chair this year. Like Clark, Shelan has been serving in the No. 2 chair for the Dogs, so he is well acquainted with what it takes to be the top voice for the team.

The new additions are Trevor Curl in Winnipeg and Andrew Mild in Gary. Mild has been a long time RailCats fan, so he will bring a great deal of exuberance and knowledge about the team to the position. Curl takes over in Winnipeg where there is a very illustrious line of broadcasters that preceded him. No doubt that Curl will live up to the standard.

Who Is the Best Player in the American Association?

While he will likely not be the American Association MVP, Max Murphy has proven over the last few seasons that he is the best player in the league. Two seasons ago, Murphy was chasing the league home run record, hitting 31 in 100 games while batting .308 with 97 runs driven in. Many challenged his success as David Washington followed Murphy in the lineup and he hit 30 homers of his own. Could the home run charge been a product of who hit behind him?

The Goldeyes outfielder answered that question with extreme authority last year, hitting 26 homers and batting .289 in 99 games. That was an incredibly impressive mark considering that no other Goldeyes player hit as many as 10 home runs. Even with no support, he found a way to finish among the league leaders in home runs (26), OPS (.921), and slugging (.545).

Who Is the Ace in Fargo-Moorhead?

The loss of Kevin McGovern to Mexico leaves a huge hole in the Fargo-Moorhead rotation. No one replaces the best pitcher in American Association history but, amazingly, this could potentially be the best RedHawks rotation that we have seen in 15 years.

Davis Feldman got off to an impressive start in 2023, going 3-1 with a 2.42 ERA in four starts before his contract was purchased. He returns and well start on opening night. He may be considered the ace of the staff, but no one can ignore left-hander Tyler Grauer either. The lefty went 6-4 with a 4.38 ERA in 19 starts last year, but went 10-5 with a 3.50 mark the previous year. He is impressive and could be the top dog in this rotation as well.

No one can ignore Colten Davis either. Davis joined the team late in the season and went a perfect 7-0 with a 2.15 ERA in five starts and four relief appearances. The rookie dominated. After giving up four runs in the fourth inning to Sioux City in the third inning on August 3, Davis rattled off 23 scoreless innings before Lake Country finally broke through. It’s a small sample size, but the righty looks like 2023 was not a fluke.

Jake Dykhoff went through some early growing pains, giving up four or more runs in four of his first five starts. He then gave up a single run over his next three starts, a span of 19.1 innings, before closing the season slumping, giving up five or more runs in four of his final six starts. Injuries and fatigue played to the right-hander, but he returns healthy and ready to stake his claim to the No. 1 spot in the rotation.

Anyone of these four could claim to be the ace, but look for Feldman to take the title.

Who Has the Best Starting Rotation?

While we are on the subject, let’s talk about who has the best rotation in the American Association entering the 2024 season. Clearly, Fargo-Moorhead could stake their claim to that title. They have four outstanding starters, and we have not even addressed Kelvan Pilot, Brenden Heiss, or Orlando Rodriguez. This is likely the deepest rotation entering the season.

Milwaukee had the best starting rotation in the league last year, but had several departures in the off-season, leaving them with an entirely new group to begin the season this year. One of the starters will be Juan Echevarria, who split time between the bullpen and rotation last season, going 4-2 with a 4.04 ERA. Greg Minier returns to the league and he has a proven track record, posting a 2.48 ERA in 19 starts for Lincoln in 2022. Pablo Garabitos, Mark Simon, and Shane Barringer as well as former closer Rodrigo Benoit should help to make this a solid group, but this will not be the best rotation.

Kane County has young guns Jack Fox and Westin Muir returning. A.J. Jones and veteran Nick Belzer will also be in the rotation, joined by former Monarchs lefty Jordan Martinson and right-hander C.J. Carter. This should be a good group as well.

Winnipeg has the most intriguing rotation, as Landen Bourassa, Joey Matulovich, and Travis Seabrooke return. Colton Eastman reached AAA-Las Vegas (Oakland Athletics) last season, and he will likely move to the top of the rotation, making this a very formidable first four.

The truth is that lots of teams can stake their claim to having the best rotation in the league, but look for the Sioux Falls Canaries to have the top group. That sounds like blasphemy when talking about a team pitching in the Bird Cage, and the ERAs are not likely to be in the sub-three area, but this young group is going to be the reason this team reaches the playoffs for the second straight season. Ryan Zimmerman comes from Milwaukee, and all he has done over the last three seasons is go a combined 24-14, pitching 323 total innings. Ty Culbreth will be the No. 2 guy, then a host of young talent will follow. That includes right-handers Chris Hardin, Seth Miller, and Mitchell Walters, as well as lefty Tanner Brown. This is not just a deep group, but a very talented one.

Biggest Off-Season Issue Affecting 2024 Season?

If a lot of your favorite players are not appearing on rosters this season, there is one primary reason why that is so – The Mexican Independent League. Already we have seen some of the best-known names in the league headed south of the border, including McGovern.

Should a player get off to a fast start, it will likely not be affiliate ball calling. It will be the Mexican League. They have expanded the number of foreign-born players allowed on each roster to 20, so there will be lots of players chasing the money headed for Mexico. No one can blame them, but it will have a huge impact on the season.

Biggest Issue Affecting the Start of the 2024 Season?

If you look at many of the rosters, you are going to see that there is a rather long inactive list for many teams. There is a good reason for this – visas.

Covid has changed the way that visas are granted, and this has many teams with huge gaps because five, six, or more players are unable to get visas yet. In Sioux City, they started the season with just nine position players because nearly ten players are still not authorized to play ball. This is going to have some teams scrambling for players early on, but it should give them a boost in a few weeks when those visas are finally approved.

What’s the Deal with Expansion?

Deputy Commissioner Josh Buchholz addressed this on the most recent episode of This Week in the Association. The league is very close to expanding, and it looks like they are going big, adding three teams in Texas and a new team in Minnesota. That is going to make for two leagues and four divisions, each with four teams in them, or two divisions with eight teams in each.

One can never start penciling the schedule until the stadiums are starting to be built, but the league office seems confident we are going to see some great new additions to the league within the next two seasons.

Who Will Be the Manager of the Year This Season?

If you have listened to This Week in the Association or read any of my articles related to Sioux Falls, then you know that no one is a bigger fan of Mike Meyer than me. He is a great guy and a very good manager. However, the results had not been great through his first half dozen seasons as skipper.

That changed last year when TWITA named him as Co-Manager of the Year and the American Association named him the top skipper after he led the team to a second-place finish in the West Division. I think that is the tip of the iceberg. Meyer went with a whole new philosophy for building his team last season and it paid big dividends. Truth be told, this team will be better than last year’s group, earning Meyer back-to-back Manager of the Year honors.

By Robert Pannier