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 takes a look at how the offensive production of the Kane County Cougars as the team tries to get on a roll.

Chasing Those Dogs

Three weeks into the 2023 American Association season, it is the Chicago Dogs who are establishing themselves as the team to beat, going 10-2 in their last 12 games, giving them the top record (12-4) in the American Association.

The Dogs have benefited from some rather mediocre play by the rest of the division, as only the Gary SouthShore RailCats have a record above .500 in their last 10 contests (6-4). The Cleburne Railroaders and Milwaukee Milkmen have fallen back to earth after a fast start, and the Lake Country are on their third manager this season, as they try to develop a winning culture in their second season in the league.

The team that has been a bit of an enigma early on is the Kane County Cougars. Kane County got off to a very tough start, going 2-9 through their first 11 games, but have shown signs of life over their last five, going 4-1. This is a team getting outstanding pitching, but it is the offense holding the club back.

Where Is the Bite?

To say that the offense is struggling is quite possibly the understatement of the year. The Cougars enter Wednesday night’s play last in the American Association in batting average (.217) and 10th in runs scored (70). They are last in home runs (10) and the .328 on-base percentage is tied for 10th.

It was not expected that the Cougars would have one of the top five offenses in the American Association this season. However, the signing of T.J. Bennett and the re-signing of Jimmy Kerrigan appeared to bolster the prospects for the lineup.

Kerrigan is coming off an MVP season where he had .304, with 27 homers and 89 RBI in 100 games. His numbers were far above that of everyone else on the team, as the next closest player in home runs was Cornelius Randolph (14). Many expected this to be a productive lineup after Bennett was signed. The first baseman hit .275 with 17 homers in 96 games for Lake Country last season, and put together a spectacular season in winter ball in Australia, hitting 17 homers in 40 games for Brisbane.

Randolph returns to the club after hitting .310 with 14 homers in 87 games last year, and Josh Allen came out of retirement. Allen had turned into one of the more complete players in the American Association, hitting at least 12 homers from 2019-2021.

These four were expected to give Kane County a solid core offensively, but that has not proven to be the case. Bennett is hitting .292, but has just one home run through the first 16 games. The same for Randolph, who is hitting .310 and leads the team with 11 runs driven in. Kerrigan is off to a terrible start, hitting .161 through the first 15 contests, and he and Bennett hit their first home runs of the season this past weekend.

Over the last five games the team is hitting .216, but that is an upgrade as they are hitting just .191 over their last 10 games, scoring 43 runs with just nine home runs. In a league where offense usually reins, that is not a formula for success.

Pitching Leading the Way

The primary reason why Kane County has remained competitive has been the pitching staff. The Cougars easily lead the league in ERA (3.08), nearly a full run less than what the Dogs have produced (3.88). They have been even better recently, posting a 2.86 ERA over their last 10 games and, during the last five, have recorded a 2.45 mark.

That has been critical to the success of the team. In two of their recent four victories the Cougars scored just three runs, and they have held opponents to three runs or fewer in four of the last seven games. This is a pitching staff that gives their team a chance to win every night, as opponents have been held to three runs or fewer in seven of the team’s 16 contests.

There is no denying that a team can win while the offense is challenged and the pitching staff is dominating. However, recent seasons in the American Association have proven that pitching staffs wear down when they know they can’t afford to give out more than three or four runs a night and expect to win.

If things do not turn around in short order, expect there to be some drastic changes for this club. This is not just a matter of a struggling offense, but four of the five veterans on this team are in the infield (Allen, Bennett, Galli Cribbs, and Pete Kozma). The group has just three home runs and has driven in 27 runs, with three of those players hitting .255 or less. Vets usually require the biggest hit to the salary cap, and this is not a valuable use of the team’s resources.

By Robert Pannier