Overall Record: 64-75 (Last Place Southern... essentially tied with Columbia, Charleston, and Asheville who all had the same number of wins but fewer losses due to fewer overall games played)
1st Half: 25-44 (Last Place Southern/15 GB)
2nd Half: 39-31 (2nd Place Southern/1 GB (played two more than Lexington))
With the two Full-Season A-Ball squads playing, essentially, two separate seasons... it is hard to take a single snapshot of the team. Greenville was awful in the first half of the year at 19 games under .500. Yet, in the second half, they rebounded to eight games over .500. While there was some change of personnel, those changes alone were unlikely to be the catalyst for a better second half... especially considering the caliber of players moving forward to Salem.
To illustrate how taking one narrative and trying to run with it, I looked at the schedule and results and thought that maybe the first half squad was particularly poor at winning one-run games. However, the first half squad went 10-11 in one-run games... while the second half squad was much worse, 2-11. Although, given their winning tendencies, maybe it does shed some light.
So, let's take a look at how the overall squads fit into the tapestry of the League.
Offense:
The Drive offense ended the season smack dab in the middle of the league in terms of Age, at 21.3 years. They led the league in both Batting Average (.262) and OBP (.325) while being in the middle of the league in slugging (.377). The team led the league in hits (1227) and triples (41), were third in doubles (231) and runs (619), but were 2nd to last in home runs (75). The Drive were midpack in walks (366) but third in HBPs (86), were midpack in Ks (1199) but last in sacrifice flies (26).
Pitching:
The Drive ended up with the youngest pitching staff in the South Atlantic League, with an average age of 21.2 years. Although there were some highlights to the pitching staff, the overall staff was closer to the bottom of the league in most categories; finishing 4th from the bottom in ERA (3.95) and R/9 (4.89); although they were closer to the middle in WHIP (1.283). The Drive staff ended up pitching 20 more innings than any other team in the league (having played at least one more game than any other team)... so it is unsurprising that they ended up near the top in hits allowed (1186 - 3rd), runs (651 - 3rd), earned runs (526 - 4th), HRs (120 - 4th), HBPs (97 - 1st). Perhaps more surprisingly... they were not near the top in walks allowed (351 - 9th) or higher up in Ks (1154 - 5th).
On per inning rates, the Drive ended near the bottom in H/9 (8.9) and HR/9 (0.9)... but were just barely off first in walks at 2.6. K/9 sit squarely in the middle of the league at 8.7 as did their K/BB of 3.29.
Of course, it is always important to note that team success (while absolutely fantastic) is less important than the success of individuals. So... let's take a look at the players that hope to fly to Boston in the near future.
1st Half: 25-44 (Last Place Southern/15 GB)
2nd Half: 39-31 (2nd Place Southern/1 GB (played two more than Lexington))
With the two Full-Season A-Ball squads playing, essentially, two separate seasons... it is hard to take a single snapshot of the team. Greenville was awful in the first half of the year at 19 games under .500. Yet, in the second half, they rebounded to eight games over .500. While there was some change of personnel, those changes alone were unlikely to be the catalyst for a better second half... especially considering the caliber of players moving forward to Salem.
To illustrate how taking one narrative and trying to run with it, I looked at the schedule and results and thought that maybe the first half squad was particularly poor at winning one-run games. However, the first half squad went 10-11 in one-run games... while the second half squad was much worse, 2-11. Although, given their winning tendencies, maybe it does shed some light.
So, let's take a look at how the overall squads fit into the tapestry of the League.
Offense:
The Drive offense ended the season smack dab in the middle of the league in terms of Age, at 21.3 years. They led the league in both Batting Average (.262) and OBP (.325) while being in the middle of the league in slugging (.377). The team led the league in hits (1227) and triples (41), were third in doubles (231) and runs (619), but were 2nd to last in home runs (75). The Drive were midpack in walks (366) but third in HBPs (86), were midpack in Ks (1199) but last in sacrifice flies (26).
Pitching:
The Drive ended up with the youngest pitching staff in the South Atlantic League, with an average age of 21.2 years. Although there were some highlights to the pitching staff, the overall staff was closer to the bottom of the league in most categories; finishing 4th from the bottom in ERA (3.95) and R/9 (4.89); although they were closer to the middle in WHIP (1.283). The Drive staff ended up pitching 20 more innings than any other team in the league (having played at least one more game than any other team)... so it is unsurprising that they ended up near the top in hits allowed (1186 - 3rd), runs (651 - 3rd), earned runs (526 - 4th), HRs (120 - 4th), HBPs (97 - 1st). Perhaps more surprisingly... they were not near the top in walks allowed (351 - 9th) or higher up in Ks (1154 - 5th).
On per inning rates, the Drive ended near the bottom in H/9 (8.9) and HR/9 (0.9)... but were just barely off first in walks at 2.6. K/9 sit squarely in the middle of the league at 8.7 as did their K/BB of 3.29.
Of course, it is always important to note that team success (while absolutely fantastic) is less important than the success of individuals. So... let's take a look at the players that hope to fly to Boston in the near future.