2017 Garden City Wind Season Recap - Strikeouts, Frustration and the End of the David Peterson Era

The 2017 Garden City Wind season was a difficult follow-up to the breakthrough year the franchise had enjoyed in 2016. One year earlier, Garden City had emerged as one of the strongest teams in the Pecos League under Bill Moore, winning its division and establishing Clint Lightner Field as one of the league's best home environments. By 2017, however, the Wind were entering another transition. David Peterson took over as manager, and what followed was a frustrating summer in which Garden City struggled to consistently score, endured long losing stretches and struck out more than any team in league history.

Garden City finished 20-43, a dramatic fall from the success of the previous season. The Wind occasionally showed flashes of being a dangerous team and even put together several impressive winning stretches, but they could never sustain them. Too many games were decided by one or two runs, too many rallies ended with strikeouts and too many promising stretches were followed by extended losing streaks. For general manager Marcus Sabata, the direction of the team became increasingly unacceptable as the summer progressed.

Sabata had helped build the business side of the Wind into one of the stronger operations in the Pecos League. Garden City had proven in 2016 that the market could support a winning professional baseball team. The fan base was growing, Thursday Dollar Beer had become a recognizable promotion and expectations around Clint Lightner Field were increasing. Sabata did not want the Wind falling back into the instability that had characterized portions of the inaugural 2015 season, and by the end of 2017 he believed the baseball operation needed a major change.

Peterson inherited a team with legitimate offensive talent, but the Wind's approach at the plate became one of the defining problems of the summer. Garden City hitters struck out at a historic rate, producing more strikeouts than any team in league history. The Wind had power and could score runs in bunches, but far too many at-bats ended without the ball being put in play. In close games, that became especially damaging because Garden City was frequently only one productive at-bat away from changing the outcome.

Taylor Zeutenhorst became one of the clearest examples of the problem, striking out 89 times in only 174 at-bats. Cameron Ketchen struck out 64 times, Ryan Whitt struck out 61, Eli Roundtree struck out 56 and Taylor Ellis struck out 48. Several of the regular hitters finished with strikeout totals that would have been significant on their own, and together they gave the Wind a level of swing-and-miss that made sustained offensive pressure extremely difficult.

The frustrating part was that Garden City actually had several good hitters. Ryan Whitt put together one of the best offensive seasons on the roster, playing 63 games and collecting 81 hits in 244 at-bats for a .332 batting average. He scored 49 runs, hit 15 doubles and led the Wind with 15 home runs while driving in 64. Whitt gave Garden City a legitimate middle-of-the-order power hitter and was one of the players opposing pitchers had to respect every night.

Joey Cecere also provided an excellent season. Cecere played 62 games and collected 77 hits in 243 at-bats while hitting .317. He scored 57 runs, drew 45 walks and stole 20 bases. Unlike some of the more power-oriented hitters in the lineup, Cecere gave the Wind a player capable of getting on base, creating pressure with his speed and putting the baseball in play consistently.

Jean Carlos Peralta became another major offensive contributor, hitting .357 in 39 games with 10 home runs and 35 RBIs. Mike Rachun hit nine home runs and drove in 51, while Eli Roundtree hit 11 home runs and drove in 36. Cameron Ketchen added six home runs and 31 RBIs. The Wind had enough power to hurt opposing teams, but the offense was far too inconsistent to support a successful season.

The season began unevenly. Garden City lost its first two recorded games 9-5 and 3-1 before the offense exploded for a 25-11 victory. The Wind followed that with a 9-8 win, briefly giving the team a promising start. Instead of building momentum, Garden City immediately went into a prolonged slide.

The Wind lost 9-5, 9-4 and 7-6 on the road to close May. June began with losses of 9-6, 4-0, 7-6, 7-5 and 10-9. Several of those games were painfully close. Garden City wasn't always being overwhelmed. The Wind were simply failing to finish games or come up with the final hit when the opportunity presented itself.

A 16-13 victory finally stopped the slide, but another 7-6 loss followed. Garden City answered with an 8-4 win, lost 13-9 and then won 19-12. The pattern had become frustratingly familiar. Every time the Wind appeared ready to establish momentum, another loss interrupted the run.

The middle of June finally produced the best stretch of the season. After losses of 9-5 and 12-11, Garden City won 4-1 on the road and then returned home to Clint Lightner Field. The Wind defeated their opponents 11-6, 14-8, 18-12 and 15-9, producing five consecutive victories. For several days, Garden City looked like the team supporters had expected to see. The offense was producing, the pitching staff was giving Peterson enough innings and the Wind were turning Clint Lightner into a difficult place for visiting teams.

Then the momentum disappeared again. Garden City lost 3-2 before winning 7-5 and 15-6. The Wind then went on the road and lost four consecutive games by scores of 13-7, 7-0, 12-3 and 9-2. Returning home didn't immediately solve anything. Garden City lost 6-2, 6-2 and 10-8 before finally winning 12-5.

That inability to sustain success became the central story of the season. The Wind could win five straight and then lose four straight. They could score 25 runs one night and struggle to score at all a few days later. The roster had enough ability to compete, but the team lacked the consistency necessary to remain in the playoff race.

The pitching staff did have several strong individual performances. Mason Mayberry became the most effective starting pitcher on the team, finishing 4-2 with a 3.15 ERA over 77 innings. He made 10 starts and struck out 65 hitters while walking 29. In a league known for offense, a 3.15 ERA represented an outstanding season and gave Garden City a legitimate top-of-the-rotation arm.

Trent Carrier also carried a major workload, making 11 starts and throwing 70.2 innings. He finished 3-6 with a 4.58 ERA while striking out 63. Jack Finnegan became a useful combination starter and reliever, finishing 4-2 with a 4.90 ERA over 36.2 innings and recording two saves. Dalton Bernardi led the team in starts with 13 and threw 73.2 innings, while Brandon Anderson, Kevin Delzell, Josh Mollett and Ryan Harper helped cover innings throughout the season.

The pitching staff wasn't dominant from top to bottom, but it was often good enough to keep Garden City in games. That made the offensive inconsistency and historic strikeout rate even more frustrating. The schedule was filled with one-run defeats. Garden City lost 7-6 multiple times, along with losses of 10-9, 12-11, 3-2, 4-3, another 3-2 and 2-1. In many of those games, one additional productive at-bat could have completely changed the result.

Putting the ball in play matters most when the margin is one run, and too often Garden City didn't.

July began with some hope. The Wind won 9-7 on the road, lost 14-5 and then returned home to shut out an opponent 6-0. Garden City followed with a 10-3 victory. Two consecutive strong performances briefly suggested another winning stretch might be coming.

Instead, the Wind lost 14-2 and 4-3. They responded with a 17-5 victory before losing consecutive road games 12-5 and 12-3. A 7-6 win on July 11 gave Garden City another opportunity to stabilize, but what followed became the most damaging stretch of the entire season.

Garden City lost eight consecutive games by scores of 7-0, 8-2, 14-4, 14-6, 8-4, 3-2, 5-2 and 2-1. The final three games of that streak were particularly painful because the pitching kept the Wind within reach. Garden City lost 3-2, 5-2 and 2-1 and could not generate enough offense to take advantage of the opportunities the pitching staff created.

By that point, the Wind's postseason chances were effectively gone. The losing streak ended with a 7-5 victory on July 20, but the problems immediately returned. Garden City lost 3-1, 7-6 and 12-5 at home before going on the road and losing 6-4, 11-3, 10-6 and 7-6.

One of the striking aspects of the final month was how frequently the Wind remained close enough to win. The team wasn't simply being blown out every night. Garden City kept losing games by one or two runs, and the inability to manufacture enough offense became increasingly frustrating for the organization.

The Wind finished with a 6-5 road victory on July 29, giving the team one final positive result. When all of the recorded decisions were complete, Garden City stood at 20-43.

The 2017 season was a dramatic reversal from the previous year. In 2016, the Wind had developed into a division champion under Bill Moore. Garden City had established a home-field advantage, the community had embraced the team and the organization appeared to be building something sustainable. One year later, the baseball operation had taken a significant step backward.

For Marcus Sabata, that was not acceptable. Sabata understood how important winning baseball was to maintaining the momentum the franchise had created in Garden City. The community had already demonstrated that it would support the Pecos League, and Clint Lightner Field had become one of the league's better environments. Sabata believed the team needed leadership capable of matching what the market was providing off the field.

By the end of the 2017 season, Sabata demanded that David Peterson be fired as manager.

The strikeout numbers had become impossible to ignore. Garden City had assembled enough good hitters to produce runs, but the offensive approach had failed too often. A team with Whitt, Cecere, Peralta, Rachun, Roundtree and other capable hitters had become historically prone to striking out. Zeutenhorst alone struck out 89 times in 174 at-bats, while Ketchen struck out 64, Whitt 61 and Roundtree 56.

For Sabata, the issue wasn't simply that the Wind had lost 43 games. It was how they were losing them. Garden City had repeatedly failed in close games, had suffered lengthy losing streaks and had become a team that simply did not put the baseball in play often enough.

The Wind needed a different direction.

Peterson's season therefore ended with his position under intense scrutiny and Sabata pushing for a managerial change. Garden City had already experienced enough instability during the inaugural 2015 season to understand the damage the wrong leadership could cause. The organization had also experienced the opposite in 2016, when Bill Moore's arrival immediately produced a division-winning club. The contrast between those seasons made the disappointment of 2017 even greater.

Garden City was no longer simply happy to have professional baseball. The expectations had changed. The community had supported the Wind, the host-family network was established, Thursday Dollar Beer had developed into one of the team's signature promotions and Clint Lightner Field had become recognized around the Pecos League. Garden City had already demonstrated that it could support a successful professional baseball team.

Now the organization expected the baseball operation to perform accordingly.

There were still plenty of individual accomplishments worth remembering from 2017. Whitt's 15 home runs and 64 RBIs gave the Wind a legitimate power hitter. Cecere reached base consistently and stole 20 bases. Peralta hit .357 with 10 home runs. Rachun drove in 51. Roundtree hit 11 home runs. Mayberry gave Garden City an excellent season on the mound with a 3.15 ERA, while Carrier and Finnegan provided additional quality innings.

Those performances demonstrated that the roster wasn't completely devoid of talent. In many ways, that made the 20-43 finish even more disappointing. The 2017 Garden City Wind had enough players to be more competitive than their record indicated. They played too many one-run games to suggest otherwise. What they didn't have was the consistency, offensive discipline or sustained leadership necessary to turn those opportunities into victories.

The team that had won five consecutive games in June was also the team that lost eight consecutive games in July. The club that scored 25 runs in one victory was also shut out several times. The Wind could look like a contender for a week and then look completely lost the next.

That inconsistency ultimately defined David Peterson's season as manager.

By the time the summer ended, Garden City had learned another lesson about independent professional baseball. Establishing a successful market and establishing a successful baseball operation were two different things. The city had done its part. The fans were coming, the promotions were developing and the franchise had become part of the community. The baseball side had to catch up.

The 2017 Wind finished 20-43, struck out more than any team in league history and missed the playoffs one year after winning their division. Marcus Sabata made it clear that he wanted a change in leadership and demanded that David Peterson be removed at the end of the season.

It wasn't the year Garden City expected after the breakthrough of 2016, but it became another important chapter in the development of the franchise. The Wind had moved beyond the point where simply completing a Pecos League season was considered a success.

Garden City expected to win.

The 2017 season didn't come close enough.

And by the time the final out was recorded, the organization was already preparing to make another change.