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Subscribe to our NewsletterFED REPORT 24 /// MIDSEASON REPORT: NATIONAL
Let's just be honest - this has not been your typical spring and summer season in Minnesota. Lots of wash outs, major flooding and cloudstorms of insects interrupting games, no it's not The Book of Revelations, it's the 2024 season in the Federal League. But there is nothing abnormal about Lakeville and Rosemount off to prophetic starts this summer. Let's take a look at the other teams battling it out in the Midseason Report: National Edition.
National West
The Big Willow division is goofy just when you think someone is going to walk away with the pennant, someone else pops up. Tonka Bay, Metro and the Snappers have all been in first at one point or another and the Minnetonka Saints are last year's AA Champs with an improved roster. This could be the race to watch in late July? The Lakers started out 5-0 but then dropped two in a row to the Grays and Diamonds. Since then they have been on a terror and sit at 8-2. The Lakers have the AAA pedigree with three quality pitchers in Jim Brower, Brandon Wolf and Scott Rusert. Can the offense that was struggling at the beginning of the season stay hot through August? Lakers are an AAA favorite with some tough pitching to face.
The TC Snappers who almost folded in the off-season are 5-3 and only two games back from Tonka Bay. Jeff Wilson should win manager of the year for actually managing and playing jazz with this lineup of turtles and remaining in the hunt, including an injury to star veteran Ryan Marshall. Eric Olson has provided stability showing up to every game and batting .452. Yulian Oviedo is batting over .500 along with Joe Halvarson, Tony Newman, and Tom Cook. The Snappers have a tough schedule ahead but hey...Turtle Power!
The Metro Loons lead the National West in hitting with 75 runs scored and batting .322 but are stuck at 5-5. Matt Kanaskie is batting .444 and has 15 RBI for the summer, the Loons have always been a top hitting club but sometimes they fall asleep at the wheel and before you know it they are down three runs. They have the pitching in Jason Bujold and Matt Brekke to compete with Tonka Bay, and the hitting to out slug most opponents, can they put it all together?
The Big Willow division is goofy just when you think someone is going to walk away with the pennant, someone else pops up. Tonka Bay, Metro and the Snappers have all been in first at one point or another and the Minnetonka Saints are last year's AA Champs with an improved roster. This could be the race to watch in late July? The Lakers started out 5-0 but then dropped two in a row to the Grays and Diamonds. Since then they have been on a terror and sit at 8-2. The Lakers have the AAA pedigree with three quality pitchers in Jim Brower, Brandon Wolf and Scott Rusert. Can the offense that was struggling at the beginning of the season stay hot through August? Lakers are an AAA favorite with some tough pitching to face.
The TC Snappers who almost folded in the off-season are 5-3 and only two games back from Tonka Bay. Jeff Wilson should win manager of the year for actually managing and playing jazz with this lineup of turtles and remaining in the hunt, including an injury to star veteran Ryan Marshall. Eric Olson has provided stability showing up to every game and batting .452. Yulian Oviedo is batting over .500 along with Joe Halvarson, Tony Newman, and Tom Cook. The Snappers have a tough schedule ahead but hey...Turtle Power!
The Metro Loons lead the National West in hitting with 75 runs scored and batting .322 but are stuck at 5-5. Matt Kanaskie is batting .444 and has 15 RBI for the summer, the Loons have always been a top hitting club but sometimes they fall asleep at the wheel and before you know it they are down three runs. They have the pitching in Jason Bujold and Matt Brekke to compete with Tonka Bay, and the hitting to out slug most opponents, can they put it all together?
Everyone's preseason favorite to win the division is sitting at 4-4 at the midpoint. The Minnetonka Saints have been a kinda disappointment after the offseason haul of Steve Kleppen, Mike Lewis and some River Rats. The bad loss to the Mustangs was a shocker. Brian Moynihan, Jack Watson, Kleppen are having great seasons at the plate and looks like Perzel wants Brandon Casa de Calvo to throw every inning this summer but the Saints have a favorable schedule going forward to maybe sneak into the 8th seed of the AAA, but one slip up and they are defending their AA title come August.
At the beginning of June the Minnetonka Mustangs were only one game out of first, but since then have dropped four straight. Tom Eastman is batting .464 and a bright spot for the horses is that they found another arm in Ambrose Ocampo to go with Tony Brown. Ocampo is 2-1 with a 3.73 ERA. Come playoff time, the Mustangs should be an A or B Class favorite.
At the beginning of June the Minnetonka Mustangs were only one game out of first, but since then have dropped four straight. Tom Eastman is batting .464 and a bright spot for the horses is that they found another arm in Ambrose Ocampo to go with Tony Brown. Ocampo is 2-1 with a 3.73 ERA. Come playoff time, the Mustangs should be an A or B Class favorite.
National East
Most predicted this would have been a two horse race with Rosemount and Apple Valley, but the Athletics have had a hard summer with a couple early losses and a major injury to ace Tim Scott. Do Josh Stoll, Herman Soloman and Tony Schaefer have enough quality innings to fill in the hole and can the bats finally find some green to make a run for the Class AA bracket?
Most predicted this would have been a two horse race with Rosemount and Apple Valley, but the Athletics have had a hard summer with a couple early losses and a major injury to ace Tim Scott. Do Josh Stoll, Herman Soloman and Tony Schaefer have enough quality innings to fill in the hole and can the bats finally find some green to make a run for the Class AA bracket?
Rosemount is off to another great season batting .366 as a team led by Logan Pinckney, Alex Mack and Ryan Walker. Pitching wise, looks like the Pipers rely heavily on Cliff Christopherson who has thrown 42 innings so far this season and seven of the ten starts - but hes putting up the numbers at 5-2 with a 1.33 ERA. The Pipers are counting the clover leafs until the AAA playoffs start. The St Anthony Norsemen are only two and half games out and still have two games left against the Pipers (insert eyes emjoi here) if the Norse can hit like they did verses Northfield putting up 21 runs, the Palm Field vikings could sneak into the harbor at night and steal a division.
The Jim Block Farewell Tour was off to an excellent start winning the first four games with impressive wins over the Minnetonka Saints and Apple Valley A's - too bad only one of those games counted. D'oh! Since then the JTs are 1-5. Due to rainouts the maroon and gold haven't played in almost a month. But the JTs could be a favorite again with Jeremy Brooks knocking doubles and Wade Johnson (2-0) keeping teams honest. They will be a favorite to repeat as B Champs but want to do better for Blocks last season.
The St Paul Senators have kept most of its games close this summer and even pulled off a big win over the St Croix Valley Silverbacks. Sad part the schedule doesn't get easier going forward with games versus River Falls, Hastings, Rosemount. Jim Roehl is having a great summer hitting .500 and the Senators do have two pitchers who can compete in Bryan Lawrence and Ed Wigfield and that's more than most Federal teams. If the Senators can start scoring more runs they can be a sneaky favorite in the A or B bracket with two pitchers ready to go.
National South
Lakeville is on a roll with a perfect 10-0 record sitting on top of the National South. Lobo veterans Tori Holt and Nick Rathmann are having resurgent seasons, both batting .550. Don Erdall has been the ace with a 4-0 and 1.06 ERA, he also leads in strikeouts in 42 over 26 innings. The loss of Matt Meyer hurts, but Lakeville still has Jamie Steiberg and Austin Mitchell to hand off the ball. Lobos have some tough games coming up in New Market, Rockford, Hastings and Burnsville but the Lobos would need an epic collapse and a New Market miracle for Tori's bunch not to win the National South. Look for the Lobos to punch a ticket to the AAA Class.
New Market Northerns are sitting at 6-2 and can make a push for a division title but will everyone show up? Rumors out of the Fish Bowl is the fighting fish are having attendance problems? Last year's AAA Runner Ups definitely have the talent to make the run and have the roster depth to pull it off - but can they do it? They also have a tough road ahead in games versus Lakeville, Waconia, Burnsville and Rockford. The Northerns at this point might be AA favorites come August.
Recent pickup of Aaron Olson has been paying off for Elko winning its last two games, but the Chuggers are one of the many teams having weather problems. Sitting at 5-5 they have a shot at contending for an AA title with some late season wins. Lonsdale had some attendance issues early in the season and an awful 0-5 start. But since then they have been 3-1 and could be heating up at the right time to form another crack at the AA title.
Veseli took down both Chaska teams and won a big game versus New Market, but was on a two game losing streak until the rain came. But the folding of Webster has brought four new players to the Vulcans to improve their depth and overall talent and that could be an immediate impact to help them jump to warp speed to some late season upsets.
Webster Wildcats folded.
