Team Tuesday: Huntington Aces

This season has been a work in progress in terms of getting the league back into the groove after having it on ice for four years. It's sorta reminds me of one of those movies where you get the band back together. There's always a snag and somebody comes in at the last second to keep things going. That guy in this case is Paul Hesson. Allow me to explain...

There were indeed four franchises set up for the league reboot: the Charleston Yellow Sox, Hurricane Locomotives, Poca Great Aunt Pearls and... the Milton Mudcats. Yes, there was a brief moment where Kevin Chattin helmed a would-be franchise that was not to be. Fortunately for the Locomotives, Chattin fell in with the Locos and shored up their squad - but this article isn't about Chattin's journeyman qualifications. The Mudcats retraction left a hole in the upcoming season and we needed a solution.

I'd actually reached out to Paul Hesson as a potential player for my team since acquiring Ryan Pritt fell through with him moving to Daytona Beach. What was not to like? I've known Paul for a decade. He can hit the ball a mile, field, is a proven workhorse starting pitcher and I get along with him well. But there was a problem with my proposal. When I discussed the potential of him joining my team, he said he'd rather captain a team. I didn't even tell him at that point we were needing a 4th team to balance things out. The solution had found it's way to me so effortlessly. He put a lot of thought and consideration into the name and weeks went by before he finally told me the team name. For those who don't know, the Huntington Aces were one of many former minor league teams in the 1900s in Huntington before the Huntington Boosters. He wanted to pay homage to something local or historical to the area and I think he chose wisely. But I am a sucker for baseball history.

And why wouldn't you give the green light for Hesson to manage a franchise? He's got a proven track record running teams. He started his career in 2014 on the Honey Badgers as an outfielder and secondary pitcher in the rotation in the shadow of Josh Berletich. As the team imploded halfway through the year, it was Hesson who picked up the pieces and brought in Jacob Fischer and Kyle Kelly to regroup and rallied the team all the way to the championship. It's still a feat the never fails to impress me each time I think about it. There's taking a basement team to the top... and then there's taking a team that is in shambles and doing what he did with it. I still don't know how he did it.

In 2015, he managed a very fun team of rookies (the Asthmatics) and misfits and the group finished with a .500 record. One of his players (Veronica Stanley) won Rookie of the Year while his other teammates flourished under his leadership. He played his only non-captain year in 2016 with Sit On My Base and in 2017 he returned to managing the Asthmatics in the draft year and again in 2018, having respectable finishes each year. Hesson is having a phenomenal year both at the plate and on the mound, but I can't say it's much of a surprise. He's leading almost all pitching categories (2.76 ERA, 38 IP, 33 K, 14 BB, 7-2 record, & 1.21 WHIP) and this is thanks mostly to two factors: he's pitched more innings than any other pitcher (except 1) and he's seemed to dramatically improve the control of his pitch placement. He's also near the top in most offensive categories (.625 AVG, 20 HR, 47 RBI, 14 BB & .673 OBP) as he is one of the two key contributors to the offensive battery of this team.

The only player I was familiar with on this roster was Jacob Dunkle. He has played with Hesson since the Asthmatics but Dunkle's career stretches back to his debut in the 2013 fall ball season. I cannot think of a player who can hit the ball further. If there's anyone in this league who can hit a wiffleball 200 feet, my money is on Dunkle. You know what you're going to get with Jacob when you sign him to your team. He's about as steady as they come as far as attendance goes. He's one of the best fielders in the league. As I previously mentioned, he can blast the ball into another realm. And if you want to talk about video games or other random stuff, talk about a dude who can keep it light on the bench! How do I know all this? I played on a team with him in 2016 but I long got to know him before that because it's hard not to, he's just a friendly guy. It's hard to not like him.

Dunkle had a history of sometimes being a little hot/cold at the plate. He could hit 4-5 bombs one game and strike out as many time the next game. I noticed that the streaky issue looked to start really sorting itself out in 2018 in the stats as he was in top 10 for AVG but he struck out 21 times for the 28 HRs he hit. There's those who say you miss 100% of the shots you don't take and I get that but I knew that if he could get on top of that streaky issue he could go from the very good hitter we know to an elite level in this league. I'm happy to say that he seems to have done just that. He's only struck out 13 times this year and hit 23 home runs and he's likely to close in on 100 career home runs at the current pace he's tracking on. Knock-knock. Who's there? Elite hitter Jacob Dunkle. Even more impressive, he has done quite well pitching this year (4-1, 5.65 ERA, 12 K, 16 BB, 23 IP & 1.87 WHIP) and it couldn't have come at a better time because it was out of necessity since he and Paul were often the only players present for their games.

The Aces suffered the same roster woes that the Pearls did this year to an extent where the rest of the cast was only present for one series or significantly less games. The only other player I will highlight is Hunter Smith. He played in opening day but also in the final week of the year. Had he played more, he could have been a contender for Rookie of the Year. He has an odd pitching delivery that I heard many batters talking about and a nifty knuckleball. To make that kind of noise in only 3 IP is saying something... But where my focus lies is on his batting capability (.486 AVG, 8 HR, 14 RBI, BB, 5 K, 41 TB & 1.671 OPS). Had he played more, we could have seen what he was made of on the mound and seen what percentile he truly would have found himself in on offense. I'm hoping to see Smith and the other Aces in 2024. I have seen what Hesson can do to develop players so the sky is the limit for potential.