In-Depth guide to the High Point Rockers’ inaugural season
By Collin Giuliani// Sports Editor
THE COACHING STAFF
The Rockers will be led this season by Jamie Keefe. Keefe played minor league baseball from 1992-2000, making it as high as the Triple-A level as a member of the Las Vegas Stars in 1997. Since his playing days ended, he has managed 16 seasons in independent baseball, spending the past six seasons as the manager of the Rockland Boulders of the Can-Am League. Rockland made the postseason in each of Keefe’s final five seasons and won its first and only league championship in 2014. Frank Viola joins the staff as the team’s pitching coach; Viola pitched 15 seasons in MLB, and is perhaps best known for winning the Cy Young Award in 1988 with the Minnesota Twins, when he went 24-7 with a 2.64 ERA and 193 strikeouts. Viola made it to the All-Star Game three times (1988, 1990, 1991), and was named the MVP of the 1987 World Series when he helped lead the Twins to their first ever title since moving to Minnesota.
THE LIBERTY DIVISION
The Atlantic League is comprised of eight teams split into two divisions of four teams each. The High Point Rockers will play in the Liberty Division, alongside the Long Island Ducks (New York), the New Britain Bees (Connecticut), and the Somerset Patriots (New Jersey). High Point becomes the first North Carolina-based team in the history of the Atlantic League. The Ducks have finished as the runner-up in the Atlantic League in each of the past three seasons, and have made it to the championship series six times in the last eight years, winning it twice in that stretch in 2012 and 2013. New Britain Somerset is the lone founding member left of the Atlantic League, as every other team (Atlantic City Surf, Bridgeport Bluefish, Nashua Pride, Newark Bears, Newburgh Black Diamonds) has folded. Somerset is also the most accomplished team in the league, having won the title six times, most recently in 2015. New Britain, which first began playing in 2016, has never made it to the post-season and is the northern-most team in the Atlantic League.
THE FREEDOM DIVISION
The Freedom Division consists of the Lancaster Barnstormers (Pennsylvania), the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs (Maryland), the Sugar Land Skeeters (Texas), and the York Revolution (Pennsylvania). Lancaster has finished with a winning record in seven of the past eight seasons, and has won the title twice, most recently in 2014. Southern Maryland, which began play in 2008, is the oldest existing team to have never won the title, having finished as the runner-up in 2009 and 2015, and has finished below .500 in each of the past six seasons. Sugar Land, the western-most team in the Atlantic League and the only team not in the Eastern Time Zone, is the defending champion of the Atlantic League after winning last year’s championship series in five games against the Long Island Ducks. York is the most accomplished team of the Atlantic League in the 2010s from a titles perspective, having won the title three times in that stretch (2010, 2011, 2017).
THE LEAGUE
The Atlantic League was founded in 1998, with most of its teams being located in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. From an attendance standpoint, it is the best attended independent baseball league in the United States, with an average attendance of 3,937 in the 2018 season. The league splits its season up into two parts; the postseason consists of the winner of each division in the first half of the season and the winner of each division in the second half of the season. This means that it is possible to have the best record in a division throughout the entire season and miss the postseason. In 2017, while the Lancaster Barnstormers had a better overall record than every other team in the Freedom Division (76-64), they missed the playoffs, as the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs won the first half and the York Revolution won the second half. Every postseason series is a best-of-five series.
THE RULES
This season, the Atlantic League is implementing new rules, which will be looked at by MLB for possible future use. To eliminate some of the human error involved behind home plate, a TrackMan radar tracking system will be used to assist the home plate umpire in calling balls and strikes. With the exception of a pitching change or a medical issue, mound visits by anyone are prohibited. Alongside mound visits, shifting is now prohibited, as there now must be two infielders on each side of the second base. If a team does not meet this requirement, then the play is dead and the umpire calls a ball. To speed up the pace of play, the time between innings and pitching changes has been reduced from 2:05 to 1:45, and pitchers, barring injury, must face a minimum of three batters or reach the end of the inning. Other rule changes include the size of the bases increasing from 15 square inches to 18 square inches, and the distance between home plate and the pitching rubber extending by 24 inches for the second half of the season.
“This first group of experimental changes is designed to create more balls in play, defensive action, baserunning, and improve player safety,” said Morgan Sword, the Senior Vice President of MLB. “We look forward to seeing them in action in the Atlantic League.”
The High Point Rockers will begin their inaugural season in the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball on May 2. Photo by wikipedia.org
2019 HIGH POINT ROCKERS SCHEDULE
May 2: vs. Sugar Land Skeeters (7:00) May 3: vs. Sugar Land Skeeters (7:00)
May 4: vs. Sugar Land Skeeters (6:30) May 5: vs. Sugar Land Skeeters (2:00)
May 6: vs. New Britain Bees (6:30) May 7: vs. New Britain Bees (6:30)
May 8: vs. New Britain Bees (10:30) May 9: @ York Revolution
May 10: @ York Revolution May 11: @ York Revolution
May 12: @ York Revolution May 14: @ Somerset Patriots
May 15: @ Somerset Patriots May 16: @ Somerset Patriots
May 17: vs. So. MD Blue Crabs (7:00) May 18: vs. So. MD Blue Crabs (6:30)
May 19: vs. So. MD Blue Crabs (2:00) May 21: vs. Long Island Ducks (6:30)
May 22: vs. Long Island Ducks (10:30) May 23: vs. Long Island Ducks (6:30)
May 24: @ New Britain Bees May 25: @ New Britain Bees
May 26: @ New Britain Bees May 27: @ So. MD Blue Crabs
May 28: @ So. MD Blue Crabs May 29: @ So. MD Blue Crabs
May 30: @ So. MD Blue Crabs May 31: vs. New Britain Bees (7:00)
June 1: vs. New Britain Bees (6:30) June 2: vs. New Britain Bees (2:00)
June 3: vs. York Revolution (6:30) June 4: vs. York Revolution (6:30)
June 5: vs. York Revolution (10:30) June 6: vs. York Revolution (6:30)
June 7: @ Long Island Ducks June 8: @ Long Island Ducks
June 9: @ Long Island Ducks June 10: @ York Revolution
June 11: @ York Revolution June 12: @ York Revolution
June 13: @ York Revolution June 14: vs. Long Island Ducks (7:30)
June 15: vs. Long Island Ducks (4:30) June 15: vs. Long Island Ducks (DH)
June 16: vs. Long Island Ducks (2:00) June 18: vs. Lancaster Barnstormers (6:30)
June 19: vs. Lancaster Barnstormers (11:00) June 20: vs. Lancaster Barnstormers (6:30)
June 21: @ So. MD Blue Crabs June 22: @ So. MD Blue Crabs
June 23: @ So. MD Blue Crabs June 25: @ Sugar Land Skeeters
June 26: @ Sugar Land Skeeters June 27: @ Sugar Land Skeeters
June 28: @ Sugar Land Skeeters June 29: @ Sugar Land Skeeters
June 30: @ Sugar Land Skeeters July 1: vs. Lancaster Barnstormers (6:30)
July 2: vs. Lancaster Barnstormers (6:30) July 3: vs. Lancaster Barnstormers (6:30)
July 4: vs. Lancaster Barnstormers (6:30) July 5: vs. Somerset Patriots (7:00)
July 6: vs. Somerset Patriots (6:30) July 7: vs. Somerset Patriots (2:00)
JULY 8-11: ALL-STAR BREAK
July 12: @ York Revolution July 13: @ York Revolution
July 14: @ York Revolution July 16: @ Lancaster Barnstormers
July 16: @ Lancaster Barnstormers (DH) July 17: @ Lancaster Barnstormers
July 18: @ Lancaster Barnstormers July 19: vs. Somerset Patriots (7:00)
July 20: vs. Somerset Patriots (6:30) July 21: vs. Somerset Patriots (2:00)
July 22: @ So. MD Blue Crabs July 23: @ So. MD Blue Crabs
July 24: @ So. MD Blue Crabs July 25: vs. Sugar Land Skeeters (6:30)
July 26: vs. Sugar Land Skeeters (7:00) July 27: vs. Sugar Land Skeeters (6:30)
July 28: vs. Sugar Land Skeeters (2:00) July 29: vs. So. MD Blue Crabs (6:30)
July 30: vs. So. MD Blue Crabs (6:30) July 31: vs. So. MD Blue Crabs (11:00)
August 1: vs. So. MD Blue Crabs (6:30) August 2: @ Long Island Ducks
August 3: @ Long Island Ducks August 4: @ Long Island Ducks
August 6: vs. Sugar Land Skeeters (6:30) August 7: vs. Sugar Land Skeeters (11:00)
August 8: vs. Sugar Land Skeeters (6:30) August 9: vs. York Revolution (7:00)
August 10: vs. York Revolution (6:30) August 11: vs. York Revolution (2:00)
August 12: @ New Britain Bees August 13: @ New Britain Bees
August 14: @ New Britain Bees August 15: @ New Britain Bees
August 16: vs. Long Island Ducks (6:30) August 17: vs. Long Island Ducks (7:00)
August 18: vs. Long Island Ducks (2:00) August 19: @ Lancaster Barnstormers
August 20: @ Lancaster Barnstormers August 21: @ Lancaster Barnstormers
August 22: @ Lancaster Barnstormers August 23: vs. York Revolution (7:00)
August 24: vs. York Revolution (6:30) August 25: vs. York Revolution (2:00)
August 27: vs. New Britain Bees (6:30) August 28: vs. New Britain Bees (10:30)
August 29: vs. New Britain Bees (6:30) August 30: @ Sugar Land Skeeters
August 31: @ Sugar Land Skeeters Sep. 1: @ Sugar Land Skeeters
Sep. 2: vs. So. MD Blue Crabs (4:00) Sep. 3: vs. So. MD Blue Crabs (6:30)
Sep. 4: vs. So. MD Blue Crabs (6:30) Sep. 5: vs. So. MD Blue Crabs (6:30)
Sep. 6: @ Somerset Patriots Sep. 7: @ Somerset Patriots
Sep. 8: @ Somerset Patriots Sep. 11: vs. Lancaster Barnstormers (6:30)
Sep. 12: vs. Lancaster Barnstormers (6:30) Sep. 13: vs. Somerset Patriots (7:00)
Sep. 14: vs. Somerset Patriots (6:30) Sep. 15: vs. Somerset Patriots (2:00)
Sep. 16: vs. Somerset Patriots (6:30) Sep. 17: @ New Britain Bees
Sep. 18: @ New Britain Bees Sep. 19: @ New Britain Bees
Sep. 20: @ Long Island Ducks Sep. 21: @ Long Island Ducks
Sep. 22: @ Long Island Ducks
SEPTEMBER 25: POSTSEASON PLAY BEGINS