HSH: Chiang-Mai

Key additions: JJ Putz (match), Zach Day.

Key losses: Scott Kazmir, Vernon Wells, probably some other guys.

Projected Record: 91-69

Last year, the Kwaan became the first team since the 2012-2013 Atlanta Flyers to win 100 games two years in a row. Chiang-Mai won 100 games in 2015 and then added a single win to that total in 2016, going a league-best 101-59. This year, they’re looking to break the 100 win barrier for the third year in a row, a feat only accomplished by Paris (2007-2009).

That win total is the good news. Unfortunately for Kwaan fans, the bad news is that neither lofty regular season win total has translated into a Championship. A third season of 100 wins will look nice in the record books – a few years down the road. But right now, it’s title or bust.

Since expansion in 2013, no Far East team has won an SLB title. Chiang-Mai got close in 2015, falling to Savannah four games to two. Could this be the year a Far East team finally gets over the hump?

After lighting the SLB world on fire offensively in 2015, the Kwaan took a step back on offense last year, though it’s hard to complain about their overall production. Still, it was a young team that hit haughty heights and was expected to continue to ascend. It didn’t, and the Kwaan didn’t win a title. End result: An upset fan base that expected more.

Chiang-Mai hopes to satisfy that desire this year, and the brunt of those expectations will fall on the shoulders of outfielder Dennis Dennis Jr. D2J, as he is affectionately referred to, is in the final year of the 3-year, $30.75 million dollar contract he originally signed. After an astounding 2015 for the Kwaan, a year that had dreams of championships and multiple MVPs dancing in the dreams of General Manager Ben Royer, Dennis was one of multiple hitters that took a step back last season. His home runs were up (from 12 in 2015 to 18 last year), but his average, on-base plus slugging percentage and RBIs were all down. His doubles total fell from 71 to 48.

He wasn’t the only one, either. Outfielders Trevor Bayne and Joe Belinda burst into world prominence in 2015, but neither enjoyed the kind of success last season that they did in the one previous.

But still, the win total rose, and it was on the backs of Chiang-Mai’s starting pitching that it did so. All five starters, led by Michael Pelfrey with 17, won over 10 games. Danny Haren led the team with a 2.94 ERA, while Pelfrey (201 Ks) and Zito (216) led the team in strikeouts. The Kwaan’s 3.75 team ERA was easily the league’s best, a full quarter of a run better than the next closest competitor (Kyoto’s staff was second with a 4.04 ERA).

Which brings us to 2017, the quest for another 100-win season and an SLB title. Chiang-Mai, with the majority of its payroll tied up in players that will spend 2017 in the final years of their respective contracts, played it quiet in the offseason, matching a 3-year, $3 million dollar offer to reliever JJ Putz and signing Zach Day, cut by Taipei in the offseason, to a 3-year deal worth just over $1 million per season.

While the offseason gains, outside of whatever growth the young offensive players go through, was minimal, the loss of starting pitcher Scott Kazmir will certainly be felt. Kazmir won 16 games with a 3.30 ERA in 2016, a year strong enough that Bedford, who is building a nice rotation itself, wooed him away. Going into the spring, it looked like the competition for the departed spot in the rotation would be between Mark Rogers, Jim Bauers, Derek Thompson or even Zach Day. However, 25-year old Charlie Gipson has had a strong showing so far, and might earn the spot. If it’s not him, it looks like Bauers and Thompson are the favorites.

With the turnaround complete in Chiang-Mai, from a 66-win team in 2014 to a potential third consecutive season as a title contender in 2017, this could be the year that a Far East team breaks through and wins that elusive first title.

Royer and the excitable Chiang-Mai fans just hope that it’s the Kwaan that does it.

Projected lineup

CF Bayne, T.

3B Zalusky, L.

RF Dennis Jr., D.

C Murman, T.

LF Belinda, J.

1B Callahan, D.

SS Willemburg, B.

2B Jackson, C.

Projected Rotation

L Zito, B.

R Haren, D.

R Thompson, K.

R Pelfry, M.

R Bauers, J.

Closer

Putz, JJ