Salt Lake Bees' roller-coaster campaign sputtered downhill

The 2009 Salt Lake Bees began the season with a powerful lineup that fully expected to do great things, setting offensive records along the way to a fourth straight PCL Pacific North Division title.

Alas, the team's 72-71 final record was a disappointment, as was its third-place finish in the division.

The Bees, meanwhile, did set some records as a team. The problem was that most were not the good kind.

Salt Lake hit just .273, setting a franchise record for worst in that category. And it wasn't even close. The previous worsts came in 1998 and again in 2003 and 2005, when it had a .284 team batting average.

The Bees also set a franchise record for scoring futility, going 36 straight innings during one stretch in August without scoring a single run.

So how did a team filled with such outstanding, proven Triple-A hitters as Matt Brown, Reggie Willits, Brandon Wood, Sean Rodriguez, Terry Evans, Freddy Sandoval, Bobby Wilson and others struggle so much?

One early factor, the players said, was the loss of well-liked former teammate Nick Adenhart, who was killed in a tragic car accident the night before the Bees' scheduled opener. Player movement back and forth between Salt Lake and the parent Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and numerous injuries also caused the team to lack continuity. Plus, players who had previously produced at the Triple-A level before simply didn't play as well this year for whatever reasons.

Bees manager Bobby Mitchell has some theories as to why the Bees struggled, but even he was a little dumbfounded.

"It was a roller-coaster ride," said Mitchell, who finished his second season as the Bees' skipper.

Salt Lake was actually 10 games above .500 and alone in first place in the division — at 38-28 — in the middle of June. But then the Bees dropped six straight games and started losing more often. It wasn't until Aug. 2, however, that Salt Lake fell under .500 for the first time since early in the 2007 season. Later, a six-game losing streak in the middle of August dropped the Bees to 59-66. It was during that time period that the team went 36 innings without scoring a single run.

"The most disappointing stretch was when we lost six games in a row on the road," said Mitchell. "That put us way behind the 8-ball because it was late, and there wasn't a lot of time to catch up and we fell into third (in the division). It's tough to catch two teams."

To their credit, the Bees rebounded to win 10 of their final 12 games to finish with a winning record once again.

"It's always nice to finish above .500 for the season and, believe me, we had to come a long way to get there," said Mitchell. "The last two weeks were outstanding. We got good pitching and our hitting picked up in key situations."