2015 World Series Champions: Royals

Rebuilt Royals go from worst to first

The story of this year’s Reading Babe Ruth champion Royals shows how the league module works as you can rebuild through the draft and turn around a league franchise that was coming off a last-place 4-12 record a season ago. This year’s Royals improved remarkably to go 10-4-2 during the regular season and then on to a World Series championship.

Another big part in the success was a dedicated and committed team that tried to make Reading Babe Ruth its top priority when the expected conflicts occur during a spring season. Throw in exemplary leadership from the three 15-year-olds, and a group of committed coaches who continued to teach, encourage and evaluate players to put them into positions to succeed, and you have the blueprint of the 2015 champs.

The Royals lost six 15-year-olds from the 2014 team and that didn’t bode well for the future. But with three 2015 draft picks in the top 20, and a 14-year-old assignment (Brendan Keaveney), things began to be pointed in the right direction.

Assistant coach Dan DiMare, who has a younger son in Reading Little League, had a solid read on the incoming 13-year-old class and the league provided a “scouting combine” at Symonds in November for a first-hand look at incoming rookies. The other two assistants, Bob Miele and Tony Tierno, provided their knowledge of the game, stressing an aggressive offensive approach, along with their high energy for encouragement.

Manager Steve Algeri felt to turn this team around in a hurry through the draft they needed to select “bigger” players. Algeri (who is 5-foot-7) joked he didn’t want anyone that was shorter than him. He also wanted a solid fielding crop of rookies, first and foremost, which could make the basic, routine plays. How they batted in their first year was not a priority, but defense was.

This bore out in the World Series as rookies Chris Wheeler and Matt Segalla were flawless in the outfield. Top rookie Matt Sannella was a first-year player who made a seamless transition to Babe Ruth and played like a veteran. Sannella slid right in to play the left side of infield, pitch and catch while holding down the leadoff spot in the batting order. Sannella batted .308 during the regular season and stepped it up hitting .500 (5 for 10) during the playoffs.

The other two rookies – Matt Pepi and Will Keating – were those taller rookies Algeri wanted whose ready-made size did not make the big diamond a problem for them. Pepi saw a lot of duty at 3B while Keating transitioned from the outfield early to playing solid innings at 2B.

But then you also needed the eight returning players to “step up” and make a jump from the season before. Michael Presho (.386), Jacob Berman (.389) and Jonathan Tierno (.300) found that next level. Presho and Berman, who were freshman players at RMHS and Pingree respectively, and the two unofficial captains, provided solid two-inning pitching. Presho, when not playing shortstop, was usually in the closer’s role while Berman was predominately a starter. Tierno was one of those solid 15-year-old Babe Ruth non-high school players the league loves who still plays baseball for the love of the game.

Johnny DiMare and Michael Miele, a pair of 14-year-olds, transitioned from their more natural positions to fill the needs of their spring team. DiMare took care of the worrisome catching position while no one was playing a better center field than Miele by season’s end.

Showing how the coaching staff continued to evaluate the players, even heading to the World Series, 14-year-old James Rigney was switched to RF to fill a need and he came up with a huge running catch in Game 3 of the Series. Chris Fallon and Brendan Ziegler will be returning and are expected to make even bigger jumps as 15’s next year.

The Royals did not have a dominant No. 1 pitcher who could blow teams away with an overpowering fastball. They used a stable of six control pitchers who battled opposing batters. Offensively, only DiMare (.415) topped the .400 mark, yet their hitters had a solid approach at the plate, working the counts and forcing opposing pitchers to throw strikes, or looking to be aggressive with runners in scoring position.

And with 11 players eligible to return in 2016, it could be the makings of a repeat in Reading Babe Ruth for the first time since … this same Royals franchise won in 2009 and ‘10.