2018 Santa Fe Fuego Season Recap - T.J. Zarewicz Goes to Canada and Daniel Aldrich Leads the Fuego

The 2018 Santa Fe Fuego season became one of the more unusual chapters in franchise history. After the difficult seasons that followed the 2014 Pecos League Championship, Santa Fe entered 2018 looking to establish itself as a winning organization again. T.J. Zarewicz continued to lead the Fuego after taking over the club during the disastrous 2016 season, but his role would unexpectedly change in the middle of the summer. Zarewicz was sent to Canada to manage the Salina Stockade while the Stockade were playing in the Can-Am League, temporarily leaving the Fuego without their manager. Daniel Aldrich stepped forward as one of the primary leaders of the team during Zarewicz's absence, and Santa Fe continued through a wild summer that eventually resulted in a 32-30 record.

The Fuego opened the season with a 5-2 victory at Fort Marcy before immediately experiencing the type of high-scoring baseball that would characterize much of the summer. Santa Fe lost 10-8 and 14-10 before exploding for a 29-7 victory. The first few games provided an accurate preview of what was coming. The Fuego had an offense capable of overwhelming opposing pitching staffs, but keeping opponents off the scoreboard would remain a challenge throughout the year.

The pattern continued as the schedule moved into June. Santa Fe won 9-4, lost 16-14, won 13-12 and then suffered a 23-4 defeat. The Fuego lost 14-8 and 12-11 before responding with a 15-11 victory. After a 16-11 loss, Santa Fe exploded again for a 29-12 victory. Almost every night seemed capable of turning into an offensive shootout, and Fort Marcy remained one of the most unpredictable places to play professional baseball.

The 2018 Fuego had enough offensive talent to survive many of those games. Mike Annone became one of the most productive hitters on the roster, playing 62 games and collecting 103 hits in 268 at-bats. He scored 87 runs, hit 15 doubles and 17 home runs and drove in 84. His ability to remain productive throughout the entire summer gave Santa Fe a dependable offensive presence in a lineup that experienced significant movement around him.

Daniel Aldrich once again became one of the most dangerous power hitters in Santa Fe. Aldrich appeared in 49 games and collected 58 hits while scoring 59 runs. He hit eight doubles and blasted 21 home runs while driving in 71. He also drew 43 walks, forcing opposing pitchers to make a difficult decision every time he came to the plate. They could challenge one of the most dangerous power hitters in the lineup or put him on base and deal with the hitters behind him.

Aldrich's importance to the 2018 Fuego eventually extended far beyond his home-run numbers. When Zarewicz left Santa Fe in the middle of the season to manage the Salina Stockade in Canada, the Fuego needed leadership from within the roster. Aldrich emerged as the player who helped lead the team during that unusual period. He understood Fort Marcy, understood the Pecos League and had already established himself as one of Santa Fe's most important players. During a season when the managerial situation could easily have become a major distraction, Aldrich helped provide stability.

The lineup around Aldrich remained extremely productive. Danny Beaver collected 69 hits while scoring 59 runs, hitting 10 doubles and seven home runs and stealing 12 bases. Ethan Estes collected 66 hits, scored 54 runs and hit 13 home runs while driving in 47. Aaron Stubblefield was outstanding during his 31 games with the Fuego, collecting 56 hits in 115 at-bats with eight doubles, one triple and 15 home runs. He drove in 52 runs and scored 42 times.

Chris Kwitzer also produced tremendous numbers during a shorter stint, collecting 60 hits in 140 at-bats while playing 32 games. He scored 43 runs, hit seven doubles, one triple and 11 home runs and drove in 42. Ryan Arena added six home runs, Jackson Webb hit 10, Zach Hoffman hit another 10 and Robert Garza hit seven while stealing 10 bases. Throughout the lineup, Santa Fe had hitters capable of producing runs and taking advantage of the unique offensive environment at Fort Marcy.

The pitching staff faced a much more difficult assignment. Yale Hughes carried the largest workload for Santa Fe, making 12 starts and appearing in 17 games. Hughes threw 87.1 innings, completed three games and struck out 97 hitters while finishing 6-3. His ability to consistently take the baseball and cover innings became extremely important for a team playing so many high-scoring games.

Ismael Pena threw 66.2 innings and won three games, while Logan Linder worked 46.2 innings and finished 3-3. Jackson Webb made six starts and threw 38.1 innings, while Julian Devora worked 43.1 innings. Kyle Lazcano went 2-3 while making five starts. The Fuego also received several strong bullpen performances. Trent Maloney appeared in 24 games and finished 3-1 with a 3.62 ERA and three saves while striking out 42 hitters in 27.1 innings. Colin Kelly appeared in 22 games and finished 2-1 with a 4.50 ERA while striking out 33 in 24 innings.

The combination of Santa Fe's offense and the extreme conditions at Fort Marcy produced some incredible games. The Fuego won a 20-19 game and followed it with a 14-13 victory before losing 17-16. Santa Fe later won 26-11 and 25-17 before losing 15-14 and then winning 12-11. In a stretch of only a few games, the Fuego repeatedly found themselves in contests where scoring 10 or 15 runs didn't guarantee anything.

That was simply life at Fort Marcy. The approximately 7,000-foot elevation and short fences had been part of the Fuego's identity since the franchise began playing there in 2012. By 2018, everyone in the Pecos League understood what could happen in Santa Fe. Pitchers knew there were very few comfortable leads, hitters knew almost any well-struck fly ball had a chance and fans knew that leaving the ballpark early could mean missing an incredible comeback.

In the middle of this already unpredictable season came an unusual managerial development. Zarewicz was sent north to Canada to manage the Salina Stockade during the Stockade's season in the Can-Am League. For Zarewicz, it represented an opportunity to manage in a different professional baseball environment. For the Fuego, it meant losing their manager in the middle of the regular season.

Santa Fe couldn't stop its schedule while Zarewicz was away. The games continued, the travel continued and the roster still needed leadership every day. Daniel Aldrich became one of the central figures in keeping the Fuego moving forward. Already established as one of the team's premier hitters, Aldrich took on a much larger leadership role and helped guide the club through Zarewicz's absence.

The situation was another example of how different independent baseball could be from the traditional professional baseball structure. A manager could begin the summer in Santa Fe, leave in the middle of the season to manage another professional club in Canada and eventually return to his original team. Meanwhile, one of the best players on the roster could suddenly find himself helping lead the club through the transition.

Rather than allowing the situation to destroy the season, Santa Fe continued playing. The Fuego won 9-6 on the road, later returned home and won 18-12 and then survived an incredible 25-23 game at Fort Marcy. Santa Fe followed that with a 12-9 victory as the team began building momentum heading into July.

July became the strongest portion of the Fuego's season. Santa Fe opened the month with an 11-2 victory and then went on the road and won 19-3, 13-3 and 13-8. Four consecutive victories suddenly had the Fuego playing their best baseball of the year. More importantly, several of those wins came away from Fort Marcy, demonstrating that Santa Fe wasn't completely dependent upon its home ballpark to produce offense.

After a 6-3 loss, Santa Fe bounced back with a 12-11 victory. Consecutive losses of 13-10 and 11-5 interrupted the momentum, but the Fuego quickly began another outstanding stretch. Santa Fe won 18-6, 11-10, 21-5, 26-11 and 5-4, producing another five-game winning streak and putting together its strongest sustained run of the summer.

The variety of those victories demonstrated how the Fuego were developing as a team. Santa Fe could still overwhelm opponents with 18, 21 or 26 runs, but the Fuego could also survive an 11-10 game or win 5-4. That ability to win lower-scoring games was particularly important for a team that had spent so much of its history relying on huge offensive totals.

Santa Fe experienced another difficult stretch afterward, losing 17-12, 10-3 and 9-0. The shutout was particularly unusual for a Fuego team that had spent most of the summer scoring runs in bunches. Once again, however, Santa Fe responded. The Fuego won their next three games 5-4, 10-2 and 4-2. Those victories were dramatically different from the offensive shootouts that had defined much of the season and demonstrated that Santa Fe could occasionally win behind pitching and timely hitting.

The Fuego returned to Fort Marcy and exploded one more time with a 19-2 victory before closing the schedule with narrow losses of 8-7 and 5-3. When the regular season was complete, Santa Fe had finished 32-30 in games with decisions, giving the franchise a winning record after one of the strangest summers it had experienced.

Considering everything that happened, finishing above .500 represented a significant accomplishment. The Fuego had played through constant offensive shootouts, inconsistent pitching, roster movement and the temporary departure of their manager. Instead of allowing those circumstances to destroy the season, Santa Fe became stronger as the summer progressed and played some of its best baseball during July.

Aldrich became one of the symbols of that resilience. His 21 home runs and 71 RBIs made him one of the most productive hitters on the roster, but his importance couldn't be measured entirely by his statistics. When Zarewicz left for Canada, Aldrich became a leader the Fuego could depend upon. He helped keep the team together and provided continuity at a point when Santa Fe could easily have lost its direction.

Zarewicz eventually returned to Santa Fe after managing the Salina Stockade in Canada, completing one of the more unusual managerial stories in Fuego history. He had begun the season managing Santa Fe, left during the summer to manage another professional team in another country and then returned to the Fuego. His opportunity with Salina also demonstrated how the Pecos League could provide advancement opportunities not only for players but for managers and coaches.

The 2018 season ultimately became a story about adaptability. Santa Fe had to adapt to high-scoring games, pitching shortages and roster changes. The Fuego had to adapt when their manager suddenly left in the middle of the summer. Aldrich had to adapt from being primarily one of the team's biggest offensive weapons to becoming one of the people responsible for helping lead the club.

Through all of it, the Fuego kept playing and kept winning enough games to finish above .500. Mike Annone finished with 103 hits, 87 runs, 17 home runs and 84 RBIs. Aldrich hit 21 home runs and drove in 71. Stubblefield hit 15 home runs in only 31 games, Estes hit 13 and Kwitzer added 11 in 32 games. Hughes carried the pitching staff with 87.1 innings and 97 strikeouts, while Maloney became one of the club's most dependable bullpen arms.

The 2018 Fuego weren't the championship team of 2014, but they had rediscovered something that had been missing during the difficult seasons that followed that championship. Santa Fe had become a winning baseball team again. After the disastrous 2016 season, finishing 32-30 represented meaningful progress and showed that the organization was again moving in the right direction.

The season would ultimately be remembered for one of the most unusual managerial arrangements in franchise history. T.J. Zarewicz began the year leading the Fuego, was sent to Canada in the middle of the season to manage the Salina Stockade in the Can-Am League and eventually returned. During his absence, Daniel Aldrich emerged as the leader Santa Fe needed and helped keep the Fuego moving forward.

Through all the changes, the offensive explosions, the wild Fort Marcy games and the managerial uncertainty, Santa Fe found a way to finish with a winning record. The 2018 season wasn't another championship season, but it represented a significant recovery for the franchise and another unforgettable chapter in the unpredictable history of the Santa Fe Fuego.