Plagued by injuries to almost all of their core players, the express from Buffalo
to New York City seemed to be running at full speed. Very few players would remain
long enough to make an impact as 57 players called Buffalo home throughout
the season. Because of this, fans never really got to make a connection with anyone
on the team besides perhaps Jesus Feliciano and Mike Lamb (29 2B, .261)…
the only 2 Bisons with over 400 At Bats. Nelson Figueroa was easily the best pitcher
on the staff for 2009 pitching to a 7-5, 2.25 record. Jon Niese still only
22, had a fair season going 5-6, 3.82. The rest of the pitching staff was basically
a stop over. Even Figueroa would only pitch for 17 games before joining
the big league club to patch holes, which seemed to spring up elsewhere. Nick Evans
was the only player to hit double digits in HR, and that was just barely…
with 12 2B, 10 HR and a .211 batting average. Jesus Feliciano hit 30 2B and batted
.311 with 13 SB. Fernando Martinez would hit .290 with 8 HR, and those were
really the only players worth mentioning. They would finish an awful 56-87 (.392)
for the worst record they had seen at Coca-Cola Field since 1994. With the
Mets injury plagued season now over, some stability finally came to the team as
Ken Oberkfell led the Bisons to a 3rd place finish. Not quite a playoff finish,
but at least they were 8 games over .500 again (76-68, .528). |