La Peña - Havana's Official Blog

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Leones
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Re: La Peña - Havana's Official Blog

#16 Post by Leones »

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11 April, 2022
Ernesto de la Torriente, La Bola Rápida

The Leones took to the road to begin the 2021 campaign against the IL Seaboard division. Fans weren’t really expecting much after last year’s dismal showing and this year early injury to backstop Yosuke Imai. It was a pleasant surprise to find them off to a decent 2-3 early mark putting them in 3rd place in the IL Trans-atlantic.

Any early signs of excitement were expected to come from the all lefty outfield but that didn’t happen. Instead the big hits came out of the 1B position where the club had been struggling for production for years. 1B Jotaro Koike was named IL player of the week after a torrid start posting a .623 AVG in 19 AB with 3 HR and 7 RBIs over the five game stretch.

It’a awfully early in the season, but all things considered fans are optimistic.

The road trip continues with a 3 game set against the Hitmen then the club comes home on April 14 to host the Trendsetters.
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Re: La Peña - Havana's Official Blog

#17 Post by Leones »

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20 May, 2022
Ernesto de la Torriente, La Bola Rápida

Havana's inevitable slide down from the division lead has been progressing on schedule. The club is below league average in nearly every category. Not all is night and gloom however, there have been some bright spots that point to a better future.

On the plus side;

We're 4-0 in extra innings games this year.

We're 8-6 in 1 run games.

The pitching staff is no longer giving up inordinate numbers of home runs and K's are up.

Our batters are getting more selective striking out less than all our division rivals.

I gotta stop now. I'm getting giddy. :-B
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Re: La Peña - Havana's Official Blog

#18 Post by Leones »

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It’s the biggest crap shoot in the Cuban capitol since the Mafia days of Meyer Lansky. The Havana Leones announced today that they signed 30 year old SP Jose Durango to a multi year deal worth about $15 million annually. Insiders say the deal is 2-4 years.

In a brief statement, ownership said: “We’re delighted to welcome Jose to the club. It’s no secret that we needed a big improvement in our pitching if we were going to be able to compete in our division. He brings a dynamic arm and winning attitude to our clubhouse and we look forward to many years of success together.”

The 30 year old Dominican lefty reportedly touches triple digits with his fastball and has a complete arsenal at his command, sinker, slider, change up, all of quality. It is hoped that he can shore up a woeful starting rotation and perhaps even help Takanibu Murata find his former spark.

For now they’ll probably just be happy if he can win more than he loses. No one man is going to turn this ship around anytime soon. It’s a good start though and fans are happy to see the club take a chance in a serious effort to improve even if they’ve never heard of the guy.

For Durango, the #2 career strikeout leader in the Liga Dominicana de Béisbol Invernal, it’s a chance to show he can perform at the highest level. “I know they say the club is rebuilding, but these guys are very close to being a winning club. There is a solid core here and I’ve always wanted to play in Cuba. The fans here are fantastic. We’re going to give them something to cheer about.”
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Re: La Peña - Havana's Official Blog

#19 Post by roncollins »

We were quite interested in Durango, but we were a bit worried about that home run rate.
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Re: La Peña - Havana's Official Blog

#20 Post by Borealis »

We took a peek at him, but he wasn't interested in playing for our new manager...
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Re: La Peña - Havana's Official Blog

#21 Post by Leones »

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It never snows in Havana. The 2022 PEBA Winter meetings have come and gone with nothing left under Havana's tree. Rumor was the club tried to piece together a number of deals and put top players and even the clubs first draft pick on the table without any takers. At one point the club was rumored to have considered a trade embargo on the whole league out of frustration.

The club's ownership said in an exclusive interview:

"We're a long way down he road from the heady trades of the LRS. Remember the Domingo Hernandez and Bing Zhang Chien deals? Big bold strokes, with upsides for both partners. Sigh. Those were the days. It can difficult to find a partner wiling to make a balanced proposal in today's climate. There's a lot of gambling. That's why so many draft picks trade hands every year. It's very easy to seek revolution over evolution. We're not taking that route. Our revolution will be on the field and borne of evolution. We'll keep building our club through free agency and the farm system primarily. We've been lucky with the waiver wire, mostly because we were so lacking these past two years. As we improve we expect to be getting less from the wire."

"While we're on the topic of going forward, I should like to state for the record that we despise having the first pick of the draft again and as owner I resolve to the fans that we will improve and it is our sincerest hope we never have another top 5 draft position, ever. It's a disgrace. We intend to win this division and the PEBA. Our goal is to be the first club to have won the LRS and PEBA championships. We've started from a huge disadvantage, partly of our own making but largely not. As Fidel Castro once said 'A revolution is not a bed of roses'. "

Rumors have it that the club wanted to do more but that there is some tension growing between Ownerniship and Manager Shinichi Seki over the rosters and player assignments. Ownership feels that there are deals they could make but Seki is not willing to play players according to the Owner's script. This recently came to head when the club signed DH Jim Thompson. On the face it seemed a curious move for a non DH club. The scuttlebutt is that the the club wanted to move C Yosuke Imai to 1B leaving Thompson to work with developing C Hirotsugu Suzuki
Leaving the Winter Meetings empty handed seems to have raised the frustration levels for both parties.
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Re: La Peña - Havana's Official Blog

#22 Post by Leones »

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The club put forth an impressive spring effort, posting the top record in the division. While it may be cause for some hope, the regular season is a different beast. The bullpen is noticeably improved and there is good potential at 2B. The rest of the club is pretty much as it was. If the youth can step up and deliver and the aging veterans can stay healthy the club may finally have rounded the corner and can look forward to improving on it dismal records of the previous two seasons.

Here’s a breakdown of the roster:

SP Jose Durango
SP John Gaines
SP Christian George
SP Takanibu Murata
SP Larry Schultz

An area needing significant improvement and lacking a go-to guy. The club went big, signing Jose Durango to a 4 year $61 million contract. He’ll be followed by Gaines and George who return for their 3rd season with the club. They are followed by the enigmatic Takanibu Murata who appears to be in permanent decline and looked shockingly bad in spring camp. Picked up as a free agent, Larry Schultz rounds out the rotation.

Another season with a stitched together group of FAs and old hands. Durango will have to lead a lackluster group who are really just holding down the fort until the farm system can deliver real talent. Grade : C+

CL Ricardo Perez
MR Miguel Mercado
MR Michael Smallbridge
MR Forrest Murphy
MR Nathan O’Reilly
MR Guillermo Mejia
MR Larry Burns

Unable to do much with the rotation a lot of effort went into rebuilding the bullpen. Pérez is clearly the class of the ‘pen and the club signed him to a 1 year extension through 2024. Mercado and FA signing Smallbridge will handle the setup duties. After a disappointing stint as a starter, Murphy moves to the pen to do the heavy lifting of eating innings. O’Reilly is the same story to a lesser degree. Free agent Mejía is an upgrade. Burns returns looking to contribute more than last season’s 6 innings pitched.

Some useful arms added. If Murphy and O’Reilly respond well to bullpen duty and Burns can add some innings this group might put in some respectable work. They might even help lift the starters slightly. Grade : B-

C Yosuke Imai
C Hirotsugu Suzuki
C Jim Thompson

Ownership acquired Thompson in the rule 5 draft with an eye towards moving Imai to 1B. It was felt the mileage of catching was wearing his old frame down. Manager Shinichi Seiki had different ideas. Look for Imai and Suzuki to platoon behind the plate with Suzuki and Thomson doing some DH duty. Thompson will also be doing backup duty.

Suzuki looked strong in the spring, but is he really ready to start? Age might be slowing Imai down. If so the he may respond well to splitting duties. Thompson is a good stick so he may do his best work as a DH. Grade : C


1B Miguel Salinas

First base has been a perpetual problem. Free agent Salinas was brought in on a one year deal specifically to bring some offense and hold down the position for one season after Mgr Seiki made it clear he wouldn’t play Imai at first. He looked terrible in spring. Hopefully he’s just a slow starter. Some are very concerned he may not be an answer.

Looks like first base wlll be more questions than answers again this season. Grade : D-

2B Pancho Moreno
2B Yeong-hun Kim

Another rule 5 acquisition, Moreno was being looked at to hold down the position to give Kim some more years to season at AAA. Both youngsters impressed in the spring. Moreno gets the nod to start with Kim getting a feel for the bigs as the backup.

Both young and green and highly talented. Should be fun to watch. Grade : B+


3B Ralph Gunther

At 35 years, Gunther just keeps bringing his lunchbox and blue collar effort to the hot corner and defying time. He’s had a strong spring and looks to keep on rolling, which will be good enough for another season.

Iron man is fun to watch but age has got to catch up to him eventually. Grade : C+


SS Roberto Berroa
SS Rubén Diaz

Another source of dissension between the Owner and Manager was the role of Diaz. After winning a Gold Glove for his play at 2B last year, the Owner wanted to move him back to his natural position at shortstop. The Manager wants him to play utility infielder and start Berroa at short.

Diaz is clearly the better glove and out hit Berroa last season. While Berroa has more upside with the bat, there is no sign he’ll achieve it. D-

LF Rod Martin
LF Ronald McCall
CF Júlio Medina
RF Motoki Suzuki

Martin and McCall were signed through free agency. Suzuki had a breakthrough season last year and started to show signs of becoming a standout player. Medina lapsed and will be looking to better his results.

Of the two placeholder signings, Martin could have a real impact. He was signed late last season when the club had decided they were not going to reach accord with Ricard Longoria. He should be a suitable replacement. The pair of Suzuki/Medina will in sum, probably improve slightly. Grade : B-
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Re: La Peña - Havana's Official Blog

#23 Post by Leones »

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At midsummer, signs of promise can be four at every level of the organization.

In PEBA, June has been good for the Leones who have posted a 10-5 record this month. Club fixture ‘Decoy’ Murata won his last two of his three June starts throwing 22 innings giving up 4 earned runs, 5 walks and striking out 18. In his third year of play in PEBA the 13 year pro may have finally started to put his struggles behind him. Many credit his resurgence to the arrival of free agent signing Jorge ‘Putt Putt’ Aguilar on June 6th bringing a style of leadership that has inspired the pitching staff. Others feel it was the hiring of new pitching coach Norm MacDonald back in May that is finally paying off.

In the field we’re starting to see a bit of a youth movement with rule 5 pickup Pancho Moreno (25) getting some starts at 3B and Yeong-Hun Kim (22) taking over at 2B. The club is beginning to turn the corner on the old strategy of plugging gaps with aging free agents each season. With the farm system starting to get healthy again we can expect more of the younger position players to start coming up through the system.

The pitching in the farm system is still running behind the position players by about 4 years but will be worth the wait. The club used it’s draft picks to acquire a lot of arms foremost of which was SP Enrique Váldez. Yet to sign, Váldez is reportedly seeking a signing bonus of $8 million, which is a tall order for a club with a $100 million budget. It is expected he will sign soon. He’ll probably start for the ‘A’ club and be paired with last year’s first pick SP Glenn Thomas. The two together should make a potent 1-2 punch.

With a major rebuild of the farm pitching needed and in a draft rich with young arms 9 of its 15 picks were used to select pitching talent. Drafted and signed are:

Code: Select all

			       
                          LVL YRS   IP   WHIP   K   BB
SP Brian Anderson (A)     COL  4  313.0  1.12  264  57
SP Luis Marrero (S A)      HS  4  141.2  1.16  142  32
SP Ryan Muller (S A)      COL  4  104.0  1.13   92  29
SP Rusty MacGregor (A)    COL  4  214.1  1.13  228  71 
MR Kunio Eida (S A)       COL  4  150.1  1.40  121  63
MR John Neville (S A)     COL  4  198.2  1.20  128  38
MR Tokaji Kurota (S A)    COL  4   56.1  1.17   32  20
MR Leon Michael (S A)     COL  4   65.1   0.99  61  17
Position players selected were:

1B Juan Germán
RF Felipe Hernández (unsigned)
RF Loren Hayes
SS Rob Gross
LF Joel Jackson
C King Taylor

Hernandez is doing himself no favors by sticking to a bonus demand that puts the club in the position of essentially choosing him over Enrique Váldez. With the selection and quick signing of Loren Hayes, Hernandez is likely to be the odd man out. If he does decide to sign he will likely find success in RF where he is clearly better than what the club has today.

Should be a couple of interesting weeks.
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Re: La Peña - Havana's Official Blog

#24 Post by roncollins »

Interesting to see Aguilar back in the game.
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Re: La Peña - Havana's Official Blog

#25 Post by Leones »

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What patterns do you see? Any surprises?
“Your face, my thane, is as a book where men May read strange matters.” ― William Shakespeare, Macbeth
Humans are visual beings primarily. We see patterns in all kinds of things from clouds to toasted bread. It is through patterns that our minds can best organize numeric data into meaningful information.
Chernoff faces are a method for doing that very thing. They allow us to organize multiple sets of data into the shape of human faces, allowing us to more easily see the patterns underlying the numbers. It is a useful tool for comparing things like baseball teams. Here we will use Chernoff faces to examine the state of the clubs of PEBA as of 19 June 2023.
We begin by identifying some data we’d like to include in our comparison. The data selected are the team totals for:
Standings:
GB – games behind division leader
W – wins
Batting :
OBP – on base percentage
SLG – slugging
AVG – batting average
b.K – batting strikeouts
b.BB – batting walks
SB – stolen bases
Pitching:
p.K – pitching strikouts
p.BB – pitching walks
p.HRA – pitching home runs against
p.OAVG – pitching opponent batting average
SHO – shutoouts
S – saves
These were mapped to various facial characteristics:
OBP height of face
SLG width of face
GB structure of face
p.K height of mouth
b.K width of mouth
W smiling
p.BB height of eyes
b.BB width of eyes
b.HR height of hair
p.HRA width of hair
b.SB style of hair
b.AVG height of nose
p.OAVG width of nose
SHO width of ear
S height of ear
Faces were also generated to represent the league worst, best and average values. The worst in simply the set of minimum values. The best is the set of maximum values and the average is just that. Here’s what they look like:
Teams with more wins smile more. Faces with ‘pointy hair’ denote a club that steals a lot of bases. A thick tall head of hair is the sign of a team that hits a lot of home runs. Squinty eyed teams takes more walks than they surrender. Teams with high OBP have longer faces versus broad faces for teams that have high SLG.

Here are some interesting groups of top fives.
The runners are clubs that steal a lot of bags. They have pointy hairstyles. The numbers are SB. The gunners are the home run leaders with their ‘tall’ hair. Numbers denote HR.
Teams that throw a lot of strikes have ‘tall’ mouths. Numbers are p.K Look at the big smiles on the teams with the most wins.
Separated at birth? These clubs look like siblings due to their similar stats. edit: updated article to more closely resemble as originally published
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Re: La Peña - Havana's Official Blog

#26 Post by Morris Ragland »

Delightfully bizarre.
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Re: La Peña - Havana's Official Blog

#27 Post by Denny »

Shisa wrote:Delightfully bizarre.
I am a little freaked out by these! 8-o
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Re: La Peña - Havana's Official Blog

#28 Post by DanD »

How did I miss this?!?! This is the coolest thing!!!!
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Re: La Peña - Havana's Official Blog

#29 Post by roncollins »

Jorge Aguilar: 4-0, 3.94

You go, Put-putt!
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Re: La Peña - Havana's Official Blog

#30 Post by Leones »

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Havana’s 2023 regular season has only 7 games on the docket. September’s 16-7 surge has put the club in it’s ever division lead with a magic number of 5. Five. Better than best of seven. That’s what the club needs to win it’s first PEBA IL Trans Atlantic banner.

With London and Amsterdam in the slipstream at 3 and 4.5 games back respectively there isn’t much wiggle room. The pitching star has upped its game as symbolized by José Durango’s recent Player of the Week selection. The rotation is apically a mix of duct tape, paper clips and gorilla glue but it’s held up so far. Piching Coach Norm MacDonald has performed miracles since his signing in May. As long as the starters can burn up some innings without giving up too much the bully should be able to hold down the fort. Of those 23 September hames 14 were decided by a gap of two or fewer runs.

On the flip side the offense has remained potent while slowly transitioning away from the stalwart and aging veterans to the younger guys. Jotaro Koike is a great example of this, having just collected the IL Player of the Week award, putting up a .360 average last week with 4 HR and 5 RBI in the mix. Koike came up from the team’s AAA club to take over at first base where Dax O’Mannis had been filling in. Koike had been knocking on the door for a long time but the club wanted him to season a bit before bringing him up. When O’Mannis got picked up from the waiver wire the way was cleared for Koike and he’s made the most of it. He’s still a bit raw defensively but when you play for one of the league’s worst fielding clubs that sort of thing doesn’t get as much notice. He’ll get some time to improve before being pushed too hard for the spot.

The owner is happy, the fans are coming back and the club is over .500 after a 6 year drought. The farm system has been revamped and is on he edge of firing up a pipeline of talented youth to make the club even better. If we can be better than best of seven it plant the marker firmly denoting the club’s point of turnaround.
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