Going Undergroud - a London Underground blog

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Re: Going Undergroud - a London Underground blog

#61 Post by Nigel »

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April 19th, 2018

Gloucester 0 London 3 After the previous day’s marathon that used every one of London’s bullpen they needed Nii to take control which is exactly what he did. Two singles, a double and two walks off Fishermen’s starter Chris Graves who had a poor outing, walking seven batters, enabled London to take a 2-0 lead in the third innings. That was all Nii needed, he pitched slowly, calmly and collected for eight innings without allowing the visitors anywhere near the plate. Garza’s sac fly in the sixth got the insurance run home and Mora came in to close the ninth out. Gloucester had a glimmer of hope as they picked up their second walk of the game with two out but Mora shut the door striking out Estrada to end the game.
London MOM : Hiroyuki Nii – went eight innings allowing seven hits, one walk and struck out seven.

Gloucester 2 London 5 When Decheng Wen drove home Tuo-zhou Yang in the bottom of the first you could almost see the Gloucester players slump. They couldn’t get to Leonard Carver until deep into the game, he allowed just two hits his first six innings before the Fishermen coaxed an Arias solo homer out of him. By then though Gloucester had given up two-run bombs to Dennis & Nathan Carter leaving the game long gone. Rule V draftee, José Valverde, surrendered another solo homer but that was scant conciliation to Gloucester as they went down for the third straight game, the Underground’s 10th straight win. Chad Fountain got the nod in the ninth to produce a 1-2-3 save.
London MOM : Nathan Carter – scored twice, once on a two-run shot that lifted his RBI total to a team leading 12. Oh! And a walk thrown in for good measure.

Gloucester 4 London 10 As we came to the bottom of the fifth Gloucester were feeling pretty good about themselves, they had managed to strand six London base-runners so far and had pumped a two-run shot into the stands off Miguel Rosa. Then they had one of those innings, two wild pitches, a passed ball and two walks added to London’s two singles & two doubles saw seven runners home and the Fishermen were heading for a four-game sweep. They grabbed two runs on three walks in the ninth off Chad Fountain’s second innings of work but the Underground had added three more to that seven-run stanza by then and London were unbeaten in 11.
London MOM ; Nathan Carter – 3 for 5 including two doubles, four RBI and two more runs scored.

New Jersey 2 London 7 Angel Luján struck out the first five batters he faced before walking the sixth. In the bottom of the second Joe Buchanan, 2 for 15 since his call-up, launched a three-run homer off the Hitmen’s Shunsuke Takayama but the visitors stepped up a gear. A run in the fourth & fifth innings brought them to within one run of the Pan-Atlantic leaders but Decheng Wen’s solo homer in the bottom half of the fifth marked the beginning of the end of New Jersey’s battle. Joe Buchanan got his second homer off Takayama which knocked the Hitmen’s starter out of the game, that was followed by Wen’s second homer, a two-run shot, which stretched London’s lead to 7-2. Alfonso Robles got the final five outs in relief of Luján as London made it 12 straight since losing the first two of the season.
London’s MOM : Joe Buchanan – finally got some offense going! 2 for 4, both homers and 4 RBI

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Buchanan once more was unable to hit PEBA pitchers

New Jersey 2 London 4 Gabriel Alvarez started a bit shakily and a walk and a wild pitch enabled the Hitmen to get on the board first. London bounced back in the bottom half of the first innings though with Chris Long’s first triple of 2018 scoring Wilson Berry and then Decheng Wen knocking home Long. Despite giving the visitors several chances Alvarez kept New Jersey’s second run off the board until the eighth innings but by then a solo homer by Yang and doubles by Nathan Carter & Buchannan had London 4-1 up. It was too late for the Hitmen as on came Mora for yet another 1-2-3 save.
London’s MOM : Gabriel Alvarz – shaky but ended up with 8 IP, 2 ER, 2BB and 2 K

News & Notes : Despite his two-homer game against New Jersey Joe Buchannan showed his Achilles Heel again – he just can’t hit PEBA pitching. His .211/.211/.632 line gave management a decision to make. With Dan Truax ready to be activated from the disabled list and Ramsey due back in a week or two it was decided that Dan would work his way back in slowly as the fourth outfielder / bat off the bench while Joe’s PEBA stay would be brief as he headed back to Worcester to make room on the roster. To cover the vacant first base Decheng Wen, who last played there for 42 games in 2016, would get a stint there while Lorenzo Valenzuela would take the DH role. A bold move indeed with such a monumental series coming up against Dixie leaders Charleston Statesmen given that Lorenzo has barely 30 career AB’s in the PEBA and the 144 K’s of the Statesmen staff. He has shown promise with the bat though and has given the ball a good ride several times only to be robbed by outstanding defence.

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Garcia is ticketed to be an Underground closer of the future

Montréal Métros haven’t had the best of times in recent years and have started 2018 7-9. 18-yr-old Cuban discovery Raúl Garcia is progressing well, not being used so much at the moment in the closer role but being stretched out a bit with three of his nine outings being more than one innings. Another prospect pitcher, Robby Holmes, who came over in the Juán Hernandez trade, has done well fresh from surgery to remove bone chips from his elbow. He has a 1-1 record with a 4.50 ERA in his first four starts at the Double-A level.

The Dover White Cliffs has just started their A-Ball campaign with a 2-1 record. 24-year-old catcher-turned-leftfielder Jesús Navarro has started well with the bat, hitting his first homer already with a .333/.429/.750 slash line but after last year’s -30.4 ZR rating is being used in the DH role. He has just been called up to Montréal as injury cover for his first Double-A spell. Going the other way is Canadian discovery Marc Bourbonnais who many felt hit a bit of a wall last year in his native Montréal. He has set off at a tear hitting .500/.538/.667 desperate to prove himself and to get back to his hometown.
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Re: Going Undergroud - a London Underground blog

#62 Post by Nigel »

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April 25th, 2018

New Jersey 1 London 3 The appetizer to the big weekend series went the way of the home side as London won their 14th straight game. For most of the game it was a pitcher’s duel as Nii used every ounce of his guile to defeat rookie Katsunan Soto who pitched out of his skin but got no support from his batters. Sato didn’t give the Underground batters a chance in the first two innings but they caught up to him in the third. A Garza double and a walk had two men on base when the new DH, Lorenzo Valenzuela, strode to the plate and doubled home his first two runs of 2018. Hiroyuki Nii doesn’t waste many chances like that and although Carlo Jiménez nicked a solo homer off him in the sixth that was the closest the Hitmen got as Long doubled home the insurance run in the eighth and Luis Mora despite walking a batter comfortably notched his fifth save of 2018.
London MOM : Hiroyuki Nii – eight IP, only five hits and one run given up with three K’s

Charleston 1 London 5 John Prentiss stunned the home crowd as he gave the IL Dixie leaders the game lead with a two-out solo homer off Carver in the top of the first. It settled down to the predicted pitcher’s duel then as London had only managed two hits & a walk as we entered the bottom of the seventh. The crowd exploded as Chris Long hit the first pitch of the AB over the fences off Connor Hurst to tie the game. The Statesman held it to that though for another innings. A Truax double and O’Sullivan hit then knocked Hurst out of the game and London feasted on the bullpen. Chris Long cleared loaded bases with a double and Wen drove him in for the fifth London run. There way no time to come back and Carver took to the mound in the ninth to retire the final three Statesmen 1-2-3 as London won 15 straight.
London MOM : Leonard Carver – A complete game giving up four hits and one run, no walks and another 10 K’s to add to the Underground collection.

Charleston 4 London 2 Finally London’s 15-game streak ended. Miguel Rosa had already given up a hit and a wild pitch when Prentiss hit his second first innings homer at Wembley in two days. Statesmen’s starter José Patino caught a break in the second when Decheng Wen was thrown out at the plate and Charleston took advantage in the fourth when Héctor Cruz extended their lead to three with another solo shot off Rosa. Wen got his own back in the bottom half of the innings when he put the Underground on the board with his own solo bomb. London just couldn’t eat into the lead though and the game looked up when Henry Ellacott plated for the visitors fourth run in the sixth. London kept trying and Lorenzo Valenzuela drove in their second run after a 10-pitch at bat. Morris came to the plate representing the tying run in the bottom of the ninth with Garza on base and two out but he flew out to end the game and the winning streak.
London MOM : Decheng Wen – his sixth homer of the season gave London hope

Charleston 9 London 8 After the pitcher’s battles of the previous two days the hitters ran riot here, combining for 26 hits and 17 runs. The hand brake was defiantly off as the sides, normally reliable, also combined for five errors. The first error by Garza helped Phil Anderson to score for the Statesmen, their third first-innings lead in the series. A passed ball by Ángel Luján helped Anderson to move up a base before he scored his & the Statesmen’s second run in the third. London then bounced back and two singles & two doubles in the bottom of the third helped Garza & O’Sullivan tie the game before a throwing error allowed Berry to score the go-ahead run. Ellacott scored in the fourth to tie the game before Dennis Carter drove-in Wen & Berry to give London a fifth innings two-run lead. The Underground bullpen took over in the seventh and blew a fuse. Alfonso Robles got his first blown save credited to him as the 5-3 lead became 5-6 and although Berry’s first homer of his London career inspired the home side to lead 7-6 after seven it was not to be. Chad Fountain and Bernard Jacoby combined to give up three more runs in the eighth and this time London could only score one reply when Valenzuela tripled and scored. They moved the tying run into scoring position in the ninth but once more Scott Morris made the final out with London still trailing.
London MOM : Wilson Berry – 3 for 5 with three runs scored including his first homer of 2016 and two RBI

New Orleans 3 London 2 A 15 win streak became a three-game losing streak as the Trendsetters came from behind to sneak past London. Despite allowing Jerry Neal to drive in the game’s opening run in the second innings Gabriel Álvarez looked a lot more confident than his previous outings of 2018 and another Valenzuela triple followed by a Yang two-run shot gave London a third innings lead. Alvarez went 6.2 innings giving up just that run and cutting his walks to just three but once more the pen disgraced itself with Robles picking up his second blown save in as many days. Jarrod Wright homered off him to tie the game in the eighth while a Dave Nash double drove in the go ahead run off Manny Vélez in the top of the ninth. London went quietly in the last stanza without troubling the base paths.
London MOM : Gabriel Alvarez – a 6.2 IP, 7 hit, one run performance should have given London the platform to return to winning ways.

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Hiroyuki is in commanding form with a 1.29 ERA after five games

New Orleans 0 London 6 London snapped a three-game skid with Nii’s third career PEBA shut-out. It started off a tight game though and by the mid-fourth innings both pitchers had only allowed two hits each. The Trendsetters starter, Glenn Dixon, blinked first though in the bottom of the fourth and no sooner than Nathan Carter had got aboard then Dennis Carter deposited the ball in the stands for a winning lead. Both the Carters as well as the improving Valenzuela got across the plate in the sixth and the London train was back on track. Wilson Berry scored the sixth in the bottom of the eighth before Nii finished the job he had started.
London MOM : Hiroyuki Nii – five hit, nine K complete game shutout. Ten hits and one run in his last two outings spells danger to the rest of the IL

News & Notes : The worst news out of London this week was not the snapping of the 15-game winning streak but the news out of Montréal that 18-yr-old Cuban prospect Raúl García requires surgery for a bone spur in his elbow and his season is done. He’s young enough to come back from it though and Leonard Carver, who suffered a torn rotator cuff at 16 and bone chips at 19, has been on the phone already to the young lad helping him to prepare for his rehab.

After Chris Long and Leonard Ramsey, Decheng Wen became the third winner of an IL player of the week award in 2018. In the third week of April he hit .500 in 20 AB’s with three homers and six RBI. Meanwhile Worcester’s shortstop, Lyndon Hodges, picked up the T’s second AML player of the week trophy hitting .542 with two homers and nine RBI. How he must wish that he wasn’t behind Chris Long at London.

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Felipe Garza, two years removed from being a Rule 5 pick, is starting to look the part both in the field and with his bat

London remain atop of the PEBA power rankings for the second week and top of the IL Pan-Atlantic with a 16-5 record but only two ahead of Connecticut who are 13-6. The rest of the division being distant in the wing-mirrors at the moment but nobody is forgetting New Jersey’s second half comeback last year that ultimately took London’s second ever chance of a pennant away from them. Felipe Garza, Nathan Carter, Wilson Berry & Chris Long are all hitting over .300 in 2018 so far and Berry in particular with a .303/.377/.470 slash line with one homer, 12 RBI & 11 runs scored makes the investment in him worthwhile. Lorenzo Valenzuela had a good first week in the DH role raising his averages to .269/.296.500 with two doubles & two triples while Wen hasn’t disgraced himself on his return to first base. Leonard Ramsey should return off the D/L at the start of May leaving someone to head to Worcester
Nigel Laverick

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Re: Going Undergroud - a London Underground blog

#63 Post by Nigel »

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May 1st, 2018

New Orleans 6 London 5 Through two innings it was shaping up to be a real pitchers duel but Carver got caught napping in the third. A single and two walks loaded the bases for Trendsetters before a Carlton Wilson sac fly got the first run of the game home. With two out Carver was certainly hoping to get out of the innings with no further damage but Dave Nash cleared the bases next up as he sent the ball into the stands. Solo homers from Valenzuela (his first ever at PEBA level) & Nathan Carter to lead off the fourth & fifth innings closed the gap as Carver got back on track before the Underground got to starter Dave McAllister in the fifth. Three singles after a walk enabled London to tie up the game at four. It became the bullpen’s game to win or lose in the eighth and straight away that man Alfonso Robles who got tagged with two blown saves last week gave up a two-run homer to Dave Nash giving him five RBI for the day. Chad Fountain came in and just about held it to 6-4. London stranded two runners in the eighth and got Wilson Berry across the plate in the ninth with two out but pinch-hitter Dan Truax flied out to end the game.
London MOM : Chris Long – 3 for 5 but could only score once.

London 13 Manchester 2 Tuo-zhou Yang led off the game with a single and Wilson Berry followed that up by putting the ball into the bleachers for an early 2-0 lead to London. Manchester huffed and puffed but rarely threatened before the Underground wrapped it up in the fifth. Berry walked to lead off the top of the fifth and Mauler brought in former Underground pitcher Cipriano Pena who promptly loaded the bases. Felipe Garza stepped in and cleared the bases as he hit Pena’s first pitch for a 409ft Grand Slam. A 56 minute rain delay in the sixth made it a bit of a fielding lottery and knocked out Miguel Rosa but Garza managed to add another two-run homer to his day’s tally. Manny Vélez didn’t have his best stuff, giving up three hits, a homer and two runs on 1.1 innings pitched but it didn’t matter too much as a Decheng Wen three-run shot put the visitors far out of sight.
London MOM : Felipe Garza – 3 for 5 including a grand slam & a two-run homer. A double, three runs scored and six RBI

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Garza hit his first London Grand Salarmi in Manchester

London 7 Manchester 9 (F/13) For most of the game this wasn’t so much of a pitcher’s duel but a lack of offence. London sprinkled nine hits through eight innings but only had Yang’s third innings run to show for it while Manchester had only gotten two hits & a walk off Ángel Luján as they came up in the bottom of the eighth. Pablo Prado finally got to Luján and tied it with a solo homer and two hits later London dodged the bullet by throwing Maldanoda out at the plate for the final out of the innings. London looked to have sealed the win by Chris long’s three-run shot clearing Berry & York off the bases but for once Luis Mora blew it. Giving up two singles Mora faced Prado with two out and he sent his second ball over the fences to once more tie the game. Top of the tenth London again added three runs, a two run homer from Dan Truax and a run from Valenzuala, but once more Maulers came back, Chad Fountain allowing three runs on four singles and a wild pitch. Having seen 13 runs scored in the last two innings and a half the bats rested until that damn man Robles gave up a walk-off two-run homer in the bottom of the 13th to sink London yet again.
London MOM : Chris Long – 4 for 7 with a homer and four RBI

London 0 Manchester 4 London were already smarting from losing the lead in the Pan-Atlantic before the Maulers became the first side to shut out the Underground in 25 games during 2018. Gabriel Alvarez started shakily again and gave up a run in the first & second innings before settling down. London rarely threatened as all of their well-hit balls zoned straight in on the Manchester outfielders. Pepe Espinoza put the icing on the cake for the home side with a two-run shot in the bottom of the sixth and that was that. Despite stranding seven London’s only real threat was in the ninth when Chris Long was thrown out at the plate with two on and no-one out.
London MOM : Gabriel Alvarez – pitched all eight innings, gave up nine hits and four runs. Showed better control by only walking two while striking out four

London 6 Connecticut 0 The last thing London really wanted after a dismal outing in Manchester was a trip to the new leaders of the Pan-Atlantic but they did have Hiroyuki Nii on the mound. A botched pick-off throw by Nutmeggers starter Carlos Rivera in the top of the first led to Chris Long scrambling home from third for the opening run. London survived Yang’s error in the bottom half of the innings without giving up a run and strengthened their lead in the second with Scott Morris’ two-run homer. Nii wasn’t quite as commanding as normal, walking three but the home team couldn’t get anything going and stranded five runners. London’s batters finally got the range, Wen doubled home Berry in the eighth and then Yang repeated the trick in the ninth doubling home Morris and Valenzuela. Nii tossed a simple 1-2-3 innings to seal his second shut-out of 2018, a career high single season figure for him.
London MOM : Hiroyuki Nii – complete games shut-out, five hits allowed, three walks & three K’s

News & Notes : London’s shut-out of Nutmeggers was their fourth shut-out of 2018 which ties them with Florida for the PEBA lead. It also returned the Underground to the top of the Pan-Atlantic with a half game lead over Connecticut despite the Nutmeggers going 7-3 over the last 10 games. Connecticut may have out-hit London 275-254 but London have been far more efficient at getting the runner further with more EBH, more homers, more steals & more sac hits. London’s 18-8 record in fact leads the PEBA after the first month with the best team(s) in the SL having 16 wins (Fargo & Aurora) while Charleston & Connecticut have 17 wins in the IL.

Silverware is still rolling in for the franchise, letting Pablo Prado hit two homers & five RBI against them stopped them getting a clean sweep of IL player of the week awards as the final one of April went to Prado but they picked up the IL batter of the month award for Chris Long’s .351, 4 homers, 22 RBI & 20 runs scored. Hiroyuki Nii picked up the IL pitcher of the month award for going 5-0 after losing on Opening Day. He finished the month with 33 strikeouts, a 1.06 ERA and opponents were hitting just .201 against him. Lyndon Hodges of the Triple-A Worcester T’s picked up the AML batter of the month award hitting .437/.491/.699 with seven homers & 26 RBI. London’s sixth round pick in 2016, outfielder Joe McNeill, won his first trophy of 2018 as he picked up the NAFTA AWL player of the week award for his .522 performance with five homers, 11 RBI and 10 runs scored in April’s final week. He can stick that on his mantelpiece next to his 2016 SS-A HL Gold Glove at RF.

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Lyndon has earned a promotion to the PEBA with his April performance in Triple-A

It’s all change once more in the London line-up as we head into the second month of the season. Leonard Ramsey returns to action after his fractured ankle and after much consideration Dan Truax who has just two hits in nine 2018 AB’s heads for Worcester while on the flight with him will be Bailey Rohr, the Underground’s utility man since 2015. Bailey has been hitting .125 in a very limited eight AB’s and the feeling is he needs AB’s in Worcester while Lyndon Hodges performance wins him his third cup of coffee at PEBA level. Ramsey slips back into his first base role, Wen back to DH and Valenzuela will be the fourth OF. The shuffling to accommodate Rohr & Truax in Worcester led to pitcher Bob Foster, London’s 2013 sixth round pick, being released from Montréal. 25-yr-old Bob had racked up 52 starts in SS-A, A & AA posting a combined record of 32-16 and was 1-1 with a 6.27 ERA in Montréal in 2018.
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Re: Going Undergroud - a London Underground blog

#64 Post by Nigel »

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May 7th, 2018

London 4 Connecticut 6 Three singles and a lead-off walk allowed London to get a couple of runs home in the top of the first but this game was more about the batters that the Underground didn’t get home rather than the few they did. Leonard Carver had a few first innings jitters too and a lead-off walk came round to bite him too. He settled down and struckout the next four batters straight while London stranded a pair of runners in each of the first three innings and one in the fourth. You can’t keep on doing that against the top sides and sure enough the Nutmeggers made them pay in the bottom of the fourth. Carver had held them to one hit over the first three stanzas but fell apart here, three singles, a triple and the icing on the cake, a two-run homer by Dave Wells, allowed the Nutmeggers to seal this game with a five spot. Wilson Berry delivered a sixth innings solo homer and Leonard Ramsey, on his first start off the D/L and playing after learning that his favourite Grandmother had died that morning, doubled home Yang to close it within two. It was the old ‘stranded runner syndrome’ though as Morris flied out to end the game with two runners in scoring position.
London MOM : Manny Vélez – came in relief of Carver when things were rocky and delivered 2.2 innings of scoreless baseball with only one hit allowed.

London 2 Connecticut 7 A disappointing game as London struggle to plate runners again. Chris Long made up for a first innings error by taking Arcimboldo deep in the second innings but Rosa’s control as already looking a bit shaky. He’d already got away with two walks when Nutmeggers plated three runs off four fifth innings singles & a double. London were making hard work of it though and were finished off in the seventh when Guao & Lowry hit back-to-back homers off Rosa. Connecticut added a third run off Valverde and there was no way back again. Wen drove in Garza to give the Underground the briefest of hope in the top of the eighth but Dave Wells extinguished that with another long ball off Sergio Dias in the bottom half of the innings.
London MOM : Chris Long – despite an error went 2 for 3 at the plate with a homer & a walk.

London 1 Connecticut 7 The Underground might have already been on the plane home to London instead of playing the final game of the road trip. Randolph Teague and his defence had the answer to every small effort London made. Angel Luján tried hard but kept on sprinkling hits, walks and runs amongst the six K’s, he was charged with three walks, 11 hits and seven runs over his 6.2 innings. In that time London managed just one hit and a walk, Decheng Wen ruined Teague’s bid for a complete game shutout by swatting his eighth homer of 2018 in the ninth with one out but it was just way too little for the now second placed team from London
London MOM : Decheng Wen – London’s only offence

Florida 11 London 9 You got to believe that both these teams were suffering from jet lag as everybody failed to find the strike zone. London starter Gabriel Alvarez tied the Underground single game record with eight walks, Featherhead’s reliever joined in the fun by walking four and all together the tally was 18 walks, six by the visitors and 12 by London’s motley crew. As if that wasn’t enough the two teams combined for 23 hits and you could see why there was 20 runs on the board. Florida’s Luis Torres got the only long ball of the day and London gave the score a very flattering look with seven runs in the last two innings and it could have been worse for Florida as the home side left the bases loaded in the eighth and another two on in the ninth.
London MOM : Chris Long – the only London hitter to get an EBH, scored twice and added two RBI & a walk.

Florida 6 London 9 For most of this game it was the tale of more woe for the Underground but again they recovered in the late innings. With Nii on the mound Chris Long & Tuo-zhou Yang got the day off as London bided to snap a four game skid. Nii was not his normal commanding self though and he walked another four batters and gave up eight hits to turn a third innings lead into a sixth innings deficit. Featherheads scored two in the fifth and four in the sixth to lead 6-1 and Nii left in the seventh staring defeat in the face. Manny Velez again steadied the ship and London mounted a remarkable comeback in the bottom of the eighth. The Underground sent 13 batters to the plate and used two infield hits, two singles, two doubles and two intentional walks to drive in seven batters and turn a 2-6 scoreline into a 9-6 London lead. It was Mora time then and although Florida coaxed him into giving up a rare hit he comfortably closed out the game.
London MOM : Nathan Carter – 3 for four with three RBI, a walk and one run scored.

Florida 4 London 2 (F/11) For most of this game Chris York & Leonard Carver had this game well under control. York left after 7 having allowed just four hits, Carver after eight having allowed six hits. Both had allowed just one run, one walk and both struckout nine leaving the bullpens to deke it out. The Featherheads thought they were in the box seat when they managed to drive William Peterson home from third in the top of the 10th but London hit straight back with Tuo-zhou Yang sending a two-out homer over the rightfield fence. Florida have been a top side for many a year though and in the top of the 11th they scraped a lead-off infield single off Luis Mora, Raúl Medina couldn’t get the bunt done but swung away on the 1-1 pitch and Mora could only watch it vanish over the left field fence. António López came on and faced the heart of the Underground batting line-up. A fly-out and two K’s later the game was in the books.
London MOM : Leonard Carver - Eight innings, six hits, nine K’s with just one run allowed

News & Notes : A 1-5 start to May was not what London wanted but is it the beginning of the slide down the hill or just a slight stumble? Connecticut took full advantage and at 23-8 are now four & a half games ahead of London’s 19-13, Manchester & Gloucester are a further four back at 15-16 while the PEBA’s second half team, New Jersey, are scrambling around in the basement at 11-20.
Carver’s 55 strikeout’s in his seven starts lead the IL but Yuma’s Gunner MacGruder has 57 over in the SL. Connecticut’s 94 earned runs allowed are the lowest tally in the Imperial League so far with Florida’s 103 next, London are tied with Gloucester for fourth lowest having given up 114. West Virginia have given up the most in the IL with 176 earned runs allowed in their 32 games. The Underground’s 28 base steals are the IL’s highest tally but they’ve also had 13 runners caught which also tops the IL.

Montreal’s a dangerous place at the moment for London’s prospects, Raul Garcia had bone spur surgery last month and now at the start of May Nick Morrow, who won the 2017 SS-A HL Outstanding Hitter award, has gone down with post-concussion syndrome and although his return is currently listed for early September a few fear for his career.

Leonard Ramsey hasn’t yet got back to grips with it all since returning from the D/L, in his first six games back he has hit just .200 with two RBI the same as Lyndon Hodges the hot bat who was called back from Worcester. Tuo-zhou Yang is really on fire at the start of May though sporting a .609 OBP with one of London’s mere five homers and two stolen bases.
Nigel Laverick

GM San Antonio Calzones de Laredo 2035 - . . .

Former Commish, PEBA & LRS GM

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Re: Going Undergroud - a London Underground blog

#65 Post by Nigel »

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May 13th, 2018

London 4 West Virginia 11 Tuo-zhou Yang sent Jorge Ruíz’s first pitch of the day 437 feet over the centrefield wall but that was really the last joy for the visiting Underground. Miguel Rosa gave up three hits in the bottom of the first and was lucky to come away with just one run given up. He didn’t come up so lucky in the second, after two singles & a walk Don Mercer stepped and fired the 0-2 pitch for a grand slam and a 5-1 Alleghenies lead. Rosa was rattled and he walked the next batter allowing Brad Davis to come up and knock him out of the game with a two-run shot. Work-horse Manny Vélez took the mound in relief of Rosa and promptly gave up the third West Virginia home run of the game. He struck out the next two batters but at 8-1 the game had gone. London’s hopes flickered in the fourth when Wen doubled and Leonard Ramsey followed him by hitting his first homer since returning off the D/L. A double by both Ramsey & Chris Long hauled it back to a 4-8 deficit in the sixth but it was really too little too late as Bernie Jacoby coughed up another two-run shot next innings along with two more hits and Alleghenies’ 11th run. London managed just eight hits as they went down to defeat in the opening game of the road trip.
London MOM : Leonard Ramsey – 2 for 4 with a two-run shot, as well as scoring another run.

London 7 West Virginia 1 Ángel Luján moved his 2018 record to 4-1 with this commanding performance. Both teams were kept off the board for the first three innings but London got to Alleghenies starter, Juan García, in the fourth. A double by Chris Long started the ball rolling before García walked Wilson Berry. Lyndon Hodges doubled home Long for his first 2018 PEBA RBI, Dennis Carter then stepped up and drove home Berry from third to give the visitors a 2-0 lead. Ramsey doubled home Wen in the fifth and West Virginia went to the ‘pen. That kept London to a 3-0 lead but by the top of the seventh Luján had only given up one hit and the Underground bats were swinging again. Singles by Yang and Long book-ended an intentional walk to Wen and London had a 4-0 lead. The Underground loaded the bases in the top of the ninth before Scott Morris cleared them at a stroke with a line drive to right-centre. Albert Oliveira singled for the Alleghenies to lead-off the ninth but that was only their second hit off Luján. MacLugash tripled next batter to break the shutout but that was all they could manage.
London MOM : Ángel Luján – complete game, three hits and only one run given up. One walk & seven K’s.

London 6 West Virginia 8 West Virginia got on the board first as Gabriel Alvarez had another rocky start. With a single, double and walk given up In the bottom of the first he was lucky to get out with just one run across the plate. The batter came to his rescue though in the top of the second. Alleghenies starter, Tatsui Kouno, was already 0-5 for the season and he had already walked the first two London batters off the innings before Dennis Carter doubled home the first one. Felipe Garza singled to plate two more runs and Yang finished off Kouno’s day with a two-run shot. Surely now Alvarez could manage with a 5-1 lead. Alleghenies chipped away at his lead though and by the bottom of the fifth it was a 5-3 lead before Alvarez imploded. Three walks showed his inherent lack of control and that was bad enough but in-between he allowed two singles and a double to give West Virginia their own five-spot innings. Sergio Días & Manny Vélez did their best to keep it to an 8-5 deficit but London entered the top of the ninth still needing three runs to tie the game. Martin Cantin came on to close out the game but walked Chris Long, Victor O’Sullivan singled and a wild pitch put both runners in scoring position with only one out. Morris singled but only Long could get home. Cantin took a deep breath and struck out both Garza and Yang to finish the game as West Virginia out-hit London 17-8.
London MOM : Tuo-zhou Yang – 2 for 4 with a walk, two RBI and a run scored as well

London 2 New Jersey 4 The pitchers doled out very few hits as London fell to their third loss of the road trip, it was a rare loss for Hiroyuki Nii too despite only giving up four runs. A two-run homer by Wilson Berry in the top of the second had lit up Nii’s eyes but two balls into the bottom half of the innings a solo shot by Javier Soto cut his lead in half and two singles later the Hitmen had tied it up. One thing Nii has always been a bit prone to is the long ball and he surrendered another to lead off the bottom of the third and although he went the distance after that London could only manage five hits in the chase to haul back the home side. New Jersey claimed the insurance run in the eighth but London rarely threatened only twice getting a runner to third in the last six innings.
London MOM : Hiroyuki Nii – Eight innings pitched, four runs allowed with one walk & seven K’s but the two long balls given up cost him his second defeat of 2018.

London 5 New Jersey 4 With the home side coasting to victory they were stunned as London stole this game at the death. London got on the board first after a Berry sac fly allowed Chris Long to tag up and score from third but for the second game running the Hitmen tied it up straight away as Leonard Carver’s hit batsman came home on the first hit he had allowed. New Jersey nicked runs off him in the third & fifth innings and when Javier Soto hit another solo shot in the seventh it looked game over. The Hitmen’s starter Katsunan Sato fell apart in the eighth though, a walk book-ended with two singles got Tuo-zhou Yang home to start it off. Scott Morris doubled home Ramsey as the rally gathered pace with two outs. Wilson Berry coaxed a walk before back-up catcher Dave York stepped in as a pinch hitter, his line drive single to right cleared Morris & Berry off the bases and London were suddenly in the lead. Carver issued a two-out walk in the bottom half but London went to the ‘pen and Manny Vélez closed that door. Luis Mora pitched a simple eight pitch 1-2-3 ninth innings and the Underground had nipped the home side by one.
London MOM : Dave York – oft forgotten back-up that stepped off the bench to deliver a pinch-hit 2-RBI single to give London the win.

News and Notes : London are still four and a half behind Pan-Atlantic leaders Connecticut but have to be relatively pleased with their 2018 showing, their 205 runs scored leads the IL as does their 30 stolen bases while their .339 OBP is second in the IL. London’s 21-16 though is currently good enough for the second wild card spot behind 22-16 Charleston.

Triple-A Worcester have opened their season 21-17 and are just one game out of first in the AML. Erwin Callahan has put missing out on a place in London behind him and is 6-1 with a 3.08 ERA, he also leads the T’s with 53 K’s in 52.2 innings pitched. Bryan Bedell has had a sorry start though after his demotion winning only one of his first eight starts while being tagged for five losses although he has struckout 51 in 50.2 innings pitched. 24-yr-old Outfielder Ralph Woods who spent a season with London in 2016 has driven-in 37 runs in his 36 appearances with eight homes while 23-yr-old fellow outfielder Robert Jacobs leads the team with nine homers in his first season at Triple-A level. Young 21-yr-old closer Gary Stanley is building quite a reputation for himself in the franchise, he was drafted in the third round of the 2014 first-year-player draft and has made it to Triple-A this year. He spent three years in A-ball Dover compiling a 12-7 record with 65 saves and a 3.37 ERA and in hapless Double-A Montreal he had a 2-6 record with 16 saves in his year there. Now in 11 appearances for Worcester he has a 2-0 record with 8 saves while he has only give up four hits and no runs in 10 innings pitched.

Double-A Montréal are in a real funk over the last few years and have opened 2018 with a 15-23 start. They have suffered four long term injuries though including ones to top prospects Raúl García and Nick Morrow. Antonin Bisson who signed a minor league deal with London, his fourth PEBA franchise, in 2016 is enjoying himself this year with six homers & 21 RBI whilst hitting .264/.315/.471. He has currently played 650 minor league games and although he freely admits his chance of ever playing in the PEBA has probably vanished he enjoys his time on the field. “Hey! I’m getting paid to hang out with the guys and muck around in a field in the sun every day. What is there not to like about that?”

A-ball Dover are mid-table after a 12-14 start to 2018. Richie Zimmerman, a ninth round pick in 2016, is 3-1 with a 3.33 ERA at the start of his third year in Dover. He’s aiming for his first ever promotion to Double-A this year while 2016 sixth rounder Joe McNeal is looking to get back there after playing three games in 2017 in Montréal. This year he’s hit .303/.422/.640 with 10 homers and 20 RBI. His strong defence and blossoming power might well lift him up the organisational rankings before too long.
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Re: Going Undergroud - a London Underground blog

#66 Post by Nigel »

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May 19th, 2018

London 9 New Jersey 7 Runs galore early on as London took this series against the team that beat them to the Pan-Atlantic pennant last year. London looked smug when doubles by Ramsey & Berry helped them to a 3-run opening innings but that soon evaporated as Miguel Rosa gave up a three run bomb to Dean Bailey in the bottom half of the first. Two further doubles gave the Hitmen a 4-3 lead going and a 2-run shot by Patrick Williams in the second saw the end of Rosa. London’s workhorse Manny Vélez came on to stop the rot and Wilson Berry’s third innings 3-run bomb put London back in front 7-6 spelling the end of Roberto Rodriguez, the New Jersey starter. The home side tied it up in the fourth before the bullpen shut the batters fun down with three scoreless innings. Scott Morris won the game for the Underground with a pinch-hit 2-run homer in the top of the eighth and Mora gave up two hits before firmly closing the door on his eighth save of 2018. Chad Fountain picked up the win as New Jersey out-hit London 15-9.
London MOM : Wilson Berry – 3 for 4 with two runs scored and five driven-in.

London 6 Arlington 2 After the previous days run fest Ángel Luján and Arlington starter José Avalos had this one well in check. A double by Jorge Velasco scored the game’s opening run in the bottom of the second and Leonard Ramsey put London 2-1 up with his sixth homer of 2018, a 2-run shot in the fourth. Arlington had out-hit their visitors 5-4 as we came to the bottom of the eighth but the score remained stuck on 2-1 to the Underground. Jeffery Mathews singled and worked his way to second before a wild throw by Nathan Carter wide of Ramsey at first allowed the Bureaucrats to tie it up with two outs. Luján left cursing his luck but Chad Fountain came to quash any hope of further Arlington runs. Velasco was knocked out in the ninth when Nathan Carter made up for his error by depositing the second pitch of the innings over the right-field fence to restore the visitors lead. Two batters later Ramsey hit his second 2-run bomb of the game and Dennis Carter drove-in Chris Long as London stretched their lead to 6-2. Fountain walked the lead-off man in the final half innings but recovered to stop the next three and earn his second win in as many games.
London MOM : Leonard Ramsey - 3 for 4 with two homers and four RBI, back to his early season form after his D/L stint.

London 5 Arlington 2 Gabriel Alvarez had one of his better starts but remains on his last warning as he fell apart in his final two innings of work. Leonard Ramsey continued with his hot bat, driving in Nathan Carter in the top of the first and two doubles, a single & a walk in the third allowed Carter & Wen to plate for a 3-0 Underground lead. By the bottom of the fifth Alvarez was sitting pretty having given up just two hits but he walked the first two batters to set up Arlington for their first run of the game. He managed to get out of that jam with just one run allowed and survived walking his third batter next innings before a Chris Long double drove in two in the seventh innings extending the London lead to 5-1 and knocking out Bureaucrats starter Patrick Barraclough. Alvarez hadn’t learnt his lesson though and walked three more in the bottom of the seventh to force home Arlington’s second run and earn himself the hook. Robles, Días and Mora combined to keep the home side off the board for the rest of the game and earn London their fourth straight win on this road trip.
London MOM : Gabriel Alvarez – his 6.1 innings pitched with three hits allowed and two earned runs gave London the platform even if his six walks do take his 2018 tally to an amazing 38.

London 2 Arlington 1 Hiroyuki Nii was back to his imperious best in this tight arm wrestle with Bureaucrats Peter Carter. Three first innings singles & a walk gave London a two run lead and all Nii needed … just! London had five hits in the first two innings but couldn’t get another off of Carter until the sixth, meanwhile Arlington had only coaxed two hits out of Nii by the bottom of the seventh. Two-out doubles by John Taylor & Jorge Velasco got a precious run home but that was it, Nii held them out for his eight innings and Luis Mora struckout two of the three batters he faced on the way to his 231st career PEBA save. London out-hit Arlington 7-4 and extend their winning streak to five.
London MOM : Hiroyuki Nii – eight innings, four hits allowed with just one run and 10 K’s

London 6 Arlington 4 London complete a four game sweep of Arlington and up their win streak to six. Bureaucrats’ starter Gonzalo López managed to surrender two walks, two doubles and a single in the top of the second to spot London a 3-0 lead early on. A Chris Long solo homer in the third made it four and Leonard Carver was rubbing his hands. Unfortunately for him Arlington scratched out a run in the fourth and Rob Raines hit a solo homer in the fifth to bring it to within two. Carver completed the fall from grace when he walked the lead-off batter in the sixth and could only stand and kick the mound as Jorge Velasco sent the ball 396 feet into the right-field stands. Manny Vélez took the ball and spared any further blushes. Arlington reliever Oliver Mejía walked two in the seventh and allowed Long’s single to knock home Nathan Carter. London were unable to take advantage of two further walks in the eighth as the game headed for the ninth still on a knife edge. Decheng Wen led off the ninth with a solo homer, his tenth of the season, to extend the lead to two but Ricardo Aguilar worked out of a bases loaded jam by striking out Felipe Garza to end the top of the ninth. Alfonso Robles in a bit of a purple patch at the moment after early season woes came on to give up a lead-off single before recovering with three straight flyouts for his first save of 2018.
London MOM : Chris Long – 4 for 4 with a walk on the day with one homer, two runs scored and two RBI

London 3 Florida 4 The six game win streak came to an end as London came up against the leaders of the Dixie division. Featherhead’s ace Chris York was on the mound and he survived first & second innings walks but could only watch as Decheng Wen took him deep in the third. York went 5.2 innings and gave up just three hits, striking out nine but more importantly walking three, he left though responsible for runners on second & first. The Florida bullpen promptly allowed the runner off second to score to give London a 2-0 lead after six. Meanwhile Miguel Rosa had been quietly going about his work allowing three hits but stopping any further damage. Michael Demers bunted his way on to lead off the bottom half of the sixth, stole second and finally scored on a wild pitch to start the fight-back. Ramiro Fonseca homered to lead off the seventh to tie it up but Featherhead’s reliever Antonio López issued two walks and allowed London to retake the lead after Berry’s sac fly with the bases loaded got Wen home. The home side kept the damage to that though and tied it back up when they got Demers to scramble his way across the plate again. With two out a runner on third Rosa blew it all with a passed ball allowing Luis Torres to scoot home from third. Pepe Rico came on and made short work of the bottom of London’s batting order to claim his 11th 2018 save with Florida out-hitting their visitors 9-5.
London MOM : Miguel Rosa – went the distance with eight IP giving up nine hits & four runs but only three earned. No walks and three K’s left him an unlucky loser.

News & notes : Despite London’s great start in April and the good results on the current road trip they are only 8-9 for May. All they can see at the moment is the tailpipes of Connecticut as they remain four and a half games ahead. The streak of five straight wins which was ended by Florida does leave the Underground on 26-17 overall and now they move ahead of Charleston & Gloucester into the first wild card spot. Giving up the long ball has often been a failing for the Underground’s pitchers but this year so far they have only allowed 39 which is the lowest in the Imperial League. They have also allowed the fewest walks (109) in the IL despite Alvarez’s personal total of 38 and struckout the most by almost 50 (377). Opponents are only hitting more than .250 against four of London’s 12 pitchers while the batters share the workload around with seven of them having 20 or more RBI after 43 games. Chris Long who won the IL batting title last year is currently matching his .345 average of 2017 and is on pace for 132 RBI and 226 hits but unfortunately also 132 K’s. Dennis Carter needs just 48 hits now to pass Orlando Germán’s 1086 hits and move into first overall on the franchise’s All-Time hit list

The hard throwing 23-yr-old pitcher Erwin Callahan, who almost made the team out of spring training, lost on Opening Day in Worcester but since then now has a run of seven straight win decisions and has gone at least eight innings in three of those. The fans in London can’t wait to see him make his big league debut but as with Leonard Carver the Underground management seem determined to hold him at Triple-A until the September roster expansion and then send him for a final winter ball finishing clinic. 24-yr-old second baseman Dave Hurley has now played 174 games at Triple-A level and needs just two RBI & one run to record 100 RBI & Runs Scored at the level, he has just registered his 200th hit. Unfortunately he has Nathan Carter blocking his passage to the PEBA who has just last year signed a four-year contract extension so Dave has agreed to have spells at short & third in an attempt to master those positions and make it to the PEBA as a utility hitter backing up Long, Carter and the revolving door at third.
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Re: Going Undergroud - a London Underground blog

#67 Post by Nigel »

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May 25th, 2018

London 4 Florida 5 Luján tried his best to hold up the Featherheads by himself but the runs kept leaking and by the seventh the Underground were 5-0 down. The London batters in a funk had only had four hits to this time and no-one further than second base to this point. They almost bailed Luján out with a Ramsey 3-run shot in the bottom of the seventh and a Garza solo shot in the ninth but ultimately fell a run short.
London MOM : Leonard Ramsey – A three run shot in a barren offence day

London 2 Florida 10 Gabriel Alvarez only lasted 1.2 innings after giving up four more walks and seven runs including two 3-run homers. Manny Vélez came on and stabilised the ship, pitching 4.1 innings and only giving up five hits. It was still 7-2 though as we got to the bottom of the seventh and Florida then took advantage of José Valverde to finish the game as they hit two more homers off him
London MOM : Many Vélez – 4.1 scoreless innings would probably have him in the rotation if he wasn’t so valuable to the bullpen

San Antonio 2 London 1 Hiroyuki Nii and Bob Harris kept the bats quiet in this duel and all the offence came in sixth innings. Three singles in the top half off Nii saw two runs home while London could only reply with a Garza double & Wen single that got one run home. The bullpen’s closed out the game pitching three scoreless innings each and London fell to another home defeat, out-hit 10-7
London MOM :

San Antonio 4 London 1 Another offence-less day for London at Wembley. The teams traded runs in the first two innings and that was virtually all the offence the teams could muster. Leonard Carver picked up the loss after he succumbed to that bane of the London pitchers the 3-run homer, the fourth such given up in the last three games.
London MOM : Leonard Carver – His seven innings with six hits, one walk and four runs given up would have won many a game but your batters need to plate more than one of their eight hits.

San Antonio 3 London 0 The London offence got even worse for poor Miguel Rosa as all the Underground batters could mange was five singles. A ground out got Felipe Garza to second in the third and a throwing error got Tuo-zhou Yang to third in the sixth, apart from that the London batters were all on first name terms with the visitors’ first baseman. Rosa gave away two runs in his 7.1 innings which included another homer and he walked three with five K’s in a decent enough outing. Luis Mora gave up the third run when he allowed the inherited runner to come home on a sac fly.
London MOM : Miguel Rosa – Another hard luck story from a London pitcher who gets no run support
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Re: Going Undergroud - a London Underground blog

#68 Post by Nigel »

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[ time to reactivate this blog after a few years of mothballing it ]

March 9th, 2020

Despite London starting camp with 46 in camp there was never the prospect of many position battles or of veterans losing their spots. Most of the extra players got an extended look in the first week of Spring and will now head for their various minor league camps. José Valverde picked up a minor oblique strain and as he wasn’t having the best of camps anyway the Underground sent him back to Worcester for another year of seasoning as their closer. Several other pitchers were sent down with him but a few were kept around to lighten the load on the bullpen. Robby Holmes has put forward a good case so far for that fifth starters spot, in two starts so far opponents are hitting just .161 off him and he has a 9/4 K/BB ratio. He will get another week at least as will José Augilar, a minor league FA, who while he won’t make the Underground might impress enough to make it to Worcester after three years playing at Connecticut’s Double-A affiliate.

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Garza, hitting well but no slot for him on the 25-Man ?

Some impressive displays by some of the batters too, Oliver Garza hits three balls into the yard in the first week but unlikely to make the roster ahead of Wen or Ramsey. Alfredo Noriego and Roy Pierce are making a play too at knocking Bailey Rohr out of the utility role. Not much offense from the Underground’s new young outfielders yet, that better improve over the next few weeks or we could be in trouble. Dennis Carter might end up keeping his 25-man place after all. Christian O’Rorke showing off after his winter ball stint, looking forward to seeing a full year of Triple-A from him, he could well be Morris’ replacement next year as I hope.
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Re: Going Undergroud - a London Underground blog

#69 Post by roncollins »

Nice work.
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Re: Going Undergroud - a London Underground blog

#70 Post by Nigel »

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March 16th, 2020

Spring Training rolls along and Tomás Gonzales joins the ranks of the walking wounded with a sore shoulder that will rule him out of a week or so. Barton MacLugash is starting to show a hot bat hitting .381/.480/.762 for his 21 AB’s while Christian O’Rorke continues to demonstrate that he’ll be ready for his PEBA debut soon, but probably not this year. Oliver Garza & Marc Bourbonnais are amongst the first cuts as are outfielders Tom Anderson & Ralph Woods

Five pitchers were also cut including José Aguilar who has impressed being credited with wins in both of his two starts but will head for Worcester to work on his control after posting a 4/5 K/BB ratio during his outings. Christian George has made management think twice about his future, the Rule 5 pick wasn’t sure to stick with the team but in two starts he has only given up one run and three walks while striking out nine. Robby Holmes still looks favourite for a rotation slot, in three starts he hasn’t recorded a decision but has an ERA of 1.13 with only two earned runs given up and a 16/4 K/BB ratio.

With a shade over two weeks left of Spring camp London still have 38 in camp but around 6-8 more cuts are expected at the end of the week. This coming week sees the start of the big guns both side of the plates start their hard work in earnest for 2020. Kata Nakamura, Hiroyuki Nii and Erwin Callahan are expected to make their first starts while Gary Stanley, Manny Velez and William Ferguson will also step up their work.
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Re: Going Undergroud - a London Underground blog

#71 Post by Nigel »

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March 31st, 2020

With one game left of Spring Training the decisions are made, the travel passes issued. London’s top prospect Robby Holmes, two years after coming over from Crystal Lake in the Juan Hernandez trade, grabs the fifth starter’s slot with a 1-0, 0.90 ERA record in five spring starts just as another part in that trade, catcher Dave York, finds himself on the way to Worcester after hitting .138 in spring to go with his .219 & .224 in his last two PEBA seasons.

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Holmes, London's new 5th starter can touch 97-99 mph with his fastball

Luis Cruz gets the back-up catcher slot, the 32-yr-old will get his third attempt in the role following stints in 2015 & 2017. London’s #2 prospect, Christian O’Rorke has also won the back-up 3B/1B role fresh from Winter Ball he hit .333/.371/.579 with two homers & 10 RBI in spring. Newly arrived Barton MacLugash who hit .462/.517/.808 in 52 spring AB’s will be in right field with Tomás Gonzáles in centre and Lorenzo Valenzuela will start in left after call-ups in the past three years cumulated in a break-out year last year. Rule 5 pick 26-yr-old Javier Sepúlveda and 25-yr-old Robert Jacobs will be the fourth & fifth outfielders meaning that Dennis Carter gets his first trip to the minors since 2011. Gonzáles will have to improve on his .095/.259/.143 spring stats though if he wants to keep Carter down in Worcester.

23-yr-old Gary Stanley slid into the closers role after the departure of Luis Mora in the off-season and posted a 0-1 record with six saves and a 2.35 ERA, walking just one, striking out 10 and opponents hit just .214 off him. The second Rule 5 draftee, William Ferguson, earned a spot in the bullpen with a 1.98 ERA in 13.2 IP but he’ll have to work on his 6/4 K/BB ratio. The third Rule 5 pick, Christian George, failed to make the team after going 0-2 with a 5.79 ERA and walking 11 batters. Juan Pérez arrived from Bakersfield in a 2016 trade and after a very brief call-up last year earned a bullpen spot this year. In 28.2 IP in Spring Training he only allowed 19 hits, walked two and struck out 37, fifth highest in the PEBA. Robby Holmes also struckout 32 but walked nine. Santiago Estrada after posting a 13-8, 3.22 record in 2019 will start in the long relief role after being squeezed out of the rotation by Holmes and the newly acquired Kata Nakamura. Hiroyuki Nii won both his spring starts but posted a team high 5.63 ERA

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Nakamura will be the ace of the staff until Carver returns in July

A creditable 16-11 spring with one game left, which will showcase the 2020 25-man squad, has pleased the management team as much as the lack of injuries. The Underground now go into the season confident they are ready to make a good stab at reaching their fourth straight postseason appearance.
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Re: Going Undergroud - a London Underground blog

#72 Post by Nigel »

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April 13th, 2020

2020 opened with a bang for London as they swept both New Jersey & Florida in their opening six game homestand. Runs were hard to come by, they scored five in each of the games against New Jersey and four in two of the games against Florida. They did cut loose and scored 10 against Florida in the second game of the series but the Featherheads answered with nine of their own to make it a close run thing.

Nakamura gave up just three runs in each of his first two PEBA starts but came up with two no-decisions while Hiroyuki Nii who wasn't the Opening Day starter for the first time in four years went eight innings in the second game of the year. He only gave up two hits and one walk while he struck out nine on the way to a 5-0 win. New closer Gary Stanley posted two saves from his first four outings of 2020 but will be looking nervously at a 7.36 ERA. Rule 5 draftee William Ferguson got two outs without any problem in his first outing for London and got just one out in his second outing, picking up a save against his old team Florida.

Lorenzo Valenzuela came out of the Opening Day game with a knock and then headed for the DL four games later with an intercostal strain. So Dennis Carter's demotion to Worcester didn't last long as he was called up to be London's 4th outfielder, he had hit .333/.400/.476 in his four starts in Triple-A with one homer. New catcher Victor Martinez went 6-21 in his first games since coming over from the LRS and hit his first PEBA homer against Florida while Leonard Ramsey set off at a pace after his 44-HR season in 2019 by hitting three in his opening six games. He also hit .454 in his 28 AB's just beating Chris Long's .400, Jitters also hit two homers and two triples equaling his 2019 triples total.
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Re: Going Undergroud - a London Underground blog

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April 27th

Approaching a three-games series at Wembley against Kentucky, the final series of April, the Underground record stands at 14-4 and we lead the Pan-Atlantic by three games from Arlington. It would be nice to complete a straight hat-trick of P-A titles in the final year of the P-A as we know it. A big contributor to that sequence, Hiroyuki Nii, made his 200th London start on April 25th in New Orleans. A 7-0 win gave him his 90th career win, his 19th complete game & 5th shutout as he struck out seven, walked none and only allowed two hits.

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Hiroyuki is closing in on his 100th PEBA win

Kata Nakamura continues to impress in his debut PEBA season, he's only got the credit for one win in his four starts but all four have been Quality Starts and he owns a 2.12 ERA. With Nii having a 1.11 ERA, Erwin Callahan completes a strong 1-2-3 punch with a 2-0, 2.33 ERA record in his four starts. He's also struck out 29 batters to lead the staff in K's. Gary Stanley is still struggling a bit with his control, his K/BB ratio is 9/8 but he's saved six games so far and only been on the hook for one loss. With Leonard Carver about two months away from returning London could be set for a tilt at 100 wins if everyone stays healthy and keeps their form.

With Scott Morris not back from the DL until late May rookie Christian O'Rorke is getting a more extended look than we intended.The idea was to have him on the bench this year to get a few AB's and get used to the PEBA without any pressure but Scott's injury has thrust him into the hot corner limelight. After a slow start Christian is feeling his way into the PEBA after eight starts and he's now hitting .296/.345/.333 with four RBI. His defence (+1.1 ZR, 1.088 EFF) is reasonable too and maybe next year the 24-yr-old may well be our starting 3B. Leonard Ramsey in his fifth PEBA season is really mashing the ball hitting .390/.427/.714 and is on course for a second straight 40+ homer / 100+ RBI season. Decheng Wen might be struggling to hit for average again but he's on course for his third season of over 100 walks in four years. Meanwhile Tomás Gonzáles & Barton MacLugash have been a bit disappointing with the bat but competent in the outfield. They need to show improvement as Robert Jacob is chomping at the bit to show again what he can do and Lorenzo Valenzuela will be off the DL in a fortnight. Dennis Carter will also be keen to let someone else have his return ticket to Worcester then too.

A poor start to the minor league campaign too with Montreal (9-11) & Dover (2-5) rooted to the foot of their divisions and Worcester (10-10) only second-bottom. Montreal who have been hit hard in recent years by injuries seem to have avoided that one so far and 23-yr-old closer Yong-Sung Kim is doing his bit for the cause with a 1-0, five saves record and a 0.69 ERA. A bit of work on his control and slider may well see him become Gary Stanley's understudy as converted closer José Valverde is still not looking comfortable in his second year in the role at Worcester. 23-yr-old third baseman Manuel Rivera seems to have grasped things in his second year in Montreal, hitting .325/.402/.519 while 19-yr-old Brazilian catcher José Cabea, a minor league FA pickup last year, has opened well with two homers already and a .333/.393/.833 triple slash line in Dover but like so many of the organisation's players he is really only expected to spend his career shuffling up and down London's minor league affiliates. This is the sixth year since a losing season for London and the minors are looking very thin after years of draft picks in the last 5-8 of each round. Also responsible is London's policy of 'If you're good enough, you're old enough' which sees seven of the current 25-man roster 25 or under and only two starters over 30-yrs-old (although another three backups are 31+).

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Manuel will be eyeing a promotion to Worcester soon
Nigel Laverick

GM San Antonio Calzones de Laredo 2035 - . . .

Former Commish, PEBA & LRS GM

nigel3123@gmail.com
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Re: Going Undergroud - a London Underground blog

#74 Post by Nigel »

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May 4th, 2020

Home Series last week against Kentucky and New Jersey brought two 2-1 series wins with both the losses coming in extra-innings. London's record for 2020 now stands at 18-6 and we lead the Pan Atlantic by three & a half games from Gloucester who have sneaked ahead of Arlington. Biggest news to come this week was the announcement that Hiroyuki Nii has signed a three-year contract extension worth $40,200,000. Nii might be 31 but when he's come off two so-called 'down' years where he went 14-9 both years and then opens with a 4-0, 1.37 ERA record how can you not grant him an extension?

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Holmes' fourth start brought his first ever PEBA win

At the other end of the rotation Robby Holmes recorded his first ever PEBA victory in a 5-3 win at Wembley against Kentucky. Robbie has struggled a bit in his first month in the PEBA but has no problem striking them out, 11 in that win and 36 so far in 24.2 innings pitched. Robbie's one loss, at Connecticut, is the only loss credited to an Underground starting pitcher so far this season. Former rotation member, Bryan Bedell, now in the bullpen has pitched 14.1 innings in nine outings and has yet to give up a run, in fact he's only allowed six hits as opponents have hit just .128 off of him. He also has a 15.1 K/9 ratio, best on the London staff.

Chris Long had a bad week with a 3-27 slump in a bad week for most of the Underground batters. Dennis Carter managed an 8-14 streak in his four games but generally it was a poor return for the London bats. Victor Martinez had his best week since arriving from Neo-Tokyo with three homers including his first PEBA multi-homer game ( two 2-run shots against New Jersey on May 1st ) as he drove in 14 runs during the week. Javier Sepúlveda only managed four hits but one of them was his first PEBA homer while both Leonard Ramsey & Decheng Wen managed to coax seven walks during the week.

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Sepúlveda hit his first PEBA homer on Apr 28th against Kentucky
Nigel Laverick

GM San Antonio Calzones de Laredo 2035 - . . .

Former Commish, PEBA & LRS GM

nigel3123@gmail.com
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Re: Going Undergroud - a London Underground blog

#75 Post by Nigel »

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May 11th, 2020

Results weren't as good last week with two home series resulting in a 3-4 record, a 2-2 split with Pan-Atlantic rivals Gloucester and a 2-1 series loss to West Virginia who quite often seem to have the Indian sign over London. A 21-10 overall record is still good enough to lead the P-A by three & a half games from Gloucester with several others close up behind the Fishermen. We did win an extra-innings game against Gloucester when London scored five runs in the bottom of the 12th to win 7-3

The Underground pitchers have been working hard with both Robby Holmes & Kata Nakamura producing 10-strikeout games. Nakamura's two wins in the week takes his record to 3-0 in his first seven PEBA starts while his 1.41 ERA is second overall in the PEBA to Yuma's Gunner MacGruder. Lorenzo Valenzuela has now be activated from the DL and will wait his chance to return to the starting line-up, Javier Sepúlveda still isn't hitting much above the Mendoza Line but at least he hit his second homer when he launched one against Gloucester. Leonard Ramsey hit three of our eight homers in the week taking his season tally to eight. He's hitting a career best .344 at the moment and is still on course, at this early stage, for his second 40+ homer season while his 1.066 OPS leads the PEBA. Chris Long is too good of a player to remain in a slump and sure enough he busted out of it going 11-27 (.407) for the week while fellow middle infielder Nathan Carter hit .429 & 1.310 OPS for the week. If Nathan keeps up his pace he could be the latest Underground player to record a career best year.

Worcester has slumped to 15-16 and with Bernie Jacoby & Dave York heading for the DL the slump could deepen. Alfredo Noriega is waiting for a spot on the Underground roster to open up, hitting .302/.357/.411 in the lead-off spot and on course for his third successive 40+ SB haul. He's trying to learn to play shortstop this year as his wait could be long with Nathan Carter & Chis Long in front of him. Montreal, five years removed from a winning season, have an 18-15 record. 27-yr-old career minor leaguer, Nick Morrow, is helping hitting .357 with 13 homers & 33 RBI from the clean-up spot whilst catcher Bill Horn & rightfielder Brent Martin are also hitting in the .350's. Dover who had their first winning season in four years last year do not look like repeating as they're currently 7-13. 19-yr-old Brazilian catcher José Cabea is a rare bright spot, in his second pro year he's hitting .279/.352/.656 when five of his fellow starters are hitting on or below the Mendoza Line. Out of 16 starts the current rotation has made, only two of them has been recorded as wins for the rotation.
Nigel Laverick

GM San Antonio Calzones de Laredo 2035 - . . .

Former Commish, PEBA & LRS GM

nigel3123@gmail.com
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