Going Undergroud - a London Underground blog

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Nigel
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Re: Going Undergroud - a London Underground blog

#76 Post by Nigel »

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May 18th, 2020


Another 4-2 week for London keeping them top of the Pan-Atlantic by three from Arlington who have powered past Connecticut & Gloucester. We're currently 9-7 in May and 25-12 overall as we enter the second half of the month.
The surprising thing about the losses this week is that it was Nii & Nakamura that were tagged with the losses. Nii took the loss against Florida as he gave up six first-innings runs and indeed was yanked after just two innings. Nakamura's loss came in an offence-free game against Manchester. He went eight innings giving up a run in the fourth and the seventh innings but Londons only reply came in the bottom of the ninth. Robbie Holmes picked up his second win of the season, striking out 10 again. He has now recorded double figure strikeouts in five of his seven PEBA starts. Closer Gary Stanley also picked up his second win as London finished off the Manchester series with a 2-1 win in the 10th, our only extra-innings game of the week.

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Robby picked up his 2nd PEBA win with a six-hit complete game effort, striking out 10 more

It was a quiet week for the offence with London only reaching double-figure hits in one of the six games. Only Robert Jacobs, Javier Sepúlveda & Dennis Carter managed to hit a homer, a lack of which has been a common fault over the years with the exception of the Wen/Ramsey bomb fest last year. Lorenzo Valenzuela, just back off the DL, only managed two hits but both turned into triples with his speed and three walks helped him to score three times. Christian O'Rorke had been struggling a bit recently as his fill-in stint for Scott Morris draws to a close but he hit .308 last week, the best average of any Underground batter last week. Scott Morris meanwhile has been activated from the DL and will spend the next week or two in Dover knocking out the cobwebs.
Nii got tagged with seven runs for the week, the most by far of any London pitcher while Nakamura & Estrada gave up two. Everyone else gave up a maximum of one which helped paper over the lack of pop out of the bats. Robby Holmes was most pleased with his one start, a complete game win with just one run given up and another ten K haul.
Nigel Laverick

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Re: Going Undergroud - a London Underground blog

#77 Post by Nigel »

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June 1st, 2020

May finished well, both on the road and at Wembley. Across in America we managed to split a four-game series with Pan-Atlantic rivals Arlington and also avenge the earlier series defeat to West Virginia while at home a loss to San Antonio at the start of a six-game homestand with San Antonio & Charleston was the only reverse. Finishing the month 18-11 left London 34-16 overall for 2020, four ahead of Arlington & seven ahead of Connecticut. Everyone else in the P-A has fallen over 10 games back.

London’s blistering pace is stretching out the pack despite the power surge of last year returning to more normal levels. The pitching staff have taken up the slack, only rookie Robby Holmes has an ERA over 2.91 in the rotation. Nakamura has been everything we hoped while Nii has just been Nii again and Callahan is once more showing the form he showed in his first PEBA cup of coffee in 2018. The rebuild in the ‘pen has not been quite as successful but Gary Stanley has slotted into the Closer’s role without any problems. His BB/9 has risen somewhat but so has his K/9, he has only conceded eight runs in 29.1 IP and has yet to blow a save opportunity. All of this helped to land him the May IL Pitcher of the Month award following on from Hiroyuki Nii who scooped the April award.

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Erwin Callahan is 4-0 in 10 starts in his sophomore year

The outfield has continued to be a mess in 2020, Injuries to Lorenzo Valenzuela & Javier Sepúlveda plus probable replacement Ralph Woods disrupted things while Tomás Gonzáles & Barton MacLugash have failed to impress. All of this has opened the door for Robert Jacobs to have his third crack at sticking with the Underground and for Tom Anderson to get a surprise cup of coffee in the PEBA. Drafted out of Arizona State in the fifth round of the 2016 first-year-player draft Tom had muddled through the levels and wasn’t thought of as more than a marginally above-average organisational filler. Ralph Woods had just headed to the DL though when the call came to Worcester and Tom was the next available. He has impressed though, in his first six games he has hit .391 with two RBI and a stolen base. With perhaps another week or maybe two left in London he has the chance to move his name up a few pegs in the organisational list. Christian O’Rorke has struggled in the end to cope with standing in for Scott Morris at the hot corner. He started well but has panned out a bit below average, hitting .218 with some average defending. Scott meanwhile has completed 13 rehab starts at Dover hitting .317/.491/.683 with four homers and 12 walks. He has now returned to London and take up his duties at third today. Leonard Carver is still on course to head for a rehab stint of his own in a few weeks and maybe be back with London in early July.

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Tom Anderson didn't think he'd ever get this call to the PEBA

Runs have certainly been at a premium in our games, London only gave up more than five runs on four occasions in May, all of which turned out to be losses but also London only scored more than six on five occasions, only four were wins and just one double-figured tally. If the pitching staff contines to lead the IL in every ERA category, hits allowed, runs allowed and opponents average allowed then that’s not a problem but the batters need to pick up to cover for any bumps in the road
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Re: Going Undergroud - a London Underground blog

#78 Post by Nigel »

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March 15th, 2021

With London starting all the prospects & wantabes in the first week of Spring Camp it was no surprise that they finished week One with a 2-5 record.

London’s #1 prospect, 22-yr-old Scott Milner opened camp on the mound against Gloucester and showed signs of his promise pitching four innings and surrendering just the one run as he twice pitched his way out of a bases loaded jam in the fourth. Gloucester were 10-2 down facing their final strike when back to back homers off Gonzales & Fountain added three runs as some compensation.

Balls disappearing over the fence at regular intervals cost London the game as they went down 9-5 at new division rivals Havana. The game against Daytona caused a major scare when Leonard Carver had to leave mid-second, he had done well with four K’s and just one hit surrendered in his seven batters faced but left with discomfort in his shoulder. Thankfully he was alright after the game. London batted around in the bottom of the third scoring four times and that was the basis of their 7-5 win.

José Aguilar started the game at Manchester, he is on his third PEBA franchise and last year posted his first two Pro shutouts at Triple-A Worcester. Unfortunately opening up BB, HR, BB, H doesn’t get you many shutouts. Manchester led 3-0 after one and that was pretty much the ballgame. London did claw their way back to 3-2 by the middle of the eighth but Santiago Estrada coughed up a Grand Slam in the bottom of the eighth and the fat lady sang about an 8-2 win. Wade Morris who was once a touted prospect started against West Virginia and gave up back-to-back homers to open the game. Three doubles and a walk helped the visitors to a 5-0 lead after half an innings, Morris recovered to last to the start of the fourth but four more runs saw him yanked with just one out. He faced 22 batters and gave up eight hits, five walks and nine runs. Plenty of hits around as the Alleghenies outhit London 16-11 but London just couldn’t turn them into runs. They were flattered by a 5-12 loss, most of the home runs coming from a three-run pinch-hit homer by Chris Long in the bottom of the sixth. Scott Milner was unlucky to be tagged with the loss in his second start of the week. He gave up four hits, one walk and a solitary run in his four innings. Orlando Gonzáles gave up a three-run homer in the 6th and Chad Fountain followed up by surrendering a two-run shot in the eighth to seal a 6-1 win for Rio Grande Valley. London’s Rule 5 pick, Shinsui Hoshino, hit his first Underground long bomb for our only run.

So the first week of camp is in the books. Scott Milner & Ric Whitney have impressed and if they show the same flair in Dover We will be looking to send them both to Double-A Montreal after their All Star break. Tony Cuevas was sound at short and also hit .278, his stay at Dover might be short too. Sixto De Jesús & Javier Sepúlveda edged themselves into pole position for the fourth & fifth outfield roles while the third base battle remains wide open. Plate discipline by both batters and pitchers needs to improve, Our batters walked just 22 times and struckout 57 times while our pitchers broke even at 16 K’s & 16 BB’s.
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Re: Going Undergroud - a London Underground blog

#79 Post by Nigel »

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March 22nd, 2021

The second week of Spring saw a few more regulars starting to flex their muscles for the first time which of course brought the first injuries of 2021. Leonard Ramsey pulled a hamstring and will probably miss the first week or so of the regular season while Chris Long got plunked by Kentucky’s Bill Gallagher in the final innings of the week. He’ll sit out a week with a bruised elbow.

Leonard Carver showed signs of returning to his best, pitching eight innings in his two starts and getting the credit for two wins. Giving up six hits, the only two runs surrendered came off home runs and he walked just one while striking out eight. Top prospect Scott Milner picked up another win, surrendering only five hits and one run in the process. William Ferguson was the best out of the ‘pen, his three outings yielded just three hits, no runs and four K’s. Manny Vélez showed he will once more be a major part of the bullpen striking out eight while walking one in his 6.1 innings pitched. Juan Perez was solid pitching his 6.1 innings too with no walks & five K’s but gave up two homers that accounted for most of his four runs plated. Orlando Gonzáles will have to sharpen up if he wants to claim a bullpen sport after posting a 3/1 BB/K ratio this week.

Leonard Ramsey managed just eight plate appearances before his injury walking on five of them and posting two hits including one homer. Bailey Rohr showed he’s not yet ready for the knackers yard by hitting two homers this week as well as two triples and a double. He also scored five times and drove in seven. Ramón Rodriguez is looking the likely candidate to win the third base role hitting .462/.500/.692 for the week with a double, triple and driving seven runs in. 21-yr-old Marcox David showed some fine defence at the hot corner too and will almost certainly make his Double-A debut this year in Montreal. Christian O’Rorke’s inability to hit big league pitchers will most likely cost him his shot at being the Underground’s starting third baseman, leaving him in a fight for a backup role. Luis Cruz, after being the backup catcher in 2020 appears to be losing his role this year to David York who spent 2018 & 19 on the big league roster as the backup catcher. 2020 top draft picks Tony Cuevas & Ric Whitney continue to impress and will head for Dover knowing that their stay there is probably going to be brief and their advancement rapid.
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Re: Going Undergroud - a London Underground blog

#80 Post by Nigel »

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March 29th, 2021

A 6-1 record this week following on from last week’s 5-1 effort leaves London joint top of the newly renamed ‘Trans Atlantic’ with European rivals Amsterdam, both having a 13-7 record. The Underground’s #1 prospect, Scott Milner, made his final start of Spring Training and beat Gloucester to finish with a 3-1 record in his four starts. In 16 innings pitched he gave up just 15 hits and three earned runs, he did though have a 6/3 BB/K ratio which he will have to work on back in Dover. Milner will remain in Camp though as a long man for the last week to get some more experience.

Gary Stanley pitched his first three games of spring and posted two saves giving up just one hit and one walk while striking out three. 2019 Rule 5 draftee William Ferguson pitched in three games, striking out two and giving up no hits or walks; he now looks to have sealed his spot in the London bullpen with a 3/14 BB/K ratio for spring in 11 outings and a 1.98 ERA. Hiroyuki Nii after two relief outings made his first start and recorded the win. He now has five hits allowed & five K’s in seven innings pitched with just one run allowed and a 1.29 ERA. Bryan Bedell is also warming up his arm after coming third in the 2020 IL Shutdown Reliever voting and now has pitched 7.2 innings without giving up a run while posting a 4/13 BB/K ratio. New free agent signing Orlando Gonzáles has walked a team leading nine batters this spring and now has a week left to convince us that we shouldn’t demote him to Triple-A Worcester.

We still have six outfielders in camp chasing four or maybe five spots. Rule 5 pick Shinsui Hoshino has been poor with the bat hitting just .152 but has hit two homers as well as legging out a triple. He is though the best in centrefield and that might well keep him on the roster. Javier Sepúlveda started spring well but seems to have trailed off and is probably most at risk along with Sixto De Jesús who has been better with the bat but his defence doesn’t live up to the high standards that London set. Another free agent signing Jorge Murillo seems to be winning the battle for the MI utility role as Noriega has improved his hitting of major league pitchers but has no extra base hits this spring yet. He is also still limited in value by his little or no ability at Short.

As we approach the final week of Spring Training the final fringe players are heading back to their minor league outfits and London will complete the final week stretching out their rotation, bullpen and the regular starters. The final position battles will be wrapped up and London will be ready for the battle for their fifth straight playoff appearance.
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Re: Going Undergroud - a London Underground blog

#81 Post by Nigel »

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April 4th, 2021

A 2-2 record over the last four games of spring left London with a 15-9 record and their first ever table topping Spring Training performance under GM Laverick.

There was few position battles to sort in the end, the rotation had been set once Leonard Carver proved his return to form which he did in winning four of his five outings. The third base job went to Ramon Rodriguez, once the San Juan Winter League’s #12 prospect in 2018 now the Underground’s 3B in 2021. Christian O’Rorke will remain as the backup corner infielder for the second year running. The outfield will start off with Valenzuela & Jacobs at the corners as they were at the end of 2020 with Shinsui Hoshino in the centre as the best defender. He has also provided a bit of pop with two homers & a triple. Javier Sepúlveda has picked up a finger blister and is day-to-day but as we need his roster spot he will start the season on the D/L along with Leonard Ramsey.

That leaves Sixto De Jesús & Ju-chan Na as the outfield backups, the extra backup means that the Underground will start the season with just 11 pitchers on the 25-man. We believe this is doable as the starters can be relied on to go deep into most games negating the need for the extra bullpen arms. Bailey Rohr will fill in at first base until Ramsey’s return after Bailey’s fine spring.

Our bunch of thirtysomethings catchers are sorted too. 31-yr-old Victor Martinez has never been in doubt as the #1 catcher but 33-yr-old 2020 backup, Luis Cruz, has been sent down to Worcester while 31-yr-old 2019 backup, Dave York, will be this year’s #2 backstop.
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Re: Going Undergroud - a London Underground blog

#82 Post by Nigel »

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April 19th, 2021

First time round the rotation in 2021 the Underground were a perfect 5-0 with every starter picking up their opening win of the season but since then it has been a bit of a rocky path with the team going 3-4. Their 8-4 record leaves them a half game behind the newest European PEBA franchise, the Amsterdam Lions.

London rarely come anywhere near flirting with a No-Hitter but on April 15th they came the closest they’d been for quite a while when, of all people, Ángel Luján took the no-no into the bottom of the seventh against Amsterdam. Luján eventually coughed up three hits & runs in that stanza and that was enough to beat London who could only manage three hits themselves. Talking of Amsterdam their Stadium Urbanus hosted the first ever All-European PEBA series on April 13th-15th. The Lions won the opener 5-1 against Nakamura, Carver led the Underground to a 10-3 win in the second game after they fell 0-2 behind and Luján’s failed No-Hitter attempt sealed the first series win for the Dutch team. London host the second series starting today at Wembley; Carver, Luján & Callahan will go for the Underground.

Decheng Wen has started the season with a hot bat cranking six balls over the fences in the first twelve games. His early power burst leaves him with 241 homers, joint 20th with John Gustafson (2007-16) who spent most of his career with Palm Springs. If Wen hits around 30 homers as he usually does he will be into the top 15 home run hitters of all time in the PEBA at the end of 2021. Leonard Carver has certainly proved he is back as a top of the rotation pitcher. Winning both of his two starts so far, he has faced just 32 batters in each game striking out 10 each time while walking just three batters in total.

New boy Ju-chan Na hasn’t made a start yet but has successfully hit in two pinch hits including a homer & two RBI while former San Juan winter league prospect Ramón Rodríguez has settled in at the hot corner providing some top notch defence. He has also hit .222/.271/.400 in his 12 starts with two homers, two doubles and a stolen base. Rule 5 pick Shinsui Hoshino from the Evas is only hitting .167 but has two homers to his credit so far as well as a stolen base.

Gary Stanley in his second year as London’s full-time closer hasn’t had much opportunity to get into games yet with only 8.2 innings being pitched by the entire bullpen. Both he & set-up man Manny Vélez have a save though at the moment.

London have recorded shutouts against Havana (2-0) and Kentucky (4-0) while have failed to score against Amsterdam (0-3). Six of London’s eight wins have been by four runs or more.
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Re: Going Undergroud - a London Underground blog

#83 Post by Nigel »

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May 3rd, 2021

The first month tailed off a bit for London even so their 16-10 record was good enough to be just one back of West Virginia & Amsterdam. The pitching staff had picked up a few losses but I’d put that down more to the failings of the hitters rather than the pitching staff.

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12 homers already has moved Wen into 19th on the all-time list of PEBA HR hitters with 247

Leonard Ramsey’s spring hamstring injury has certainly affected his season, after two 40+ homer seasons the loss of the first two weeks of the season has left him somewhat flailing at all sort of pitches. There are signs that he is working his way into though as his average has slowly crept up to .241 and yesterday he finally launched his first long ball of 2021 against Kentucky. Half the starters though are also inconsistent too, hitting nearer the Mendoza line than .300. Decheng Wen held up the offence almost single handily in the first two weeks as he hit the cover off the ball sending 11 over the fences & driving in 24 runs but his bat has cooled off. He is currently in a streak of one homer in the last 10 games including five games without a hit even. The middle infield ‘rock’ of Chris Long & Nathan Carter play on, both are expected to pass the 1,000 games played for the Underground this season (the third & fourth players to do so behind Dennis Carter & Wen) but neither have hit consistently although their stats are slowly beginning take on the look they should do. Rookie Ju-chan Na is proving an outstanding pinch hitter with three pinch hit long bombs although he cannot force his way into the outfield corners as while Valenzuela & Jacobs aren’t really hitting for average their defence and clutch extra base hits are just keeping them ahead of Na. Christian O’Rorke is finally looking as though he’s hitting major league pitchers but Ramon Rodriguez has possession of the hot corner job now and although he’s hitting below the Mendoza line his power & defence is keeping him in the job. Rule 5 pick, Hoshino, is proving an able defensive centrefielder and is third in homers with four and leads the team in stolen bases with three.

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Hiroyuki Nii's career 24 complete games puts him fifth on the all-time PEBA CG list

The pitching staff’s stats have suffered a bit due to a lack of run support but the expected ones are rising above that. Hiroyuki Nii’s six starts have brought four wins with four complete games and two shutouts ( both 4-0 against Kentucky). Erwin Callahan is 4-0 in his five starts and while Leonard Carver is only 3-1 he is the third of the rotation to have a WHIP of under 1.00. Kata Nakamura is a bit of a worry with a 1-4 record but his ERA is below 4.00 and it is hoped that with better run support he can pull out of his slump. Both Nakamura & Ángel Luján have suffered from a lack of control and both have walked double figure totals of batters. On the other hand Carver (40) & Nii (38) lead the team in strikeouts. 2019 Rule 5 pick, William Ferguson, has been lights out of the bullpen, making five appearances without giving up a run. Setup man Manny Vélez for the fourth straight year has an ERA in the twos, has reduced his BB/9 from 4.5 to 1.3 while picking up three saves as Gary Stanley struggles to get into games in a save situation. Stanley though does have a 1-1 record with three saves but also has a 4/3 K/BB ratio. Despite carrying only 11 pitchers Juan Pérez has yet to make an appearance after the first month.
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Re: Going Undergroud - a London Underground blog

#84 Post by Nigel »

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May 31st, 2021

As we play the final game of May the two European franchises of the expanded PEBA are locked together on top of the newly formed Trans Atlantic division, both with 34-17 records. After a 16-10 opening month London is currently 20-7 for May with just a home game against Daytona to go and London are 15-3 at home for the season. The team is struggling though in close games, just 7-7 in one-run games and 1-2 in extra innings games.

The pitching staff are statistically the best in the Imperial League, leading the IL in ERA, Starters ERA, Bullpen ERA, hits allowed, runs allowed, HR allowed, BABIP and opponents avg ! Unfortunately they are only third in walks and fifth in strikeouts although the team as a whole as is #1 in defensive efficiency. Meanwhile the batters continue to struggle, ranking in the bottom half of the IL in many hitting categories. After many years of failing with the long ball London are now starting to get to grips with it over the last few years, currently they are tied for second in the IL with 69 and are fifth in slugging percentage. They are also fourth in extra base hits and fifth in walks so things are definitely rosier as we enter the third month.

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Carver is second on the team in Wins, ERA & K's to Hiroyuki Nii

Award recognition though is not coming the way of the Underground pitchers for their dominance, the only two awards received are Decheng Wen’s IL batter of the month for April’s thrashing of pitchers in the first two weeks and a batter of the week award for Chris Long. Wen, although his bat has cooled considerably in May, is second in the IL with 17 homers and has now moved into 18th on the PEBA’s all-time list with just six required to move up another place. Hiroyuki Nii should reach the 1,500 strikeout plateau in the next couple of games while Chris Long & Nathan Carter are inexorably closing in on becoming the third & fourth players to play 1,000 games for the Underground.

Robby Holmes who suffered a torn UCL at the end of his rookie PEBA season is now within a couple of weeks of returning to pitching, he will then spend a month on a rehab assignment. London’s only other major league injury is Shinsui Hoshino’s shoulder inflammation that will keep him out most of June. Ralph Woods who came up as a fourth outfielder to cover for the loss of Hoshino has so far had just two pinch hits but has reached on both of them with one double & three RBI. 26-yr-old South Korean rookie Ju-chan Na might be only hitting .224 but has hit 5 homers with 14 runs driven in. Carter & Long, the London double play combo, seem to have settled back into their rhythm both now hitting over .300 and both have 37 DP’s to their credit in 50 starts. The team has just 19 errors so far, only two by pitchers (Nakamura has both), Carter & Long have three each while 28-yr-old Cuban rookie Ramón Rodríguez has six at the hot corner. Despite hitting four homers and 21 RBI he has lost his starting job at the moment to Christian O’Rorke who seems to have figured out how to hit big league pitching in his sophomore year in the PEBA, he is currently hitting .261 with two homers & 11 batted in. Leonard Ramsey is slowly turning his season round, he now has six homers & 24 RBI but will have to go some to record his third straight 40 homer season.

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Christian O'Rorke has moved his batting average up from .221 in 2020 to .261 so far in 2021

After ten starts each only Kata Nakamura has failed to win five and he has four wins. Leonard Carver has put his injury woes behind him with a 7-2 record and his K/9 & BB/9 are moving back to the level they were when London thought he was Nii’s replacement. With a 1.96 ERA, 69 K’s and a 0.91 WHIP he is arguably the Underground’s #2 behind the evergreen 32-yr-old ‘Zippo’.

Next month could be interesting with another home & away series against division & continental rivals Amsterdam. The last home series had the fans on the edge of their seats as London spotted the Lions four, three & four run leads before coming back to win the first two games 5-4 while only losing the last 6-5 in the 10th innings. These two series could be a major factor in deciding where the Trans Atlantic title heads this year.
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Re: Going Undergroud - a London Underground blog

#85 Post by Nigel »

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June 7th, 2021

After a relatively injury-free season London had a bad start to June. In the sixth innings of the first game in the month the Underground lost both Leonard Carver and Chris Long to two separate incidents. London fans held their breath as they waited for the diagnosis on two of their best players. When it arrived the general feeling was it could have been a lot worse. Chris Long was suffering from a sore elbow and shouldn’t miss more than two weeks while Carver had just suffered back tightness and may not even miss a start.

Daytona took advantage straight away of the two injuries and knocked in three runs in the seventh innings to send London to a 5-2 defeat but London were able to regroup the rest of the week and only lose one further game, an 8-2 defeat at Havana, their only defeat in nine games against the Leones. London finished the week with another on the treatment table as third baseman Christian O’Rorke left the final game with a dead arm and will probably miss most of the month.

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O'Rorke fought to get the starting job at the hot corner and now has lost it again as he heads for the DL

With Shinsui Hoshino still on the D/L the Underground’s strength in depth will be tested in the upcoming week’s. Gloucester come in for three and then over the weekend London host Amsterdam in the big clash of the Trans Atlantic division. Bailey Rohr will have to continue to stand in for Long despite four errors in the last five games as the likely replacement at shortstop, Carson Holder at Worcester, is also out day-to-day with a mild oblique strain. 28-yr-old rookie, Ramón Rodríguez, will take over the hot corner again, he too has been a bit suspect in the field with six errors this season. Outfielder Sixto De Jesús after hitting just .190 with only three extra base hits has been returned to Triple-A Worcester as Javier Sepúlveda returns from the D/L after hitting .321/.356/.625 for the T’s. Javier will be London’s centre fielder for the next week at least. Free agent signing 25-yr-old Dan Aguilar has been added to the 40-man and will get his first cup of PEBA coffee as a backup to 1st & 3rd. As a precaution it has also been decided that Leonard Carver’s start will be skipped and his next start is scheduled to be the second game of the Amsterdam series.

While the majority of London’s hitters remain sluggish Decheng Wen has become the first PEBA batter in 2021 to reach the 50 RBI mark when he launched a two-run homer against Havana on June 4th, London’s only two runs in an 8-2 defeat. Hiroyuki Nii still needs nine K’s for the 1,500 landmark after he only struckout three in his start against Havana despite going the distance. That was his seventh complete game of 2021, a career high for him. Seven complete games in a season also ties the PEBA record, reached five times in league history, most recently by Markus Hancock in 2017 to go with his seven in 2009.

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Crowds will be flocking to Montreal to see one of the farm's must promising infielders

The rush of injuries both at major league level and in the minors has led to several promotions down on the farm including two players who impressed in the recent Underground spring training camp. Dan Hudson, a minor league free agent signing at the end of 2020, after starting 4-4 in Double-A Montreal has now made two starts in Worcester going 1-0 with a 2.53 ERA while 2020 first year draft first rounder Tony Cuevas will head for Montreal as an injury replacement after 44 games at A-ball. After hitting just .172 in nine games there at the end of 2020 it will be interesting to see if he has developed.
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

#86 Post by Nigel »

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June 21st, 2021

Injuries might have been the big news at the big league level at London but it was a career minor leaguer that was the toast of the franchise as we rolled into the last week of June.

Hiroyuki Nii faced just four batters and failed to get out of the first innings in his June 15th outing in Manchester. He left the game with an oblique strain and will be out probably until the second week of July. London still went into the bottom of the ninth tied at three but unusually Gary Stanley coughed up the walkoff run. Manchester indeed took the opening three games of the four game series before Carver pitched solidly into the eighth to restore normality. With Hoshino & O’Rorke on the DL and Long just coming back the last thing the Underground wanted was Nii out as they flew to Amsterdam for the third series with their European neighbours. And so it proved, Luján only lasted 2.1 innings as the Lions put up four & five spots in the first three innings. Only four runs in the top of the ninth made a 10-6 defeat look respectable. The sixth innings ejection of star 3B Eric Jacobs didn’t stop the home side as they slid past London 5-3. With Nii bask home and no long man on the roster Bedell got the start in the final game despite throwing over two innings the day before. He went just six batters and with Lions starter Luis Gusmán leaving injured in the second the game quickly became a procession of bullpen arms on both sides. Tied at five from the fifth innings when a McKee 3-run bomb knotted it up the teams only had three more hits in regulation. Up in the bottom of the tenth, William Ferguson walked the bases loaded before serving up the game’s first hit since the bottom of the seventh allowing former London outfielder Wilson Vélez to come home with the run that sealed Amsterdam’s sweep.

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Bedell will move from the 'pen once more into the rotation to cover for Nii

That sweep allowed Amsterdam to join London at the top of the Trans Atlantic division, both teams with a 44-26 record, four & a half games ahead of West Virginia. London continue their road trip next week with trips to Arlington & Kentucky with Bryan Bedell covering for Nii in the rotation while Chad Fountain returns from Worcester for his fifth PEBA stint. Other London changes see Hoshino & O’Rorke also coming off the DL with Ramón Rodriguez & Robert Jacobs both optioned to Worcester. Rodriguez hadn’t really hit in his rookie year but Jacobs was a surprise. After a breakthrough 2020 it seemed he had sealed the right field spot but his declining production coupled with injury call-up Ralph Woods being out of options led to his demise. Hoshino slides back into centre field with Javier Sepúlveda shifting over to right. Since coming back off the DL Sepúlveda has opened a few people’s eyes and despite the six losses this week he hit four homers which was one more than he managed in the whole of his 68 games in London in 2020. A 2020 Rule 5 selection from Aurora led to a very indifferent 2020 in London by Sepúlveda followed by opening 2021 in Worcester. He hit .321 with three homers in the opening 16 games and soon earned his recall. Now he looks to be hanging around in the English capital.

Talking about players back from injury, Robbie Holmes is now rehabbing in Dover after missing the best part of a year with Tommy John surgery. In his first start he he went five innings and gave up five runs in a 6-3 loss but in his second he improved to go 7.2 innings only giving up one walk and no runs while striking out eight. He looks like an après All-Star game return to London could be on the cards for him.

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Hayes pitched the franchise's first Perfect Game June 17th, 2021

On August 5th, 2011 Francisco Robles, now pitching for Crystal Lakes, pitched the London franchise’s first ever no-hitter when pitching for Double-A Montreal against Edmonton and now nearly ten years later the franchise has it’s second no-hitter. Not just any old hitter either, 29-yr-old Warren Hayes pitched a PERFECT GAME for Worcester against Jefferson County in Triple-A. 27 batters came up for Jefferson, 12 struckout and no-one reached first base. A crowd of 7,808 saw the game with lasted just 2.12 hours, Eliot Pace & Marc Bourbonnais both went 3 for 4 and scored the only runs as the T’s won 2-0. Hayes had initially been drafted in the 10th round of the 2010 first-year-player draft but after limited usage he was released in the spring of 2018 whilst at Montreal. He caught on with Gloucester but after 14 games in A ball for them he found himself without a club again. London needed a filler now and he returned for two more years mainly in Montreal’s bullpen. Finally his improving stats saw him promoted to Triple-A this year in his 10th pro season. June 2021 has certainly been a roller coaster ride so far. A rain delay limited him to just 3.2 scoreless innings in his first start of the month, five runs across the plate with four walks saw him yanked after just 3.2 innings in his second outing and now in the third outing he pitches the game of his journeyman career.
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

#87 Post by Nigel »

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July 5th, 2021

June was a poor month for the Underground but they still rallied at the end to finish just three games under .500 (12-15) at the end to leave them two & a half games back of the Amsterdam Lions. With six games left before the All Star break London have just reached the 50 win mark with 79 games to go as they chase their first ever 100 win season.

Bryan Bedell heads back to the bullpen as Nii returns from his DL stint, Bedell went 1-0 in his two starts allowing just 12 hits & two runs whilst striking out 16. Nii’s first start back should be July 7th,the middle game of the homestand against Gloucester. The bullpen has been shaken up as Bedell’s replacement, Chad Fountain, retains his place after giving up only one hit, a homer in his 4.1 innings pitched. William Ferguson & Jose Valverde have been demoted to Worcester too while Robby Holmes returns to London after his rehab stint. After Holmes Tommy John surgery he had three rehab starts in Dover going 2-1 with just six runs plated and a 23/3 K/BB ratio. A further rehab start in Montreal saw him lose 0-3 but again he walked just one while sitting down 10. He will initially slot into the London bullpen as a setup man but it probably won’t be long before he finds a slot in the rotation if Nakamura doesn’t buck his ideas up.

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Robby Holmes returns to London for the first time since late Sept. 2020

Chris Long is back into the groove too after his little DL stint, he’s now hitting .346/.401/.549 and is just 37 games short of his 1,000th game in London. Shinsui Hoshino, a 34-yr-old PEBA rookie thanks to his Rule5 selection by London, also has had a DL stint but still cannot hit for average. Hitting .162 he has managed 10 homers & 22 RBI as well as seven bag swipes without being caught. Leonard Ramsey is working his way back into form, just two homers short of 20 now but unlikely to secure his third 40+ homer season although he could still reach the 100 RBI plateau for the fourth time in his five PEBA seasons ( 2018 he only had 96 RBI).

Down on the farm Ric Whitney, the Underground’s third rounder in 2020 has been promoted to Double-A Montreal as an injury replacement and is hitting .318/.348/.455 in his opening five games there. Scott ‘Kiwi’ Milner, the London first rounder in 2019 was promoted from Dover after seven starts (4-1, 1.94 ERA) and now after seven starts in Montreal sports a 2-1 record with a 1.18 ERA. He has 81 K’s in 104 IP across the two levels. A young Maui side has made a poor 6-14 start with three of the 2021 draftees on the DL already. 21-yr-old David Garcia, a 2018 eighth rounder, is 3-1, 1.98 ERA in four starts in his fourth year in Maui
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

#88 Post by Nigel »

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July 31st 2021

Kata Nakamura might have had an impressive 16-5, 2.54 ERA record in his debut PEBA season at 31 but he was on a downhill slide in 2021. His record at the start of June was 5-7 with an ERA nearly a point & a half higher and the team decided to change it up. With Bryan Bedell impressing during an injury replacement stint for Nii and Nakamura set to cost $8m+ in 2022 the decision was taken to trade Nakamura to fellow Trans Atlantic side Daytona for minor league CF Juan Escamilla and to restore Bedell to the rotation in the third slot behind Nii & Carver.

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Bryan Bedell is 3-1 in six starts since returning to the rotation

Robby Holmes after a successful spell as the setup man was moved into the engine room of the bullpen as his comeback from Tommy John surgery continued. In 8.1 innings pitched since returning to London he has given up just three hits, two walks and no runs whilst striking out 11. Lefty pitcher Kelvin Jones who arrived at London in the same trade as Holmes from Crystal Lake was also due back from a few months out with rotator cuff inflammation when Rio Grande Valley claimed him off waivers. After four years in Worcester Jones had compiled a 20-16 record in 38 starts and he also had a cup of coffee in the PEBA with a 2019 September call-up where he went 2-1in three starts.

Joining the franchise in June were three English relievers who signed minor league contracts bringing the total English contingent in Maui & Dover to 11, all in their late teens or early 20’s, after London drafted five in the 2021 first-year-player draft. The 12th Englishman on the franchise’s books is 29-yr-old LF Zak Martin who signed a minor league contract at the end of 2020. He is currently in Worcester hitting .267/.359/.393 with six homers, 33 RBI & one stolen base as well as impressing with some solid outfield defence. He could well earn a September call-up to make him the second ever Englishman to play for London, following in the footsteps of second baseman James Tinker who made 10 starts in 2016. Tinker had 11 hits, five doubles, one homer and three RBI in his spell in the PEBA before being returned to Montreal. He played one more season split between Montreal & Dover before retiring. Also back with the franchise in July as a minor league free agent is 34-yr-old outfielder Dennis Carter. Carter left at the end of 2020 as a free agent following 10 years & 1,325 games for the Underground. He is London’s career leader in Games, At-Bats (5,032), Hits (1,277), Doubles (281) and Singles (819) as well as being second in Total Bases (2,057) and RBI (626). No-one offered him a PEBA contract so London signed him on a minor league deal and sent him to Montreal as cover.

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Zak Martin is on course to be the 2nd ever Englishman to grace London's green & pleasant baseball diamond

On the field London are currently 16-8 for July as we approach the month’s final game. A 2-1 series win at Wembley against Amsterdam has edged the Underground one game ahead of the Lions with a 63-40 record in the race for the inaugural Trans Atlantic division title. West Virginia four & a half back are the only other realistic contender at the moment. The PEBA’s only other European franchise lead the season’s series 8-7 and the games between the sides have rarely been anything but exciting. Hiroyuki Nii won the first game after London spotted him an early 5-0 lead but in a rare lack of control Nii was tagged for three home runs in the top of the seventh which made the game closer than it should have been. Leonard Carver picked up the loss in game two after he too gave up three homers in his five innings. Eleven walks by London pitchers contributed to the Lions 10-4 win, inflated by Chad Fountain surrendering three runs in a third of the top of the ninth. London played Rohr, Rodriguez & York in the final game of the series but Bedell still had enough to sneak past the visitors 2-1 allowing only four hits and striking out nine before Gary Stanley came on for his 20th save of 2021. London have restricted their opponents to two or fewer runs in 13 of their 24 games so far in July but still are only 15-16 in one-run games & 4-5 in extra innings games in 2021.
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

#89 Post by Nigel »

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August 2nd, 2021

Heading into the penultimate month of the season London are back on top of the Trans Atlantic division with a 65-40 record, two games ahead of Amsterdam. The fans are now counting down to the final series meeting of the two European franchises on August 20th – 22nd in Amsterdam. That series could well decide the destination of the Pennant but don’t rule out West Virginia yet, only four and a half games back at the moment, the Alleghenies still have 15 games left against London and nine against Amsterdam. They are poised to have a big say in the race for the first ever Trans Atlantic Pennant.

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Ramsey was 8-15 in the series v Havana with two home runs

The final two games in the recent series against Havana illustrated why London can be dangerous whatever game they play. On July 31st they rapped out 20 hits against the Leones but kept them all in the park. Instead they demonstrated their most efficient small ball game using just five extra base hits to plate 16 runs as Luján secured his fourth straight season with ten wins or more. Meanwhile the next day London showed that even when they’re in a wasteful mood they will still beat you. The Underground put another 19 hits on the board but this time demonstrated their power as they needed three homers to beat their hosts 8-5. Hiroyuki Nii might be 32 and not quite the strikeout pitcher he was when he broke into the PEBA but he can still mow them down when he feels like it. Eight Leones were sat down and none were walked as Nii’s first innings solo homer given up represented half of Havana’s run total as they reached the bottom of the ninth. When Medina socked a two-run homer off Nii with one out manager Sergio Manetti yanked the starter, two outs shy of his eighth complete game of the season which would have given Nii outright possession of the all-time single season CG record. Nii left the mound without a murmur, he knows that with around ten starts left in 2021 there’s time enough for the record to be his.
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

#90 Post by Nigel »

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August 9th, 2021

Despite another mediocre week London remained top of the Trans Atlantic division with a 68-43 record, a game ahead of Amsterdam but with West Virginia looming large in the rear-view mirror. It was a bad week for Underground pitchers last week as Gary Stanley blew only his second save of the season, the normally reliable Bryan Bedell was tagged for three homers and Hiroyuki Nii was knocked out of the game in the second innings against Havana when Yosuke Imai slugged a Grand Slam off of him. Rather than focus on a rare off week by the pitching staff the fans fury was definitely directed at the constant failure of the London lower order batters. Far too often this season two if not three of the bottom four batters have posted an 0’fer. To be honest it’s only been the power of Hoshino & Martinez that has kept them in the line-up. Hoshino has 15 homers but only 35 RBI and a .164 batting average while Martinez has 19 homers, 45 RBI and a .222 average. Valenzuela after a good start has slumped to hitting .226 and it’s the same story for Sepulveda who had again regressed to hitting just .244. In fact out of the 534 runs that London have plated in 2021 so far only 150 have been driven in by the bottom four in the line-up.

Finally London have acted to shake things up as Javier Sepúlveda has been sent to Worcester and Shinsui Hoshino has lost his job as the starting centrefielder. Ralph Woods, who has been up in London for a while as the fifth outfielder has been given a crack at the right field job despite only hitting .208 himself while the centrefield role has gone to Joe McNeal. McNeal, a sixth round pick by London in 2016, has been called up from Worcester for his first PEBA cup of coffee. In his first full year in Triple-A he has been hitting .259/.326/.382 with 10 homer & 38 runs driven in. His defensive efficiency in centre has been 1.141 with a +14.2 ZR.

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Joe McNeal resplendent in his new Underground uniform

With a crucial series in Amsterdam coming up changes had to be made. The London outfield has really been a train wreck for several years now and it has been rumoured that even minor league free agent signing 34-yr-old Dennis Carter might be in with a shout of a London return as the Underground just can’t find an outfielder who can hit over .220 consistantly.
Nigel Laverick

GM San Antonio Calzones de Laredo 2035 - . . .

Former Commish, PEBA & LRS GM

nigel3123@gmail.com
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