Neat Stuff, Post-Sim Thread: 2040, Season 34

[Trendsetters]

3-3 sim losing 2 of 3 to the Claymores and taking 2 of 3 from San Antonio. Very happy with the improved pitching. Bullpen is the tops in the league and rotation is middle of the pack instead of 15th or 16th. I think Alfredo Vegas will improve as that .355 BABIP is indicative of horrible luck. I’m also very happy with my clubs defense. Barry Wallace has about a +15 ZR over last years SS Thomas Johnston.

[Trendsetters]

Ouch, 1-5 this sim. While FLA has won 11 in a row so we dropped five games further back. Charleston just owns us right now.

[Claymores]

SP Thomas Connolly finished the month of April with 31 k’s and 21 BB. Why is that neat? It’s not, but the production was nice.

The neat part is that in the month of May, he’s made 3 starts with 28 k’s and 3 BB.

Hopefully this means his control will be getting a bump up soon.

[Codgers]

Neat: The signings of Perez and Ornelza has helped the Codgers increase their per game attendance by 33.3% and per game revenue by 42.7% so far this season

Neat: Robby Rollins tied a record

Not so Neat: Robby Rollins tied the record for 5 strikeouts in a game

Not so Neat: Claudio Perez out for 7 weeks. Huge blow to the Codgers playoff hopes. Hoping we can tread water until his return.

[Board of the PEBA]

Not so Neat - the Borealis slide backwards, thanks in a large part with 'Machete' continuing a very disturbing trend of giving up 9th inning homers, as Aurora slips below .500 again.

Neat - we're still just 2.5 behind in the wild card...

[Trendsetters]

Trendsetters coming back to Earth. Now three under .500 after a 2-5 sim. Tough to make up any ground when FLA is winning 17 in a row! In the minors, Anchorage eked out 22-5 win.

Some promotions and demotions in the minor leagues in the minor leagues could shake things up a bit. Beco Walton, C was tearing it up in AA so he was moved up to AAA.

[Codgers]

Neat: Solid sim going 5-2

Neat: A 9-5 win in 21 innings for the Codgers, even better - it didnt destroy our bullpen for the rest of the week somehow.

Neat: Sensing his team needed a strong start after the 21 inning game, Yamamoto threw a complete game for the win the following night.

Not so neat: attendance dropped for no apparent reason unless Perez's injury means that much.

Not so neat: Tempe is already starting to run away with the division.

[Claymores]

Not so neat: Connolly on the IL for 3 weeks after I just hyped up his May performance.

Neat: OF Tomas Martinez is now part of the 400 career HR club! Martinez accomplished the career milestone on May 24th against New Orleans in a 13-5 victory. It doesn't stop there, Martinez also hit career HR 399 in the game in the 1st inning and 400 in the 4th inning. Martinez is now the 15th PEBA batter with 400 or more HR in their career. With his current HR pace this season, he could possibly move up a few spots on the all-time leader board this season.

[Lions]

Brutal 1-5 sim for us. WV swept us with us scoring only 1 run in two of the 3 games. We are 10-11 in 1-run games (1-2 this sim) and just struggle to score enough runs to stay in games. Yet when I look at adding players, I keep looking for an ace starting pitcher. Maybe I'm not thinking straight. We're actually 1st in the IL in ERA right now, although we're 5th in runs allowed.

[Trendsetters]

New Orleans slide continues. Now 3 under .500.

[Wind Dancers]

Feeder League Winners for those interested.

ICOL - Delft Engineers (2nd Championship)
After not making playoffs once in their first 17 years in the ICOL, the Engineers made their 4th straight playoff appearance and took home their 2nd championship, beating the Hosei University Avocat 4-0. Led by power-hitting junior Yoritoki Yamamoto (14 HR) and sophomore closer Kiril van der Ban (0 ER in 28 IP), Delft went 31-23 this season and entered the playoffs as the lone AL Wildcard.

USCOL - Penn State Pride (1st Championship)
Penn State takes home their first USCOL Championship beating Michigan State 4-2. Penn State finished 40-16 and was the top team in the USCOL this year which carried over into the playoffs. Star-RF Daniel Bailey (.926 OPS) will be drawing some interested eyes after his fantastic season while P Cole Hinkle was dominant on the mound (5-1, 1.46 ERA). Both anchor a strong sophomore class that will get to defend their title next season.

IHS - Bowness HS Spartans (1st Championship)
Bowness wins their first in their 11th season since being accepted into the prestigious IHS. The Spartans defeated the Taitung HS Hermits from Taiwan 4-1 after a division-winning 27-21 season. Bowness star SP Craig Hurley will be at the draft this weekend after an impressive 6-2 season, Hurley had a career 1.37 ERA in high school. Junior 1B Takeji Meshizuka hit 14 homers this season and is looking like one of the better prospects heading into the 2041 draft.

IF HS- West Lauderdale HS Knights (4th Championship)
The Knights win their 4th championship (2nd most) after beating the De La Salle Myrmidon 4-2. The Knights were the top team in the IFHS with a 34-14 record and were in their first playoff appearance since 2031. Senior SP Henry Dollman is the talk of the town as the two-way player is being mocked in the 1st round of this weekend's draft. Dollman had a 1.9 pitching WAR and 3.6 batting WAR topped off by 16 HR's, a 1.003 OPS, and a 1.81 ERA.

[Trendsetters]

I am not convinced we are a below average to middling team. After getting trounced by Charleston and Florida and going 1-5 last sim, we played Hartford and San Antonio and went 4-2. Now back to a game under .500 and we have identified some positives and negatives. The rotation has continued to be fairly solid which is a nice change. Offensively we do lack some judgement at the plate. Manuel Munoz is having a good season at 1B as he is now hitting .277-11-34