Coqui wrote:Looking further, about a dozen guys who were cut years ago are back.
This has happened to me in the past, and has kept popping up, even as recently this offseason. It feels like I have cut Benoit Faucher about a million times, in fact.
Anyway, are the Longshoremen nearing adequacy this year?!? The calendar has turned to May and we're still over .500? And Pythagoras agrees with us?
Judging correctly, our starting rotation has been, on balance, about as good as we would have hoped, with a starters' ERA of 3.64, good for 7th in the Sovereign. The bullpen has been a surprise, putting up a 2.65 ERA, good for 6th in the Sovereign. Time will tell how sustainable the pitching is - a road-heavy schedule probably means some slippage in ERA as we return to the friendly confines of Svab Memorial. If you want to be an optimist, team defense has greatly improved; the Longshoremen are turning 70.9% of batted balls into outs, 5th best in the Sovereign. Whether that measure is a trailing indicator of a staff that is generating weaker contact, or a causative factor of a staff that is being helped by its defense is almost irrelevant - it's good news either way.
The offense appears to be outperforming its peripherals. The Longshoremen are 8th in runs scored in the Sovereign, despite ranking 11th/12th/11th in the Sovereign in slash stats. We rank 4th in homers and 6th in stolen bases. On an individual level, no one is overperforming, and quite a few players are underperforming:
Vaclav Verlaan has the weirdest stat line: 192/236/442, with 8 of his 20 hits being home runs.
Nicholas Carr, the short-side of the 1B platoon, is 2 for 30 with a homer. His slash stats are 080/207/200.
Imported DH Alexander O'Neal has yet to homer and is hitting 230/264/276
The SS position has turned into a platoon, with rookie Roberto Salazar struggling to adapt to PEBA-level pitching. He's at 208/299/299. Lefty-hitting Hector Marroquin, the big side of the platoon, is showing power (2 HR, .480 SLG, .240 ISO) and a solid glove (+0.0 ZR, 1.002 Eff) but little else (240/269/480)
If you want to be optimistic, recent one year FA signee Miguel Angel Galvez is providing power (275/293/500), and Wunderkind Award hopeful Felix Rodriguez, OSA's #1 prospect in the game, is starting to heat up and is hitting 250/358/400.
It would be nice if the fans would start showing up for the games, although the schedule has been unkind to them. We've had one home weekend series, and have played only 9 of our first 26 at home. That doesn't improve any time soon - our May schedule shows 11 home games and 18 road games, and we will have only had two weekend series at home, vs. six weekend series on the road.
Stay tuned.