The Planetary Extreme Baseball Alliance

Featherheads wrote:Mark Ray seems like the safest choice here. Chris Acevez is a good story but you still have him off your 40 man and if you have someone who you are liking at SP, I'd pretty much always choose that person unless I have no other choice. I don't think I'd trust Flores due to his high hr/9 throughout the minors. With an exponential increase in batter skill at the major league level, I think mlb batters would expose him in a starting role. Could be wrong though! 6 pitches is impressive.

This is pretty close to my thinking. I rule out Acevez because he is not on your 40-man currently; of the other two, Ray has already proven himself at the ML level so I would give him the nod. I think it's safer to try guys out in the pen when they first get to the bigs if possible.

As the others have said, Ray is your safest bet here. That said, I'd be tempted to give Flores a shot and see how he does. All those pitches are almost too much to resist ...

Well, as promised, we let the crowd source the decision. If left to my own devices, I would have probably put Flores in the rotation under the theory of letting him sink or swim, with the idea being that I could cut him loose without any guilt if he got a 15 start run and failed.

So thanks to his spot on the 40-man, we brought Flores up at the ASB and placed him in the bullpen, moving Mushy to the rotation.So far, so good:

Mushy: 1 start, 5 IP, 3 ER, 4 hits, 2 BB, 3 K in a 3-1 loss to Shin Seki

- not great, but not a disaster either

Flores: 2 appearances, 3.3 IP, 0 ER, 1 hit, 0 BB, 5 K

- pretty fantastic so far

Rough sim for the Borealis, as not only do they lose both ends of a 2-game series to Fargo - both on walk-off homers (one in the 10th), but then lose 2 of 3 to Toyama - the Japanese thing just keeps snowballing the Borealis. To compound matters, Carlos Rivera, again, goes down - this time a ruptured biceps tendon (I know that one all to well) - gone for the season and definitely done with his Aurora career (the $15M team option certainly to be declined). That bad news, along with Rob Imhoff's biceps strain - that the trainers now say is an indefinite injury, and all we can say is Hallelujah for Arturo Velasquez - whose 6 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 7 K, 2 BB outing was the lone bright spot against Toyama (oh... and the win!)... To make the mostly Not So Neat Week worse, some how, some how, the rotation toggle - which I NEVER touch, got toggled - and John Turner's start was skipped, and then was inserted later in the week, mucking up the rotation right as we go into a HUGE four games with Bakersfield... Can you say, 'Man...'...? I thought you could...

Newly acquired 2B Derrick Dwyer didn't make many friends in his Aurora debut - 3-17, 5 K - and that's 3 infield singles, for those scoring at home... Can you say, 'IDK...'...? Yup... me too...

One Neat moment as we head off... Armando Batista, this years top pick for Aurora, after 3 GS at Mokule'ia (2-0. 2.84, 18 K, 6 BB) was promoted to SLRC and in 2 starts, posted a 1.26 ERA, with 15 K and 3 BB... Something to say 'NEAT' about!!

Neat...
We had a great truncated week going 5-0. Pitching led the way with some really strong performances from starters and relievers.

Gallagher has been an incredible presence for the Featherheads and has seemingly only been getting better in his new role as a starter. After years of being used as a relief pitcher, he was looking to try his hand as a starter -- a role that the Featherheads interim GM was all-too-happy to provide. Well, it's paid off. While already good, his last three starts have solidified his presence in the rotation. Over his last 19 innings, he's given up only one run. While he doesn't really have the stamina for long outings, a consistent pitcher who can reliably give you six strong innings is what this team needs right now so it's working well.

Paul Norris has made two starts since coming over from Toyama and has been... good? I guess? He hasn't given up many runs but his FIP is really high. Florida's had several of these pitchers so far this year who have gone down in flames. We're hoping he can figure it out as his K/9 numbers since coming Jacksonville have been pretty much non-existent.

The entire pitching staff was on point last sim with only 6 earned runs spread out over 51 innings. I think that they are in large part relying on my defense's range but there's a reason we like those groundball pitchers in Florida.

Ray Lortie is officially back on his lefty-smashing horse. Used primarily as LHP DH, Lortie started off the year abysmally slow -- so slow in fact that it led to an option down to AAA to work on some things and get his mojo back. Since coming back up from Chesapeake, he's looked revivified. His exemplary June was punctuated by a 1.424 OPS (SSS but I'll take it) and has continued his hot hand since the break. As a steady hand in the clubhouse as well, Lortie has insinuated himself as an important member of the F-Heads squad.

Not so neat...
Coming off his All Star MVP showing in New Orleans, Jack Hudson has gone 0-12. You hate to see it. With his monthly splits showing continuous improvement, I'm expecting this to be noise. He'll bounce back next week... I hope.

Miguel 'Ping' Yanez continued his season-long struggles into the second half with a dismal showing. He has started to lose playing time especially with the acquisition of Orlando Reyes.

My two problem players (Diaz and Gato) are now both in the bullpen with the acquisition of Norris. Both had some decent outings which I was encouraged about. With their salaries, I need them to be better than they are but I don't know if that's going to happen. At least Diaz has an opt-out in a few years.

So Reno has only seen two players hit 100 RBI in the last 19 seasons. Ramón Leach and Tony 'Whitey' Carmona.

As of today, Rowan 'Bleeder' Stuart is on pace for 98 RBI. I am rooting for him to reach the difficult (for Reno batters) milestone of 100 RBI!

Zephyrs wrote:So Reno has only seen two players hit 100 RBI in the last 19 seasons. Ramón Leach and Tony 'Whitey' Carmona.

As of today, Rowan 'Bleeder' Stuart is on pace for 98 RBI. I am rooting for him to reach the difficult (for Reno batters) milestone of 100 RBI!

I'm rooting for him too. He was always one of my favorite offensive prospects. My scout isn't always right about prospects because he is extremely focused on tools. So it's good to see someone he really liked pan out.

The best sim of the season, 6-0, has brought us back to .500 for the first time in a long while. Still no thoughts of getting anywhere near last season's Hartford total but at least we can harbor secret thoughts of finishing at .500 now.

Zephyrs wrote:So Reno has only seen two players hit 100 RBI in the last 19 seasons. Ramón Leach and Tony 'Whitey' Carmona.

As of today, Rowan 'Bleeder' Stuart is on pace for 98 RBI. I am rooting for him to reach the difficult (for Reno batters) milestone of 100 RBI!

As a fan of good nicknames, he deserves to reach 100.

it's getting late in the season, trade deadline is upon us. Time for KyT to step it up

Congrats to Chris Long on hit number 2000!

Sandgnats wrote:Congrats to Chris Long on hit number 2000!

And River Pope #1500 last sim... Forgot to mention that in my attempts to trade him...

Well, how about that! A week to feel Neat about!!

- Aurora went 5-1 against Duluth and Fargo - sweeping the Dinos, coupled with the Japanese contingent beating up on Bakersfield, putting Aurora back atop the Desert Hills by 2 and tying Fargo for the #2 spot in the SL - what is basically a race for home field in the first round. We're ignoring the Evil Evas, for now - that's a hopeless cause...
- The Borealis may not be hitting all that well (.231 for the week), but the pitching continues to look strong (.156 OAVG), allowing only 9 runs over the 6-game week. For the second straight week, the bullpen was lights out - last week they allowed a single run, this week they were scoreless with 2-hits in 10 IP... Super-Uber Neat...
- Manny Castro had a 5-hit game that saved his week, making his .467 deceptive... Not deceptive was Tomas Flore's 7-19, with 4 SB - Aurora hoping he's breaking a season long slump... Both Britt (2 HRs) and Carlisle (3 HRs) hit the 20-homer mark on the year, and though he's been struggling some of late, rookie Jose Torres (AKA Joe Torre) hit his 17th... So that's all Neat... Ricardo Zamora's 0-11 and .207 has the Aurora brass biting their lips over demoting him or not... Not So Neat...

A 5-1 week for the Longshoremen has brought us back to within a game of .500. The last time we were here, we promptly went 0-5 coming out of the All-Star Break. Since that losing streak we have gone 9-4. Indeed, a putrid 8-18 April now looks like a blip. Since the calendar turned to May, the Longshoremen have gone 44-35. As the trade deadline approaches, we find ourselves 9 back in the division and 7 back in the wild card. Given that our owner has set a goal for us to make he playoffs, I guess that means we should be sellers? Anyone want to grace us with an offensive upgrade at a position like 2B, 3B, CF, or corner outfield? bullpen arms are always appreciated, too.

Latest update on the Mushy Ray vs. Manuel Flores vs. Chris Acevez debate is that everyone gets to have their cake and eat it too!

Flores has been moved to the 7th inning role where he finally gave up his first earned run in a one batter outing where he threw a wild pitch, gave up a single (allowing a runner he inherited to score), and then gave way to a couple of bullpen mates, one of whom allowed the runner that Flores bequeathed to score. So a short but bad day at the office. On the season, he's thrown 7 innings in 5 appearances, given up 6 hits, 2 walks, and struck out 8. He has an ERA of 1.29, a FIP of 1.76, and a WHIP of 1.14.

Ray has been, well, cromulent as the #5 starter. Three starts, no quality starts, but no real stinkers. The Stevedores have gone 1-2 in his three starts, a 9-3 win, a 5-4 loss, and a 3-1 loss.

The big surprise is that thanks to a hopefully minor injury to ace Jose Santos , Chris Acevez will be making his PEBA debut after all. Acevez has continued to deal. On the season, he stands at 7-5, with a 2.04 ERA, a 2.50 FIP in 123.3 IP. He's allowed 82 hits, 26 walks, and struck out 107 batters. Lefties have "hit" 189/221/249 and righties 182/238/302.

Toyama continued our impressive record against top teams not name Shin Seiki. A 3-0 sweep of Crystal Lake and a 2-1 series win over Yuma has given us some hope that this team can actually be pretty decent once we add a few more pieces.

The Wind Dancers now have a winning record against Crystal Lake (10-6), Aurora (6-3), Canton (5-3), Fargo (4-2), and Yuma (5-4). Our combined record against the Rising Sun teams is (4-20) which is where the problem lies.