Neat Stuff, Post-Sim Thread: 2031, Season 25

[Zephyrs]

My home/road splits are quite remarkable.

At Home: 28-11 (.718 PCT)
On Road: 24-28 (.462 PCT)

[Borealis]

It has been an ugly stretch for the Borealis, but we aren't quite ready to mail in the season - though with 10 games to go before the deadline - who knows... We feel like the division race still has a long way to go, and having been the team with the 8 game lead in the past - only to see it evaporate, Aurora looks at their position as not insurmountable. It's notable that Reno has played 39, 1-run games (43% of their games), and they've won 25 of those (.641) - that trend could go sideways in a heartbeat...

The trade for Bill Jones, it is hoped, will rejuvenate the offense a bit - and for a team that one hit may have made the difference numerous times, that may help. Jones brings with him, along with his (hopefully) helpful bat, excellent defense, so Aurora doesn't have to sacrifice the defense to get more O...

Now if only Bartolo Esquivel can remember what it was like to pitch well...

[KenH]

What a wild season for the F-Heads. Some may consider it (for some reason still unknown to me) karmic in nature, it feels like our team is coming up short more than it should. Our 1 run games have been heavily skewed towards our opponents, but when it't not a 1-run game, we are winning the majority. When you hear that, you think "oh, this team is about to break out," and we still may. It's hard to say.

One thing that it has done is dampened my mood on selling. There was a moment there where I was hell-bent on trading away all my pieces to further build a stable of prospects... that's been softened by at least .500 play this month against many of the contenders. I'm not saying that I'm going to make the playoffs, but what I am saying is that we are in a good position to make a push in the final 2 months where my schedule looks much easier. (for context, I only face the IL behemoths (WV, KY, HAV) 8 games for the rest of the season). I am as interested as anyone to see how these games go, but it seems to me that the best trade I can make right now is to NOT make a trade... Regretting the Munoz trade where I got a good return but I could see that being the difference now between making the playoffs and having the F-Heads sit out October baseball for the second time in 21 seasons.

[Fishermen]

For a team that relies on O more than anything this season, I feel like I had been the victim of the "X blanks HAR" news a tad too much. Some happy sims and Featherhead just pull me back to the depressing reality.

[Borealis]

Neat is a 3-game sweep of the Evil Evas, with newly promoted closer, Mark Powers earning two saves!

Neat may also be the end result of an unusually busy trade deadline for the Borealis, which counted 5 trades (if you count the Bill Jones deal 10-days earlier). Ray will have more analysis in his blog, but at the end of the day, Aurora dealt Burns, Lagerveld, three minor leaguers and a ML FA who was already one foot out the door, and their 2nd, 3rd and 5th round picks and walked away with Jones, Cleve Douglas, Jesus Cantu, and top-flight catching prospect, Pedro de la Cruz, two 1st round picks and some cash - well, and 'Terror' comes home - but little will be done to make it a happy homecoming - and maybe he'll opt out on his contract. Even if he doesn't, Aurora will likely have plenty of budget space next season to simply eat the salary. Aurora also managed to hold on to their own #1, giving the Borealis three selections in the first round - likely all to be right around the same spot - let's call it between 18-25...

Though the combo of Cleves and Cantu had 1-inning in the three wins v. SS (Douglas, in game 3), the bullpen should be stronger with the twin disasters (Lagerveld and Imhoff, demoted to AAA) having been jettisoned. Aside from Jones, there never was a real second offensive option, and with starting pitching always demanding high value, Aurora stuck with their tried and true game plan - improve the 'pen for the stretch drive. Now if only Bakersfield and Reno would cooperate...

[KenH]

Well, that was an exciting sim.

I am more sure that my decision to not sell any more was the right call. It was a pretty wild week.

Our Featherheads made the most of their home stand scoring 56 runs while only giving up 16. The fact that we lost one of those games seems to be a microcosm of our season. We outscored our opponents by 40 runs yet still managed to lose a game... and the game we ended up losing, we lost 0-1 in 10 innings.

Neat:
Our starters continue to look dominant. Even our "weak link" in Andy Crews looks pretty awesome. Crews has not let his weird DFA not slow him down. He's rebounded from what was probably the worst month of his professional career (6.44 ERA) and has put up a very solid July and first start in August in what is possibly the best stretch of his professional career... I don't understand baseball but I'm glad the gods have been smiling on us. We enter August with not only a dominant rotation but a bolstered bullpen with Orlando Rodriguez who I really like in short stints. He has 4 plus pitches but piss poor control, so we'll have to monitor his appearances closely. The rest of our bullpen has been solid. I'm very happy with all of my arms right now which is a new feeling.

Obviously our offense has been showing signs of life which has been great. I have to say that I'm pleasantly surprised at the unexpected resurgence of Alfredo "Pasta" Hinojosa (he doesn't have an official nickname, but that's what I call him). Another one of those players who I DFA'd and didn't expect to keep, Hinojosa has come back after the allstar break on fire. He hit .347 in August and is already off to a fast start in August.

Another recent development is Scott Phillips stepping in nicely into a starting role at catcher. Phillips was a Rule 5 guy last year picked up from Kentucky to spell Danny Burke when his old knees would go out. Phillips was a guy who we were happy to get, but wasn't supposed to be much more than the 26th man who'd pick up a few at bats. He played well in that role, but at the start of the season Phillips found himself back in AAA where he decimated the competition, clearly showing he was ready for a bigger challenge. With young Roberto Ortega struggling, it made sense to swap the two, and we haven't really looked back since. Phillips has done a great job along side his co-catcher Jimenez for most of the season.

Not so Neat:
Roberto Ortega is a constant struggle for me. I really like the kid, and I think he will be good, but I wanted him to be hitting this year. It just hasn't really happened for him yet so far, but there are reasons to be optimistic: he had a great June hitting .377/.387/.574, but he needs to extend that over a longer period of time for me to feel like he's ready. At this point, the kid's 24 so he's going to have to start showing some growth soon to avoid the dreaded "AAAA" designation. I think he can do it and especially with his defensive prowess, he's worth the wait.

[Wind Dancers]

After a soon to be 19-year pro career, SP Shinobu Takeuchi is hanging up his glove. The Toyama legend has been spending this season in AAA angry while I've been pressuring him to finally retire and coach for us. He was drafted 1st overall by the Cliff Hangers way back in 2013 and has gone on to become are best (38.3 WAR) and winningest (125) pitcher in org history. Injuries and the regression from those injuries have been hampering him since 2026 but he actually became a decent reliever for a few seasons including his first and only PEBA all-star appearance in 2028. He finishes his Toyama and pro career with the following:

BBG All-star x3
PEBA All-star x1
BBG Shinjinshou x1
BBG Sawanura Award x2

Toyama All-time List:
3.47 ERA (3rd)
125 Wins (1st)
.604 Winning Percentage (1st)
38.3 WAR (1st)
364 Games Pitched (4th; Highest SP)
288 Games Started (1st)
11 CGs (Tied 4th)
4 Shutouts (4th)
1887 Innings Pitched (2nd)
1510 K's (2nd)

[Dinosaurs]

Pretty good stretch recently for the Dinosaurs, though dropping two out of three to Kalamazoo in the last sim was a bummer, but overall a three game lead in the Great Lakes Division.

The oft injured Pat Watson has only 235 plate appearances in 61 games, but is leading the team in WAR regardless (4.0) with a 192 OPS+, 26 SB.
1B Gustavo Lopez has been a surprising bust thus far this season, coming off 8.3 WAR in the past two seasons to only being worth 0.7 WAR with a 95 OPS+ this season. Getting paid $15.4 this season and $18.4 next season, maybe he's comfortable mailing it in.

Down in the minors, the Dinosaurs 2028 1st round pick, SP Dave Dixon (AAA) was recently promoted to the Sioux Falls Lakota and into their starting rotation. He's been stellar in five starts going 2-1 with a 1.99 ERA (165 ERA+) and 2.29 FIP (-69 FIP-). He's probably doesn't make the leap to the majors until next season, but he's put himself in position for a spot in September when rosters expand.

[Alleghenies]

The one position I completely fell flat on this season is my backup catcher. I am going to probably be on my 5th different one starting this next sim.

Also my supplemental pick in round 1 has been lights out in SA. He is 10-1 and in has only allowed 1 run (last start, unearned) since 7/24. His ERA is 1.46. I'd send him to A, but I have no room in rotation for him.

Also a rumor that Bob Vollmer will be placed on 40 man roster and called up this week to be playoff eligible.

[Fishermen]

I traded for Clotilde Casco who had bad ERA for two years(or one year and a half if we are being precise), hoping he might provide some value to me in future to worth the gamble of a trade. He started his HAR career 3-0 in 4 games and had been excellent so far. I am liking him(as of now, I might hate him later)! I think San Juan was sweeping me 6-0 before the recent series and he got me the only win I got vs SJ.

[Arroyos]

Yuma is at a crisis this week. The owner has traveled to Camarillo to visit the GM (although he hasn't found him yet in the hospital), while a woman is running the ball club in his absence. She insisted owner Slummings speak face2face with GM Mayberry before officially retiring the old man and appointing her as the new Arroyo GM. But Slummings has resisted speaking to the looney bird in the funny farm. Something's gotta happen. Check it out on the PEBA homepage.

[KenH]

I made a cumulative war ranking going into the last few sims of the season. Pretty interesting "broad stroke" sort of information here to those of you who find this sort of thing interesting.

[Arroyos]

Obviously, Yuma is playing in a different league. Little League?

[Lions]

I'd love to see the chart with percentage contributions broken out. Manchester, still struggling as an expansion team, is getting all their positive contributions from the offense. I'm a bit surprised to see my offense has contributed more than my pitching, as I consider my team to be much stronger on the mound.

[KenH]

I'd love to see the chart with percentage contributions broken out. Manchester, still struggling as an expansion team, is getting all their positive contributions from the offense. I'm a bit surprised to see my offense has contributed more than my pitching, as I consider my team to be much stronger on the mound.

I had a similar surprise that my oWAR was higher than my dWAR. For me, it comes down to my bullpen who has been middling at best. It's important to note that very few teams have higher pitching WAR which is, I suppose, unsurprising. Hitters have more chances to be valuable than pitchers and bad outings are much less harmful.

Manchester and Kalamazoo are my two favorite teams. Both have an over 13 WAR swing between their oWAR and dWAR which is pretty wild. Yuma has an 11 WAR differential but... you know...