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

[KenH]

NEAT:
Going into the last week of the season, I am beyond thrilled with my pitching staff. I don't know an easy way to check, but a rotation with a cumulative 2.76 ERA feels to be somewhat historic? (Someone please correct me if I'm wrong). And it's not like they haven't been putting in their innings -- our rotation has wracked up 1006 innings so far, significantly more than the next closest team (Neo Tokyo's 974). The best part is I can basically bring back the entire staff next year.

Luppe van Dam has truly become the ace that we expected him to be. He's about to start getting very expensive, but he's worth darn near every penny. An ERA under 2.00 and a k/9 over 9 which is... just incredible. To me, he has the inside track to winning his first of hopefully many golden arm awards.

Yosuke Morimoto has had a great rookie campaign, second on the team in WAR at 3.4 (more on that in a second) and socking 23 homeruns. You wouldn't say these are all-star numbers because they aren't -- not yet -- but for a rookie they're quite strong and enough to be considered in the running for the IL Wunderkind. Especially as we get more bats around him, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see those numbers get even better. The main concern with him is his penchant for grounding into double plays -- especially for someone in the middle of the lineup, he needs to find a way to not ground into so many. We'll see. Despite this, Morimoto has to be in the conversation for IL Wunderkind. He leads all IL rookies in OPS and WAR and has clearly been the most productive rookie besides Kalamazoo's Claudio Perez.

My other wunderkind contender is Mike Thompson who is only a step behind Morimoto, but he gets it done differently. Thompson has been a terrific defender out in center for us this year -- easily the best defensive CF I've had during my tenure as helming the F-Heads. Definitely a glove first player, his offense hasn't been bad by any stretch and there's some reason to think he may even improve over time. Thompson put up great numbers in AAA and there's no reason to not expect those numbers to be attained in PEBA at some point int he future. All-in-all, Thompson has been having a sneakily productive year and has been one of our more consistent bats since May. Nothing that's going to "wow" you, but a consistent approach without a lot of fluctuation month-to-month spells a productive member of the team -- especially when he plays premium defense. He's on a player option year and who knows? Maybe he opts out after such a strong second half. It would be surprising, but we've seen players do crazier things.

Finally, Thomas Woods has been amazing since coming over in the big Munoz deal near the deadline. What can you say about the guy? By far the best hitter on the team since July, Woods has been a cornerstone of our team since that time. He even got DFA'd, but after not getting picked up, he's done nothing but produce. He's definitely a guy that I would prefer at DH if possible, but he's been forcing my hand and making me put him out in the field.

NOT SO NEAT:
There's probably a lot of research that has to be done on this season to suss out what exactly went wrong here. I think the primary thing that happened is not enough homers? That's just something that stands out right away. We have a fair amount of doubles and triples, but we aren't getting windfalls by depositing balls into the stands. We need more of that. I think the Munoz trade was very damaging to our team and, if I could do it over, I may. Munoz was having one of his best years of his career and he kept it up in Kal. I don't have all the answers to this season yet, but maybe one day I can wrap my head around this.

The other side of the pitching coin is our bullpen. Parts of our bullpen have been great -- the play of Alonso Munoz and Randy Zimmerman have been especially strong, but beyond that, we've had success with David Lopez and our other trade acquisition Orlando Rodriguez. Parts of our bullpen though have been nothing but trouble -- and that may also be a key factor in us discovering what our ridiculous rDiff was caused by. Antonio Perez didn't have the breakout rookie campaign we were hoping for, pitching to a 4.18 FIP, and once-beloved Forrest Major pitched to an atrocious 6.60 FIP in 30+ innings. Major may have been the factor here as he kept being used even though he was very ineffective. I think this season boils down to whenever he got the ball, we lost. I blame Forrest Major, but moreso I blame myself. I let his longtime affiliation with our franchise to not let me cut him sooner in the season and as such he had ample chances to ruin games.

We don't have all the answers to this season yet, but if anything I think it will be a good lesson as I look back at what happened and how to avoid it in the future. Weird season. Happy its over. Bring on 2032.

[Wind Dancers]

Well this season was a disappointing one for Toyama. Not bad enough to get a protected pick in the draft, but not good enough to really challenge for a wildcard, if only we picked it up earlier than September.

Neat:

DH John Pulifer came into his own late this season. The 23 year old played just 19 games last year as a rule 5 pick and was slotted into the DH role this year, possibly too ealy at such a young age. After a slow start and some spotty months along the way, Pulsifer has discovered how to hit the long ball as well as drive in runs. If he get's his power anywhere close to its potential, he could anchor my lineup.

SP Zenko Okada had an incredible rookie season quickly placing him into consideration as our ace. Even more important, he stayed hethy all season, a first since drafting him in 2028. Toyama hasn't had a consistent #1 since Clayton Lewis left and it's shown.

The 2nd wave of young talent is on the way next season. Liu, Vasquez, Okada, and Alejandrez were the first set of young players that broke into the PEBA and have done well. Next season, Ch'oe, Hernandez, Newton, Harada and maybe at some point Lochhead and Maeda will all have a shot.

Not so Neat:

Too many good players. A problem arrises having both NEwton and Alejandrez play catcher when they have the talent to both be in the lineup at all times. That leaves the option of trading one of Newton/Alejandrez/Gandarilla/Pulsifer for equal value in another area. But I've been thinking about what to do all season and am no closer to a decision.

Scoriing Runs. Toyama has the best OBP in the SL as well as the 2nd highest BA. But we can't drive those runs in and we can't hit the ball over the fence. Missing out on a protected pick means we can't delve for a superstar in FA without losing something. Maybe the best solution is trading one of the above mentioned players for a power bat.

[Dinosaurs]

Seems like the Great Lakes division has had some good division races that come down to the last week of the season in the past few years. Happy to see Kalamazoo in it and with six games left, although they have the tougher schedule, I am still pretty scared of my Dinos tanking against Aurora, who have had our number historically in the first three games of the next sim.

IDK - the past few years feels like the series has leaned Fargo's way...

That may be,,, I've got the decade before that burned in my mind though and it wasn't pretty.