Neat Stuff, Post-Sim Thread: 2033, Season 27

[Zephyrs]

Neat: My offense is warming up and is currently ranked 5th in runs scored. On the pitching side, Kenny Ashley has been as advertised and shows little sign of decline from age. Nick Shaw continues to overperform the scouts projections and Jl-Chol Yun is on pace to notch 43 saves.

No neat: Tom "We gave up a 1st round comp pick for this sh*!" Patton has a .598 OPS. Vincent Powel has a .543 OPS. And Adrian Fuentes has a .621 OPS. I certainly hope these guys return to something close to their career averages soon.

[Leones]

An interesting week for Havana. A 16(!) inning tussle against the Trendsetters. The youngsters carry the day. Emerging star 20 yo LF Juan Hernandez hits a solo bomb in the bottom of nonth to send it to extra frames. 24 yo RP Volmer Buscher steps in to cover 5 innings of extras giving up 1 hit in 56 pitches earning player of the game honors. Ogre, at the advanced age of 26, yo scores the winning run on a wild pitch.

Four days later its a 12 inning game against division rivals Amsterdam. This time its Ogre mashing a doube to drive in the game winning run.

Both games featured rain delays of about a quarter hour.

[Borealis]

Two months into the 2033 season, an amazing thing is happening in Aurora, where the back-end of the bullpen has been dominated by a series of rookies:

- Ryan Tate: Long the darling of OSA had 107 career games started in the minors between his time in Florida and Aurora with a 3.48 ERA - with out a single relief appearance. After 5 starts in September for Aurora, Ryan began 2033 in the bullpen, and after a solid start, he was thrust into the closer role - more by necessity than anything else - since then, he is 16 for 16 on saves - leading the SL in saves, and a 1.26 ERA. He has struck out 20 in 28.2 IP and walked only 2, for a 0.63 WHIP

- Pedro Morales: Like Tate, Morales passed through the Aurora system as a starter with success, but was placed in the 'pen to begin 2033. Pedro's success in relief has him pitching out of the main set-up role, and has a 1.16 ERA over 15 appearances and 23.1 IP. He has 29 K and & BB over those innings (a 0.69 WHIP), and he's allowed only 1 of 11 inherited runners to score.

- Orinosuke Fujii: A third carer starter in the minors - turned reliever, Fujii missed a 10 day stretch with a sore elbow - more out of precaution on Aurora's part. In relief this season he's appeared in 12-games and has a 3.06 ERA over 17.2 IP, with 17 K and 10 BB - but if you remove his first start back - a 2/3 inning outing v. Toyama in which he allowed 3-runs on 2 HR, and his ERA drops to 1.58. He does have two of Aurora's three blown saves (Mark Powers).

A fourth rookie, Yellel 'Hyena' Twia, who missed most of the year thus far, has had four appearances and in 6 IP, he's allowed a single run (on a HR). He has 6 K and 2 BB.

Speaking of rookies, OF Gabriel Rodriguez, an early season call-up who now has 23-games under his belt, is hitting.307 and has 3 HR. He's been perfect, defensively...

[Denny]

It's somewhat minor, but something Neat in Palm Springs is our recent acquisition of Kyle Tatham. He was a guy I had been coveting since his time in Yuma, so the fact we were able to get him from Niihama-Shi for a relatively cheap price, and then extend him for a relatively small salary (when we made him the offer and asked for a response he said "I couldn't imagine not being in Palm Springs" or some such thing, lol. Dude, you've been here for a week! ), has made me really happy.

Oh, and by the way he's actually been pitching decently in the PS rotation too! Hopefully that means one less piece we need to worry about over the next couple years.

[Borealis]

At the risk of mucking things up, I believe it was Dan who first pointed this out, but up to this point, Aurora is 4-0 in extra innings and 15-1 in 1-run games - that's what you get when you hit a SL 2nd best .258 but are 11th in runs scored and last in HR (including a big fat goose egg in the last week). That's Neat...??

Neater is Ryan Tate grabbing the closer bull by the horns and running with it - 17-17, despite the AI's attempts to kill him this past week...

In-season newcomers Dean Walden (.307, 10-2B and 4 HR in his 46 games) and Scott Wiggins (.292 with 3-2B in his 9-games) have been doing the job. Oddly, Wiggins was brought in for his success v. LHP (he was hitting .395 for NII in those ABs and .091 v. RHP), but for Aurora he's hitting .308 v. RHP and .273 v. LHP... go figure, but Neat all-around...

[Borealis]

Into the first week of July, and the All-Star Game looming, the Real Neat thing in Aurora is the back end of the bullpen. Four rookies: Ryan Tate, Yellel Twia, Orinosuke Fujii and Pedro Morales are cooking!

Ryan Tate, who by total chance took on the close role and is 20-20 on saves, and has a 1.94 ERA - only 2 of the 9 runs he's allowed in the closer role have come in save situations.

Pedro Morales, currently in the 8th-inning set-up role, has 42 K and only 11 BB in 33.2 IP - over 23 appearances. His ERA is 1.07 with just 4-runs allowed.

'Hyena', who missed some time with an injury, has appeared in 13 games, with 19.2 IP. He's got 19 K, 8 BB and allowed 2-runs for a 0.92 ERA.

Fujii has the highest ERA of the bunch - 2.27. He's struck out 37 in 31.2 IP, though he's struggles some with his control, giving up 14 free passes. His ERA reflects a 3-run, 2 HR 2/3 inning outing against Toyama - which if eliminated, drops his ERA to 1.45.

[KenH]

After months of struggling, Vito van Wondel is starting to figure it out. Last week, he hit .500 and had an SLG of .818. This may have been his first good week of the year... it happened to come right when word came that we were considering making a move for a placeholder 1B. Keep going, young Vito! You're not out of the woods yet!

[Denny]

Designated Boat Anchor--er, "Hitter"--Mike Clarke has played likely his last game as a Codger, as he is out for the rest of the season with a broken hand.

I said his deal would look bad by its last year at the time he signed it, but in fact it did so quite a bit earlier than that, with injuries already beginning to rob him of his legendary ability to make contact in 2031; it's been all downhill since then. Needless to say his 2034 option will be bought out by the club.

Still, he played a big part in the Codgers' magical 2030 run to their first ever Desert Hills Division title, and for that Palm Springs fans will be forever grateful.

[Borealis]

A Neat and Not So Neat check-in on a few Borealis happenings:

- Aurora made quite the draft capital investment at the trade deadline - shipping out their top four picks (getting a high 4th in return) for bullpen depth and infield help: Warren Manning has made one appearance in his two weeks with the club - a 3-innings stint in which he allowed a pair of hits and a pair of walks - while striking out 4. Hard to draw a conclusion there... Randy Love was 6-22 in his first 6-games and contributed a run and 2 RBI - and an errors at 3B... Adrian Fuentes, who will mostly get time as DH v LHP (though he will get a few starts sprinkled in at 3B v RHP), was 0-8 in his first week - 2 GS, with an RBI...

- Brought in after the draft to provide power - and he hasn't disappointed, Alex Bothwell has 8 HR, 7-2B, 30 RBI, and is hitting .282 in 43 games as Aurora's DH (now against RHP primarily, where he's hitting .317). Thanks to 16 BB, his OBP is .346, while his 40 K in 163 AB is right on par with his career strikeout rate over the past 7-seasons. As the offensive team with the fewest strikeouts, this team is made to absorb the extra K's...

- Despite hitting .337 against LHP, Ed Madore has been shipped to AAA as Gabe McIntyre has been recalled from his rehab assignment at Thornton after hitting in all 15-games in the current rehab assignment - and 11-21 in the past week. There's been no power, but with his time at rehab waning, it seemed like it was the time to move him up. McIntyre will start at his familiar 2B - potentially playing some back-up and defensive switch work at 1B. The biggest driver may have been Gabe's excellent defensive skills - an area Madore has struggled with...

- Lost in the flow of the trade deadline's approach, three of Aurora's top prospects found themselves on the DL - all with hand issues: OF Tony Munoz fractured a finger on the eve of the deadline, and was scheduled to miss 6-weeks. After hitting .329 at SLRC, he had just been promoted to Gatineau, where he was 4-13... OF Angel Silva tore a ligament in his thumb and was expected to miss 4-weeks. After 14-games at SLRC, where he hit .321, he was promoted to Gatineau, where he's hit .291 on 71-games for the Balloonists - a quick start, followed by a slump, but he was on the rise again before the injury... 2B Yen-ti Yi, was expected to miss 5-weeks after spraining his wrist. He has spent the year at SLRC and is hitting .268 - showing some surprising power with 7 HR...

- Aurora's Youth Parade, that began two-seasons ago with the promotion of Cluett (9-3, 2.22), got moving last year with Clark (12-4, 1.99) and Munoz (.342, 9 HR, 42 RBI), and is in full swing with G-Rod (.317, 8 HR, 34 RBI) and the Bullpen Quartet of Tate (1-1, 23 S, 2.20), Twia (3-2, 8 S, 0.79), Morales (3-1, 2.04) and Fujii (5-1, 2.27) - and throw-in de Kook (1-2, 2.35) if you like. With numbers like that in the 'pen, it's no wonder when Aurora needed an extra roster spot for a position player (Fuentes), they sent down the previously highly successful Mark Powers (7-1, but a 4.33 ERA with 2 BS and 45% of inherited runners scoring). Power's demotion is temporary, as a roster opening (injury?) or the September 1 expansion, will bring him back down the freeway from Thornton.

[Zephyrs]

Reno Rookie Alexander 'Mustache' Bawden has hit amazingly well at every level and all but forced the team to promote him to the PEBA level. In his first week, he did not disappoint. I am certain that his 1.415 OPS will decline but the kid really does impress.

[Borealis]

Not the first 'Mustache' in Reno history...

[Zephyrs]

Not the first 'Mustache' in Reno history...

http://pebabaseball.com/reports/news/ht ... _4172.html

At least Michael had a mustache.

[Borealis]

What was Neat this past sim was the efforts of Stewart Aurndale, Deam Walden and Shane Willis in the absence of G-Rod. They combined for a 24-62 (.387) week as Aurora swept a very game Okinawa club and took 2 of 3 from Crystal Lake (The normally reliable 'Gnats D killed them in the series).

Also Neat was Brian Clark throwing a complete game, 5-hitter against the 'Gnats - it was 'Slug's first career complete game, as he struck out 6 and walked none - on 89 pitches!

Perhaps the highlight moment of the week was the replay of Game 1 against Okinawa, when in the 6th inning Alex Bothwell crushed one up near the Coke Bottle at Northern Lights Park - and he got credited with an inside the park homer! The best part, after he was back into the dugout and sitting with Adrian Fuentes, admiring the shot, the throw finally made it home - a high, looping shot from under the bleachers...

Yellel Twia has settled into the closer role that Ryan Tate lost - despite 23 saves, his recent work has been shaky. 'Hyena' picked up two more saves this week for 15 total. He is 5-3 with a 0.91 ERA in 38 appearances. Over 49.1 IP he has 50 K and 17 BB, allowing just 28 H...

[Denny]

I am spamming a bunch of threads today but something particularly neat for Palm Springs is finally being able to cut loose some of the aging big-contract guys who are no longer producing for us....so we'll be able to hand out NEW ill-advised big contracts for next season and beyond!

[Borealis]

....so we'll be able to hand out NEW ill-advised big contracts for next season and beyond!