The Planetary Extreme Baseball Alliance

Pedro Bermudez went 13 for 23 this week. raising his average up from .250 to .280

Not so neat:
SP Soutar gave up 12 homers is 217 IP last year. This year 13 homers in 79 IP.
SP Jiminez gave up 3 homers in 208 IP last year. This year 7 homers in 85 IP

So, I wonder if Coqui 1st round pick Juan Borges is ready to move up to full season A ball? He only hit 9 HR in his first 6 games at short season A Homer. . .

CF Guang 'Strider' Liu with 11 steals this past sim, 3 in a game against Hartford, 4 in a game against Havana. So far Strider has been worth the investment as we have our CF and lead off man locked down.

Neat:

Rookie Santiago Aranda had a big first week of his second call-up. He went 5-8 with 1 2B, 2 HR, and 3 BB to yield 7 RBI, 3 R and a .625/.667/1.500 slash. That's good for a 491 OPS+.

Rookie league slugging experts Oscar Simons and Pedro Hernandez, freakishly strong 19-year-olds, each opened the season with 7 HRs in the first week. On pace for about 75 HRs each, which would shatter the record of 55 HRs (set by Hernandez last year).

21-year-old David Walker, a 5th round selection in '34, has opened the SSA season by going 5-0 with a 0.86 ERA.


Not so neat:

Even after being relieved of same-handed-duties, former #1 overall pick John MacVurich continues to struggle. He reached base once in 14 PAs.

Reliever Ben McLaughlin, whose contract was purchased and escalated to ML level after scorching AAA pitching all season (1.47 ERA, 0.78 WHIP, 1.7 WAR), proceeded to get annihilated by the red-hot Toyoma lineup, giving up 4 hits and 3 ER in as he struggled to retire 4 batters.

Shohei "Sub-Zero" Murakami, who earned 4.7 WAR and posted a 2.92 ERA in his rookie year, is still struggling to find his place he tore his rotator cuff in 2035. Last season, he lost his spot in the rotation to Fernando Valdez, and this season was trying to find a groove in the bullpen in limited opportunities. With Valdez down for the season, and veteran Jerome Evans struggling, Murakami was allowed to start again. Unfortunately, the opportunity came against Toyoma, and although he managed the first few frames well, the wheels came off in the 4th inning, as he gave up a lead-off walk, 2R HR, a pair of 2Bs, and a single before being relieved. He will be given at least one more start next week at Madison to see if he can salvage this chance to stay in the rotation.

Neat is bouncing back after losing 2 of 3 to Reno at Washoe (and 2 of 3 to CL at NLP in a real shellacking), and sweeping Reno on The Front Range - coupled with a rough week by Tempe, to up the lead in the Desert Hills into double digits. Amongst the Neat and Not So stories:

- Masamichi Daikawa, who was at Short A last season and a strong spring had him open the year at AAA, is hitting .315 for Aurora over 32-games - 9-2B, 3-3B, and only 7 RBI, but hitting at the bottom of the lineup would naturally reduce the RBI chances - he has scored 18 R while being on base 37 times - not a bad ratio... Neat!
- Neat is also rookie Victorio 'Lanza' Guerra who continues to improve and is 8-0 (could have been 9-0 save a bullpen implosion) with a 2.71 ERA. He's still struggling with the walks, but he has 13 K in 12 IP last sim and is averaging 7.6K/9 - his ERA is 5th best in the SL and his wins are second best (behind teammate Henry Cluett's 9) - and 2nd best to Madison's Seong-chin Kim for rookie pitchers in the SL... Neat-O!!
- Not So Neat? I present Ruby Howard, who went into this sim with a 2.70 ERA with only 5 runs allowed over the season - he allowed 10 R on 9 H and 3 BB in just 1.1 IP... YUCK... upping the ERA to 7.00...
- One last rookie who has stepped into a big role - Martin Gutierrez, who in 7 appearances with the Borealis this year has a 1.54 ERA, 10 K and 4 BB in 11.2 IP - keeping the ball in the park - Neat-a-roni!!!

Now that the draft has settled, signings have finished, time to turn our attention to the IC for possible promotions and there are two happening this week:

- 3B Aurelio Archuleta - 'Archie' will be 18 come the All-Star break and he looks to be a well-rounded hitter who'll make good contact and routinely put the ball into play. He's not a speedy guy, but by the time he makes it to Aurora, his decent power to the gaps should translate into a lot of doubles. He can play first or third (and will focus on third), but his defense will need quite a bit of work.

- SP Martin Ramos - Martin will turn 18 this next sim - a 4th of July baby, possessing a three pitch repertoire that includes a potentially strong slider/circle change combo and an average looking cutter. His promotion to Rookie ball gives a solid-5 in their rotation with 2036 draftees Leo Gerber and Dae-hyun Pak and 2037 draftees Ohayashi and Jack McRae.

- Aurora's #1 pick this year, Hideki Nishikawa got his first week of play at Mokule'ia ands 5-26 - Not So Neat, but he did have a double and triple and 3 RBI in his six games...

- #2 pick, Lyndon Marshland has been pitching the closer role for Montserrat and has 5 saves in 5 games and has yet to allow a run, 7K and 2 BB in 4.2 IP - with no hits allowed - Neat!

- The aforementioned McRae is 2-0 in two starts with a 1.8 ERA - 3 H, 5 BB and 14 K in 10 IP - that's something for a young arm who likely has a three year stint in the Paradise League...

Neat: Malts 7th rounder Brett Purkis was one hit away from a perfect game against the Mighty Moose in Short-A last sim. He threw just 105 pitches while striking out 12, walking zero, and giving up just one hit. So far this year, he's off to a 5-0 start.

Not-So-Neat: Malts AAA CF Aaron Lawrence broke his elbow on the basepaths and is now out for the rest of the year. We're going to have to re-shuffle the minors now.

June 11th 5-4 win vs S.J was the 3rd time in less than a month that Kentucky has scored 3 runs in the bottom half of the 9th for a walk off 1 run win.

June 15 was a 9-8 win over Scottish capped by a 2 out Honma single.
June 19 was a 8-7 win over N.O capped by a 2 out - 3 run homer by Kowalski (On April 16th we scored 2 in the bottom off the ninth to also beat NO by 1 run)
June 11 was a 5-4 win over S.J - finished off by a 3 run homer by Shu-de Mu

Eariier in the year we scored 3 in the top half of 15th to beat Arlington 6-5 and 3 in the top half of the 9th to beat Gloucester 5-4.

I don't think we can count on many more of these wins :)

In his first start in over 3 seasons, Kunisada Yasuda pitched a complete game shutout vs NO

Saw a funny one in Middle Bass last night where RP Tom Dodd came in, threw one pitch to get the out, and ended up as the winning pitcher.

My goodness, the August 1st game vs the Akira was a spectacle. Angel Franco was hit by pitch three times. Five Ghosts were struck. No Akira received retaliation, perhaps because Stowe and Fernandez each hit a grand slam.

Aguilar loving life as a member of the Shisa so far...

.378\.433\.593 with a 1.026 OPS and 15 SBs!

- As I mentioned on slack Santos had 7RBI in the first inning vs Manchester - he was pulled after 3 at bats and ended with 7 RBI. The next day he had 5 RBIs giving him 12 over a 2 game span.

- At 32 years old Shu-de Mu set career highs in batting average (.310), WAR (6.8 ) and homers (31). His 64 SBs were 2nd best in his career.

- Closer Matt Brown had over 40 saves for the 5th time in his career. He his 7th all time with 374 total.