Neat Stuff, Post-Sim Thread: 2038, Season 32

[Ghosts]

Neat: 6-0 sim!

Not so neat: Toyoma lead still 6 games.

[Ghosts]

Neat: Nothing matters.

Not so neat: Toyoma lead is... anyone? 6.5 games.

[Lions]

Pedro Rodriguez got his 2500th hit on 8/25 vs. Scottish. It was an 11th inning single, and he would go on to score the winning run due to a 2-run home run by Tomomi Harada. For Harada, that was his 177th career hit.

[Borealis]

Neat? A shortened 5-game week that had Aurora sweep Reno and take two from the Codgers - a 5-0 week that pushed the Zephyrs back to 8-games out. Very Neat Indeed!

A 'year' ago, September 1, 2037, Ray D. Enzé wrote in his blog entitled 'Collapse Complete':

So where does Aurora go from here, 25-29 for July and August... Perhaps it's what we've harped on for years - and the club seemingly doesn't address: a lack of power requires too many hits in an inning to make impactful rallies. Or pitchers are walking more and giving up more homers

Well, with 4-games left in August, Aurora is 33-17, and on the year they've hit 125 HR - already 36 HR better than last year. Where did those 36-HR come from? Well, Rocky Kowalski has delivered beyond wildest dreams - hitting .309, on pace to finish above .300 for the first time, and his 25 HR are on pace to at least challenge his career high of 37 (next best? 32). With 75 RBI, maybe he'll make it to 100 (which he's done three-times, and almost a fourth last year) - but hitting in the 2-hole most of the year does make it challenging from the RBI front.

Pedro Macias has only been in town for 27 games, but already has 8 HR and 22 RBI. His 27 K in as many games is distressing - but he surpassed that figure twice in two full seasons and has 80 thus far. Aurora knew they were getting in bed with the K-Devil, but he has provided what they needed - power and a bat hitting for average. Maybe just a hint of the Evil Eva strategy: HR and K be damned - is what they've needed.

And there is 33 of the 35 HR - add in Silva and Aleman are on pace for their career best (2 shy), Munoz is one shy of his best (his rookie campaign), and Lan-qing has tripled his career best and has 9, and Aurora is looking at one of their best power years in PEBA history. Go figure.

For the record, after hitting .211 with 7 HR in 289 AB, David Simmons has upped his game in Manchester - not a surprise, with a .279 average and another 7 HR in 86 AB - numbers that would have kept him in Aurora. Also as expected, Simmons holds a slight edge defensively...

Addressing the other half of Ray's 2037 equation, Aurora has given up the 2nd fewest homers and the 6th most walks - a more palatable combination that has the team allowing the fewest runs in the SL - with essentially the exact same pitching staff, except rookie SP Jung-hyun Yi, who is 11-2 in 19 GS and has allowed 10 HR and is averaging just shy of 3 BB per 9. I guess that makes up for sophomore SP Victorio Guerra - who has seen his HR/9 more than double and his BB/9 go up and K/9 go down... that last part? Not So Neat...

[Apollos]

In a year full of not-so-neat, one very neat thing has been the emergence of 2033 10th round pick Ernest Smith as a legitimate top of the rotation option. After toiling in obscurity as a RP for a couple years, Smith began improving slowly a couple seasons ago before making a significant break out this year. The Apollos are flush with good pitching options as a result. The offense otoh….

[Thoroughbreds]

Neat: I brought up my best minor leaguer OF Sergej Van Den Abel at the last second for this Sim since I had a couple hitters suspended.
HIs first game was against Florida.
His first hit in the PEBA was a home run. He ended up going 2 for 4 with a home run and 3 RBI in a 4-0 win vs Florida.

Neat: Soutar pitched a complete game 4-hitter in that same game to extend his winning streak to 14 consecutive games and move his win total to 19.

[Borealis]

Speaking of call-ups and Neat play, with 'Litterbug' Arundale on the DL it was Hideki Nishikawa who got the call - who had already been pushed into 'stress test mode' at AAA, passing easily. He is 16-44 in 13-games, and has 3 HR. He also has 11 BB and just 2 K for a .491 OBP, and a 1.059 OPS.

[Underground]

Neat: With roster expansion, Noel Dulihanty arrives at the big club and has likely played his last AAA game ever. His first (and last) AAA season thus concludes with 25 HR, 81 RBI, 57 stolen bases, and a 4.8 WAR. It remains to be seen if he can get on base enough at the PEBA level to really thrive there or if he's destined to be a platoon bat and pinch runner...but the man has stolen 130 bases since the start of the 2037 season so one way or another I'd like him on the basepaths for London.

Neat: Rookie Eichiro Nakashima hit 4 home runs this sim, which made him the 5th member of the team this year to hit for 20+ home runs. There is an outside chance Miguel Fernandez (16) could get there as well, but even without him this is a surge in power hitting we have not reliably seen in London in my tenure. On the topic of the long ball, CLOGGER has a career high 45 and counting this year and is within striking distance of the league lead in that category.

Neat: Despite a pedestrian 2-2 sim (including narrowly avoiding a 4 game sweep in Gloucester) my lead of the division grew to 6 games due to Amsterdam's winless sim.

Weird: Despite their runs scored, batting average, and OBP all ranking 20th or worse my rookie team is somehow 41-30 and second in their division? No shot at taking over Auckland in first place but it's been quite a strange season to watch for the Croc Hunters. Their starting pitching is second best in rookie ball thanks in large part to two 2038 2nd round draft picks; Ross Malloch (9-2, 1.84 ERA, 228 ERA+) and Kiyohisa Kichida (7-2, 2.14 ERA, 195 ERA+)

[Codgers]

Not so neat - the Codgers have been officially eliminated from the playoffs for the 25th time in 32 PEBA seasons.

[Underground]

Neat: CLOGGER hits a bunch of home runs this week to reach 50 for the season - and to at least temporarily take over the league lead. The single season record is statistically within reach with another week or two like this. Having celebrated his 35th birthday just 8 days ago he seems determined to prove he is only getting stronger with age.

Neat: I previously discussed my callup of Noel Dulihanty. 5 games in to his PEBA career he has 3 home runs including a game-deciding 14th inning grand slam against Arlington. More power hitting lefties to pair with CLOGGER and Osmond? Yes please.

Neat: I also previously profiled briefly Ross Malloch. Ross has allowed just 1 earned run per game over his last 5 starts and has not allowed more than 2 runs in a game since August 2nd in game. Having won his last three decisions he is now 11-2 with a 1.76 ERA and 245 ERA+. I think he's technically not eligible to be a minor league POTY selection but that rule may have to be broken. He's also broken the Sunshine Coast single season wins record.

Not so neat: Heading into the playoffs I have some concerns about my bullpen outside of the dynamic duo of Richard Higgins and Jorge Ruiz. I will have to make some tricky decisions there on the playoff roster depending on how some of my callups do.

[Warriors]

Here come the Warriors!

Following a 5-1 week that saw the mighty Warriors top Crystal Lake in 2 of 3 contests and blow out Madison with a three game sweep, we find ourselves 2.5 games behind Kalamazoo with 13 games remaining.

Go, Warriors, go!!

[Thoroughbreds]

Neat: with 10 RBI this week, Gore has set a new Kentucky record with 120 RBI for the season.

Not so neat: below .500 for all minor league teams in the organization.

[Borealis]

Neat is a sim that is perfect and which the Borealis allowed just 5-runs for a week in which they did what they should - beat the teams they are supposed to beat (if you hope to be a contender and not a pretender) - Something Aurora has done a better job at this year than in recent years. Up next are the Evil Evas - one of three teams that the Borealis have a losing record against (all three, not surprisingly, are in the Rising Sun). The week not only clinched a playoff spot for Aurora, but all but clinched the division title - as Reno getting swept by Toyama leaves the magic number at just 2.

Of note amongst all the home run chatter surrounding juiced balls - or juiced Yuman Colorado River Water - it's worth noting that Aurora and Fargo played three games without a home run, then after Aurora hit three against Bakersfield, they have 151 on the season (good enough for 12th in the SL) - which is tied for 13th best in team history, with our first title team in 2019, needing 6 more to reach 11th place - tying the 2016 team.

Despite the chatter and the homer binge league-wide, it does illustrate a simple phenomenon - indeed, Aurora's success (or lack of) over the past number of seasons really has hinged on a lack of homers to complement an otherwise successful offense. Which has the club contemplating the future in a different way - for instance, Claudio Hernandez - a FA to be. Does he get an extension at 35-years of age? Which puts the club in an OF bind, after the strong start by rookie Hideki Nishikawa in Stewart Arundale's injured stead. 'Litterbug' has a very, very team friendly contract extension signed prior to Spring training - might he be trade bait, while the club maintains the outfield mix of Kowalski, Silva, Diakawa and Nishikawa?

[Thoroughbreds]

-Gore and Santos have become the 5th and 6th players to hit 40 or more homers in a Kentucky jersey. This is the first time 2 players have hit 40 home runs in the same season for the Thoroughbreds.

-After never having a 20 game winner in the history of the team, Rory Soutar became the 2nd Thoroughbred to win 20 this season with a win over San Antonio. Yi has 21 wins on the season.

-In his first start of the season outfielder Kyle Ferguson (September call up) hit a game tying home run in the ninth inning against Florida. Gore would win it with a 3 run homer in xtra's

-Back-up 1b/OF Yataro Takaki now has over 200 at-bats. He leads the team with an OPS plus of 179. He is hitting .382 with a 3.1 WAR

[Arroyos]

Yuma finished another dismal season with 3 straight one-run wins, two of them in extra innings! I don't know if that's good news or bad, but for Yuman Beings it was a surprise.