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

[Borealis]

Neat is Rocky Kowalski, who was signed to bring some pop to the line-up - and then delivers, with 3 HR on the week, including two in one game and earning PoD honors. On the seasons he is hitting .319 with 14 HR. Now granted, only 4 of those are at Northern Lights - but 10 on the road is mighty nice. A surge in homers of late have Aurora up to 12th in the SL with 65 - 'Matchbox' also has 14, Ortega 9 (he hit 8 all last seasons), Simmons with 7 (he had 9 last year and 19 his rookie year). Stewart Arundale has 2, after hitting a total of 3 over the last 7-seasons and Masamichi Daikawa hit his first ML homer this sim.

Crazy times on The Front Range...

[Zephyrs]

Soame report; after 5 games, 5 IP 2 Saves, no runs allowed. Not bad for a college kid with no minor league experience.

[Zephyrs]

Falling further and further behind Aurora - not so neat. Rookie Closer has yet to give up a run - very neat. We have also promoted 2 new rookies this coming week. Griff Aspinwall and Ryosei Kichida.

It was really uncool to see my trade acquisition end up on the DFA leaving me with just my back-up Catcher while Florida had his player in the line-up.

[Claymores]

Neat: SP Thomas Connolly (2036 1st round pick) and OF Jackson Wiley (2037 3rd round pick) have reached the PEBA level. Both players join 3B/DH Kenkichi Daikawa (2036 4th round pick) as the first three draft picks to reach the PEBA since I my first draft in 2036.

Neat: Jackson Wiley is actually a pretty decent 2B.

Not so neat: Jackson Wiley went down from a 6 to a 5 rated CF this past sim.

[Thoroughbreds]

Sergej Van Den Abel - My 2nd round pick last season - had a 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and a 5 hit game this week in AAA. 15 hits in 6 games to raise his average from .302 to .320 and earn player of the week.

[Zephyrs]

Trade acquisition Andre Cooper has been hot since coming over from Florida. In 16 PAs he has a .975 OPS. Here's hoping he stays hot for a while.

[Fishermen]

I don't even care if the season isn't finished yet, this is Gloucester's game of the year: https://www.pebabaseball.com/reports/ne ... _1515.html

21 innings, comeback grand slam walk-off, against my former GMed team that is a legit contender now.

[Borealis]

I don't even care if the season isn't finished yet, this is Gloucester's game of the year: https://www.pebabaseball.com/reports/ne ... _1515.html

21 innings, comeback grand slam walk-off, against my former GMed team that is a legit contender now.

What a great game!!

Neat is exciting pennant races - and seeding races - and we've got both this season as the trade deadline looms.

Aurora and Reno square off this sim, and then twice in August and the final three games of the season - so 12 of Aurora's final 65-games are with the Zephyrs - alternating home and road series, with the season ending on The Front Range. Reno has a slightly higher Opponent Win % - and that just might be because of those 12-games, so it's a pretty even remainder of the season - Aurora with 13-games remaining with the main SL contenders (4 w/ Toyama, 6 w/ Evil Evas, and 3 w/ Okinawa), Reno with 13-games as well (6 w/ Toyama, 3 w/ Niihama, 4 w/ Okinawa). And, of course, their 12-games between themselves.

Within the division, Both teams have 10-games with Tempe; Reno has 6 with Yuma, Aurora 4; Aurora 9 with the Bears, Reno 10; Aurora has 7 with the Codgers, while the Zephyrs have just 4 with Palms Springs in the closing days of the season. Both have three with Fargo, while Reno has three with Neo-Tokyo, while Aurora has a tricky four-games with Madison.

Aurora is 2-games better against the division than Reno; Aurora has a 17-9 edge on the Rising Sun; Reno is 12-13.

[Ghosts]

Neat:

Having won 11 in a row, Niihama faced off vs division leader Toyoma in game 2 of a critical series in Toyoma. Luppe Van Dam and Owen Barse squared off and each pitched well, with the edge going to Barse's 5.2 IP, 1 ER. Van Dam was in the same situation (5.2 IP, 1 ER) but gave up a 2R HR to Toyoma's incredible rookie 2B, Ryozo Kouyama. The former 7th round pick has made incredible leaps over the last two seasons, going from a 4/4/6 potential CON/POW/EYE per OSA when he was drafted in 2034 to a 6/8/10.

The game ended up coming down to extras, and in the top of the 12th, Angel Franco hit a shot off the right center wall that found an odd angle. Franco was able to beat the relay throw home and gave Niihama a 4-3 edge that would hold. The win streak reached 12!

Not so neat:

The win streak ended at 12. Further, despite that streak and winning the series vs Toyoma, Toyoma's lead is STILL 6.5 games.

[Ghosts]

Neat: hit grand slams in consecutive games against Okinawa to ensure the sweep.

Not neat: Toyoma lead is 6.5 games and now it feels like a cosmic boundary condition.

[Underground]

Made the decision to move Dave "Hodor" Robertson from the pen to the rotation mid-season. He had last started in SS-A all the way back in 2032, a brief 6 start stint. But he has the stamina and 4 pitches and my scout saw him as being a starter so I figured I'd see if he could solve my 5th SP problem.

Since then he's compiled an 8-2 record as a starter, earning a decision in 10/12 starts. His ERA is 2.77, ERA+ is 151, and he's striking out 8 per 9IP. He joins Jose Hernandez and Raul Cruz as my sub-3 ERA starters.

On a more historic note, I like to check out my team career leaders periodically especially since I have some players who have been climbing some of them. Of note this year, Bill Jones has climbed into the top 10 in career batter games played for London. The initial contract I gave him was poo-pooed a bit around the league (probably rightfully so) but he is now in his 7th season with the team and has a 22.9 WAR during that time. He continues to be a productive bat that I can throw anywhere on the infield and get excellent defense from. I love Bill Jones and I hope he's a Hall of Famer some day.

Rocky Nichols has already cracked the top 10 in total bases - career and should easily find himself in the 9th position by end of year.

CLOGGER continues to climb the career home runs chart for London, having gone from unranked to #5 just from his production this season. There's a chance he makes #4 this year (he needs 15 more). If he takes his player option and stays with the team next year he should easily surpass Chris Long's 152 to find himself in 3rd overall in London history. However the climb from there becomes quite steep and with his age and contract status, it might not be in the cards. While 3rd-10th are seperated by just 32 home runs, 3rd to 2nd requires a jump of +131!

CLOGGER and Nichols both debuted on the career RBI chart this year, in 10th and 9th respectively. Nichols should pass Luis Cervantes for 8th within the next few weeks which is a cool signpost for me, as Cervantes was really the only thing approaching a "star" London had when I joined and I eventually made a difficult decision to trade him away as part of my rebuild.

Juan Chavarria has gone from 8th to 5th on the all time stolen bases chart and is only 9 more away from 3rd overall! London has historically not been a speed team and it shows, Chavarria could pretty feasibly be London's #2 career base stealer by the end of next year after just 4.5 seasons with the team at that point - and only 25 years old. I'd put his odds of eventually becoming the franchises greatest stolen base threat at very high.

[Borealis]

Ah... Bill Jones - it's been a long road for the former-39th overall pick of Aurora's back in... 2022!!!

[Underground]

Ah... Bill Jones - it's been a long road for the former-39th overall pick of Aurora's back in... 2022!!!

It was a great pick Mike, he has had a fantastic career and it's not over yet!

[JayA]

Neat: In the Farstriders minor league organization, Richard Mancuso (AAA), Charles Grodin (R), Cliff de Best (A) all had games with 5+ hits. We also got alerts for great performances from Pu-Feng Shuo (3 HR in a R game) and Katsuyuki Sugano (complete game shutout with 9 Ks in a 10-0 A-ball win) and a Player of the Week performance from Gordon Knopp (.522 avg, 4 HR, 9 RBI, 7 R). Definitely very much prefer to see these types of full inboxes than the injury-riddled ones.

[Thoroughbreds]

Neat: Rookie back-up OF/1B Yataro Takaki continues to have an amazing season. He went 7 for 12 this sim (Including 3 for 4 against Florida Ace, Tse) with 2 homers, 2 doubles and 6 RBI.
In 155 Ab's he is hitting .413 and an OPS of 1.120!

Neat: Starter Rory Soutar pitched 8 innings of 2-hit ball against SJ to pick up his 11th win in his last 11 starts. Before the streak he was 5-4 with a 3.29 ERA - Now he is 16-4 with 2.44 ERA.
Not so Neat: With each win Soutar's contract demands have increased, so he will likely be done in Kentucky after the season

Neat: Down 6-3 against SJ - Kentucky hit 3 solo homers in the 8th inning to tie the game and a 2-run homer in the 10th to win it. Backup IF Kanai Aliimalu who had 2 homers all season, hit 3 homers in the game, including one of the solo homers in the 8th and the walk off homer in the 10th.