Neat stuff sim thread PEBA 2024 Season 18

[Zephyrs]

The Zephyrs are 8-4 in ST. I have been really pleased with the hitting of young BJ Gassaway so far. He has a nice 1.312 OPS.

[Evas]

Well I just lost by defensive ace CF Nobuo Aria for 4-5 months from a bad ankle.

Now the question is Offense vs. Defense? It might be a few sims before I get that settled. I'm very glad I didn't trade Cal Thomas. He might wind up seeing a lot of action in SS.

[Borealis]

A second 4-2 week of the spring is Neat, as is some of the work of the Borealis:

- 'Sawmill', a second straight scoreless 4 IP... As was the case for Romano... 'Massacre', in his first start - and earning a second, pitched a scoreless four...
- Also on the scoreless parade is Gerardo Rivera, with a 5.2 IP run out of the 'pen...
- Behind the plate, Gutierrez continues along his .250 path, while Castro struggled in his starts and has dropped to .143. Another sour week will give him his walking papers to Thornton - not a bad thing, btw...
- In the battle for the 5th OF spot, Larry Justice is 7-14, while Auggie Hernandez is 5-14 and Feddie Oliveras is 6-18... Meanwhile Wilson Mercado sits at 6-25...

[Sandgnats]

I love that you have a player named Gerardo Rivera.

[Borealis]

I love that you have a player named Gerardo Rivera.

You can have him for Baba Wawa...

[Sandgnats]

If he wasn't making 7 million, I would have made an offer just for the hell of it.

[Borealis]

If he wasn't making 7 million, I would have made an offer just for the hell of it.

OK... You're twisting my arm - I'll take Wolfe Blitzer, but I can't go lower... OK - maybe Anderson Cooper...

[Sandgnats]

If he wasn't making 7 million, I would have made an offer just for the hell of it.

OK... You're twisting my arm - I'll take Wolfe Blitzer, but I can't go lower... OK - maybe Anderson Cooper...

ok ok deal! You have it!

[Reg]

Waiting to get home to see how week 3 of spring training went, but we started March at 4-8

Predictably, after only a dozen games, it might be too small a sample to really gauge how the players truly perform.

The injury bug has been fairly minor so far, but our catching prospect Craig Young is out for the remainder of spring training with a minor injury, so he will likely start the year in AAA. Outfielder Troy Tanner is also out a few weeks, so Adrian Lozano is likely to play until he is back.

Pitchers took turns being heroes and goats. Lefty Takanobu Shirai was a good example. He had a catastrophic first start, allowing 6 hits, 6 earned runs, 3 walks... and striking out no one in 2.1 innings (Leading to an 11-5 loss vs. London), but made up for it the next game with a solid 4 innings, 4 K's, allowing only 2 hits and keeping Amsterdam scoreless.

Our relief pitchers have also been all over the map. With such a small sample size, particularly for the bullpen's incremental intake of innings pitched, a few have some pretty comical statistics, but overall things haven't quite gelled yet. It will take a closer look at box scores and a few other factors to see who might stick around for opening day.

A few players struggled at the plate, such as Bob Swift who batted just .088 so far. The rest of the offense has been fairly evenly divided so far, with no one being overwhelmingly good or bad. The best hitters have been Kevin Forrest, Dave Nash, Luis Salars and Jim McIntosh.

I was impressed with how Felix Zavala handled big league pitching so far. He is competing with Kevin Forrest for the 1B job, and, even though Forrest has a .440 average and could be the opening say first baseman, there might be a spot for Zavala anyway. We will see what the next few days bring.

Over the last decade, the team was offense first, and pitching second. We tried hard to remedy that imbalance over the last few seasons, and in particular this winter. It is not clear whether the team will be sufficiently good at either one to challenge for the post-season, but hopefully progress will be maintained and we can at least return to being a competitive club... as long as we can stop our fellow Dixie teams from stomping us firmly back down in the basement again this season

Overall not amazing, but things aren't all too catastrophic so far this spring. The next two weeks will hopefully start painting a slightly clearer picture.

[Coqui]

Canton... That's a lot of change for a lot of K's... It'll be interesting to see if a better hitters park helps out de los Santos...

Yep, that's the theory. Spring training isn't making it look like such a good gamble. Maybe this will test my general rule that there's no such thing as a bad one-year contract.

[Leones]

I've always regarded spring training as primarily a test of depth of my club, not necessarily an honest gauge of how they'll perform in the regular season. For my clubs that has held true over the years. You mileage may vary.

[Coqui]

I've always regarded spring training as primarily a test of depth of my club, not necessarily an honest gauge of how they'll perform in the regular season. For my clubs that has held true over the years. You mileage may vary.

Agreed. I've had guys who have been horrible in spring training and raked once the calendar turns to April. And vice versa. Still, the strikeout totals have been brutal in spring training.

[roncollins]

For me spring training is about getting young guys development time and getting old guys through without injury. Numbers don't matter.

[Coqui]

For me spring training is about getting young guys development time and getting old guys through without injury. Numbers don't matter.

I use it sometimes to determine position battles, but given small sample sizes, it's really not that reliable for that. I tend to doubt good performances more than bad performances in ST. Given the "tryout" nature that many teams tend to use in ST, you should do better, all else being equal, amirite?

[Zephyrs]

Well, when you suck as bad as the Zephyrs have fore the last 3 seasons, you tend to enjoy a 13-9 ST record. Of course, I do agree with the sentiment that stats don't mean much in ST. A proven starter isn't going to lose his job due to some poor spring stats but it does make me feel better that Torazo Kodama put up an impressive .988 OPS in 51 PA's. I was pretty sure he was going to make the team but his spring stats make me feel a little better heading into the season.