Neat stuff sim thread PEBA 2024 Season 18

[Dinosaurs]

Recapping the first two sims here, I managed to screw up on the first sim and forgot to turn off 7-day lineups, which I like using for spring training, but prefer not to use during the season, which resulted in my 4th starter Roberto Miranda getting the confusing task of starting two games in a row. Suffice to say he didn't make it out of the 2nd inning in his second start. Also managed to allow newly acquired Markus Hancock to sit the bench and collect his $$$ without having to throw a pitch during that first week.

Thankfully I cleaned it up for the last sim and got everyone in place and managed a nice 5-2 week (after lucking into a 4-3 the first week), so feeling pretty good at the moment. Markus Hancock finally got to pitch and he didn't disappoint, over the two starts he went 16 innings and only gave up 1 run.

Looks like CF Albert Reyes didn't take to kindly to Clayton Lewis of Toyama had said to him on the field, and decided to run at him full steam and tackle the starting pitcher on the mound inciting a brawl, though only Reyes and Lewis received suspensions.

Oh and this is probably mentioned elsewhere but man the AAA schedule is weird, 5 days off in a row in April for my AAA squad.

[Borealis]

Oh and this is probably mentioned elsewhere but man the AAA schedule is weird, 5 days off in a row in April for my AAA squad.

Oh... Just get a load of the major league schedule...

[Duane]

I'm thinking that maybe if there are no team additions or subtractions that we go to a schedule of 3-game and 2-game series (instead of 3-game and 4-game) That way the days off would be 2 instead of 4

[roncollins]

I think with more teams apparently on autopilot we contract again and play a regular schedule.

[Dinosaurs]

I think with more teams apparently on autopilot we contract again and play a regular schedule.

I will say that without the traditional one day off a week, the tiredness factor of my starting pitchers concerns me a bit more than in the past, I generally like to see the 2nd starter of an upcoming sim looking like he is fully rested a day before rather than the day of his start. Could just be pointless worry, but starting pitching is expensive.

[Borealis]

Best way to kill a 9-1 start to the year? Lose 5 in a row at home, that's how... Not a Whole Lot of Neat on The Front Range to report...

- Starting with the Lone Neat: Mike Provost - after uncharacteristically walking 4 in the weeks opener, a heart-break 2-1 loss to Crystal Lake, he pitched 7 no-hit innings, before leaving with a 1-hit performance (a measly infield single), with 7 K and 0 BB.
- I guess we can give the much maligned Rusty Butler a Neat Nod as he went 6-14 with a HR - his only RBI...

And then the Not So Neat...
- After passing through Spring Training pain free, for the second week in a row a major starter goes down - Nick Giles last week, Mike Hale this week - out for 5 weeks after spraining his thumb diving for a ball. Hale was hitting .300 but was a shocking 0-3 in SB attempts. (So, I ask the OOTP Gods, why don't you put River Pope in CF as the replacement when he's the listed back-up and Lawrence Justice in LF, where he's listed as the back-up? Instead you put the crappy CF Justice in CF... Grrrrrrrr...)...
- Britt (4-22), Pope (4-21), McIntyre (3-15), Justice (4-19) and Carlisle (4-18) lead the way in the Can't Buy A Hit category...
- In the Can't Get Anyone Out category... Poor 'Massacre' - he got massacred in his emergency start after having thrown some relief innings during the prior week and didn't last 2 innings - giving up 6 R... Not far behind was 'Terror' who got terrified to the tune of 8 R (7 ER) in 4.1 IP, thanks to 7 H and 5 BB...'Sawmill', from the 'pen, had two appearances worth 5.1 IP and 4 R - though the second one was better looking
- Poor Bryant Burris... Moved to the closer role to give 'Javelin' a blow after a heavy two weeks, and in the loan save opportunity, Peterson get's the call and the save... Burris still sitting 24 shy of the record...

On the positive side, Jesus Negrete has finally passed through his medical rehab time and will begin his playing rehab at AA Gatineau - then we'll see. A two-week rehab stint would give him a week at AA and a week at AAA (we're not starting it at AAA because we don't want to disrupt the two-headed catcher routine there (Castro+Gutierrez). A needed third week might dip back to AA as Thornton would have one of those short weeks to follow...

What's On Tap:
And so the Stretch From Hell begins, Aurora 1-2 to start the 27-game stretch with K-Zoo at home and then a trip to the desert and the Codgers. Aurora needs an outfielder and the question sits on whether Pope will move to CF and Wilson Mercado gets called up (30-70, 2 HR) to play LF or if another CF is brought in for defensive depth - which would be Chandler Wright (10-27, 3-2B)... There's also a strong likelihood that a reliever will be added to the mix to her eat some innings as needed with a position player moving down to AAA. There may be some significant roster shuffling here in the coming three weeks...

[Zephyrs]

Well, Nick 'Six Pack' Shaw has pitched his last high school game thanks to bone spurs. He will be out of commission for 5-6 months. Does he drop in the draft due to this injury?

[Leones]

Well, Nick 'Six Pack' Shaw has pitched his last high school game thanks to bone spurs. He will be out of commission for 5-6 months. Does he drop in the draft due to this injury?

I doubt it. He's got plenty of youth left and OOTP seems to have a habit of roughing up one or two young stars every season only to see them go on and prosper. It's usually this (elbow bone chips) or torn UCL it seems.

[Coqui]

The Longshoremen have gotten off to a rough start to the season. Fortunately, the first schedule break came at an opportune time - we had lost 7 of 8 and needed a rest after a rash of early season injuries to infielders. Indeed, 3B has been a revolving door of characters. We've had 7 guys start games at the hot corner in the first 22 games. Gordon Fuller, who is arguably our best hitter, has been back a game, and should solidify the position and the lineup if he can stay healthy.

Looking around the roster, the offense has been horrible with no real bright spots - when your best performer is a first baseman who is hitting 241/308/434 (Dominic Maye), you're in some trouble. The middle infield has been a wreck: Gonzalo Gonzalez is "hitting" 169/238/182 and big free agent 2B pickup Manny De Los Santos is putting up a 190/247/329 performance. Roger Bruce, the incumbent catcher, is at 186/296/343. Those three guys are number 4 through 6 in plate appearances for the season.

The pitching staff has had two good starters (Lee, Yamashita), one mediocre starter (Perez), and two putrid starters (Kondo, Romero). Kondo has been moved to the bullpen; he's being replaced in the rotation by the organization's best pitching prospect, Orlando Garcia, who had a 3.70 ERA and 3.69 FIP in four starts in AAA Allentown.

The bullpen has been similarly spotty. Closer Julian Olivares has been his old, nearly untouchable self; Benoit Faucher has been serviceable in an 8th inning set up role. Getting to the late innings, however, has been a problem, as rookie Colin Jameson and starter-in-waiting Matt Allison have been pretty awful.

Defensively, the team has been mediocre, with bright spots in CF (Rule 5 draftee Harry Hutchins (+2.0 ZR, 1.056)) and at 1B (Dominic Maye, +0.5 ZR, 1.032). Gordon Fuller got off to a great defensive start before spraining his ankle, and his return should provide no worse than average defense at 3B. Gonzalez has been a disappointment at SS (-1.5, .962) as has Juan Marquez in RF (-1.7, .936). De Los Santos has been bad at 2B (-2.3, .939), but that's about what everyone expected coming in.

The Longshoremen will try to finish off their first sweep of the season in the last game at London, and then come home for a 4-game set against the Claymores before a weekend series in Cuba. The month of May sees only one off day.

[Reg]

New Orleans is living in a twilight zone : the pitching is motoring along, and it's the offense that is lacking.

All five starters have been solid (including injury stand-in Patrick Barraclough when Schnozz went down with injury for a few weeks). The bullpen has also performed well.

A few bats are slow out of the gate. Mostly at Catcher, as Jack Collins is batting only .123, and backup Rafael Moya still hasn't gotten a hit.

Last week went well overall, winning 3 of 4 against Amsterdam. We have dropped both contests to the powerful Featherheads so far in the series, but both were close and generally even-matched games. A late push wasn't enough in game 1.. falling 4-3. We then lead the second game until the 7th when the hot bat of their backup Catcher Jack Hudson smashed a home run to kill the momentum. In the few at bats he has played this year, Hudson has been great: batting .364

Tonight is the series final trying to avoid the sweep, then we head north to face both Hartford and West Virginia. Two of the top teams in the IL at the moment...

[Evas]

I am liking what I am seeing from the Claymores. Very active in Free Agency.

The Gallo signing in particular could be a really great deal. He could be a very good SP, but has a high floor of a dominant reliever. Worst case he is an inefficient bullpen signing. Best case, he could be a #2 SP.

I was bidding on him and didn't expect him to sign or for a deal so far above his asking price. Nice move to come in decisively and lock him up.

[Borealis]

I was bidding on him and didn't expect him to sign or for a deal so far above his asking price. Nice move to come in decisively and lock him up.

We also had some bids on Gallo - his ask was all over the place; it yo-yo'd all over the place.

[Reg]

Interestingly, the James Heard salary holdout/delusion is finally over, and he signs a contract with Bakersfield.

1 year / 10 million. That sounds a heck of a lot more reasonable than the 25-30 mil a year demand he had over the winter! (with me anyway, not sure what crazy numbers anyone else got).

[Evas]

I was bidding on him and didn't expect him to sign or for a deal so far above his asking price. Nice move to come in decisively and lock him up.

We also had some bids on Gallo - his ask was all over the place; it yo-yo'd all over the place.

Yeah it was crazy. He started off asking for a $200M/8year deal. That then dropped out of nowhere to $1.2M/1year. It steadily increased from there, but it is hard to tell when a Free Agent is actually going to make a decision. I've been surprised more than once this off season.

[Borealis]

A 7-game sweep of the Top-Two teams in the 2023 Rising Sun division definitely qualifies as Neat! Making it Neater:

- The streak and Mike Britt was just 6-26 with 1 HR and only 5 RBI...
- Rusty Butler finally shaking off the rust: 7-17, 6 R, 4 RBI...
- River Pope leading the team in RBI from the leadoff spot (mostly - Screwy AI had him hitting 9th one game...), while a team best 13-26...
- Medrano and McIntyre combined for a 12-37 week, definitely the best week for the right-side of the infield - Medrano with a team high 8 R...
- Eduardo Romano was 2-0, allowing just 2 R in his 15.2 IP... 6 BB a tad disturbing...
- 'Massacre', in his 4th start in place of 'Sawmill', finally seemed to make some headway after allowing 20 R in 8.2 IP - he went 5.1 innings v. Toyama, allowing 3 H and 2 R (a 2-run HR in the 1st). He was just about to head back to the bullpen - where he had been effective, with 'Sawmill' returning to the rotation or Eric Perkins getting a promotion...
- Not So Neat was 'Javelin' allowing his first runs of the season (3, on a 3-run Takeuchi HR) that almost blew a wild Aurora win (9-8) over the Evil Evas. They were the first runs Peterson had allowed since March 13 - Yup, since mid-Spring Training... I guess that's still a Neat-O...
- Bryant Burris did pick up his 4th save (#3 in that crazy SS game), and now has 368 in his career - 20 shy of the record...
- Speaking of relievers, the 'Big 4' of Peterson, Burris, Gray and 'Stork' combined for 10.1 IP, 4 R (all on 2 HR), 7 H, 0 BB and 9 K... Combined for the year they've surrendered just 10 R in 52.1 IP - 11 BB, 53 K...

He was 3-23 over 6 games at Gatineau, then 8-22 in another 6 games at Thornton and now... He's Baaaaack - Jesus Negrete, after a lengthy 9 month stint on the DL with a shoulder issue, returns to the lineup and Rusty Butler cries... and frustrated Luis Villanueva heads to AAA Thornton hitting only .206 in his 9 starts for Aurora - and he cries, too, as now he has to find time for AB against Aurora's budding Two-Headed Catcher 2.0...

- Speaking of Castro and Dominguez... Castro is hitting .265 (31-117), 2 HR, 11 RBI and Dominguez is hitting .321 (34-106), 2 HR and 17 RBI as the two have shared catching and DH duties - reminiscent of the Keller-Vinson days...
- Hale and Giles both have at least 2 more weeks on the DL and in their stead: Chandler Wright (6-16, 2-2B, 3B, 4 RBI) and Mercado (6-20, 2B, 3B and 5 RBI) are picking up the slack for Hale while Teddy Loetzsch has upped his average from .174 to .283 while doing most of the grunt work at short in Giles stead.

What's On Tap
Aurora is 17-games into their 27-games in a row stretch (11-6 with pairs of losses to Duluth, K-Zoo and Palm Springs), and the lengthy stretch of home games also continues as they invite Fargo for three and Bakersfield for four (the first meeting between the DH powers) at Northern Lights, before heading to Crystal Lake and a chance to revenge the 'Gnat's sweep on the Front Range. Fargo gets Provost, 'Tugboat' and 'Massacre' to start the week.