August 31^st, 2019 : London, England

 Cast your mind back to June 30^th, London were entertaining Connecticut and were trailing 2-1 as Leonard Carver pitched to Eric Jacobs with two out in the top of the eighth. The umpire brought up his fist, Carver had his 125^th K of the season and the teams headed for the dugouts. Routine you say ? What transpired next certainly wasn’t. Carver was slow off the mound clutching his shoulder, by the time Wilson Berry stepped into the batter’s box Carver had already been rushed down the tunnel to the club’s medical facilities.

The next day London’s social media feeds were ablaze, not with moans about London going down 4-1 but with the news that their arguably #1 ace had suffered a torn rotator cuff and was not only done for the season but probably most of the next season as well. The fans were distraught, surely any chance of a Planetary Extreme Championship repeat was gone? Not only that but with Hiroyuki Nii seemingly in decline, could London have been robbed of their emerging ace and the PEBA robbed of one of it’s brightest young pitchers? A third torn rotator cuff might well spell the end of such a promising career.

Fast forward now to the current date. As the PEBA prepares to welcome in the last full month of the 2019 regular season the only talk on Twitter & Facebook is of how easy will the tickets to the PEC finals be to obtain? London didn’t fall apart, they rallied and the pitching staff stepped up to the plate.  At 84-52 the Underground’s magic number is 15, a combination of 15 wins by London or losses by their Pan-Atlantic rivals would see Europe’s only franchise qualify for the post-season for the third consecutive year. Thirteen games ahead of the Arlington Bureaucrats with the Nutmeggers a further half game back Carver’s absence has hardly been noticed. Free agent pickup Santiago Estrada has had an amazing season with a .219 BABIP leading to a team leading 13-3 record with a 2.83 ERA. Carver’s direct replacement was Bryan Bedell called up from Triple-A Worcester, he has held his own with a 4-3 record from 10 starts but that has hardly mattered as the top four in the rotation have combined for 51 wins. Just as well really with the offence hitting for a paltry .258 team average with only Gloucester Fishermen worse than that in the Pan-Atlantic. Chris Long has been the only batter to consistently hit over .300 on the season but Leonard Ramsey & Decheng Wen have had the crowd on the feet all season as they have held their own private slugging contest. With both already on career highs they enter the final month with a chance of both reaching the 50 homer plateau, the first time in PEBA history that two players on the same team would have achieved the feat. In fact only four other players have reached that milestone in the league’s history.

With roster expansion arriving London will be adding a few players to the push down the stretch. Leftie Kelvin Jones looked to be a lock for his first cup of coffee but he is currently suffering from chronic back soreness and is expected to be out for at least two weeks more. One pitcher that will definitely be making the trip will be the current Appalachian Mountain League Pitcher of the Month for August, Juan Pérez, who has a 6-1, 13 saves, 2.75 ERA record for Worcester. Juan arrived in Europe in 2016 in a trade from Bakersfield and is looking forward to his first PEBA action. Joining him on the London bound flight will be two outfielders as London attempt to sort the outfield conundrum. Lorenzo Valenzuela will make his second trip of the year following a 24 game stint earlier in the year, he now has 97 PEBA appearances to his name and this year finally showed some signs of coming to terms with big league pitching. Robert Jacobs will get his second look at the PEBA, last year in 53 regular season games he hit .211/.279/.379 with nine home runs and hit .314 in nine post-season games. In Worcester this year his triple slash line is .317/.356/.607 with a career high 34 homers, he has also logged 101 RBI.

The big mystery left this season is whether London will offer contract extensions to Wilson Berry and Luis Mora ? Both are regular players for the Underground still but they are also both 34 and command large salaries. Berry arrived in London in 2018 as an expensive free agent and now seeks a five year deal at around close to $100million while Mora was a London fourth rounder in the PEBA’s inaugural draft in 2007, he now wants five more years at around $50mil+.

Berry performed all right in 2018 but has had a fairly woeful 2019. Hitting .225/.277/.348 with 9 homers might not be the best way to persuade your team to give you $20m next year. Mora has had a stellar career in his 13 years in London and is still amongst the best closers in the PEBA. The problem is his salary will be north of $13m and with cash strapped London that could be a major stumbling block. Gary Stanley is 11 years younger than Mora, throws harder and keeps far more balls on the ground and more importantly earns the league minimum $500,000. The stats are very similar this season and indication is that they’ll be heading in opposite directions now. Do the Underground gamble on making a league minimum pitcher with just 66 appearances their full-time closer or give the veteran a huge payday and cross their fingers ?