1/3 Down Update - 1983 edition

[Clay]

With 65 games in the book, how's your team looking? Any surprises? Booms? Busts? Dissappointments? Who's making an All-Star bid? Who's on the chopping block?

[rubisco43]

As expected, I knew I would hit, I knew my pitching would be suspect. I've hit enough to get by so far, but if I'm lucky to make it to postseason, I can't imagine my pitching being good enough to carry me far. I need one more bullpen guy to step it up.

Surprises:
Erasmo Rubancava: With Rumsey in the twilight of his career and Dan Jones not pitching like a #1, I needed a surprise in my rotation and Erasmo's been that. He's 9-1 in 11 starts, with a sub-2 ERA. Plus, he's thrown a perfect game. I hope he keeps this up.

Carel Fonkert: He's been a career .280 hitter with decent pop, a mid to upper 700's OPS guy. This year? He's hitting .347 with a .906 OPS, 2nd best average in the DL. Plus, he's driven in 41 runs hitting behind Keppel who's driven in 42.

Disappointments:
Dan Jones: Supposed ace of my staff, his ERA has gone up every year he's been with the team. Maybe he's destined to stay a #2 starter, but since I have no #1, what to do? Granted, he started slow last year and still finished with 14 wins and a 3.61 ERA and a 1.14 WHIP, but man I needed him to start strong this year.

Gabriel Huxham: Around .800 OPS the last 2 years, 2 years consecutive all-star appearances. This year, he's barely above the Mendoza line (.219) with a horrible .592 OPS.

All Star Bids:
Harry Keppel: Still a dominant force and hopefully still has his career year ahead of him.
Rick Hoover: Highest batting average in the DL, 2nd highest OBP (behind Keppel), and 4th best OPS. Well worth the price paid for him from Windy City.
Carel Fonkert: See above.
Erasmo Rubancava: Best starting pitcher on my team. 9-1 record with a stellar K/BB ratio.
Brad Taylor: Might be a reserve with a lot of other starters that dominate the DL. But an 8-1 record, 3.38 ERA should get him some votes.

[Guest]

Surprises:

Jim Coker
Xalbador Santos
My winning recod

Dissapointments:

Francois Dupuis
Howard Haydon
Everardo Gremades
Jim Gaskin

[Lintyfresh85]

Not quite sure what happened... I just wrote a big long post and it got deleted. Anyways to add on to what I was saying...

California has to be one of the biggest disappointments in all of the BLB. My pitching is awful on an epic scale. I'm also paying a ton of money to a guy I can't even get anyone to claim off waivers. Throw in the fact that I lost Charlie O'Rogan to Washington when I tried to slip him through waivers and I have to classify this year as a disaster.

Now on to the good. Combined my minor league teams are 94-62. We are up by six games in A ball, and a game back in both AA and AAA. My combined minor league ERA is the very best in all of the BLB, statistical wise. AA is first in the league, AAA is the second best, and A is third best. I can take pride in the fact that I've managed to build three very strong minor league clubs with mainly moves I've made either through the draft or trades. Does that really mean anything when it comes down to it? Not really, but hopefully five or six of these guys will eventually be able to contribute to the big team. Unfortunately I don't think that will be the case as my system is only ranked 16th best in the league... I figure the teams are so good because I have everyone playing together, and not relying on superstar talent.

So I guess the future is bright, I just need to keep working the draft and making smart decisions and hopefully the wins will come.

[Clay]

Virginia Colonials

The Good
Danny Nelson -- Nelson is still battling injuries, but his power seems to be coming back. Unfortunately, his average, which was at .278 both of the last two seasons, is also returning to his rookie numbers of around .230. However, if he can give us 30 HRs and 120 games, he will more than pull his weight.

O'Hegarty and Cheatham - While the Rookie O'Hegarty's May wasn't nearly as good as his April, his solid hitting and defense have sured up a position of need in the Virginia organization for years to come. Meanwhile, Cheatham, who was competing with O'Hegarty for the everyday SS spot in Spring Training, played so well that he was kept with the big club and has blossomed into a super sub. He has appeared in 36 games and has racked up a .348 avg and a .787 OPS.

The Bad
The Free Agent Class -- Dunlop and Harcourt have been good, but not great so far this season. While Harcourt's numbers seem to be picking up the last few weeks, Dunlop is not doing much to earn his $12.3 million - even being forced to share time with Rookie Larry Headington due to his struggles at the plate.

Pitching -- Oyos has been OK, Carlton has been good (almost great), but everyone else is playing like crap. Mathes being out for the year really hurt. He wasn't going to be great, but he would have helped.

The Ugly
Two Words - Nicolas Arce

[Whale]

Hartford = Young and Terrible.

That is all.

[Jistic]

Two Words - Nicolas Arce

Don't hate on the dinosaur!

[Clay]

Don't hate on the dinosaur!

He's extinct

[Pat]

Washington Bats

Record
Before the season started, I predicted that I would win the Stout, and that is currently what I am doing. I didn't expect to be eight games up in June, so I am very pleased thus far.

Surprises
SP Cristofor Villazon - I traded Carl Pateshall, which moved Villazon into the #3 spot, and he has performed very well. He averaged a 3.00 ERA in years past, but this year he is 7-1 with a 1.95 ERA, .86 WHIP, and 78 strikeouts in 78.1 IP.

SP Joe Rodriguez - After trading Pateshall and moving Villazon and Tessai MacArthur up a spot each in the rotation, rookie SP Joe Rodriguez was called upon to fill #5. In five games at the end of 1982, he had a 8.03 ERA, which left me a little nervous. He has calmed those nerves by going 7-2 with a 2.99 ERA, including seven straight quality starts, six straight wins (last start was a ND, 3-2 win), and the May rookie of the month.

C Keita Uchiyama - In 1982 he hit, .268 with a .813 OPS. This year he is hitting .318 with a .925 OPS. He went down in mid-May with a hernia, hopefully he comes back right where he left off.

OF Michio Nago - The 1981 1st round pick is in AAA this season, and is currently hitting .370. He might be in the bigs well before I ever expected. The kid is only 19.

Dissappointments
3B Jorge Taracena - In 1982 he hit .276, with a .888 OPS, 19 HRs and 91 RBI. This year he is hitting just .226, with a .726 OPS, and on pace for just 12 HRs and 59 RBI. He turned 37 at the end of 1982, and he might be hitting the wall. I was counting on him to be a big bat in my lineup, and he has really dissappointed me.

RF Gary Lippincott - In 1982 he hit .281 with a .792 OPS, this year those numbers are down to .241 and .691. The downfall of my offense is largely due to Lippincott and Taracena, my #1 and #3 hitters.

2B R.A. Grounds - As a highly touted rookie, Grounds hit .270 with a .655 OPS, and was a stud in the infield at both 2B and SS. This year, he is hitting .231 with a .644 OPS, and is playing great defense. The problem is, at 25 years old, and a full year under his belt, I was expecting much better numbers from the youngster.

[Riverman]

I wish I could say that I shrewdly put this offensive team together fully expecting the results I have gotten so far this season but that would not be true. A lot of the position players seem to be having career years.

Llombart and Elliot have been the big stars and one or the other leads the IL in most of the major offensive catagories and are 1-2 in several of them. Both appear to be on their way to their first All Star Game appearances.

A few noteworthy achievements from the suuporting cast -

Yoshitora Kitamura, whom I picked up on waivers last season and hit just .168 for me in 27 games is 4th in the IL in VORP despite missing almost 3 weeks with an injury.

Joe Delgado was 2 for 32 with Hyundai before I picked him up in a trade has hit .327/.407/.481 since joining the Brawlers.

Daniel Emery has 2 grand slams and 32 RBIs in just 142 ABs.

Part-time players Manny Patuel and Andy Gulley both have an OPS over .800 although neither has ever posted one above .700 in the BLB before this season.

The only offensive guy who is down a bit is Frank Paradis with an OPS of .781 compared to .860 last year but he has always hit better in the second half of the season for me.

The pitching has been more or less what I expected with no big surprises or disappointments.

[Jake]

Pardon the stupidity, but can anyone give me any feedback on Syracuse? I completely understand if nobody's up for it due to gamesmanship, I'd be the same way. Looks like we're just about middle of the road in everything - rotation, bullpen, bats, below average in the AAA and AA, and decent in A. I don't need any advice, or suggestions, just a reader's digest version of the Slammers recent history. Thanks guys.

[Sully]

http://www.simgamingnetwork.com/blb/news/html/history/team_5_index.html

Looks like they were heading in the right direction last season, until they were totally neglected this season. In 5 years, they've failed to win 70 games three times.

[liquidcrash]

For the Carolina Tobs:

We're playing a little bit better than I expected, as I had us as a .500 team. Our pitching has been very good, but my offense has been sporadic at best, about what I expected in that regard. We play a lot of close games, so I'm pretty happy with how we've done so far this season. Right in the middle of the division race so far, hopefully we can keep winning.

Individually, Vincent Nino might be having the best season of his career. His power numbers are a little down, but he's having his best year in terms of AVG and OBP. We can't get people on base for him, it seems. Tomas Cirlos has also surprised me. He's been an average player through his career, but he's putting in a very solid season so far, he's my 2nd best hitter. Chicho Ochoa has been a bit of a surprise for me since picking him up from Washington.

Pitching: Saul Soriano has continued to pitch well coming off his Rookie of the Year last season. Parongao and Ponte have been my 2 worst starters so far, I'm not sure what to think about that. The bullpen guys have done well, led by Cabezas and FA-signee Ba. I'd like to see John Frahill and Matt Rogers pick it up a little bit, they're capable of pitching better than they have.

I'm not sure what direction this team is going for the future. My minor leagues have been a disappointment in developing talent, and our top picks continue to lose talent once they hit my system. I've got a couple players I think will make an impact on the BLB level, but that's a big priority for me, getting more talent in the minor league.

[Clay]

Pardon the stupidity, but can anyone give me any feedback on Syracuse? I completely understand if nobody's up for it due to gamesmanship, I'd be the same way. Looks like we're just about middle of the road in everything - rotation, bullpen, bats, below average in the AAA and AA, and decent in A. I don't need any advice, or suggestions, just a reader's digest version of the Slammers recent history. Thanks guys.

http://www.simgamingnetwork.com/blb/news/html/history/team_5_index.html

Looks like they were heading in the right direction last season, until they were totally neglected this season. In 5 years, they've failed to win 70 games three times.

They have decent talent in the low minors and really haven't traded away any young prospects or picks in the past few seasons. Their BLB talent is, as you said, pretty "meh", but they have a few nice players. With a pretty healthy farm system you should be able to either wait it out and get healthy in a few seasons or parlay those young guns into some BLB talent through trade.

You have a rather large payroll, but you're also top tier in budget. You really don't have any bad contract besides, arguably, Toby Rochester.

It's a solid team that really just needs a little love to improve.

[Clay]

I'll also take this 1/3 mark to mention.... how frickin' good is Tardif so far? Good Lord!