SIM COMPLETE - 1987 - Regular Season 23

[liquidcrash]

Carolina Tobs- 77-66 (1st- Bock, 1 Game Up)

1-1 vs. Davenport
1-1 @ Los Alamos
3-0 vs. Wilmington

The Good

-Another winning week for us as we’ve taken over first place. I continue to be surprised by this team’s surge, but maybe we have a chance after all. I still expect us to come crashing back down soon.

-Our pitching staff was terrific. We posted a 2.90 ERA as a team and our starters were 7/7 posting quality starts. Matt Rogers converted all 3 saves and the rest of our bullpen (with one notable exception) did their jobs as well.

-Dan Hogan continued his hot streak. His hit streak was snapped at 14 games but he still posted a .360/.407/.640 week. He’s really come to life lately. In our last 12 games his line is .440/.491/.720 with 4 HRs and 11 RBI.

-I already mentioned our pitching, but I’ll add that Parongao is on one of the best hot streaks of his career. In his last 12 starts he’s 6-0 with a 1.31 ERA and 0.82 WHIP. He’s given up more than one earned run just twice in that span.

The Bad

-Jimmy Joy’s hot streak appears over after two straight below average sims. Micah Beauregard also came back to Earth after a hot start to his BLB career. He’s still just a platoon player though so I’m not expecting a whole lot.

-Ted Jackson, for the second straight sim had a bad outing. He was one of the best relievers in the league until the past month or so. He ruined a good start by Parongao but luckily we came back and he vultured the win.

The Ugly

-Doug Carlisle, our 4th middle reliever was called into the game against Davenport with the score tied 2-2. His performance: Single, Double, 3-run HR. 0 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, L. He managed to work a scoreless inning the next night despite two walks, then was called into action against Los Alamos with the score 0-0 and a runner on first. He proceeds to give up a double, two walks and a single and we’re down 2-0. I have no idea our manage decided to make him the first man out of our pen but he’s killing us. That’s 3 games in the past 2 sims he’s lost for us as his ERA sits at 19.64 in September.

[Whale]

Well what a surprise. Maine might be the only team in this entire league that can sell off the majority of their best players, yet come back from 5 games down to take a 2 game lead this late in the season....but let's just say I'm not surprised.
Regardless, we have a 4 game lead in the WC, so hopefully that can be held onto despite all the injuries in the pitching staff. Which we lost Chuck Lindsey for 2-3 months. Essentially that's the third starting pitcher we've lost in the last month that would be a playoff caliber pitcher. Might as well pack it in now.

[Andrew]

Well what a surprise. Maine might be the only team in this entire league that can sell off the majority of their best players, yet come back from 5 games down to take a 2 game lead this late in the season....but let's just say I'm not surprised.
Regardless, we have a 4 game lead in the WC, so hopefully that can be held onto despite all the injuries in the pitching staff. Which we lost Chuck Lindsey for 2-3 months. Essentially that's the third starting pitcher we've lost in the last month that would be a playoff caliber pitcher. Might as well pack it in now.

Maine has been on fire since Clay took over simming duties. Good work Clay!

The difference has been Corrigan. He seems to be back to his old self. 6-2 in August in September so far after going 6-11 through July.

[spot]

Sure we do. We have nothing else on our plates. We also took two from Philly. Once again go figure.

And you moving? Grrr....

While it's easy to pin the blame on you I know what the real issue is:

Clay and his new video card! You had to go with a "cheap one", one that you will upgrade "later".

[BradZ]

Philadelphia Freedom (80 - 63, 1.0 GB)

3-4 Overall Seven more road games off the ledger and a 3-4 week. I guess we’ll take that. Still 1 game back in the Porter, but the WC lead was shaved by a game this week to 4. I don’t know if we have enough to hang on or not. The starting pitching seems to be hitting a bit of a wall so I’ll be pushing guys back to get them extra rest, but that means a lesser arm has to fill in the gaps so we’ll just have to see how that works out.


1-1 @ California

Gm 1 CAL has announced that this week was the last we’ll see of Conan Wilkerson during the regular season. If so, he went out with a bang. He struck out 10 Freedom batters in 7 innings allowing only 1 ER (He followed that up with an even more dominating effort later in the week against VIR (8IP 0ER 10K). Outstanding young SP who will dominate the IL for the foreseeable future if he stays healthy. The offense managed 5 hits and plated 2, but we needed at least 3.
PHI 2 CAL 3

Gm 2 Ray Minnoz returned to his midseason form after scuffling a bit the last few weeks. He went 8 allowing only 6 hits and no runs. Joe Alveraz locked it down in the ninth. He has been rock solid recently. The offense scratched out 2 runs on 6 hits and that was enough as the Minnoz/Alveraz duo shutout the Kodiaks.
PHI 2 CAL 0

0-2 @ Batavia

Gm 1 The only highlight was the first career BLB homerun for C Victor Alvarez (also his 1st BLB hit) who is a September callup. Alvarez had two hits by himself. The rest of the lineup had 1. Ben Irvin and 3 relievers gave up 15 total hits and 5 runs.
PHI 1 BAT 5

Gm 2 A day after being held to 1 run on 3 hits the offense managed 0 runs on 5 hits. We really miss Mel Woodbury. Tim Nathan was lit up like some sort of tree with lights on it, allowing 5 ER in 6.1 IP to pick up the loss. It continued his pattern of winning 2 then a loss since coming over to the Freedom. So he’s in line for 2 straight victories in his next two starts. He has picked up the decision in his last 14 starts.
PHI 0 BAT 5

2-1 @ Morgantown

Gm 1 Nathan MacOwl got the start and struggled early, allowing 4 ER in the first 3 innings. He settled down a bit after that going another 3 allowing only 1 unearned run. Greg Josey hit a 2 out, 2 run homer in the top of the 9th to pin a BS on John Cantrell. Joe Alveraz pitched another perfect 9th and notched his 35th save of the season.
PHI 7 MOR 6

Gm 2 Joe Aurillo picked up the win, but he was not dominating. 8 hits in 5.2 innings with 5K. Backup C Harry Endsley had a 2 RBI pinch hit single in the 7th to stretch the lead to 4-0. Jesus Taborga allowed 2 ER in a non-save situation in the 9th before Joe Alveraz came in to pick up a cheap 1 out save on a 3 pitch strikeout.
PHI 4 MOR 2

Gm 3 We led 4-3 after 3 innings, but the Mohawks pitching clamped down while we continued giving up runs. The middle of the MOR lineup did all the damage. 3 Hole hitter Shelby Houck had 3 hits 3 Runs and 2 RBI, Cleanup hitter Glen Reagan had 2 hits and 2 RBI and number 5 hitter Frank Paradis drove in 3 runs on 2 hits. All total the 3-4-5 hitters posted a 7-11 4 R 7 RBI with 3 2B’s and 1 HR. We had no answer.
PHI 4 MOR 8


Good:

Standings - We survived a 7 game road trip without dropping a game to CAL in the Porter and losing only 1 game off our WC lead.

C Victor Alvarez - September callup picked up his 1st BLB hit and homerun on one swing.

3B Juan Coera - hit .409 | .480 | .591, but only drove in 1 run on a solo homer.


Not as Good:

The Offense - .229 | .286 | .329 | .615; averaged less than 3 runs per game; struck out in over 23% of our ABs

The Pitching - 4.27 ERA | 1.53 WHIP; Trevor Broomfield had 1 appearance and was scored on for the first time in forever, ending a scoreless appearances streak of 12 games.

[Clay]

Virginia Colonials (72-71)

2-0 vs Morgantown
2-0 vs Wilmington
1-2 vs California

A little home-cooking finally woke up the slumping bats! The pitching wasn't bad either!

What Went Right:

- The bats... the bats... the bats... and not those gay ones in DC. The team hit .311 for the week which is about .150 points higher than last week. Pretty much every regular contributed resulting in 8 players hitting over .300 for the week. We hit 9 HRs and averaged 5.0 runs a game.

- A Josh Poling sighting! After a lengthy slump pretty much since the Vincent Nino injury, Poling stepped up this week and went .391/.462/.826/1.2888. He hit 3 bombs and drove in 10 runs.

- While Dale O'Hegarty has been arguably one of the best leadoff men in the game since he turned Pro, Management decided to run a little experiment to see if his blossoming talent with the stick may be better served a little further down the order. He was moved to the #3 hole in front of Poling and responded by going .385/.469/.731/1.200, swiping a couple bags, hitting 2 round-trippers and scoring 9 times.

- With O'Hegarty out of the lead-off spot, that left an opening for speedy CF Artie Rhodes to have a shot. In the new role, the kid got on base at a .538 clip and provided a nice spark before getting saddled with a minor injury that sent him to the bench for the rest of the week.

- Two more wins for Joe Arrendondo running his record up to 16-5 on the season. With 1 more win, he will set the team record for Wins in a season.

- Nate Magness came within 1 out of pitching his 3rd straight CG. He did get touched up for 1 run in the 5-1 win over Morgantown. In his last 4 starts, the combined score has been 25-1 in the Colonials' favor.

What Went Wrong:

- September call-up Jerry Morgan had another game get away from him. This time his teammates did everything they could. Got him a lead. Played solid behind him. He just made too many mistakes with good Kodiak bats and payed for it.

- As much as I hate losing to Washington... I think I hate losing to Cali even more. Mostly because I was supposed to be good before they were. Bastards.

- Bittersweet to have a nice week. Nice to move back above .500 and put those 82 wins in sight... but also makes me think a few bounces back in June and we could have been in the WC race.

Coming Up:

A chance to play a little spoiler with games at Philly and Windy City. I hope to do significant damage to both of their seasons.

[BradZ]

1-2 vs California

Thanks!

A chance to play a little spoiler with games at Philly and Windy City. I hope to do significant damage to both of their seasons.

Can't we talk about this?

[Pat]

The Bats have lost seven of their last eight. Stumbling to the finish line is an understatement. Good thing the magic number is just four wins. This team sucks. Will likely be swept in the 1st round.

[Riverman]

The Bats have lost seven of their last eight. Stumbling to the finish line is an understatement. Good thing the magic number is just four wins. This team sucks. Will likely be swept in the 1st round.

I think you just got hit by a designated OOTP cold streak. These usually last 10-12 games or so. I predict you will break out of it the middle of next week by putting up around 15.

I still expect you to get swept in the playoffs, but not until the second round against Carolina.

[Clay]

Can't we talk about this?

It'll be all talk. I'm a combined 5-13 against you two this season. I don't anticipate doing any actual damage.

[Lintyfresh85]

California Kodiaks (81-62)

1-1 vs. Philadelphia
0-2 @ Baltimore
2-1 @ Virginia

The Good
- Conan Wilkerson finishes his rookie campaign with a record of 15-4, 1.98 ERA, 183/52 K/BB a WHIP of 0.99 and a VORP of 60. He'll be shut down for the rest of the regular season. Can't wait till he gets his well deserved IL New Brew award.

- Lucio Mendez had a good week with the bat, hitting .304/.333/.565/.898.

The Bad
- Entire pitching staff outside of Wilkerson. For the first time in a while my starting pitching really let me down in some games I felt we should have won.

- Neto Bermeo. Another week, another sim where he struggled.

The Ugly
- With the shut down of Wilkerson my team could be in for a long haul these next few weeks. Especially worried about the Washington series.

Next Week: 3 @ Morgantown, 3 @ Washington
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[Clay]

IL New Brew Awards do not go to quitters.

[Riverman]

The highlight of my sim was the pitching of Fernando Acencio. Who? Check him out.

http://www.simgamingnetwork.com/blb/...ayer_1336.html

Before this last sim his most recent BLB performance was in 1985 during which he went 2-11, 7.70 in 22 games. He missed all of last year with an injury and I had just signed him to a minor-league deal with the idea of providing some SP depth at the AAA level next season. I went to resign him and noted that all he wanted was $15 million over 2 years. "Hmm, I wonder if this guy is any good" I says to myself, and since I'd been struggling to find some consistency in the 5th starter spot I gave him a try. 13.2 innings in two starts, 8 hits, 1 walk, 2ERs have me wondering if I should take him up on that extension.

[Lintyfresh85]

The highlight of my sim was the pitching of Fernando Acencio. Who? Check him out.

http://www.simgamingnetwork.com/blb/...ayer_1336.html

Before this last sim his most recent BLB performance was in 1985 during which he went 2-11, 7.70 in 22 games. He missed all of last year with an injury and I had just signed him to a minor-league deal with the idea of providing some SP depth at the AAA level next season. I went to resign him and noted that all he wanted was $15 million over 2 years. "Hmm, I wonder if this guy is any good" I says to myself, and since I'd been struggling to find some consistency in the 5th starter spot I gave him a try. 13.2 innings in two starts, 8 hits, 1 walk, 2ERs have me wondering if I should take him up on that extension.

Sample size be damned! Do it!

[Pat]

15 Ks, 1 BB, in 13 IP?

Dude took some HGH in that year off.