SIM COMPLETE - 1987 - Regular Season 24

[Clay]

NEXT SIM: Tuesday

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Most likely no HTML all week with Andrew back on Vacation.

[Whale]

0-6 week...the wheels are coming off the bus!!

[Guest]

Ton of people going down to injuries...I don't want to rush the young guys (not to mention Briggs is hurt), so my team is gonna look pretty ugly in the last part of the season.

[Ryan]

3-3 with a sweep of Hartford, then getting swept by Pawtucket.

[Jistic]

The worst month in franchise history! 5-14.

Keep up the good work boys. Screw it, it's about draft position now. We're gonna go from a 3 game lead in 1st place to under .500. Well done!

[Spectre]

Lost 2/3 to Dallas (blew the rubber game of the series), then swept Hartford.

Lost Chewning for the next two weeks (i.e. the rest of the regular season) and lost my closer Pat Richmond due to a herniated disc. Had to reshuffle the bullpen as a result. Fuentes will be closing again.

6 games up on Los Lunas with 13 games left to play- have a huge 3 game set with Maine this sim and then 3 with Hyundai. Los Lunas has Dallas and Sin City. The magic number right now is 8... still have a 3 game set with Los Lunas for Thursday's sim though (would love to wrap it up before then!)

Called up #73 prospect catcher Anibal Calderon up- I've been toying with the idea of bringing him up in September and then I lost Italo Cossa for a week. Velunza is not hitting at all and we're going up against Hudder, Corrigan and O'Moore so I'm going to need the offense- he destroyed AA this year so I feel he's ready. He's probably going to be competing for the starting job next year and he's just chilling in the minors so I'll put him to good use.

[Gyrodork]

Looks like The Storm will be representing the Lager division in the post season. After sweeping Hartford, they've managed to add another game to their lead over the furry pigs (now 6). My boys came on in September, but it was too late. We'll fight to the finish, but I think it's now obvious we'll be tipping our caps to Ol' Miss come October. Congrats Spectre!

[liquidcrash]

4-2 week, but we got no help and the division is back tied. I can't complain about my week seeing as we won both series on the road at Washington and Baltimore. Absolutely huge series against Los Alamos this coming sim. At least its at home.

[Spectre]

Looks like The Storm will be representing the Lager division in the post season. After sweeping Hartford, they've managed to add another game to their lead over the furry pigs (now 6). My boys came on in September, but it was too late. We'll fight to the finish, but I think it's now obvious we'll be tipping our caps to Ol' Miss come October. Congrats Spectre!

Thanks!

But we're not popping open the champagne yet, there's still a tough week ahead for us. Anything's possible :)

[BradleyB]

ugh. 5-1!?! i'm fighting for draft position here!

good news is some of my young pitching showed some promise. maybe next season won't be as bad as i thought.

[spot]

4-2 week, but we got no help and the division is back tied. I can't complain about my week seeing as we won both series on the road at Washington and Baltimore. Absolutely huge series against Los Alamos this coming sim. At least its at home.

We are a much better road team. Although a 5-1 homestand surely is good to see.

Looking forward to this series, hopefully both teams show up and we have some good games.

[Riverman]

It should be an interesting finish; I'm not sure if we have ever had this many teams in the hunt for a playoff spot this late. A couple of sims ago Cali, Philly and Hartford all looked very likely to get in but that is far from clear now as Denver or Dallas could oust Harford, while the loser of the Carolina/Los Alamos battle could nip the loser of Philly/Cali for the last IL spot.

Washington's cold streak ended at almost exactly the wrong time for Cali. I understand that there is discension in the California locker room over the decision to shut down staff ace Conan Wilkerson in the midst of the stretch drive. Some players suspect that it was Wilkerson's inability to stand the pressure of the pennant race that caused the move and the official explanation - that Wilkerson had reached some kind of innings limit for the year -was simply a cover for him.

Meanwhile, I see that Washington lost another starter and the rumor is that management may have to rethink their earlier plan of using a 7-man rotation during the playoffs. In that game I notice that Martin Carlton was awarded the win despite the fact that he threw only one pitch and didn't retire a batter or even finish the AB to the batter he threw the pitch to.

[Clay]

Virginia Colonials (75-74)

1-2 @ Philly
2-1 vs Windy City

What Went Right:
- Played tough, close games against good teams.

- 6 games - 0 Errors

- Nate Magness wins his 5th in a row with another strong outing. He struggled through the 7th inning, but held on for the W. He improves his record to 13-10 on the season.

- Jerry Morgan gets his 1st Career BLB victory in impressive fashion out-dueling BLB Legend Dunmore Theodore in a 3-1 win over Windy City. The kid went 7.0 innings, scattering 4 hits striking out 9 and issuing no free passes. Love this kid's stuff.

- Bullpen continues to be a bright spot for this club and looking good for the future. They worked 14.0 innings this sim allowing 0 runs, only 5 hits, 3 walks and 9 K's.

- Dale O'Hegarty continues to play well out of the 3-hole (.375/.524/.500/1.024) while Joshua Poling seems to have shaken the effects of his August slump (.440/.440/.640/1.080)

What Went Wrong:
- Herrera and Franklin both got roughed up a bit in Philly. They didn't embarass themselves by any stretch, but with some of Philly's injuries, I was really hoping to get a W out of one of them.

- Still need to see more production out of the OF. Montez Dardon hit 3 bombs this week, but didn't do much else. Nelson was invisible and Artie Rhodes was sub-par.

- Rookie Yoritoki Maeda was pretty average this week. A few more XBH's, but still waiting for him to really break through. This will be a big off-season for him.

- Still think this team has enough horses to be in the WC Race right now. Awful June just killed us.

Coming Up:

13 games to go and I need 6 wins to lock up .500. With 7 to go against Co-Commissioner's Cup Contenders and a 3 game set with Washington where they might be resting regulars to get their playoff rotation set, I feel like my chances are decent, but far from a lock. My next 3 games clearly have the largest impact as I head to Los Alamos for 3 nights and hope to play spoiler in their playoff push. 3 in Wilmington caps the first week.

[liquidcrash]

Carolina Tobs (81-68, T-1st in Bock)

2-1 @ Washington
2-1 @ Baltimore

The Good

-We won both series. I was worried about a long road trip at this point, but we came through with a 4-2 week. Still in 1st place with 2 weeks to play and I never thought I’d say that this season.

-Our starting pitching remained solid. Tajo Delclos shut out the Bats in our first game and Hector Castre held them in check in game 2. Parongao pitched another gem against the Bulldogs. None of our starters gave up more than 3 runs, so I’m happy about that.

-I don’t know where to put this one. Nevada Guizan was 4/21 this week. But 3 of those hits were HRs and he drove in 7 runs. I can live with a poor average out of him as long as he runs into a few and drives them out of the yard. He’s got 20 bombs this year and plays excellent defense at catcher on the cheap, so we’re happy with his play.

-Angelo Opio is hot right now, riding a 15 game hitting streak. He went 11/26 (.423) this sim.

-Herb Lefebre won IL Batter of the Week and was 10/20 at the plate.

The Bad

-The bullpen really cost us in the games we lost. Specifically, Leland Rupp burned the stadium down in both appearances, getting the L in both games. He’s had a solid year, so I’m hoping its just a hiccup and he locks them down going forward.

-We lost setup man Ted Jackson for the remainder of the season. He hadn’t been playing well lately, but before his recent struggles he’d been our best reliever. It’s going to hurt losing him but hopefully we find someone to step up.

-Dan Hogan’s hot streak appears at an end. Frank Hamlet didn’t give us much.

What’s Next

-The biggest week of our season is coming up. We’ve got 3 at Batavia where I’m hoping for sweep (at least a series win) and then we host Los Alamos for what could be the deciding series in the Bock Division race. I like how we’re playing lately but still only have a 50/50 shot at making the playoffs.

[Carlos]

With Hartford going 0-6, Denver could have used a good week to catch up. Instead a 2-4 week only closed the Wild Card to two games, when it should have been tighter.

Can't complain, however, when an awful week draws you closer to a playoff position. Go figure.