SIM COMPLETE - 1988 - Regular Season 2

[Andrew]

Next sim: Friday (noon ET)

[Delandis]

24-0 Wow...i quit.

[Carlos]

Great. Norm Coleman becomes the 7th Denver pitcher in the Top 100 Prospect List.

Bad. Luca Marciano is out four months with shoulder inflammation. Guess he'll have to wait till 1989 to debut in the BLB.

4-2.

[Jake]

Our pitching is pathetic. It's sad how terrible I am at evaluating talent and how many promising careers have been ruined in Syracuse... exhibit a, Julian Orozco.

[Matt]

Oh come on...Hartford get's my Waiver Wire guy because they are 1-5 and I'm 2-4. Let's just forget they won 89 games last season and made the playoffs each of the past two years. WTF?

And I'm not mad at you Whale...good pickup. I just think basing pickups off 1 week of games is bull. From now on Batavia goes 1 man starter mode Week 1 just to get the first shot.

[Jim]

Oh come on...Hartford get's my Waiver Wire guy because they are 1-5 and I'm 2-4. Let's just forget they won 89 games last season and made the playoffs each of the past two years. WTF?

And I'm not mad at you Whale...good pickup. I just think basing pickups off 1 week of games is bull. From now on Batavia goes 1 man starter mode Week 1 just to get the first shot.

I agree--that does suck, however your idea of a 1 man starter may backfire...last season I did that (on accident) and if I remember right I started 5-1.

[rubisco43]

well, kafu at ss failed miserably.

[Jake]

I *think* it's actually based off of last season's standings for the first few weeks. It's came up in the past IIRC.

[Matt]

I *think* it's actually based off of last season's standings for the first few weeks. It's came up in the past IIRC.

I can't imagine a team with 28 more wins than me having a worse first few weeks.

[Jistic]

Back to Playboys baseball. No hitting, but my pitching is death. All the investments we've made over the years in the bullpen are now starting to pay off. We've always had the starters, just not the pen.

[Spectre]

Swept by Indy and took 2/3 from Syracuse, the offense just isn't getting it done right now. This team could be a big time seller at the deadline if these guys don't start hitting. I'm happy with the pitching so far and Pat Richmond comes off the DL for this sim as well. However, the offense is failing miserably right now.

[Clay]

Uuughh... I think I just threw up in my mouth.

[BradZ]

Philadelphia Freedom (4 - 8, 5.0 GB)

The bad news: we went 2-4 again. The good news: we only fell one game further back in the standings. The other good news: it's early, there's time for things to settle down. We hope.

We lost two games this sim that we simply can not afford to lose. One game was an offensive explosion in which we scored 7 runs on 18 hits and led at one point 7-1 and another was a game we led 4-1 going into the ninth inning only to see our closer choke up 4 runs to lose 5-4.

1-2 @ Los Alamos


Gm 1: This one hurts. Tim Nathan was not very good and got knocked around a bit (6.0 IP | 10 H | 6 R | 4 ER | 1 K), but thankfully the offense was there to bail him out, or so it seemed. We put up 7 runs in the first 3 innings and then failed to score again. The game went 15 innings. Jim Newlin went 3 for 6 | 1 R | 3 RBI | 1 HR. Three infield errors killed us. 14 men LOB didn't help either.
PHI 7 LAM 8 (15 inn)

Gm 2: This game represents Freedom baseball the way we envisioned it. The pitching was solid, the offense was timely and there was no late inning drama. Joe Arredondo was solid (6.1 IP | 5 H | 2 ER | 5 K) in picking up his 1st W in a Freedom uniform. The bullpen was steady in allowing 1 ER the rest of the way. Young trade acquisition Takahashi hit his 1st Freedom HR and went 2 for 4. So, good day all around for the former Colonials.
PHI 6 LAM 3

Gm 3: The good: Ben Irvin allowed 3 hits. The bad: 1 of those hits was a 2 run HR by Johnny Buzzell. Not a terrible sin, but when the offense manages 0 runs on 4 hits it’s enough to get you beat.
PHI 0 LAM 3

1-2 vs Windy City

Gm 1: This was the other back breaker during this sim. Ray Minnoz cruised through 8 innings (3 H | 1 ER | 3 BB | 3 K). That’s as good as it gets from him. Then Joe Alveraz took his spotless stat sheet to the mound for the 9th. He apparently also took a jug of kerosene and a Zippo with him. He only recorded 1 out and quickly saw a 4-1 lead become a 5-4 deficit.
CHI 5 PHI 4

Gm 2: Joe Aurillo was in line for his first W of the season, leaving after 6.0 IP without surrendering a run. Two unearned runs allowed by the BP took that win away from him. Thankfully that was all the BP would allow, as this one went extras. OFer Jose Urra plated the winning run in the 12th on a 2-out double. SS Geoff Scott picked up 5 hits in 5 trips (including 2 doubles and 1 triple for 9 TB).
CHI 2 PHI 3

Gm 3: I hate facing Raul Castillo. It’s always salt in an old wound. Knowing he was Freedom property at one point, but seeing him in a Windy City uniform is too much to bear, especially because he always dominates us. We managed 4 hits, all singles and didn’t score a run as he pitched a CG shutout on 93 pitches. Just another day at the ballpark for that guy. Tim Nathan pitched much better than his last time out, falling 1 out short of a CG (8.2 IP | 9 H | 3 ER | 4 K).
CHI 3 PHI 0


Good:

SS Geoff Scott - put up a line of .333 | .419 | .519 for the week
C Victor Alveraz - rookie had a .350 | .381 | .550 line this week

Not as Good:

Pitching - a bit misleading because the staff as a whole had a 2.93 ERA for the week, but the pitching really let us down in two very winnable games. That’s the difference between a 2-4 week and a 4-2 week. It’s also the difference between being 4 games under .500 and at .500.

[Clay]

Virginia Colonials (4-8)<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
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This Week: 0-6<o:p></o:p>
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0-3 vs <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Carolina</st1:place></st1:City><o:p></o:p>
0-3 @ <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Davenport</st1:place></st1:City><o:p></o:p>
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What Went Wrong<o:p></o:p>
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It’s only right to start with the obvious… next to every thing went wrong in an 0-6 week, but here are the highlights:
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-- Mel Woodbury went 0-The Week! No hits in 18 official at-bats. That should never happen to a player of that caliber… but it did.
-- Pitching failed us on every level. Starting pitching wasn’t good (save a nice a Pitching Battle between Magness and Gugs)… Bullpen was worse. Starters got chased, ‘pen blew opportunities. To say Clay Jolley has been BAD is an understatement. We said from Day 1 he would have a short leash. He didn’t have to win us games, just not lose them… right now he’s losing them. He’ll get 2-3 more starts to figure it out.
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-- Only 4 hits a piece this week from guys we were counting on like Poling, Maeda and Hernando. They don’t all need to be .300 hitters, but how bout .240? Hell, how bout .200?
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-- No bench help. We got only 3 hits all week from guys outside our Top 8. We have too much talent on the bench to not count on a little clutch fill-in work.
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-- Giving up the longball. 6 more HRs this week – 4 from the pen. Have to keep that ball down.
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What Went Right<o:p></o:p>
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Hard to find a lot to be positive about coming out of an 0-6 week… but we’ll try.
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-- Vincent Nino hit well in his first week back. Not great, but good enough to extend his hitting streak to 18 games going back to last season.
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-- Dale O’Hegarty went .417/.462/.625/1.087 to continue to develop into a legit star in this league. He hit his first bomb of the season and has had at least 2 hits in 8 of the first 12 games and at least 1 in 10.
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Bottomline<o:p></o:p>
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Not much to be overly positive about, but the most important thing to remember is that it is a LOOOOOONG season. 0-6 weeks happen. You don’t have to come out of April dominant, especially when you’re still trying to learn what you have in your rotation. I feel like I’m going to get what I need out of this team in time.
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The other silver lining is that, while these first 12 are important, all we really have to do is win the Stout. 7-games coming up this week against our Division – all on the road. It’s time to put up or shut up.

[Pat]

Washington Bats (7-5)
3-0 vs. Batavia
3-0 @ Baltimore

1-5 week...to a 6-0 week....not sure what to think.

The Good
-The pitching staff posted an ERA of 1.50 this week. Most deserving of recognition is SP Rayford Winchel who gave up one run in 14 innings and struck out 14 as well. Not bad for a "3" stuff guy. MR Martin Carlton struck out seven in three innings. Closer Grant Lewis had three saves in three scoreless innings. Not bad as a group.

The Bad
-1B Eddie O'Fallon is out for over a month with injury.
-SP Ryan Vest will miss a start due to injury.
-2B Robert Abbott is suspended for four games.

The Ugly
-MAP is hitting .167, which just won't do.