SIM COMPLETE - 1989 - Regular Season 22

[Andrew]

Next sim; Wednesday

[Pat]

Swept by Wilmington.

Lost SS Jose Sanchez for the season.

Lost my lefty set-up man Takejiro Ito for the season.

Eight games back in the Stout. That's done.

Tied with Wilmington for the Wild Card.




....but my Triple-A team won the Horizon League Championship...and you guys know I'm into that.

[Jake]

Wow @ Wilmington...and also, Carlos, you're not out of it...

[Clay]

Poling
McSwain
Maeda
Herrera
Now Nino is done till Spring Training....

A lot of work to have no team left for the playoffs.

[Sully]

I'm not exporting because my team has been playing well...but I'm going to have to step in and make some changes before the next sim. I'm surprised we're in this position, but Washington has been hit hard by the injury bug. I hope we can capitalize on his misfortune.

[Z]

Bruins suck.

[Carlos]

Wow @ Wilmington...and also, Carlos, you're not out of it...

This is why I hate August.

[liquidcrash]

On July 31st we were 14 games over .500. Since then we've gone 12-26. This has to be the quickest/biggest meltdown in BLB history. I thought we might win 95 games at that point. Now we'll be lucky to get to 75.

From now on I'll never try to add to my team mid-season again. I've learned my lesson.

[Delandis]

Baltimore Bulldogs (70-66)

2-1 v BAT
4-0 @ PHI


Week In Review

-- We pick up a 6-1 week against the division, giving us that great sense of false hope. I'm not going to lie, it did feel good to watch every game against Philly and see us play well in our final series against them. It was refreshing to see our team actually look like one.

-- I truly believe Juan Jose Garcia (P) will be a star (barring injury) next year. The kid looks like he's finally put it all together out there, giving us a good chance to win in each of his last three starts. Between him and Chad Stafford (11-4, 3.39 ERA), I think I have a young and solid #2, #3 in the rotation.

-- A couple of weeks back, Gabriel Huxham (3B) asked to be an every day starter. He has responded to me acknowledging his request by putting a big August and even bigger September (so far). In the outside chance we make the playoffs, I would point to his play as the offensive spark down the stretch.

-- Another key player has been Romano Rodenas (C). He had a very good August (.394/.482/.483) and although his average has dropped a bit in September, Rodenas still sports a .439 OBP through this month.


ON-DECK

-- Next week, we find ourselves playing our final series against Batavia and Windy City, with a sprinkle of California in the middle of the week. I don't expect to make the playoffs anymore, but I'm willing to take "donations" from any Stout or Bock teams to "motivate" us to win against California, Carolina or Davenport.

[Matt]

4-3

1-2 vs. Balt
3-1 vs. Cali

Good

- Ednams hit .500, Jesus hit .440. It's nice to see our two best young guys getting it done.
- We had a team ERA of 3.92 and considering we brought up 2 guys from AAA to pitch it isn't bad
- SP Athey gave us 7 IP, 6 K's, 1 earned run. Finally a #2 to Sasaki.

Bad

- CL Ken Bayer continues to struggle. Two saves but also a 4.50 ERA for the week. 1.01 ERA before the All-Star fiasco to a 2.58 after. His chance for a 3rd straight reliever of the year award is gone.
- 2B Juan Nava hit .136 for the week. We would love nothing more than to fill out the remaining of our infield with a solid 2B and 3B.

On Deck

- 2 vs. Balt, 2 vs. Philly, 3 at Los Alamos
- The one bad month OOTP style of July (7-18 record) doomed us. Oh well it's been a great run and we are playing our normal August/September solid ball...going 24-13 so far.

[Spectre]

The Storm have been very unlucky this year, mainly due to our piss-poor record in one run ballgames. Our Pythagorean record is 70-66 and that's with a crippling injury to my ace. Next year the pen will be tightened up with the addition of Raul Reyes and Bao-tian Ching to the BLB squad and hopefully a healthy starting rotation.

Just for kicks, Joe Rodriguez has pitched extremely well (5-6, 4.10 ERA, 1.28 WHIP) and is certainly doing a lot to earn a role for next year. He and Jermaine Lewis (13-11, 1.31 WHIP) are probably going to fight it out for that last spot in the rotation next season with the loser going to the pen.

All in all, I'm happy with what the team has been doing and I'm excited about the future. Also, strongly consider Joe Rojas for your New Brew votes: >300 BA, on pace for 30+ HR and 115 RBI.

Thank you Troy Sisk!

[BradZ]

Philly Freedom (73-63; 5.0 GB)

2-1 vs California
0-4 vs Baltimore

That might just about wrap it up this year. We had a great chance to make a real move in the standings, but could only match CAL’s 2-5 record. Baltimore can take great joy in torpedoing one of our last opportunities to try to make up some ground in the division. It’s still not over, but we’ve had a lot of guys starting to work on their short-games in the clubhouse. Joe Arredondo’s flop shot is really progressing nicely.

The Good

-Started the week the right way, taking the first 2 of the CAL series, but then (see first item in “The Bad” section.

-We didn’t lose any ground in the standings despite our 2-5 result. It’s not a lot, but it’s something

-Steve Bing produced for one of the first times all year before being lost for the rest of the year with a torn labrum. He’s one and done in Philly. He was underwhelming for most of the year and that’s saying something because expectations were very low to begin with.


The Bad

-Lost the last 5 games this week. A 5 game winning streak followed immediately by a 5 game losing streak. That’s not going to get it done.

-19 runs scored in 7 games.

-32 runs allowed in those same 7 games

-Ben Irvin threw a gem in his 1 start this week: 1/3 IP | 5 HA | 6 ER | 3 BB | 0 K. That’s an ERA of 162.02 for the week. His season ERA jumped .25+ in 1 game. Nice.

-We are now 3 games below .500 at home this year. The silver lining? We only have 6 more home games this season.

What’s Next

-A busy travel week. 2 @ CAL; 2 @ BAT; and then 3 @ MOR. Anything less than 2 games gained in the standings will relegate us to the land of Hail Mary’s.

[Lintyfresh85]

Magic number is now down to 22.

Hope to see it around 15 by the end of next sim!

[Lintyfresh85]

Philly Freedom (73-63; 5.0 GB)

2-1 vs California
0-4 vs Baltimore

What’s Next

-A busy travel week. 2 @ CAL; 2 @ BAT; and then 3 @ MOR. Anything less than 2 games gained in the standings will relegate us to the land of Hail Mary’s.

I was shocked when I saw that Baltimore swept you. After the way you played me... I thought for sure this was the sim you were going to pull ahead for good.

[BradZ]

I was shocked when I saw that Baltimore swept you. After the way you played me... I thought for sure this was the sim you were going to pull ahead for good.

We are a weird, weird team. When we look back at this season with disappointment as you celebrate the division crown (which might happen with us on your field since we end the year with 4 at your place, unless you decide to give us a mercy killing earlier instead of dragging it out) we will be able to point to several key results/matchups:

1) We are currently 10 games over .500, but 3 games under .500 at home. That’s inexplicable. We should be built to win in our own place and we just aren’t getting it done.

2) We currently sit at 5-10 against Baltimore. You just can’t struggle against a division foe like that in an unbalanced schedule.

3) We are 5 games under .500 in 1-Run games and 7-8 in extra innings. The past two years we have excelled in both of those categories

4) We are -3 games against our expected W/L total and CAL is +4