The 2038 Daily Key - Week 1

[Matt]

04/12/2038

(AP)

And we are off! The 2038 race to the Brewmasters Cup is on! Gosh we are excited! We are trying to use the same amount of punctuation marks as the California GM in his most recent Tweet "We are 6-0...where the heck are all the fans!?!?!?" As mentioned those Kodiaks went undefeated and were the only team during the opening week to do so. The Denver BC...er Bulls...weren't far behind though as they went 6-1 while posting a 2.57 team ERA. Other great weeks were had by Indianapolis, Hartford, and Montreal who each went 5-2. On the other side of the life Syracuse went 1-6, Philadelphia went 1-5, and Baltimore and Pittsburgh went 2-5. It is always frustrating to start out slow, but with 25 weeks to go we don't quite need a fire sale yet.

Power Rankings

1) California Kodiaks (192.0, +)
2) Denver Bulls (165.3, ++)
3) Hartford Whalers (132.6, ++)
4) Montreal Exports (132.6, ++)
5) Indianapolis Racers (130.6, +)
6) New Orleans Voodoo (106.9, ++)
7) Maine Guides (104.9, +)
8) Washington Bats (104.9, ++)
9) Los Angeles Dinos (102.9, -)
10) Miami Sharks (91.0, o)
11) Wilmington Clowns (89.0, ++)
12) Seattle Pilots (78.1, ++)
13) Toronto Canadians (78.1, ++)
14) Windy City Blues (78.1, ++)
15) New York Knights (77.1, -)
16) Phoenix Roadrunners (75.1, o)
17) Santo Domingo Rum Runners (75.1, +)
18) Batavia Red Jackets (74.1, --)
19) Carolina Tobs (74.1, --)
20) Pawtucket Patriots (73.1, --)
21) Pittsburgh Millers (46.4, --)
22) Baltimore Bulldogs (44.4, --)
23) Philadelphia Freedom (23.0, --)
24) Syracuse Snappers (19.7, --)

Performance of the Week

P Dave Short - It took the 35 year old Short all of two starts to get back into the groove. Against Phoenix on April 11 he started out hot and ending up pitching a complete game shutout during a 12-0 Knights victory. Over 107 pitches he allowed only one hit, struck out 11, and walked two as only Sacco van Gorp's fourth inning single broke up a no-hitter.

Injury of the Week

P Ian 'Wild Card' Hopman - The ace of the Dinos needs to find someone else to work on his car after slicing his hand open changing the oil on April 6th. After starting off the season with a 4.1 inning, no hit, five K effort against Windy City on the 5th he showed up on the 6th for the 7:05 PM game with a bandaged hand and arm in a sling, which nearly gave manager Atsushi Taniguchi heart failure. Hopman is expected to miss another 2-3 weeks.

Prospect of the Week

1B Chaz Welliver - The 6'4, 205 lb 17 year old is in his 3rd year for the Jackson HS Polar Bears and scouts are already drooling at his potential. In 104 high school games he's hitting .367/.414/.653 with 35 HR's and 120 RBI's with a 151 OPS+. His only downfall appears to be his fielding, as even his ability to play first base is severely limited. We're pretty sure though his hitting potential overshadows all and he is projected to go in the top five picks.

Five Things We Think We Think

1. How about those Bulls! After losing the opening game of the season 1-3 to Phoenix they beat the Roadrunners the next two then swept Baltimore to end up 6-1 on the week. New name, new uniforms, new players, and the fourth ranked minor league system all mean things are looking up for the Bulls.

2. New York lead off man Ezekiel Redford started out the game against Phoenix on April 11th in quite the fashion. After two pitches he quickly found himself down in the count 0-2. He then went ball, foul ball, foul ball, foul ball, ball, foul ball, foul ball, foul ball, foul ball, foul ball, ball, foul ball...and finally Ball four to take his base. He then scored when the following batter Jonathon Valenti tripled. The Knights never gave up the lead.

3. Chang-hyun Kym came out of North Korea in 2029 and was signed by Hartford's scout to a minor league contract. He won the 2035 AA Outstanding Hitter award, broke into the BLB the following season and by 2037 was a BLB All-Star and DWI and Silver Slugger winner in left field after he hit .297 with 37 home runs. Now in seven games he's hitting .360/.414/.960 with 5 HR's and 13 RBI's. He is already a fan favorite and at 26 years old looks to be another superstar slugger for the Whalers.

4. Is the end coming soon for Johnny Swope and Ian James, two of the most prolific hitters over the last decade in the BLB. They are both in their 15th season as 'Pickles' is 35 while 'Big Stick' is 36, and they are now 7th and 9th on the top players list, the lowest they have been in quite some time. In their opening weeks James hit .240 with 2 home runs while Swope hit .143 with 1 home run. With a combined 24 All-Star games and 8 Stout Sluggers you would be hard pressed to find a better 1-2 combo in the history of the BLB.

5. Interleague kicks off this week already. Some interesting match-ups are California at Santo Domingo, Wilmington at Carolina, Washington at Maine, and Seattle at Indianapolis.


Stat of the Week
.

Most Strikeouts in Debut Season (Top 25 Players, Inaugural Season Ignored)

Player Team Year K Conan Wilkerson CAL 1987 203 Alex Dominguez+ BAL 2020 194 C.J. Baase WIL 2018 191 Dave Koehler WAS 2020 191 Pang Shuai SEA 2030 185 Travis Neal CHI 2002 184 Bill Roman IND 2021 184 Hyuk Har CHI 2028 177 Pancho Herrera VIR 1987 175 Hoon Park SYR 2021 174 Jonathon Burns CAR 1999 174 Jacob Stokes DAV 2023 172 Angelo Sanchez NO 2001 170 Laurent Boutin CAL 2004 169 Jaime Stone+ LAM 2018 168 Doug Miles PHI 1989 164 Dave Marcella DAV 2015 164 Tony Castillo PIT 2027 162 Ismael Bernal VIR 1992 162 Eric Reese PIT 1980 159 Pat Arballo WAS 2026 158 Tommy Lang DEN 1980 157 Dave Gotschall DEN 2020 157 Jimmy Ballard NYK 2014 157 Dave Smith DEN 2015 156

..
______________________________________

2038 DK Season Predictions

(once again the DK takes no responsibility for trades/injuries/OOTPR and should be used for entertainment value only)

Ale
x Wilmington
z Hartford
Pawtucket
Maine
Pittsburgh
Syracuse

Lager
x Santo Domingo
z Indianapolis
z New Orleans
z Toronto
Miami
Montreal

Stout
x Washington
z Batavia
z Carolina
New York
Philadelphia
Baltimore

Bock
x California
z Seattle
z Los Angeles
Denver
Windy City
Phoenix
______________________________________

Wild Card

Toronto over Hartford
Indy over New Orleans
Seattle over LAD
Batavia over Carolina

Divisional Series

Santo Domingo over Tortonto
Wilmington over Indy
California over Batavia
Washington over Seattle


League Championship

Santo Domingo over Wilmington
Washington over California

Brewmasters

Santo Domingo over Washington 4-2

______________________________________

Stout Slugger

Archie Thorington - Wilmington
JD Rice - Baltimore

Pale Ale

JJ Plumley - Wilmington
Barton Mejia - Windy City

Refreshing New Brew

Curtis Noworyta - Toronto
Benji Allgood - Denver

[PaulC]

Great stuff as always Matt! Watson vs. Sierra, with Watson taking it this time... Yes!!!!

[Nemesis]

Only Ian Hopman....

[Carlos]

Conan "Clay'd" Wilkerson. What a beast.

[liquidcrash]

Good stuff as always, Matt. It's good to have the DK back for another year.

I'd be happy to win the IL, it'd be the progression from the last 3 seasons where we've gone one round further each year (lost in WC in 2035, DS in 2036 and then the ILCS in 2037), so losing there makes sense.

A quick Bats preview:

What's New? Defense. I signed Oscar D'Addona to be the new shortstop, which should be a big upgrade defensively for this team. He's a multiple DWI winner at that spot, and it'll allow Coleman Franklin to play 2B where his glove should be better, and it'll move Babbage to the outfield most days, where he's rated pretty highly with the glove. The new configuration could be one of the better fielding teams in the league.

New Faces - Six rookies made the Opening Day roster, which is probably the most I've had, or at least close to it. Two of them - SP Alan Allen and RP Camden Sullivan - were called up in September and will have big roles on the pitching staff. 1B Blake Hartman and C Aden Grant will have everyday roles in the lineup, and I've written about those 4 guys on the Rookie Debuts thread. Two more debuts have also now happened, with 2B Donte Kim and OF Giovanni Devereaux. Kim had a big year in AAA last season and I'll try to get him some AB's to see if it translates. Devereaux is perhaps my most versatile player, so he can help at several spots and be a defensive replacement, but he's probably not going to play a ton of games.

What's Gone? The biggest piece to depart this offseason was DH and Team Captain, Joy-shan Guo. He'd been one of our best hitters and great for the clubhouse, so it could be a big loss. We also lost several relievers (Norberg, Green, Brown) and a couple of infielders in Lopan and Nichlos.

Overall: This team looks good to me. We were agonizingly close to the Brew final last year, and on paper I think this year's team is a little bit better due to the depth created by the rookies and the fielding improvement. Hopefully it translates that way on the field.

[Pat]

Good read as always Matt.