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09/17/2040
A week of have and have not as two teams (Paw/SDR) won six games and seven teams (Bal/Har/Bat/Was/WC/LA/Cal) won five games, while one team lost six games (NY) and two more lost seven (Phi/Car). If you can follow all that congrats to you! What it comes down to is that with two and a half weeks left it looks like the playoffs have been set, but we'll talk more about that later.
Power Rankings
1) Seattle Pilots (120.4, o)
2) Montreal Exports (117.0, o)
3) Windy City Blues (113.3, +)
4) Santo Domingo Rum Runners (110.6, ++)
5) Batavia Red Jackets (110.5, ++)
6) Washington Bats (108.5, -)
7) Pittsburgh Millers (107.5, --)
8) California Kodiaks (106.1, +)
9) Syracuse Snappers (98.3, o)
10) Denver Bulls (97.2, --)
11) Hartford Whalers (92.7, ++)
12) Maine Guides (92.7, +)
13) Pawtucket Patriots (89.9, ++)
14) Phoenix Roadrunners (88.1, +)
15) New Orleans Voodoo (84.3, -)
16) Wilmington Clowns (81.5, --)
17) Baltimore Bulldogs (80.7, ++)
18) Toronto Canadians (76.2, -)
19) Philadelphia Freedom (73.8, --)
20) Los Angeles Dinos (73.6, ++)
21) Indianapolis Racers (69.7, -)
22) Carolina Tobs (56.5, --)
23) New York Knights (51.6, -)
24) Dallas Drillers (48.3, -)
Performance of the Week
3B Khalil Harris - The Dallas Driller turned in the #6 hitting performance of the season on September 10th against New Orleans. In four at bats he recorded four hits, two of which were home runs, drove in six, and scored three times in a 12-5 Drillers drubbing of the Voodoo. The 26 year old was a 1st round pick way back in 2031 by Toronto but was traded to Miami last season. This year he's hitting .286/.331/.404 with 6 HRs, 44 RBI's and a 1.4 WAR.
Injury of the Week
2B Killian Pena - The 39 year old has had a couple rough weeks, first getting involved in a brawl and suspended five games in late August, and now getting hit by a pitch and fracturing his elbow bone on September 11th against Baltimore. He came into the league from Venezuela when he was 31 years old and put together five All-Star seasons in six years with Washington and Los Angeles before coming to New York this off-season. If this is the end of his BLB career it has definitely been a success. Reports are that he will return to his hometown of Caracas to rehab and will make a decision to return or retire this winter.
Prospect of the Week
CF Jeremy Rhodes - In the Denver organization AAA outfielder Mitchell Townsend gets a lot of press but Rhodes is no pushover. In 119 games in A ball he hit .336/.414/.488 with 10 HR's, 59 RBI's, and 35 SB's while putting up a +5.3 ZR in center. He was the second pick of the second round in 2038 out of Oregon and at 22 years old scouts think he could be a serviceable backup center fielder.
Five Things We Think We Think
1. After this past week the playoff teams might already be set with only the match-ups to be determined. In the IL Denver went 3-4, but Philly had a tough schedule against Washington and Windy City and got swept by both. Their GM called them 'gutless' publicly but for a team who won 20 more games (to date) than last year 2040 was a success. The Bulls now hold a six game lead for the final wildcard spot and have a 96% chance to make the playoffs. They have gone 9-6 in September with Saul Wang and Rory Elia leading the charge. Wang is 5-1 with a 2.29 ERA in his last 10 starts while Elia has hit .442 with 6 HR's in his last 14 games. In the Domestic it looks like Montreal and Pittsburgh will win their divisions, while Santo Domingo, Syracuse, Maine and Wilmington will be in the wildcard. The Clowns hold a five game lead over New Orleans with 16 to go and 13 of them being at home.
2. Welcome to 2040 to Windy City's Sidney 'Doofus' Ishibashi. This past week he hit .333 with 3 HR's, giving him five for the month. That is more than any previous month and more than he hit in April, May, and June...combined. The Blues are 10-5 in September after winning 18 games in each of the previous two months and have moved into the #1 wildcard spot. They are double digits behind Seattle and won't win the Bock but does anyone want to face Mejia and Sadiraj combined with Dawson Davis and a hot 'Doofus' in a best of five?
3. Another guy who woke up was Dino's outfielder Amari Gibbs. After getting blasted on a local podcast he hit .367 with 5 HR's and 13 RBI's in his last seven games as the Dino's went 5-2. He signed a $106,000,000 contract last year and the fact that he was hitting .266 with 17 HR's prior to this week was not going over well in the media. On the season he's now hitting .272 with 22 HR's, 80 RBI's and a 1.7 WAR. Sadly LAD is 54-92 and making history. The worst season this team ever had was in 1995 when they won only 58 games and they were the Hyundai Dinos.
4. Last season we had two .400 hitters, this season the Miller's RJ Kapper leads the entire BLB with a .359 average with Dominique Graham and Logan Wilcher coming in second tied at .342. Kapper doesn't even play against LHP and rumors are that management might not even pick up the 33 year olds $20m option for 2041. For now though he continues to hit the ball like days of old. He led the BLB in average in 2033, 2034, 2036, and 2037 and if he wins his 5th title that would put him in a tie with Jamie Rush for most all time.
5. Trey McCaffery won one game in three starts in AAA and got called back up, and now has lost three of his last five starts with two no decisions. The poor guy is 0-16 with a 7.95 ERA on the season and just can't get a break. On September 4th he only allowed two runs in six innings but the Voodoo lost 2-1 to Windy City. Then on September 15th against Syracuse he allowed four runs in five innings, but two of them were unearned, and in the end Syracuse won 8-5. This guy was a 2038 All-Star and went 14-6 last season. If he doesn't win one of his last few starts he'll tie the all-time record for biggest drop in wins. The only solace is DJ Engstrom is on the list with 14 as well after winning 22 in 2015 and only 8 in 2016. He went on to be an 8x All-Star and was inducted to the BLB Hall of Fame in 2034.
Stat o' the Week
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| Largest Drop In Wins With No Significant Drop In Innings (Top 25 Players, Min 80% IP in 2nd season) |
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