Originally posted by JQLorenz, Buffalo Bison GM
Last year Buffalo acquired the young
Angus MacGyver from New Orleans as the main piece in a 6 player trade that sent away veterans
OF Christopher Crawford,
RP Marty Powers and
3B Jack Dark.
At the time, the team had envisioned Angus as the replacement to
Ray Fontenot who's career was ending in the worst possible way at 4-18 with a 6.85 ERA. Angus was everything Ray was, lefty, great endurance... control and movement but got hit hard at times. He was languishing away in the New Orleans bullpen and anxious to get a shot starting... Sure he was a bit green, being just 22 at the time, but the elder Fontenot was supposed to do a vulcan mind meld and impart valuable wisdom on the youngster. It didn't work very well and Angus finished 1994 with a 5-9 record and 5.30 ERA... In fact towards the end of the season he fell out of favor sooo much with management that they had basically written him off as a future fixture of the rotation and were resigned to watching him have a brilliant AAA career.
But the dawn of a new simulation era in the game brought new life to MacGyver.... and he's rolled with it. After 13 starts this year he's 4-5 with an impressive 3.59 ERA and has allowed 72 less hits than 1994 in just 43 less innings.... He's also managed to cut down his walks with some seasoning, giving out just 15 free passes in 95 innings this season. In fact, Angus is the distinguished of the best pitching performance this year.
The game was
April 11th, the venerable Vegas Hustlers were in town and a familiar face was on the mound in
"Toothbreaker" Jones, a former #1 pick by the Bison who never amounted to anything in Buffalo. Both pitchers were having the game of their careers, tossing around 0's like they were going out of style.... Jones lasted until the 8th, yielding 3 hits, 3 walks and 10 k's. However MacGyver was better and rolling through 9 inning and INTO the 10th with ease. His final line was 10 innings, 3 hits, 1 walk and 7 K's on 111 pitches.... pretty damn nice. However it was a bad day for Buffalo and that wasn't the worst of it... after
God pitched 2 good innings, it went to the 13th scoreless... when
Butthead Thug blew it in classic fashion....
He's still had ups and downs this season, but given overall performance, we can live with him and he's earned his spot this season and beyond... of course this could all change at a moment's notice as it usually does with