Team Record: 39-82
Sim Record: 3-5
Games
8/11 - 4-2 loss @ Minnesota - Steelman's record drops to 5-16. Wow, that's bad. Unfortunately, there really isn't anyone who could bump him out of the rotation. He did only give up 5 hits though while accumulating 7 K's. I think he's just gotten unlucky. Mingo had an RBI double as well as scoring a run for us.
8/12 - Off Day
8/13 - 5-4 loss @ Texas (10 innings) - Jerkins had a 2-run homerun in the top of the 9th to tie this one up, but Arnie Stier couldn't prevent the Banditos from getting two hits and the winning run.
8/14 - 4-1 loss @ Texas - Vin Koenig provided pretty much provided all of the offense with a solo homerun and a single (half of the teams hits). Paul Long gave up 4 runs on 7 hits.
8/15 - 2-0 loss @ Texas - Diaz, McLaughlin, and Long had our only hits of the day, all singles. We wasted a great start by McKie (7IP, 4 hits, 2 ER on 74 pitches).
8/16 - 7-4 loss @ Utah - Vin Koenig and Richard Jerkins provided most of the offense in this one (a combined 5-8, 3 RBI, 3 runs, 2 HR, and a walk). Steelman loses his 17th game. Anyone want to take a bet on 20 losses?
8/17 - 2-1 WIN @ Utah (12 innings) - Amos Oberlin scored on an Oscar Oakley single in the bottom of the 12th to put us up for good. Oakley also had another RBI in this game. O'Parra pitched well enough to keep us in the game. Briscoe got the win.
8/18 - 5-0 WIN @ Utah - I'll let the game's "Breaking News" tell this one: "UTAH - Alex Acevedo had an unexpectedly great performance against Utah on Wednesday, pitching a 2-hitter for his 1st shutout of the season. 'I really like to play baseball, and I love the way I was able to play it today.' Acevedo (1-4) fanned 3 and walked none, throwing 86 pitches. Vin Koenig provided Colorado with the offense Acevedo needed as he got 2 hits in 5 AB, and collecting 3 RBI. The final score of the game was 5-0." Along with getting the first win of his career, Acevedo also scored 2 runs.
8/19 - 2-1 WIN @ Utah - Paul Long set a career high for K's in a game (8) while pitching 8.1 innings of 1 run, 6 hit ball. Francisco Diaz scored a run and had an RBI.
8/20 - 8-1 loss @ California - McLaughlin and Koenig each had 3 hits, but the rest of the team could only manage 2 more. Chet McKie scored our only run while pitching well (6IP, 7 hits, 3 ER) but still giving up a career high 5 walks.
Standings
Code:
Great Explorers Standings
East
Team W L PCT GB Stk L10
Kansas 75 46 .620 - W4 8-2
Wisconsin 75 46 .620 - L1 6-4
Texas 63 60 .512 13.0 W1 6-4
Illinois 59 63 .484 16.5 L2 6-4
Minnesota 49 72 .405 26.0 L1 4-6
New Mexico 42 80 .344 33.5 W1 5-5
West
Team W L PCT GB Stk L10
Washington 88 34 .721 - W2 5-5
Idaho 68 53 .562 19.5 L2 6-4
Nevada 62 59 .512 25.5 W1 4-6
Utah 60 62 .492 28.0 L4 3-7
California 50 73 .407 38.5 W2 3-7
Colorado 39 82 .322 48.5 L1 4-6
The playoff teams are nearly set. Nevada could make a run at Idaho, but it's more than likely that Idaho will hold them off.
Pitching
Code:
Name G GS W L SV ERA IP HA R ER BB K
s1 P. Long 24 24 8 12 0 3.67 149.2 162 68 61 31 52
s2 C. McKie 28 28 7 9 0 3.64 175.2 180 74 71 33 77
s3 C. Steelman 26 26 5 17 0 5.20 152.1 171 94 88 48 79
s4 A. Acevedo 8 8 1 4 0 3.95 54.2 54 25 24 13 21
s5 J. O'Parra 18 18 3 11 0 4.78 86.2 106 54 46 16 39
mr R. Souza 70 0 4 2 1 4.76 75.2 73 41 40 21 64
mr D. MacKenzie 40 0 2 4 0 4.28 61.0 64 36 29 23 23
mr B. Suggs 12 0 1 1 0 4.19 19.1 20 13 9 12 9
mr E. Divell 5 0 0 0 0 9.00 6.0 9 8 6 4 7
su W. Chee 57 0 3 2 8 3.60 60.0 50 24 24 22 47
su L. Briscoe 50 0 1 3 2 3.14 57.1 48 23 20 18 37
cl A. Stier 50 0 3 4 9 3.10 49.1 60 19 17 11 17
17 losses by Steelman! Chet McKie had 17 losses last year, but the Colorado Ram record for losses is by a guy named Alex Ramirez way back in 2006, with 18. I am pretty confident that Steelman will SMASH that. So much for his good start.
I'm pretty impressed with Souza's performance. 70 games with a 4-2 record? For a 40 year old? Who has been with the Rams since the leagues inception? Wow!
Lineup
Code:
Name G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI R BB K AVG OBP SLG SB CS
1 LF L. Mingo 114 421 101 26 4 0 29 44 44 70 .240 .318 .321 4 4
2 SS K. Warner 52 181 45 9 0 4 15 18 10 29 .249 .299 .365 3 1
3 2B V. Koenig 118 411 126 6 1 8 45 41 30 47 .307 .360 .384 1 0
4 CF F. Diaz 114 423 101 15 3 7 38 40 23 80 .239 .283 .338 8 9
5 RF O. Oakley 117 407 77 8 4 11 38 29 38 91 .189 .263 .310 25 5
6 3B R. Jerkins 112 381 71 17 5 5 27 38 28 56 .186 .249 .297 17 5
7 1B S. McLaughlin 106 322 86 4 0 2 26 20 16 67 .267 .305 .298 0 0
8 C R. Long 16 55 10 2 1 0 3 2 1 9 .182 .193 .255 1 0
1B N. Mutsuhito 52 114 25 5 0 0 9 5 3 25 .219 .244 .263 0 0
2B J. Carmona 72 125 27 6 0 0 7 8 8 19 .216 .267 .264 2 0
SS A. Oberlin 88 167 34 5 1 2 16 12 7 21 .204 .249 .281 0 0
C C. Baker 74 120 23 6 0 4 8 16 7 20 .192 .236 .342 6 1
OF K. Biel 64 130 21 6 1 0 8 13 9 20 .162 .220 .223 10 4
Just because it's a pretty cool little bit of trivia, Leandro Mingo once had 18 triples in a season (2018). The all time record for triples in a season in the NPBL is 19, by Wisconsin's Jerry Quattlebaum in 2008.
I added stolen bases and caught stealing above, just so you all have a reference for speed (Oakley, Jerkins, and Biel). Oakley is actually a member of the 30-30 club (twice). It's actually quite sad to see how far "Atomic" Oakley has fallen off this year. His AVG/OBP/OPS for 2020, 2021, and his career are as follows:
2020 - .214/.290/.699
2021 (this season) - .189/.263/.572
Career - .254/.328/.768
As an added note, Oscar Oakley is 30 runs away from 1500 runs. It will be very tough to do (as he is retiring at the end of the year), but it would be awesome for him to reach that plateau. He's 13th on the all time list right now.
Team Rankings
Batting AVG: .232 (23rd)
Homeruns: 55 (24th)
Walks: 271 (24th)
Stolen Bases: 90 (12th)
Runs Scored: 367 (24th)
Pitching ERA: 4.36 (22nd)
Opponents AVG: .273 (23rd)
HRs Allowed: 111 (21st)
Walks Allowed: 318 (8th)
Runs Allowed: 566 (20th)