OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post - New World Baseball League: Funky Times (Season 1)

battists · 08-02-2018, 08:34 PM

Paul thanked Carlos Trujillo for coming in, and closed the door behind them as they left the office. Good kid. His English had already improved drastically in the few weeks he'd been here. He was doing everything you want to see as a manager; worked hard, really kept on his teammates to be accountable, especially the Spanish-speaking ones. Really busted it out on the field. He was going to run away with the stolen bases title if he kept this up. Kid was AVERAGING over a steal a game, and they were almost quarter of the way through the season! Granted, the league wasn't all that old, but he was going to shatter the Liga Mexicana record for steals in a season, which was a mere 29 back in 2015. Trujillo had 23 already!

Carlos Trujillo:

They parted ways, with Trujillo heading to the locker room, and Paul shouldering his bag and heading for the parking lot. They were hitting the road again tonight after a homestand that hadn't been terribly welcoming. After a great start, they now had lost four straight series, including to a Tijuana Potros team that was now a putrid 7-14 even after taking two of three from Hermosillo. Next up was a set with the 18-4 Juarez Jalapenos, who were on a 9-1 tear in their last 10. Not looking great.

The rapid-fire personnel changes continued, as they were likely to do all season. Paul's "he doesn't belong here" calls up the chain hadn't gone unheard, and Cyril Stefanelli had headed up to Anaheim on Wednesday after hitting .441/.478/.593 in 15 games. With no Cyril, and having lost Francisco DeLeon after a hot minute, they had struggled to score consistently all week. It was Santiago Sanchez who was keeping things going offensively. He'd remained hot this past week, hitting .385/.529/.456, although he didn't have a ton to show for it, with just 1 RBI and 3 runs scored. Outfielder Glenn Payne had been pretty productive as well (.375/.583/.500). Between him and Alfonso Martinez he'd at least gotten some production from his outfield, but beyond those three, the cupboard had been pretty darned bare in the past week. They just had so little power on this club. At this point he had ONE home run on his club, between all of his players put together. And that was from Alex Bowen, the catching golden boy, he of the .094 average that was making it nearly impossible to play the kid.

His pitchers were having a tough go of it. Granted, it was hard to follow with all of the turnover. But it didn't take an analytics whiz to realize that Bill Winters was really struggling out there. Opponents were hitting .500 against him, for Pete's sake! Six of his pitchers had WHIPs over 2.00 for the season. That wasn't going to cut it. One of the new kids, Sean Basinger, had looked pretty good. They'd picked him up as a FA, and he'd thrown 10 innings this week. 0.97 WHIP, 6.1 K/9 and only 2.6 BB/9. Paul didn't know if he could keep it up, but it was at least a promising start, and the club desperately needed one of those. And actually, the week was very up and down. They'd pitched two shut-outs, a 10-0 win vs Ecatepec and 3-0 vs Tijuana to close out the week. But in their other four games they had given up an average of over seven runs a game.

But the kids seemed to be doing OK. The clubhouse didn't seem tight, and they were starting to develop some camaraderie. There were a couple of unhappy faces. Will Lucas looked like someone had killed his dog, but it was a tough thing to be up in A ball, then find yourself back with the rookies. Not everyone could deal with that. They'd talked about it a bit, but Lucas was wearing his emotions on his sleeve, and Paul would have to keep an eye on him. It was an interesting situation for him to be in as a manager. He'd played professionally, so he had that wisdom to share with these players. He knew the game, he knew what it took to be in the big leagues. But he'd been playing in independent leagues after MLB shut down, and he was drafted right into the new league in 2015. He had never played a day in the minors. So, they were going through an experience he couldn't quite empathize with. But he certainly knew plenty of guys who had.

He saw pitching coach Mark Sherman up ahead, and shouted at him to wait up. He jogged to catch up with Sherman, and the conversation quickly turned to pitching as they headed for the bus.

Team Status
Season Record: 10-11
Record for this Stretch: 2-4
Position: 3rd

Standout Performers
1B Santiago Sanchez (.385/.529/.462)
RF Glenn Payne (.375/.583/.500)

SP Sean Basinger (10.1 IP, 0.97 WHIP, ERA+ 274)

08-02-2018, 08:34 PM	#11
battists Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 18,506	May 3 - May 9, 2026 Paul thanked Carlos Trujillo for coming in, and closed the door behind them as they left the office. Good kid. His English had already improved drastically in the few weeks he'd been here. He was doing everything you want to see as a manager; worked hard, really kept on his teammates to be accountable, especially the Spanish-speaking ones. Really busted it out on the field. He was going to run away with the stolen bases title if he kept this up. Kid was AVERAGING over a steal a game, and they were almost quarter of the way through the season! Granted, the league wasn't all that old, but he was going to shatter the Liga Mexicana record for steals in a season, which was a mere 29 back in 2015. Trujillo had 23 already! Carlos Trujillo: They parted ways, with Trujillo heading to the locker room, and Paul shouldering his bag and heading for the parking lot. They were hitting the road again tonight after a homestand that hadn't been terribly welcoming. After a great start, they now had lost four straight series, including to a Tijuana Potros team that was now a putrid 7-14 even after taking two of three from Hermosillo. Next up was a set with the 18-4 Juarez Jalapenos, who were on a 9-1 tear in their last 10. Not looking great. The rapid-fire personnel changes continued, as they were likely to do all season. Paul's "he doesn't belong here" calls up the chain hadn't gone unheard, and Cyril Stefanelli had headed up to Anaheim on Wednesday after hitting .441/.478/.593 in 15 games. With no Cyril, and having lost Francisco DeLeon after a hot minute, they had struggled to score consistently all week. It was Santiago Sanchez who was keeping things going offensively. He'd remained hot this past week, hitting .385/.529/.456, although he didn't have a ton to show for it, with just 1 RBI and 3 runs scored. Outfielder Glenn Payne had been pretty productive as well (.375/.583/.500). Between him and Alfonso Martinez he'd at least gotten some production from his outfield, but beyond those three, the cupboard had been pretty darned bare in the past week. They just had so little power on this club. At this point he had ONE home run on his club, between all of his players put together. And that was from Alex Bowen, the catching golden boy, he of the .094 average that was making it nearly impossible to play the kid. His pitchers were having a tough go of it. Granted, it was hard to follow with all of the turnover. But it didn't take an analytics whiz to realize that Bill Winters was really struggling out there. Opponents were hitting .500 against him, for Pete's sake! Six of his pitchers had WHIPs over 2.00 for the season. That wasn't going to cut it. One of the new kids, Sean Basinger, had looked pretty good. They'd picked him up as a FA, and he'd thrown 10 innings this week. 0.97 WHIP, 6.1 K/9 and only 2.6 BB/9. Paul didn't know if he could keep it up, but it was at least a promising start, and the club desperately needed one of those. And actually, the week was very up and down. They'd pitched two shut-outs, a 10-0 win vs Ecatepec and 3-0 vs Tijuana to close out the week. But in their other four games they had given up an average of over seven runs a game. But the kids seemed to be doing OK. The clubhouse didn't seem tight, and they were starting to develop some camaraderie. There were a couple of unhappy faces. Will Lucas looked like someone had killed his dog, but it was a tough thing to be up in A ball, then find yourself back with the rookies. Not everyone could deal with that. They'd talked about it a bit, but Lucas was wearing his emotions on his sleeve, and Paul would have to keep an eye on him. It was an interesting situation for him to be in as a manager. He'd played professionally, so he had that wisdom to share with these players. He knew the game, he knew what it took to be in the big leagues. But he'd been playing in independent leagues after MLB shut down, and he was drafted right into the new league in 2015. He had never played a day in the minors. So, they were going through an experience he couldn't quite empathize with. But he certainly knew plenty of guys who had. He saw pitching coach Mark Sherman up ahead, and shouted at him to wait up. He jogged to catch up with Sherman, and the conversation quickly turned to pitching as they headed for the bus. Team Status Season Record: 10-11 Record for this Stretch: 2-4 Position: 3rd Standout Performers 1B Santiago Sanchez (.385/.529/.462) RF Glenn Payne (.375/.583/.500) SP Sean Basinger (10.1 IP, 0.97 WHIP, ERA+ 274) __________________ Come check out my dynasty report, Funky Times!