Note… Phil grabbed me in the hallway on my way to my office this morning to tell me that he expects this club to, at the very least, make the playoffs…. Um, yeah dude, me too.
Minnesota North Stars (0-0, .000, 1st NL West) @ Los Angeles Lakers (0-0, .000, 1st NL West)
If the preseason predictions, where everything happens inside of a vacuum, are to be believed then the new-look club from Minneapolis will finish the 2077 season 23 games off the pace. It seems that even ushering in a new identity will not be enough to solve their most basic problem – that they are just not good enough to compete with the Big Dogs of the MLB. They did some good things in the offseason – improved their Minor League system enough to crack the top ten (#8), traded for Matt Olston, dumped their once-in-a-generation Catcher, Rex Engelstad, for Norm Rodriquez (they won’t be able to afford Rex next year), and purchased the contracts of two Bush League players (who belong in the Major League system). So, not a complete loss – just not enough to immediately improve their lot in life. These seeds will take some time to grow if they grow at all.
Speaking of which… CL Frosty Dillard, who earned 38 saves in 2075 for the San Francisco 49ers, and who was one of my guys during my Phoenix days, is now officially a Bush League guy – he signed with the Columbia Blowfish for ~$3.4M during the offseason. He made 18 appearances for the Jacksonville Jaguars last season – I find it hard to believe that he will be in the BL for long. I’m sure that Columbia is looking forward to the buy out fee and not being on the hook for his contract in short order. And, because I failed to mention it earlier, Donny Jeter, now with St. Louis, is the only Jeter Bro in the bigs as
Derek remains unsigned… not for long though, I’m sure.
1 of 162: Norm Rodriquez (0-0, 0.00) @ Paul Yeager (0-0, 0.00)
Loss, 6-5. It’s always nice to lose on opening day. It’s even nicer if you manage to lose on opening day after your Championship Ring presentation, and even better still if you take the L in extras. So, yeah, we checked all those boxes here and are off to a rip-roaring start to the 2077 campaign. Yeager pitched well over 7.1 innings where he allows only three runs to plate – it was a solid debut – and Rudolf Caldwell picked up right where he left off as he gave up 3 in 2 innings and allowed 2 home runs.
Good stuff. Voorhis is fitting right in, a 2-run ding dong & 3 total RBIs for the new guy, Otto, Hamza, and Cooke all scored, and Pepper committed a suspect fielding error – maybe his glove hand is tired from carrying all that cash we gave him in the offseason – dunno, not sure.
Elsewhere: Former Laker, Nat Millard, pitched 8 innings with 10 K’s in his Philadelphia debut… so, that’s cool. Philly won the game by a score of 4-2 over the Pittsburgh Steelers (who, by the way, have a swanky new ballcap).
2 of 162: Matt Olston (0-0, 0.00) @ Michael Brisk (0-0, 0.00)
Win, 7-2. New guy, 1B Arnold Webster, hit his first HR in the Purple & Gold, and drove in 3 runs, and Brisky, who recently tried to tell our clubhouse manager that he couldn’t afford his clubhouse dues because he has 7 traffic citations to pay first (give a man a Lambo and he thinks he owns the world), went 8.1, allowed two runs, and K’d 5 in his first win of the season. As a club, we stole 4 bags (Rajkumar, Arnold, and 2x for Hamza), got caught once (Ethan – this is his second time being caught mid-thievery so far in 2077), and PEPPER hit a double. A nice bounce-back effort to draw us even on the season.
Elsewhere: St. Louis RF Jonah Dove hit his
300th home run for his career today against Orlando City. It came off of SP Cathal Magill in the top of the 9th (stash that one away for all your trivia night needs). He is currently sitting at 1992 hits for his career, so we should be hearing about another milestone in relatively short order. Nash Aguilar & Rocco Navarro were claimed off waivers – was hoping we’d get away with that. It’s no bother though – Nashty hasn’t been as cool without his dead-sexy ‘stache anyways. RF Boogie Barnett went 4 for 4 with a run in MIT’s loss to the Mississippi State Bulldogs – the Equations are now sitting at 6-5 on the year, so Boogie’s .419 average, 2 jacks, and 10 riblets aren’t leading to W’s just yet.
3 of 162: Octavio Cervera (0-0, 0.00) @ Dejuan Burns (0-0, 0.00)
Win, 5-1. Okay, cool, we opened the 2077 campaign with a series win over the North Stars – we can live with that. Burns gave us a complete game, 1 run effort in this one, Voorhis, who is fitting right in, went 3 for 4 with two doubles, and Ethan drove in two runs. Otto is easing his way into 2077 so far – he’s hitting .200 with no homers or RBIs. Lonzo Gonzo stole a bag, Hamza committed his first error in a Laker kit, Dom hit two doubles, and Arnold hit a SAC FLY – he’s a solid teammate, glad I picked him up… even if he’s only hitting .187 so far. Oh, side note… I demoted Oh Hong back to Compton. It seems that me wanting him to be ready and him actually being ready are two very different things.
Elsewhere: Rocco is gone – he’ll be plying his trade in St. Louis going forward… good luck young man, we hardly knew ye… AND, Nash Aguilar is also gonzo – he’s now located up north with the Toronto Reds where he will most likely languish on the bench for the rest of the year.
Derek Jeter is still unsigned… clocks ticking on his career… The La La’s have a day off before heading out to Orlando & Brooklyn for a 6-game road trip… neither club has high expectations this season, so we may be getting off easy over our first 9-games of the season, we have some real patsies on the docket to kick off the season of the 100-year anniversary of the release of The Clash’s self-titled LP.