Occasionally, a player will make a significant athletic leap – delivering on his potential ahead of schedule. So far in 2080, the designation of most improved starts and ends with
Aris Anaconda – his acclimation to life in the Big Leagues sped up to 2x like a podcast that is taking too long to get to the point. He’s doing everything right – his spatial awareness in the box is on point, his bat control and launch angles have been perfect, and his results have him looking like a
Palmer Parker reboot, Predator 2.0 with better night & thermal vision and more advanced weaponry. The skills have always been there, it’s just that
Anaconda 2.0 does it more efficiently, his lethality pervasive, his ruthlessness free of emotion and built on indifference. He’s leading the league in HRs (well, it’s a 4-way tie with
Franzone,
Dontrell, and
Remilido Puente), RBIs (by 7…), and WAR (by 0.4…). At 12 HRs so far, he’s already bested his rookie campaign by 3 in 400 fewer at-bats, is pacing to an unreal 170 RBIs, and is on target to achieve an equally unreal 10.4 WAR.
Interestingly, 25% of his long ball output is coming against one guy – Pittsburgh’s
SP PJ Edmonds. At 24-years old and already in the Majors,
PJ is one of the best pitching prospects we’ve seen since
Josiah Weber – he has it all… movement, control, great stuff, and 3 legendary pitches in his arsenal. While a few more pitch types wouldn’t hurt –
PJ is a guy that many expect to make the Hall of Fame one day. A tall order, sure, but his superb craftsmanship is among the rarest of all baseball resources – a guy from Brooklyn, NY, who schooled at East Carolina, and who was born with a baseball in his hands. So far in 2080,
PJ Edmonds has given up 6 HRs in 48 innings with 3 of those coming from
Anaconda and a 4th coming from
Rueben Johnson. In all, 4 of his 6 HRA’s have come courtesy of our club. In one game we hit three off the guy and still lost by a score of 11-3…So, he doesn't seem to mind.
