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ayaghmour2 · 05-06-2021, 07:27 PM

Weekly Record: 2-4
Seasonal Record: 58-77 (6th, 32.5 GB)
Stars of the Week
John Lawson : 22 AB, 8 H, 1 HR, 4 RBI, .364 AVG, 1.045 OPS
Dave Rankin : 1 Win, 9.0 IP, 1 BB, 3 K, 0.00 ERA
Marty Roberts : 14 AB, 6 H, 0 HR, 3 RBI, .429 AVG, 1.071 OPS

Schedule
9-14: Win at Kings (1-0): 11 innings
9-15: Loss at Cannons (6-7)
9-16: Loss at Cannons (2-15)
9-18: Win vs Wolves (0-1)
9-19: Loss vs Wolves (5-4)
9-20: Loss vs Wolves (15-11)

Recap
I'm not sure if I should be happy or upset, but our only two wins of the week were 1-0 shutouts. When you find out exactly how we won those games, it gets worse. Since I like focusing on the good, I'm just going to pretend those were the only two games this week. Let's start with the opener, an 11 inning shutout to complete a third sweep of the first place Brooklyn Kings. Milt Fritz didn't pitch the 11th, but picked up the win since we scored in the top half. Fritz walked 6, but allowed just 3 hits with 2 strikeouts as he improved to 17-4 on the season. Ace McSherry struck out two in a perfect ninth and picked up his six save. We only had three hits, one of those Russ Franklin who pinch hit for Fritz to leadoff the 11th. He doubled and scored the winning run. A Ray Ford sac-fly brought him in, but a Harry Barrell error at short got him to third.

Dave Rankin decided he wasn't injured anymore, but after his nine innings the Cougars offense again failed to put a run on the board. Rankin was impressive, 5 hits, a walk, and 3 strikeouts in the shutout victory. Luckily, we were the home team and John Lawson had enough. After he took the first pitch he then swung for the fences, flying out to left field. Rich Langton decided the take and launch method would be his plan of action, but he was unfortunately given a strike. Still, he swung for the fences and managed to hit his 14th homer on the season and second of the week. The walk off victory gave the always unlucky Rankin the win. He is now 15-21 on the season with a 4.07 ERA (114 ERA+) and 1.46 WHIP. Him and Chuck Cole have both struck out 111 on the season, but Cole's 4.1 K/9 is a bit better.

In an interesting turn of fate, I claimed former Cougar Pete Carey who pitched on Monday against Mobile. Carey used to pitch for Mobile, and I wanted an extra arm on the big league club. He left in the third with elbow pain. Turns out the 26-year-old needs radial nerve decompression surgery and will miss the rest of the year. Straight to the 60 for him now, so I am still without the extra arm I was hoping for.

Looking Ahead
This is it, last week of the season. At 62-86, we're half a game back of the Stars for the fourth pick in the draft. It's truly crazy how lucky we were to win our two games, so we really should be 60-88. I'm not saying I want to finish in seventh, but I do want to trade for the #1 pick and I do know that my pick is much more valuable 4th then 6th. Not only that, we have to beat Toronto and Philadelphia while the Stars get the Saints, Kings, and Cannons. They'll be in New York for all the games and I think they might actually be a better team then us. Sure we have the triple LLL's (Lawson, Love, and Langton), but with Page hurt our lineup really thins out. Not only that, Rankin is the only formidable pitcher, but he gets two starts so we're probably going to get t least one win. We'll see what happens.

Even though we do finish the Wolves series on Monday, we end the year with them, so I'll start with the Sailors. They are 90-59, half a game behind the Foresters and five behind Brooklyn. They're off to start the week, so they'll be in Chicago to scout our game against the Wolves. John Kincaid is now three hits away from 2,000, and he'll get to get a chance to hit the milestone in a stadium he is very familiar getting hits at. Kincaid spent more then half of his 1,429 (846) FABL games with us and hit .337/.378/.447 with 15 homers, 64 steals, and 411 RBI's. Kincaid has a respectable .338/.382/.440 (103 OPS+) batting line with 13 steals and 67 RBI's this year and has done a great job in the field. It is interesting to think if the Sailors would be in first if Kincaid and Herb Flynn were having better seasons. Flynn is 13-13 with an adjusted league average 4.82 ERA, 1.52 WHIP, 71 walks, and 77 strikeouts in 222.1 innings. He would have been excellent as a third ace next to Merritt Thomas and William Jones. Thomas is 19-6 with a 3.29 ERA (146 ERA+), 1.31 WHIP, 64 walks, and 85 strikeouts in 205 innings pitched. Jones is 16-13 with a 4.00 ERA (120 ERA+), 1.45 WHIP, 80 walks, and 99 strikeouts in his 263.1 innings. It's not quite the Kings or Foresters rotation, but it's really impressive. These are our last three (well, four) home games and our last chance to add to what is now our 7th consecutive season with one million fans. We rank 6th in attendance despite picking 6th or higher in the draft. Our attendance per game is 14,356, a little down from last season.

We finish the season in Toronto. The Wolves are 72-75 and two ahead of the Saints for the battle to Canada. .500 is still in reach, but they'll need to win all the games against us. Larry Vestal is going to need some help in the lineup if Toronto wants to compete, as former independent acquisition Al Jensen is not enough. He's having a solid season, batting .310/.389/.453 (108 OPS+) with 8 homers and 89 RBI's, but that's not quite what you want from your best hitter in the lineup. I think Doc Love would really help the Wolves, so I'm hoping to work out a deal after the season concludes. They have the pitching to be extremely competitive in the Continental Association. I've covered Joe Hancock enough, but 1930 13th Rounder Jake Smith has put together a nice little breakout season. He's 13-12 with a 4.20 ERA (114 ERA+), 1.40 WHIP, 30 walks, and 64 strikeouts in 212 innings pitched. Last year was his first full year as a big league starter and lost a league worst 19 games in 29 starts. He had decent numbers, a 4.75 ERA, 1.43 WHIP, 28 walks, and 69 strikeouts in 202.2 innings pitched. With George Garrison and Buddy Long waiting in the minors Smith is showing he belongs in the Wolves rotation. He's a reliable #3 now, but he may end up being one of the better fives you could ask for.

05-06-2021, 07:27 PM	#443
ayaghmour2 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2018 Posts: 3,044	Week 23: September 14th-September 20th Weekly Record: 2-4 Seasonal Record: 58-77 (6th, 32.5 GB) Stars of the Week John Lawson : 22 AB, 8 H, 1 HR, 4 RBI, .364 AVG, 1.045 OPS Dave Rankin : 1 Win, 9.0 IP, 1 BB, 3 K, 0.00 ERA Marty Roberts : 14 AB, 6 H, 0 HR, 3 RBI, .429 AVG, 1.071 OPS Schedule 9-14: Win at Kings (1-0): 11 innings 9-15: Loss at Cannons (6-7) 9-16: Loss at Cannons (2-15) 9-18: Win vs Wolves (0-1) 9-19: Loss vs Wolves (5-4) 9-20: Loss vs Wolves (15-11) Recap I'm not sure if I should be happy or upset, but our only two wins of the week were 1-0 shutouts. When you find out exactly how we won those games, it gets worse. Since I like focusing on the good, I'm just going to pretend those were the only two games this week. Let's start with the opener, an 11 inning shutout to complete a third sweep of the first place Brooklyn Kings. Milt Fritz didn't pitch the 11th, but picked up the win since we scored in the top half. Fritz walked 6, but allowed just 3 hits with 2 strikeouts as he improved to 17-4 on the season. Ace McSherry struck out two in a perfect ninth and picked up his six save. We only had three hits, one of those Russ Franklin who pinch hit for Fritz to leadoff the 11th. He doubled and scored the winning run. A Ray Ford sac-fly brought him in, but a Harry Barrell error at short got him to third. Dave Rankin decided he wasn't injured anymore, but after his nine innings the Cougars offense again failed to put a run on the board. Rankin was impressive, 5 hits, a walk, and 3 strikeouts in the shutout victory. Luckily, we were the home team and John Lawson had enough. After he took the first pitch he then swung for the fences, flying out to left field. Rich Langton decided the take and launch method would be his plan of action, but he was unfortunately given a strike. Still, he swung for the fences and managed to hit his 14th homer on the season and second of the week. The walk off victory gave the always unlucky Rankin the win. He is now 15-21 on the season with a 4.07 ERA (114 ERA+) and 1.46 WHIP. Him and Chuck Cole have both struck out 111 on the season, but Cole's 4.1 K/9 is a bit better. In an interesting turn of fate, I claimed former Cougar Pete Carey who pitched on Monday against Mobile. Carey used to pitch for Mobile, and I wanted an extra arm on the big league club. He left in the third with elbow pain. Turns out the 26-year-old needs radial nerve decompression surgery and will miss the rest of the year. Straight to the 60 for him now, so I am still without the extra arm I was hoping for. Looking Ahead This is it, last week of the season. At 62-86, we're half a game back of the Stars for the fourth pick in the draft. It's truly crazy how lucky we were to win our two games, so we really should be 60-88. I'm not saying I want to finish in seventh, but I do want to trade for the #1 pick and I do know that my pick is much more valuable 4th then 6th. Not only that, we have to beat Toronto and Philadelphia while the Stars get the Saints, Kings, and Cannons. They'll be in New York for all the games and I think they might actually be a better team then us. Sure we have the triple LLL's (Lawson, Love, and Langton), but with Page hurt our lineup really thins out. Not only that, Rankin is the only formidable pitcher, but he gets two starts so we're probably going to get t least one win. We'll see what happens. Even though we do finish the Wolves series on Monday, we end the year with them, so I'll start with the Sailors. They are 90-59, half a game behind the Foresters and five behind Brooklyn. They're off to start the week, so they'll be in Chicago to scout our game against the Wolves. John Kincaid is now three hits away from 2,000, and he'll get to get a chance to hit the milestone in a stadium he is very familiar getting hits at. Kincaid spent more then half of his 1,429 (846) FABL games with us and hit .337/.378/.447 with 15 homers, 64 steals, and 411 RBI's. Kincaid has a respectable .338/.382/.440 (103 OPS+) batting line with 13 steals and 67 RBI's this year and has done a great job in the field. It is interesting to think if the Sailors would be in first if Kincaid and Herb Flynn were having better seasons. Flynn is 13-13 with an adjusted league average 4.82 ERA, 1.52 WHIP, 71 walks, and 77 strikeouts in 222.1 innings. He would have been excellent as a third ace next to Merritt Thomas and William Jones. Thomas is 19-6 with a 3.29 ERA (146 ERA+), 1.31 WHIP, 64 walks, and 85 strikeouts in 205 innings pitched. Jones is 16-13 with a 4.00 ERA (120 ERA+), 1.45 WHIP, 80 walks, and 99 strikeouts in his 263.1 innings. It's not quite the Kings or Foresters rotation, but it's really impressive. These are our last three (well, four) home games and our last chance to add to what is now our 7th consecutive season with one million fans. We rank 6th in attendance despite picking 6th or higher in the draft. Our attendance per game is 14,356, a little down from last season. We finish the season in Toronto. The Wolves are 72-75 and two ahead of the Saints for the battle to Canada. .500 is still in reach, but they'll need to win all the games against us. Larry Vestal is going to need some help in the lineup if Toronto wants to compete, as former independent acquisition Al Jensen is not enough. He's having a solid season, batting .310/.389/.453 (108 OPS+) with 8 homers and 89 RBI's, but that's not quite what you want from your best hitter in the lineup. I think Doc Love would really help the Wolves, so I'm hoping to work out a deal after the season concludes. They have the pitching to be extremely competitive in the Continental Association. I've covered Joe Hancock enough, but 1930 13th Rounder Jake Smith has put together a nice little breakout season. He's 13-12 with a 4.20 ERA (114 ERA+), 1.40 WHIP, 30 walks, and 64 strikeouts in 212 innings pitched. Last year was his first full year as a big league starter and lost a league worst 19 games in 29 starts. He had decent numbers, a 4.75 ERA, 1.43 WHIP, 28 walks, and 69 strikeouts in 202.2 innings pitched. With George Garrison and Buddy Long waiting in the minors Smith is showing he belongs in the Wolves rotation. He's a reliable #3 now, but he may end up being one of the better fives you could ask for.