OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post

Art Deco · 11-01-2021, 06:02 PM

Before I get into the monthly honorees, some news around MLB.

Omar Rodriguez became the latest recent former Ray to suffer a substantial injury this year. O-Rod will miss 6 weeks with a hamstring strain, part of a somewhat disappointing year for the San Francisco Giant. He's hitting 300/357/462, but with only 8 HR and 49 RBI as he hasn't brought the kind of production with him he featured with us. Part of it is going from a great hitting environment at Publix Park to the Giants' ballpark, but the Giants had eyes on contending this year after adding a bat like his to their "young guns" pitching staff, but instead they're barely on the periphery of the NL Wild Card race.

Damani Cotton, traded to the Cubs a couple of weeks ago for Luis Balladares, is also on the shelf now after he also strained a hamstring and will miss 5-6 weeks as well. Chicago leads the NL Central so his absence could be a bit more costly. And O-Rod and Cotton are on top of the long-term injury suffered by another recent Rays mainstay, Bo Angeac with Arizona. Bo has only played 15 games this season and has been out since mid-late April with a severe hip strain. He's slated to be back around September 1 but it's too late for Arizona which fell out of contention. As a result of that fact and that Angeac is a free agent at year's end, Arizona put him on the trading block and I came thisclose to re-acquiring him since Jim Gebers has been a huge disappointment this year. The price was going to be relief prospect Doug Combs, who was acquired from the Giants in the O-Rod deal and has pitched well at AA Montgomery but what made me opt against it was the fact we'd also have to shed someone from the currently-full 40-man roster and there's nobody on there I would want to waive. So I'm hoping some positive regression from Gebers shows up around playoff time.

Now to the awards:

Josh Alexander has been this year's Ben Hill, doing nothing but rake after being recalled as the stats cited above reflect. Here's hoping he doesn't repeat Hill's trajectory of getting off to a hot start next year and then going completely cold. Hill is now Alexander's platoon partner at DH on the short side.

As alluded to before, Cervantes hasn't sulked since being sent back to Durham earlier this year, even though he has nothing to prove there after going .350-30-100 last year with the Bulls. He didn't get a real fair shake when he was up with only 44 AB and right now he's a victim of our #toomanyoutfielders depth chart. Odds are he's traded this winter as he's too good to waste at Durham.

I've also mentioned Pontello before as it's not often you have a guy with MLB-rated 70 power hitting in High-A ball but that's the story here. Of course that 70 power comes with 35 contact. Now if he could hit .270 (or even .250) like he did this month all the time he'd be something special but as you can see his .270 month brought his season average up to .218.

11-01-2021, 06:02 PM	#1419
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 7,750	July Players of the Month Before I get into the monthly honorees, some news around MLB. Omar Rodriguez became the latest recent former Ray to suffer a substantial injury this year. O-Rod will miss 6 weeks with a hamstring strain, part of a somewhat disappointing year for the San Francisco Giant. He's hitting 300/357/462, but with only 8 HR and 49 RBI as he hasn't brought the kind of production with him he featured with us. Part of it is going from a great hitting environment at Publix Park to the Giants' ballpark, but the Giants had eyes on contending this year after adding a bat like his to their "young guns" pitching staff, but instead they're barely on the periphery of the NL Wild Card race. Damani Cotton, traded to the Cubs a couple of weeks ago for Luis Balladares, is also on the shelf now after he also strained a hamstring and will miss 5-6 weeks as well. Chicago leads the NL Central so his absence could be a bit more costly. And O-Rod and Cotton are on top of the long-term injury suffered by another recent Rays mainstay, Bo Angeac with Arizona. Bo has only played 15 games this season and has been out since mid-late April with a severe hip strain. He's slated to be back around September 1 but it's too late for Arizona which fell out of contention. As a result of that fact and that Angeac is a free agent at year's end, Arizona put him on the trading block and I came thisclose to re-acquiring him since Jim Gebers has been a huge disappointment this year. The price was going to be relief prospect Doug Combs, who was acquired from the Giants in the O-Rod deal and has pitched well at AA Montgomery but what made me opt against it was the fact we'd also have to shed someone from the currently-full 40-man roster and there's nobody on there I would want to waive. So I'm hoping some positive regression from Gebers shows up around playoff time. Now to the awards: Josh Alexander has been this year's Ben Hill, doing nothing but rake after being recalled as the stats cited above reflect. Here's hoping he doesn't repeat Hill's trajectory of getting off to a hot start next year and then going completely cold. Hill is now Alexander's platoon partner at DH on the short side. As alluded to before, Cervantes hasn't sulked since being sent back to Durham earlier this year, even though he has nothing to prove there after going .350-30-100 last year with the Bulls. He didn't get a real fair shake when he was up with only 44 AB and right now he's a victim of our #toomanyoutfielders depth chart. Odds are he's traded this winter as he's too good to waste at Durham. I've also mentioned Pontello before as it's not often you have a guy with MLB-rated 70 power hitting in High-A ball but that's the story here. Of course that 70 power comes with 35 contact. Now if he could hit .270 (or even .250) like he did this month all the time he'd be something special but as you can see his .270 month brought his season average up to .218.