14 April 2302
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Nuka News Update
Reporting on the NWL, NWLB, and APYL Leagues
by Evan Guy
2302 NWL Outlook
With just one week to go until the 2302 Nuka World League season begins its regular season, we wanted to take a look at what to expect. Please see the bottom of this posting for a full list of the rated Top Players and Top Prospects in the NWL entering the 2302 season.
Teams to Watch
By our BNN-based calculations, four of the eight NWL teams have legitimate shots to win the 2302 Nuka Series. There have been three different champions in the first three years of the NWL: the Quartz Star Force over the Cherry Ghoulrillas in 2299, the Quantum Nukalurks over Cherry in 2300, and the Grape Painted Ghouls over the Orange Tourists in 2301. This season, the currently calculated most likely scenario is the Victory Cave Crickets over the Nukalurks.
Victory: The Cave Crickets' best weapon is the former CBO pitcher, John Diner. While his record with the Crickets dropped from 13-2 in 2300 to 9-7 last season, he has led the NWL in ERA in his first two seasons (2.24 and 2.97, respectively) and WAR (4.6 and 4.5). Assuming the 34-year-old can remain healthy all year, he is projected to be 13-5 with a 3.33 ERA and finish third in strikeouts with 109. In addition to Diner, Jesse Emacipated is expected to finish 10-8 with a 3.40 ERA and lead the NWL in strikeouts with 120. Victory also has three of the top five projected batters in RF Sam Noob (.335/24/71), 1B Settler Colon (.357/16/51), and 3B Spratt Turnpike (.348/13/50).
Quantum: The Nukalurks are expected to be the overall best pitching squad despite not having the two best pitchers. Still, they have two really good top starters projected in David Strickland (9-7, 3.10) and Roger Carlson (8-4, 2.89). They also have the top closer in Owen X, who has moved from a mid-level starting pitcher to a potential dominant closer. RP Lackadaisical Macnamara is expected to also be a huge addition to the bullpen in 2302 after being cut by the Nordhagen Beach organization of the CBO. RF Eric Streetwalker (.348/13/60 in 2301) is expected to lead the offensive charge, along with SS Tyler Williams and CF Jason Brown.
Veteran Players to Watch
Two aged veterans and two young guys are rated among the best hitters in the NWL. Wild's 3B Ryan Bobb may be the best of the bunch. The 32-year-old was only able to play in 36 games in 2301 due to injury, but in that time he hit .427 with two home runs and 14 RBI. While he does not have much pop to his bat, he does find ways to get on base and his glove is solid. Other top-rated players include the Gatorclaws' 22-year-old 1B Mark Worth who came over from the Fort Hagen organization after being cut and 22-year-old Tourists' LF Tom Mastodon (.323/0/3 in seven games in 2301), who sat out most of his NWL premier year with a severe knee injury after being a former starter with the CBO's County Crossing organization, and 29-year-old RF David Lockpick (.333/6/14 as a reserve in 2301).
Most of the top pitchers were named above, but also look out for Orange's Bull Johnson who went 8-3 with a 3.39 ERA in 2301 and led the NWL in WHIP (1.23) and K/9 (9.5).
Prospects to Watch
The top three prospects for 2302 are Quantum's CF Kell Leek, Wild's C Soup Roper, and the Gatorclaws' CL Will Wylde.
Leek is a great defensive outfielder for the Nukalurks organization but he needs to work more in getting on base. In two seasons with the Quantum B team (now the Nuka Bottling Plant Pack), Leek batted only .191 in 143 starts. He is expected to make a jump in 2302 but may still need time to find his bat.
Roper looked a bit better after being traded in 2301 from the Atom Cats to the Gatorclaws. He was batting a decent .264 with a .342 OBP with the Medford Medics of the CBO's GBRL team. In 9 games with Wild B (now the Safari Adventure Gazelles), he batted .385 and had an OBP of .467.
Wylde was also traded from the Cats to the Gatorclaws in the same trade that brought them Roper. He only pitched two games with Wild, going 1-0 with a 2.57 ERA. In 10 starts with the Cabot House Rayguns (now Triggermen) of the BMU, he went 4-3 with a 6.15 ERA.
Vim! View
Veracious, Vivacious, Vainglorious Vision of the Vim! Leagues
by Vikky Vail
Standings
Analysis
For the first week of the season, six teams had winning weeks, while the other four did not. The voluminous uniforms offset by the voluminous outputs have led to voluminous excitement in the Vim! League world.
Tied with 134.6 points in the Power Rankings, both the Dalton Farm Fog Crawlers and Echo Lake Harbormen look to be the top two teams of the Harbor Division and Fog Division, respectively. Both are at 5-2 and matched only by the Acadia Acadians in wins.
The Fog Crawlers split their first series with the Rayburn Point Patcheyes 2-2 before winning the first three of a scheduled four-game series against the Brooke's Head Behemoths. Both the Behemoths and Patcheyes currently sit at 2-5 in the standings. Dalton Farm's James Darling had the best first week of the season for his team, batting .440 with 4 home runs and 5 RBI.
For the Harbormen, they started with a four-game split with the defending champions, the Far Harbor Ghoul Whales. They then won their first three games of a four-game series over the Patcheyes to cap off the seven-game week. Berg Poppy and Zane Blaze each went 2-0 and hold ERAs of 1.12 and 1.50, respectively. Echo Lake also currently leads the VL in runs scored (45), averaging 6.43 per game. All but one regular is hitting over .300 right now with 2B Cory Schwager batting .462 to start.
Player of the Week
SS Mittens McIntyre, Eden Meadows Anglers, 13/23 (.565), 1 HR, 3 RBI
MDIL Standings
