OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post

Ruwisc · 01-09-2020, 03:49 PM

Before I start this week, I forgot to mention in the conclusion of last week that we were listed 41st in the power rankings, one spot down from the previous week. The current top 4 are all NL teams:

1. New York Burros (15-5)
2. Memphis Lions (14-6)
3. New Mexico Suns (13-7)
4. Houston Astros (13-7)
5. Oklahoma Oilers (13-7)
56. Milwaukee Brewers (6-14)
57. Austin Violets (6-14)
58. Cleveland Indians (6-14)
59. Arizona Diamondbacks (5-15)
60. Boston Red Sox (4-15)

Our AAA team, the Hawaii Islanders, is off to a perfect 6-0 start after sweeping Edmonton (Beavers) and St. Paul (Twins).

On with the week!

April 18-19: Bees (9-10) @ Pittsburgh Pirates (8-11)
Pittsburgh is struggling probably even harder than we are now, so maybe we can walk into a couple wins by just sucking less. According to the preseason projections, this should be the second-best team in the NL behind Buffalo (but Buffalo's also struggling mightily). The rotation is as good as advertised, but they haven't been able to hit enough for it to matter to this point. They're missing Madison Bumgarner, but that's something they could overcome. We won't see reigning Cy Young winner Wu-Shiun Chen in this series, luckily. The Taiwanese star pitched Saturday in a loss at Miami.

Game 1 - Jack Flaherty (0-2, 4.87) vs. Justin Davis (0-0, 3.00)
SLC: CF Mesa, C Cottam, 3B Guerrero, RF Robles, 1B Ishihara, LF Shirah, 2B Maezes, SS Mota, P Flaherty
PIT: SS Hanoian, LF Duplantis, C Realmuto, 3B Delmonico, RF Harris, 2B Asuaje, 1B Matheny, CF Sewald, P Davis

I don't think there's any relation between Pirates 1B Caiden Matheny and Bees manager Mike, but if anyone knows better I'm interested to know. Caiden is a freshman outfielder for the Washington Huskies ATM... Justin Davis is making just his 3rd start of the year, returning for this game after an issue with blisters on April 1... both pitchers breezed through the first inning, but Flaherty had slight trouble with the second. A walk to Jawuan Harris leading off was followed by another walk to Matheny and an RBI hit for Johnny Sewald... we would threaten in the top of the 3rd, with runners second and third and one out, but would not score... Pittsburgh tacks on two more in their half of the 3rd, Delmonico doubling home Realmuto and himself being knocked in by an Asuaje single... the Bees would finally strike fully in the 4th. Guerrero's leadoff double was followed by two straight walks to Robles and Ishi, and although Shirah's fly ball was not deep enough to get Vlad home, Maezes delivered with a clutch 2-run single to make it 3-2... We would tie it up in the fifth, with Mesa singling, advancing on a wild pitch and an error, and scoring on Guerrero's RBI knock. After another error loaded the bases with still no one out, Davis exited and the game was in the hands of Pittsburgh's less than stellar bullpen, but Bobby Arancibia proved at least one hater wrong (me) by retiring Ishihara, Shirah and Maezes in order... we would get to Arancibia the next time, though. Mota led off the sixth with a single, prompting Flaherty to sacrifice bunt. Even better though that he beat the play out at first! Mesa's single scored Mota, and after two outs were made, Flaherty scored another run on a passed ball with Robles at the dish... Flaherty put up his third straight 1-2-3 inning in the 6th, and at that point had retired 10 straight since Asuaje's RBI single in the 3rd... Matheny chose to pinch-hit for him in the 7th, though, with a man on first and two out. Te'Kwaan Whyte did draw a walk to bring up Mesa, but we would not score and I think our manager might regret that decision... Sam Bennerman out for the seventh, and with one out, pinch-hitter Bobby Wenthe walks, Tristan Hanoian singles, Antoine Duplantis doubles in Wenthe, and Delmonico's single drove in two more to turn our lead into theirs... both teams would go 1-2-3 in the 8th... CL Nick Goody on for the save with Pittsburgh leading 6-5... he strikes out Ishihara, but Shirah hits a dribbler right back to him and he flubs it for an error... Maezes walks in a seven-pitch PA in which none of the pitches were in the zone... Goody gets Mota to strike out swinging, and then pinch-hitter Zack Granite does the same. That's all she wrote...

PotG: Nicky Delmonico

A bummer of a game, I had thought once we took the lead that we'd be able to hold onto it.

Game 2 - Jonathan Holder (1-0, 3.38) vs. Rogelio Rios (2-0, 1.59)
SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, LF Shirah, CF Mesa, 2B Maezes, C Cottam, P Holder
PIT: SS Hanoian, LF Duplantis, C Realmuto, 3B Delmonico, RF Harris, 2B Asuaje, 1B Matheny, CF Sewald, P Rios

Rios replaced Bumgarner in the rotation after his injury, and this is his second start of the season. Both his wins, strangely, came in relief... an auspicious start, we loaded the bases with no one out in the first inning and failed to score... in our half of the third, Guerrero drew a walk in an extended plate appearance, and Ishihara's double into the gap brought him all the way around to score. Morio himself was then brought in by a Mesa knock to make it 2-0... Holder allowed his first hit leading off the third to Sewald, and after two outs he allowed two more singles to Duplantis and Realmuto, scoring Sewald to make it 2-1... we got the run back in the 4th, Cottam scoring on a Mota groundout... we would get one hit each in the fifth and sixth but fail to capitalize on anything further... Rios left after 5.2 innings with 3 runs allowed on 9 hits... Holder escaped a jam in the bottom of the sixth allowing two singles but no runs... Bennerman would relieve Holder to start the 7th, and although he had two baserunners reach there were no runs, so that's some of the bad taste from yesterday gone... both teams went 1-2-3 in the 8th... Mota and Ishihara would both reach base in the 9th, but Shirah flew out to left to finish that rally... now Jared Miller on for the save. Matheny leads off with a hit, so at least if Miller's gonna blow it he's gonna do it fast. He does get Sewald to strike out, and I stand corrected! Pinch-hitter Matt Davidson grounds into a game-ending 5-4-3 double play!

PotG: Jonathan Holder

So, we split the road trip. Two wins in Philly, two losses in Louisville and a split here at PNC Park. Time to head back home for the Nationals!

April 20-21: Bees (10-11) vs. Washington Nationals (11-11)
As we arrive home, the Nats are finishing up a hellish road trip that saw them go to Los Angeles, then Louisville, then here to Salt Lake, all expected playoff teams. They lost both in LA and split with the Colts, so the road trip could still be decent or wind up being dreadful.

Game 1 - Michael Pineda (2-1, 3.06) vs. Mike Leake (2-1, 1.69)
WSH: 2B Mack, 1B Brickhouse, 3B Ramirez, LF Mancini, RF Neustrom, C Ramos, SS Crawford, CF Leonora, P Leake
SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, CF Mesa, C Cottam, 2B Maezes, LF Granite, P Pineda

Nice to see Granite in there. Shirah has been awful as a hitter this year and Granite is the much better outfielder... this'll be Mike Leake's first time facing the Bees, having spent every season prior to this one in Seattle... the first inning starts off poorly, a Charles Mack single being converted by Jose Ramirez' two-run shot off Pineda... one back in the bottom half though. With two out and Robles on first, he steals second and then scores on Ishihara's single to cut the lead in half... in the second, things started to go really wrong. Crawford leads off with a double, followed by Ericson Leonora singling just over Maezes' outstretched glove at second, and Pineda feels something in his back. We'll have to wait for a real report after the game, but he's done after just eight batters, and William Gonzalez comes in... one of the inherited runners does score for Washington, on a Mack groundout, but Gonzalez gets out of the jam by picking off Spencer Brickhouse, who he had walked... in the bottom half it all goes wrong for Washington! With one out, Maezes singles, Granite singles, putting runners at the corners, and instead of bunting, William Gonzalez pulls the bunt back and slaps a slow ground ball to third that Ramirez can't make a play on, scoring Travis Maezes. After Mota's fly ball, too shallow to advance either runner, Robles pulls a ball just fair down the left-field line for a home run! Just like that, the Bees have the lead! Within 4 pitches, we've got another run - Guerrero's single is immediately followed by an Ishihara double to score him... that would be it for Leake. 1.2 innings, 6 runs allowed on 8 hits... the Nationals would get a couple back in the top of the 3rd, Leonora driving in both Trey Mancini and Robert Neustrom with a single to make it 6-5... Washington reliever Juan Paniagua would finally record the first scoreless half-inning in our half of the third, and Charles Mack tied the game with a leadoff HR in the 4th... we Bees would grab the lead back in the 5th on a two-run HR by Kole Cottam, his 3rd of the year... three batters later, it would be the second RBI hit for a Bees reliever today, this time Nolan Blackwood popping an RBI single past short in his first big league at bat, scoring Granite to give us a 9-6 lead... and Guerrero would get in on the party as well, leading off the 6th with his ninth home run of the year... we would load the bases with no outs in the bottom of the 7th inning, but tack on just one more run with Robles grounding into a double play that scored Granite... Martin Perez pitched the final two innings without any incident!

PotG: Zach Granite

A big win for us, pulling through after Pineda's injury in the second inning. It turns out, he's just day-to-day and will not require a DL stint, but we may need to come up with a spot starter for next Tuesday's game.

Game 2 - Will Shirah (1-1, 8.49) vs. Ben Onyshko (0-3, 5.00)
WSH: 2B Mack, 1B Brickhouse, 3B Ramirez, LF Mancini, RF Neustrom, C Ramos, SS Crawford, CF Leonora, P Onyshko
SLC: CF Mesa, P Shirah, 3B Guerrero, RF Robles, 1B Ishihara, C Phegley, 2B Maezes, LF Granite, SS Mota

I absolutely love that the AI can construct a lineup that looks like ours does today. I'm gonna have a new fuzzy feeling every time I see Shirah hitting in a new spot in the order... he's been pretty awful on both sides of the ball, though - you can see his 8.49 ERA, which more than doubled in his last start when he couldn't breach the first inning at Louisville, but he has also been below replacement level at the plate so far, hitting only .186 through 20 games played, so he needs to start showing his worth... Shirah was off to a shaky start in the first with singles from Mack and Brickhouse starting the game off, but he got Ramirez to hit into a double play and got out of it... Victor Victor Mesa led off for us with a double off the wall in right, but he'd be stranded at third... the opposing pitcher Onyshko tagged Shirah for a single through the hole on the right side, putting runners at the corners in the 2nd, but again Will would get through it... both teams went down 1-2-3 in the third and we were still scoreless to that point... the Nationals would load the bases in the fourth, on consecutive singles by Wilson Ramos, Crawford and Leonora, leading to another triumph for Ben Onyshko, who put a double over Mesa's head in center to score two. At this point, Shirah was 0-2 in the game and Onyshko is 2-2 with the game's only two RBI. Not how I expected this would go... Salt Lake's first big threat came in the fourth, singles by Guerrero and Ishihara putting runners at the corners with one out, but Phegley and Maezes would both strike out swinging... Shirah would not come out for the fifth, and I'm not quite sure why. He's not injured and his pitch count wasn't super high, but he exits anyway with two runs on eight hits over 4 innings... even when the Bees get on the board, it comes at a cost. Robles walked leading off the 6th, and scored on Phegley's double, but Phegley tweaked something in his back running the bases and had to be replaced by Cottam. We have a short bench today with Shirah having pitched and that just makes it shorter... Ben Onyshko would slap another double, this one leading off the 7th, but he'd be left standing at third. What a day for the Nats pitcher, maybe fired up by going up against a two-way player on the mound... the Bees would threaten in the 7th, putting Mota and Guerrero on with a hit and a walk, but would not score... Washington would have its two-run lead restored by a Wilson Ramos home run in the 8th... Brett Cecil (!) is coming on for the save in the bottom half of the ninth, but the Bees have used every position player in their arsenal already and the pitcher's spot comes up third in this half. Brian Gadsby pitched the 9th, so he may be grabbing a bat... Mota starts the inning with a bloop single that just falls between short and center. Mesa sends a ball deeep to right field that gets the crowd on their feet, but what would have been the tying home run instead dies on the warning track in Neustrom's glove... so Brian Gadsby does grab a bat in this crucial situation. I wondered if we might pinch-hit with a starting pitcher in this spot, since they're more used to hitting... not a very inspired at bat from the Salt Lake reliever. After one swing, that even on the simplified view we get in OOTP looked really feeble, he watched the next two go right by for a backwards K. It's Guerrero's turn now... a riveting at-bat. I don't normally watch pitch-by-pitch but I decided to for this one. Vlad fouled the first two pitches off to the right side, and then took two straight balls low and away, Cecil wanting a chase. He then fouled off three straight pitches all straight back at the screen to stay alive before putting the eighth pitch in the air, a medium-length fly ball right at Leonora in center field to end the game.

PotG: Ben Onyshko

So, another split, and we fall back below the .500 mark.

Josh Phegley's injury turns out to be a minor one - just 3 days worth of back stiffness - but he's hitting so poorly right now (.111, an OPS of .397, albeit in just 29 plate appearances) that I'm gonna give him a DL stint just to see what we get out of a different catcher.

We made a handful of roster moves prior to Saturday's game, the series opener against Columbus. C Josh Phegley was placed on the 10-day IL and C Aaron Ackerman was called up to replace him. Ackerman will be making his Bees debut, but he has appeared in the majors every year of this save, playing in 184 games over five years with the Mets. In addition, we made a trade with the Dodgers, acquiring LHP Brad Hand in exchange for RHP Brian Gadsby. That's us taking on only about an additional $1 million in salary to get a bit better and strengthen the left side of our bullpen as Justin Wilson has been pretty horrible thus far. We also claimed LHP Tim Hill off of waivers from the 66ers, but I had put the claim in before exploring the Hand trade so I may pop him straight back onto the waiver wire. At any rate, we have 10 days to decide what to do with him.

April 22-23: Bees (11-12) vs. Columbus Explorers (15-9)
The Explorers are on a real hot streak and find themselves atop the NL North. They've never finished higher than 4th in the division. There's no one signature calling card for this team - they just look above average at everything so far. I've mentioned that they're dealing with two catastrophic injuries to their star catcher and 1B, Nick Fortes and Alec Bohm, but the replacements have played well, especially C Luke Hancock.

Game 1: Saturday rainout! We'll give it another shot on Sunday and try to play a doubleheader.

DH Game 1: Joey Lucchesi (2-1, 3.09) vs. Zach Davies (2-2, 6.49)
CLB: CF Carroll, 3B Hale, LF Misner, 1B Dacey, C Hancock, 2B Aldrete, RF Pagan, SS Shea, P Davies
SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, LF Shirah, CF Mesa, 2B Maezes, CF Cottam, P Lucchesi

Davies has been the worst of the Columbus starters to this point, but he pitched well in his last start, a win over Houston. He's a two-time defending Gold Glove winner in the NL, so don't hit it to him... the Bees would strike first in the bottom of the 2nd, two one-out singles by Robles and Guerrero, followed by a balk, allowed Robles to score on Ishihara's groundout... but Lucchesi would fall apart in the 2nd inning. Matt Dacey reached on a Guerrero error, Hancock singled, Carter Aldrete drew a walk to load the bases, Ezequiel Pagan hit a sharp single to score one, Josh Shea drew a bases loaded walk, pitcher Zach Davies even slapped a hard single to left to score another, Corbin Carroll's infield hit kept the carousel rolling, and Damone Hale scored two by singling down the first-base line. That's the first eight batters reaching safely, and 6 runs scored. Lucchesi done after getting only three outs... as has so often been the case lately, William Gonzalez is on to save our arms, and he gets all three outs without allowing any more... we had a hit each in the second and third innings, but nothing doing... some life in the 4th. Mesa's one-out triple got things rolling; he was singled home by Maezes, and Cottam followed with another hit. Martin Perez bungled a sac bunt against the Gold Glover Davies, Maezes forced out at third, but both Cottam and Perez would score on RBI hits from Mota and Robles respectively. 6-4, but Cottam injured himself while crossing the plate. More on that later... Columbus got one right back with an RBI single from Shea in the 5th... neither team really threatened until the Columbus 7th, when the Explorers got two men on against Bees debutant Brad Hand, but he got out of it... Kameron Misner tacked on an insurance run in the 8th, an RBI single scoring Carroll against Nolan Blackwood... the Bees drew two walks in the 8th but couldn't convert them to runs... there was something of a rally in the 9th. Pinch-hitter Te'Kwaan Whyte tripled and scored on Mota's base hit, and after a fielder's choice Guerrero singled to bring the tying run to the plate with one out. But Ishihara grounded into a double play on the first pitch, icing this game.

PotG: Carter Aldrete

Cottam's injury turns out to just make him day-to-day for a few days, and thank goodness for that! We just put Phegley on the DL Friday. We'll have Ackerman catch the next few days, I suppose, with Cottam available on the bench in a dire situation... now time for game 2.

DH Game 2: Jack Flaherty (0-2, 4.78) vs. Ryan Rolison (2-0, 4.28)
CLB: CF Carroll, 1B Dacey, 2B Cortes, LF Misner, 3B Hale, SS Aldrete, RF Brundage, C Navin, P Rolison
SLC: CF Mesa, 3B Guerrero, RF Robles, LF Shirah, 1B Ishihara, 2B Maezes, SS Mota, C Ackerman, P Flaherty

Rolison is a nice-looking young pitcher. IRL he was the first-round pick of the Rockies in 2018, 22nd overall, and finished 2019 at High-A. In this expanded MLB, he was a 2018 September callup for Columbus and was already racking up WAR in 2019. A 2020 All-Star, he hasn't been quite as good as his first two seasons were since but he's got a nice curveball... Columbus got off to a hot start, loading the bases with one out off of Flaherty to set up Aldrete's two-run single, scoring Dacey and Carlos Cortes... but we would answer right back. Mesa and Guerrero started the first with two singles, and after two outs, Ishihara answered with a three-run bomb! Flaherty would allow a hit each in the second and third but no more runs, and in the meantime, Ackerman took advantage of his first start, driving a first-pitch double into the right-center gap, and scoring on a Mesa single... the Explorers would cut the lead in half in the fourth, Spencer Navin scoring on a hit by Carroll... in the fourth, the Bees would explode. With one out, Ackerman singled and Flaherty bunted him over to second, and the last out wouldn't be made until Flaherty came up again. Mesa singled, Guerrero doubled both runners home. That would be it for Rolison, who went just 3.2 innings allowing 7 runs on nine hits. Robles singled, scoring Guerrero, and after a lengthy at bat, Will Shirah went up and out for his second hit of the game and second home run of the year making it 9-3! Ishihara then singled, Maezes doubled him all the way around, and Mota singled him home. Ackerman would follow with a single and the third pitcher of the inning finally got Flaherty to ground out to end the inning after 7 runs... it looked as though the Bees would tack on more in the fifth but the rally was killed by Robles' grounding into a double play... Flaherty ran out of gas in the sixth. Navin, pinch-hitter Austin Dennis and Carroll all singled, and Dacey doubled, putting two runs home, and Jack got the hook with an 11-5 lead. With runners on second and third, Hermeling allowed a two run single to Carlos Cortes but avoided further damage... the Bees would put together one further rally in the seventh. Ackerman led off with a single, advanced on pinch-hitter Granite's grounder, and scored on Mesa's hit. Mesa would advance on a Guerrero hit and a groundout and score on a wild pitch from Columbus' Mateo Gil... Riley Ferrell allowed three hits over the final two innings but no runs.

PotG: Victor Victor Mesa

Another split, so we split all three series this week. On the plus side, we split a doubleheader today while every other team in the Central lost, so we did actually gain some ground on the day, and gained one game on division leaders New Mexico on the week.

Bees' Player of the Week: Another magnificent week for Vlad Jr., but right on his level this week was CF Victor Victor Mesa - 12-26 with a double, a triple, a stolen base and 4 RBI, with only 1 strikeout.

On the Leaderboard:
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.: 1st in average (.404), T-1st in HR (9), 1st in RBI (31), 10th in OBP (.432), 1st in slugging (.734), 1st in OPS (1.166), 1st in WAR (1.8), 1st in hits (44), T-5th in runs scored (22), 1st in stolen bases (80)
Victor Victor Mesa: 5th in average (.379), 9th in OBP (.434), T-5th in hits (39), T-3rd in steals (7)

Four weeks in and Vlad Jr.'s got hold of the Triple Crown at the moment. Way too early to really think about that as a real pursuit but it's something to monitor this year. Mesa's monster week sees him crack a few leaderboards he wasn't on last week.

Minor League Bees:
Our three minor league affiliates in play are all crushing it, with a combined 33-8 record and all in first place, both in the standings and in their respective power rankings!

Standings:

League News:
April 23: The Astros announced that both SP Felix Hernandez and RP Kyle Grana were being shut down for the season. Felix suffered a torn rotator cuff in Miami on Friday night, and you wonder if that could be it for him. He's always been much younger than I thought he was (in 2023, now 37) so there's a possibility we could see King Felix again. He'll be a free agent - he had a vesting option for next season requiring 25 starts which will now not be met. Grana, 31, has a partially torn UCL. A less well-known piece for Houston, but he had appeared in 12 games for them.
April 23: Angels RP Mark Melancon announced he will retire at the end of this season. Melancon was the closer in Milwaukee from 2018-2020, and made the 2020 All-Star team, made 82 appearances for the 2022 Twins, and has yet to allow a run for the Angels yet this year in 4 games. The 38-year old has put up 17.2 career WAR and played for eight different clubs.

Players of the Week:
Oklahoma 3B Alex Bregman - 13-25, 2 HR, 11 RBI
San Antonio 1B Kevin Woodall - 9-16, 4 HR, 7 RBI

Power Rankings:
Despite a 3-3 week, we were playing some tough competition, and I think the Power Rankings recognize that, because we jumped up nine spots to #32. Both the top and bottom of the league were dominated by the AL:

1. Sacramento Solons (18-8)
2. New York Burros (19-7)
3. Oklahoma Oilers (18-8)
4. Seattle Mariners (18-8)
5. New Orleans Crescents (16-8)
56. Arizona Diamondbacks (8-18)
57. Austin Violets (8-18)
58. Colorado Rockies (8-18)
59. Cleveland Indians (7-19)
60. Boston Red Sox (5-20)

Next Week: interleague play begins! It'll last from now until about the end of June, with 24 interleague games in total. We'll start interleague play with a visit from the Jacksonville Anchors, then finish up this homestand against the Mets before heading to Charlotte for the weekend.

01-09-2020, 03:49 PM	#18
Ruwisc All Star Reserve Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: Southwestern Illinois Posts: 610	Week 4: April 17-23, 2023 Before I start this week, I forgot to mention in the conclusion of last week that we were listed 41st in the power rankings, one spot down from the previous week. The current top 4 are all NL teams: 1. New York Burros (15-5) 2. Memphis Lions (14-6) 3. New Mexico Suns (13-7) 4. Houston Astros (13-7) 5. Oklahoma Oilers (13-7) 56. Milwaukee Brewers (6-14) 57. Austin Violets (6-14) 58. Cleveland Indians (6-14) 59. Arizona Diamondbacks (5-15) 60. Boston Red Sox (4-15) Our AAA team, the Hawaii Islanders, is off to a perfect 6-0 start after sweeping Edmonton (Beavers) and St. Paul (Twins). On with the week! April 18-19: Bees (9-10) @ Pittsburgh Pirates (8-11) Pittsburgh is struggling probably even harder than we are now, so maybe we can walk into a couple wins by just sucking less. According to the preseason projections, this should be the second-best team in the NL behind Buffalo (but Buffalo's also struggling mightily). The rotation is as good as advertised, but they haven't been able to hit enough for it to matter to this point. They're missing Madison Bumgarner, but that's something they could overcome. We won't see reigning Cy Young winner Wu-Shiun Chen in this series, luckily. The Taiwanese star pitched Saturday in a loss at Miami. Game 1 - Jack Flaherty (0-2, 4.87) vs. Justin Davis (0-0, 3.00) SLC: CF Mesa, C Cottam, 3B Guerrero, RF Robles, 1B Ishihara, LF Shirah, 2B Maezes, SS Mota, P Flaherty PIT: SS Hanoian, LF Duplantis, C Realmuto, 3B Delmonico, RF Harris, 2B Asuaje, 1B Matheny, CF Sewald, P Davis I don't think there's any relation between Pirates 1B Caiden Matheny and Bees manager Mike, but if anyone knows better I'm interested to know. Caiden is a freshman outfielder for the Washington Huskies ATM... Justin Davis is making just his 3rd start of the year, returning for this game after an issue with blisters on April 1... both pitchers breezed through the first inning, but Flaherty had slight trouble with the second. A walk to Jawuan Harris leading off was followed by another walk to Matheny and an RBI hit for Johnny Sewald... we would threaten in the top of the 3rd, with runners second and third and one out, but would not score... Pittsburgh tacks on two more in their half of the 3rd, Delmonico doubling home Realmuto and himself being knocked in by an Asuaje single... the Bees would finally strike fully in the 4th. Guerrero's leadoff double was followed by two straight walks to Robles and Ishi, and although Shirah's fly ball was not deep enough to get Vlad home, Maezes delivered with a clutch 2-run single to make it 3-2... We would tie it up in the fifth, with Mesa singling, advancing on a wild pitch and an error, and scoring on Guerrero's RBI knock. After another error loaded the bases with still no one out, Davis exited and the game was in the hands of Pittsburgh's less than stellar bullpen, but Bobby Arancibia proved at least one hater wrong (me) by retiring Ishihara, Shirah and Maezes in order... we would get to Arancibia the next time, though. Mota led off the sixth with a single, prompting Flaherty to sacrifice bunt. Even better though that he beat the play out at first! Mesa's single scored Mota, and after two outs were made, Flaherty scored another run on a passed ball with Robles at the dish... Flaherty put up his third straight 1-2-3 inning in the 6th, and at that point had retired 10 straight since Asuaje's RBI single in the 3rd... Matheny chose to pinch-hit for him in the 7th, though, with a man on first and two out. Te'Kwaan Whyte did draw a walk to bring up Mesa, but we would not score and I think our manager might regret that decision... Sam Bennerman out for the seventh, and with one out, pinch-hitter Bobby Wenthe walks, Tristan Hanoian singles, Antoine Duplantis doubles in Wenthe, and Delmonico's single drove in two more to turn our lead into theirs... both teams would go 1-2-3 in the 8th... CL Nick Goody on for the save with Pittsburgh leading 6-5... he strikes out Ishihara, but Shirah hits a dribbler right back to him and he flubs it for an error... Maezes walks in a seven-pitch PA in which none of the pitches were in the zone... Goody gets Mota to strike out swinging, and then pinch-hitter Zack Granite does the same. That's all she wrote... PotG: Nicky Delmonico A bummer of a game, I had thought once we took the lead that we'd be able to hold onto it. Game 2 - Jonathan Holder (1-0, 3.38) vs. Rogelio Rios (2-0, 1.59) SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, LF Shirah, CF Mesa, 2B Maezes, C Cottam, P Holder PIT: SS Hanoian, LF Duplantis, C Realmuto, 3B Delmonico, RF Harris, 2B Asuaje, 1B Matheny, CF Sewald, P Rios Rios replaced Bumgarner in the rotation after his injury, and this is his second start of the season. Both his wins, strangely, came in relief... an auspicious start, we loaded the bases with no one out in the first inning and failed to score... in our half of the third, Guerrero drew a walk in an extended plate appearance, and Ishihara's double into the gap brought him all the way around to score. Morio himself was then brought in by a Mesa knock to make it 2-0... Holder allowed his first hit leading off the third to Sewald, and after two outs he allowed two more singles to Duplantis and Realmuto, scoring Sewald to make it 2-1... we got the run back in the 4th, Cottam scoring on a Mota groundout... we would get one hit each in the fifth and sixth but fail to capitalize on anything further... Rios left after 5.2 innings with 3 runs allowed on 9 hits... Holder escaped a jam in the bottom of the sixth allowing two singles but no runs... Bennerman would relieve Holder to start the 7th, and although he had two baserunners reach there were no runs, so that's some of the bad taste from yesterday gone... both teams went 1-2-3 in the 8th... Mota and Ishihara would both reach base in the 9th, but Shirah flew out to left to finish that rally... now Jared Miller on for the save. Matheny leads off with a hit, so at least if Miller's gonna blow it he's gonna do it fast. He does get Sewald to strike out, and I stand corrected! Pinch-hitter Matt Davidson grounds into a game-ending 5-4-3 double play! PotG: Jonathan Holder So, we split the road trip. Two wins in Philly, two losses in Louisville and a split here at PNC Park. Time to head back home for the Nationals! April 20-21: Bees (10-11) vs. Washington Nationals (11-11) As we arrive home, the Nats are finishing up a hellish road trip that saw them go to Los Angeles, then Louisville, then here to Salt Lake, all expected playoff teams. They lost both in LA and split with the Colts, so the road trip could still be decent or wind up being dreadful. Game 1 - Michael Pineda (2-1, 3.06) vs. Mike Leake (2-1, 1.69) WSH: 2B Mack, 1B Brickhouse, 3B Ramirez, LF Mancini, RF Neustrom, C Ramos, SS Crawford, CF Leonora, P Leake SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, CF Mesa, C Cottam, 2B Maezes, LF Granite, P Pineda Nice to see Granite in there. Shirah has been awful as a hitter this year and Granite is the much better outfielder... this'll be Mike Leake's first time facing the Bees, having spent every season prior to this one in Seattle... the first inning starts off poorly, a Charles Mack single being converted by Jose Ramirez' two-run shot off Pineda... one back in the bottom half though. With two out and Robles on first, he steals second and then scores on Ishihara's single to cut the lead in half... in the second, things started to go really wrong. Crawford leads off with a double, followed by Ericson Leonora singling just over Maezes' outstretched glove at second, and Pineda feels something in his back. We'll have to wait for a real report after the game, but he's done after just eight batters, and William Gonzalez comes in... one of the inherited runners does score for Washington, on a Mack groundout, but Gonzalez gets out of the jam by picking off Spencer Brickhouse, who he had walked... in the bottom half it all goes wrong for Washington! With one out, Maezes singles, Granite singles, putting runners at the corners, and instead of bunting, William Gonzalez pulls the bunt back and slaps a slow ground ball to third that Ramirez can't make a play on, scoring Travis Maezes. After Mota's fly ball, too shallow to advance either runner, Robles pulls a ball just fair down the left-field line for a home run! Just like that, the Bees have the lead! Within 4 pitches, we've got another run - Guerrero's single is immediately followed by an Ishihara double to score him... that would be it for Leake. 1.2 innings, 6 runs allowed on 8 hits... the Nationals would get a couple back in the top of the 3rd, Leonora driving in both Trey Mancini and Robert Neustrom with a single to make it 6-5... Washington reliever Juan Paniagua would finally record the first scoreless half-inning in our half of the third, and Charles Mack tied the game with a leadoff HR in the 4th... we Bees would grab the lead back in the 5th on a two-run HR by Kole Cottam, his 3rd of the year... three batters later, it would be the second RBI hit for a Bees reliever today, this time Nolan Blackwood popping an RBI single past short in his first big league at bat, scoring Granite to give us a 9-6 lead... and Guerrero would get in on the party as well, leading off the 6th with his ninth home run of the year... we would load the bases with no outs in the bottom of the 7th inning, but tack on just one more run with Robles grounding into a double play that scored Granite... Martin Perez pitched the final two innings without any incident! PotG: Zach Granite A big win for us, pulling through after Pineda's injury in the second inning. It turns out, he's just day-to-day and will not require a DL stint, but we may need to come up with a spot starter for next Tuesday's game. Game 2 - Will Shirah (1-1, 8.49) vs. Ben Onyshko (0-3, 5.00) WSH: 2B Mack, 1B Brickhouse, 3B Ramirez, LF Mancini, RF Neustrom, C Ramos, SS Crawford, CF Leonora, P Onyshko SLC: CF Mesa, P Shirah, 3B Guerrero, RF Robles, 1B Ishihara, C Phegley, 2B Maezes, LF Granite, SS Mota I absolutely love that the AI can construct a lineup that looks like ours does today. I'm gonna have a new fuzzy feeling every time I see Shirah hitting in a new spot in the order... he's been pretty awful on both sides of the ball, though - you can see his 8.49 ERA, which more than doubled in his last start when he couldn't breach the first inning at Louisville, but he has also been below replacement level at the plate so far, hitting only .186 through 20 games played, so he needs to start showing his worth... Shirah was off to a shaky start in the first with singles from Mack and Brickhouse starting the game off, but he got Ramirez to hit into a double play and got out of it... Victor Victor Mesa led off for us with a double off the wall in right, but he'd be stranded at third... the opposing pitcher Onyshko tagged Shirah for a single through the hole on the right side, putting runners at the corners in the 2nd, but again Will would get through it... both teams went down 1-2-3 in the third and we were still scoreless to that point... the Nationals would load the bases in the fourth, on consecutive singles by Wilson Ramos, Crawford and Leonora, leading to another triumph for Ben Onyshko, who put a double over Mesa's head in center to score two. At this point, Shirah was 0-2 in the game and Onyshko is 2-2 with the game's only two RBI. Not how I expected this would go... Salt Lake's first big threat came in the fourth, singles by Guerrero and Ishihara putting runners at the corners with one out, but Phegley and Maezes would both strike out swinging... Shirah would not come out for the fifth, and I'm not quite sure why. He's not injured and his pitch count wasn't super high, but he exits anyway with two runs on eight hits over 4 innings... even when the Bees get on the board, it comes at a cost. Robles walked leading off the 6th, and scored on Phegley's double, but Phegley tweaked something in his back running the bases and had to be replaced by Cottam. We have a short bench today with Shirah having pitched and that just makes it shorter... Ben Onyshko would slap another double, this one leading off the 7th, but he'd be left standing at third. What a day for the Nats pitcher, maybe fired up by going up against a two-way player on the mound... the Bees would threaten in the 7th, putting Mota and Guerrero on with a hit and a walk, but would not score... Washington would have its two-run lead restored by a Wilson Ramos home run in the 8th... Brett Cecil (!) is coming on for the save in the bottom half of the ninth, but the Bees have used every position player in their arsenal already and the pitcher's spot comes up third in this half. Brian Gadsby pitched the 9th, so he may be grabbing a bat... Mota starts the inning with a bloop single that just falls between short and center. Mesa sends a ball deeep to right field that gets the crowd on their feet, but what would have been the tying home run instead dies on the warning track in Neustrom's glove... so Brian Gadsby does grab a bat in this crucial situation. I wondered if we might pinch-hit with a starting pitcher in this spot, since they're more used to hitting... not a very inspired at bat from the Salt Lake reliever. After one swing, that even on the simplified view we get in OOTP looked really feeble, he watched the next two go right by for a backwards K. It's Guerrero's turn now... a riveting at-bat. I don't normally watch pitch-by-pitch but I decided to for this one. Vlad fouled the first two pitches off to the right side, and then took two straight balls low and away, Cecil wanting a chase. He then fouled off three straight pitches all straight back at the screen to stay alive before putting the eighth pitch in the air, a medium-length fly ball right at Leonora in center field to end the game. PotG: Ben Onyshko So, another split, and we fall back below the .500 mark. Josh Phegley's injury turns out to be a minor one - just 3 days worth of back stiffness - but he's hitting so poorly right now (.111, an OPS of .397, albeit in just 29 plate appearances) that I'm gonna give him a DL stint just to see what we get out of a different catcher. We made a handful of roster moves prior to Saturday's game, the series opener against Columbus. C Josh Phegley was placed on the 10-day IL and C Aaron Ackerman was called up to replace him. Ackerman will be making his Bees debut, but he has appeared in the majors every year of this save, playing in 184 games over five years with the Mets. In addition, we made a trade with the Dodgers, acquiring LHP Brad Hand in exchange for RHP Brian Gadsby. That's us taking on only about an additional $1 million in salary to get a bit better and strengthen the left side of our bullpen as Justin Wilson has been pretty horrible thus far. We also claimed LHP Tim Hill off of waivers from the 66ers, but I had put the claim in before exploring the Hand trade so I may pop him straight back onto the waiver wire. At any rate, we have 10 days to decide what to do with him. April 22-23: Bees (11-12) vs. Columbus Explorers (15-9) The Explorers are on a real hot streak and find themselves atop the NL North. They've never finished higher than 4th in the division. There's no one signature calling card for this team - they just look above average at everything so far. I've mentioned that they're dealing with two catastrophic injuries to their star catcher and 1B, Nick Fortes and Alec Bohm, but the replacements have played well, especially C Luke Hancock. Game 1: Saturday rainout! We'll give it another shot on Sunday and try to play a doubleheader. DH Game 1: Joey Lucchesi (2-1, 3.09) vs. Zach Davies (2-2, 6.49) CLB: CF Carroll, 3B Hale, LF Misner, 1B Dacey, C Hancock, 2B Aldrete, RF Pagan, SS Shea, P Davies SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, LF Shirah, CF Mesa, 2B Maezes, CF Cottam, P Lucchesi Davies has been the worst of the Columbus starters to this point, but he pitched well in his last start, a win over Houston. He's a two-time defending Gold Glove winner in the NL, so don't hit it to him... the Bees would strike first in the bottom of the 2nd, two one-out singles by Robles and Guerrero, followed by a balk, allowed Robles to score on Ishihara's groundout... but Lucchesi would fall apart in the 2nd inning. Matt Dacey reached on a Guerrero error, Hancock singled, Carter Aldrete drew a walk to load the bases, Ezequiel Pagan hit a sharp single to score one, Josh Shea drew a bases loaded walk, pitcher Zach Davies even slapped a hard single to left to score another, Corbin Carroll's infield hit kept the carousel rolling, and Damone Hale scored two by singling down the first-base line. That's the first eight batters reaching safely, and 6 runs scored. Lucchesi done after getting only three outs... as has so often been the case lately, William Gonzalez is on to save our arms, and he gets all three outs without allowing any more... we had a hit each in the second and third innings, but nothing doing... some life in the 4th. Mesa's one-out triple got things rolling; he was singled home by Maezes, and Cottam followed with another hit. Martin Perez bungled a sac bunt against the Gold Glover Davies, Maezes forced out at third, but both Cottam and Perez would score on RBI hits from Mota and Robles respectively. 6-4, but Cottam injured himself while crossing the plate. More on that later... Columbus got one right back with an RBI single from Shea in the 5th... neither team really threatened until the Columbus 7th, when the Explorers got two men on against Bees debutant Brad Hand, but he got out of it... Kameron Misner tacked on an insurance run in the 8th, an RBI single scoring Carroll against Nolan Blackwood... the Bees drew two walks in the 8th but couldn't convert them to runs... there was something of a rally in the 9th. Pinch-hitter Te'Kwaan Whyte tripled and scored on Mota's base hit, and after a fielder's choice Guerrero singled to bring the tying run to the plate with one out. But Ishihara grounded into a double play on the first pitch, icing this game. PotG: Carter Aldrete Cottam's injury turns out to just make him day-to-day for a few days, and thank goodness for that! We just put Phegley on the DL Friday. We'll have Ackerman catch the next few days, I suppose, with Cottam available on the bench in a dire situation... now time for game 2. DH Game 2: Jack Flaherty (0-2, 4.78) vs. Ryan Rolison (2-0, 4.28) CLB: CF Carroll, 1B Dacey, 2B Cortes, LF Misner, 3B Hale, SS Aldrete, RF Brundage, C Navin, P Rolison SLC: CF Mesa, 3B Guerrero, RF Robles, LF Shirah, 1B Ishihara, 2B Maezes, SS Mota, C Ackerman, P Flaherty Rolison is a nice-looking young pitcher. IRL he was the first-round pick of the Rockies in 2018, 22nd overall, and finished 2019 at High-A. In this expanded MLB, he was a 2018 September callup for Columbus and was already racking up WAR in 2019. A 2020 All-Star, he hasn't been quite as good as his first two seasons were since but he's got a nice curveball... Columbus got off to a hot start, loading the bases with one out off of Flaherty to set up Aldrete's two-run single, scoring Dacey and Carlos Cortes... but we would answer right back. Mesa and Guerrero started the first with two singles, and after two outs, Ishihara answered with a three-run bomb! Flaherty would allow a hit each in the second and third but no more runs, and in the meantime, Ackerman took advantage of his first start, driving a first-pitch double into the right-center gap, and scoring on a Mesa single... the Explorers would cut the lead in half in the fourth, Spencer Navin scoring on a hit by Carroll... in the fourth, the Bees would explode. With one out, Ackerman singled and Flaherty bunted him over to second, and the last out wouldn't be made until Flaherty came up again. Mesa singled, Guerrero doubled both runners home. That would be it for Rolison, who went just 3.2 innings allowing 7 runs on nine hits. Robles singled, scoring Guerrero, and after a lengthy at bat, Will Shirah went up and out for his second hit of the game and second home run of the year making it 9-3! Ishihara then singled, Maezes doubled him all the way around, and Mota singled him home. Ackerman would follow with a single and the third pitcher of the inning finally got Flaherty to ground out to end the inning after 7 runs... it looked as though the Bees would tack on more in the fifth but the rally was killed by Robles' grounding into a double play... Flaherty ran out of gas in the sixth. Navin, pinch-hitter Austin Dennis and Carroll all singled, and Dacey doubled, putting two runs home, and Jack got the hook with an 11-5 lead. With runners on second and third, Hermeling allowed a two run single to Carlos Cortes but avoided further damage... the Bees would put together one further rally in the seventh. Ackerman led off with a single, advanced on pinch-hitter Granite's grounder, and scored on Mesa's hit. Mesa would advance on a Guerrero hit and a groundout and score on a wild pitch from Columbus' Mateo Gil... Riley Ferrell allowed three hits over the final two innings but no runs. PotG: Victor Victor Mesa Another split, so we split all three series this week. On the plus side, we split a doubleheader today while every other team in the Central lost, so we did actually gain some ground on the day, and gained one game on division leaders New Mexico on the week. Bees' Player of the Week: Another magnificent week for Vlad Jr., but right on his level this week was CF Victor Victor Mesa - 12-26 with a double, a triple, a stolen base and 4 RBI, with only 1 strikeout. On the Leaderboard: Vladimir Guerrero Jr.: 1st in average (.404), T-1st in HR (9), 1st in RBI (31), 10th in OBP (.432), 1st in slugging (.734), 1st in OPS (1.166), 1st in WAR (1.8), 1st in hits (44), T-5th in runs scored (22), 1st in stolen bases (80) Victor Victor Mesa: 5th in average (.379), 9th in OBP (.434), T-5th in hits (39), T-3rd in steals (7) Four weeks in and Vlad Jr.'s got hold of the Triple Crown at the moment. Way too early to really think about that as a real pursuit but it's something to monitor this year. Mesa's monster week sees him crack a few leaderboards he wasn't on last week. Minor League Bees: Our three minor league affiliates in play are all crushing it, with a combined 33-8 record and all in first place, both in the standings and in their respective power rankings! Standings: League News: April 23: The Astros announced that both SP Felix Hernandez and RP Kyle Grana were being shut down for the season. Felix suffered a torn rotator cuff in Miami on Friday night, and you wonder if that could be it for him. He's always been much younger than I thought he was (in 2023, now 37) so there's a possibility we could see King Felix again. He'll be a free agent - he had a vesting option for next season requiring 25 starts which will now not be met. Grana, 31, has a partially torn UCL. A less well-known piece for Houston, but he had appeared in 12 games for them. April 23: Angels RP Mark Melancon announced he will retire at the end of this season. Melancon was the closer in Milwaukee from 2018-2020, and made the 2020 All-Star team, made 82 appearances for the 2022 Twins, and has yet to allow a run for the Angels yet this year in 4 games. The 38-year old has put up 17.2 career WAR and played for eight different clubs. Players of the Week: Oklahoma 3B Alex Bregman - 13-25, 2 HR, 11 RBI San Antonio 1B Kevin Woodall - 9-16, 4 HR, 7 RBI Power Rankings: Despite a 3-3 week, we were playing some tough competition, and I think the Power Rankings recognize that, because we jumped up nine spots to #32. Both the top and bottom of the league were dominated by the AL: 1. Sacramento Solons (18-8) 2. New York Burros (19-7) 3. Oklahoma Oilers (18-8) 4. Seattle Mariners (18-8) 5. New Orleans Crescents (16-8) 56. Arizona Diamondbacks (8-18) 57. Austin Violets (8-18) 58. Colorado Rockies (8-18) 59. Cleveland Indians (7-19) 60. Boston Red Sox (5-20) Next Week: interleague play begins! It'll last from now until about the end of June, with 24 interleague games in total. We'll start interleague play with a visit from the Jacksonville Anchors, then finish up this homestand against the Mets before heading to Charlotte for the weekend. Last edited by Ruwisc; 01-09-2020 at 03:52 PM.