[Ruwisc]

Week 9: May 22-28, 2023



On Monday, All-Star voting opened up! This year's game will be played on Wednesday, July 19. All-Stars are hard to come by in this save, because all 60 teams will be represented. (I've definitely had years where a Bees player did not play in the game, but we're all represented.) There are 40 players selected per league, and of course 30 teams in each league, so getting more than two all-stars is pretty hard. Still, I think we have three good candidates - 3B Vladimir Guerrero Jr., CF Victor Victor Mesa, and SP Jack Flaherty are all clogging up the leaderboards to some extent. I haven't voted in the past & have just let the AI pick the teams, but I may take some time to vote at some point and show you who I think is deserving.

May 22-23: Bees (28-21) vs. Vancouver Cascades (28-22)
Not much was expected of Vancouver this season - they were picked to finish just under .500, and 5th in the 6-team NL West. But they've benefitted from a good bit of luck and are tied for 2nd at the moment. The Cascades have been outscored by nearly half a run per game (12th in the NL in runs scored, 28th in runs allowed) but are six games above .500, which means they've outperformed their Pythag record by 5 games! In other words, they've probably overachieved in winning a lot of close games, which might normally be an indicator that they have a great bullpen, but this team's bullpen is awful so maybe they've just been a bit lucky. The star of the Vancouver team thus far has to be Korean 3B Hyun-Jun Nho, who's hit 17 HR (tied with Mike Trout for the MLB lead). They're on a bit of a hot streak right now, winning five of six last week No relation between Bees SP Griffin Canning and Cascades CF Gage Canning, from what I can find.

Game 1 - Will Shirah (4-2, 5.50) vs. Jackson Kowar (3-2, 3.30)
VAN: 2B Palacios, SS Lugo, LF Winker, CF Canning, 3B Nho, C Meyer, RF Orr, 1B Becker, P Kowar
SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, P Shirah, CF Mesa, 2B Phyo, LF Granite, C Phegley

For some unknown reason, Matheny is going with Will Shirah on short rest tonight even with Kirchner available. Shirah has done a nice job over the last few weeks, though. He's won two straight starts and 3 straight decisions, and has actually lowered his ERA each of the last five times he's pitched. Last time out, he allowed two runs over 5 innings as we beat the Cherries 5-4... Kowar is the Cascades' ace, a real life Royals' prospect who pitched for the Florida Gators. A ground-baller with no exceptional strengths or weaknesses, he's probably not the centerpiece of a superstar rotation but almost any team would take him, mine included... both pitchers got through the first in order, and Shirah hit a man in the 2nd but got through otherwise... Mesa singled and stole 2nd in our half of the second, but was stranded there... 3 up, 3 down for Shirah in the 3rd as well... we would break the ice in our half of the 3rd. Phegley was hit by a pitch and Robles singled with two out, setting the stage for a two-run triple from Guerrero to get us up 2-0... Will Shirah would finally allow his first hit in the 4th, but no scoring. Thanks to AI Mike's decision to put him in on short rest, though, that'd be it for him. 4 innings, just 50 pitches, just 1 hit allowed, and he was hitting fifth in our lineup today. Seems like a waste... Martin Perez pitched an easy fifth, but allowed a sac fly from Jesse Winker in the sixth, scoring Richie Palacios... we would make up for it, though, in the bottom half, when MK Phyo muscled a 2-run home run over the wall in left-center, his 2nd of the year, to make it 4-1... Vancouver loaded the bases off of Jonathan Holder in the 7th, and we were lucky they only scored once. Palacios delivered the RBI in this case, scoring Nick Meyer... we would make two uncharacteristic outs on the bases in the 8th, wasting an opportunity to add to our two-run lead... Miller on for the save. Laney Orr strikes out. Luke Becker strikes out as well, but reaches on a passed ball! Jeez... pinch-hitter Braden Zarbnisky makes the second out on Miller's 3rd K, but AI Mike ruins his chance at a 4-K inning by going to get Justin Wilson for the final out. Dunno why, Wilson's been just meh for us and both he and Miller are lefties with normal splits... anyway, Wilson does get Palacios to strike out to end the game, so we accomplished it as a team at least.


W: Martin Perez (3-0) L: Jackson Kowar (3-3) S: Justin Wilson (2)
PotG: Jackson Kowar

That's OOTP's decision on the player of the game, if you couldn't tell - Shirah definitely gets the title for me, it ain't his fault that Matheny played this game really strangely from a strategic perspective. We pulled even with the idle Suns atop the NL Central!

Game 2 - Ryan Kirchner (0-0, 0.00) vs. Tim Herrin (4-2, 4.71)
VAN: 2B Palacios, SS Lugo, LF Winker, CF Canning, 3B Nho, C Meyer, RF Thomas, 1B Becker, P Herrin
SLC: CF Mesa, 2B Phyo, 3B Guerrero, RF Robles, 1B Ishihara, LF Shirah, C Phegley, SS Mota, P Kirchner

First start with the big club this year for Kirchner, who worked stretches out of the bullpen for us last season but hasn't appeared in a Matheny starting lineup since 2021. Ryan's made six starts for the AAA Islanders after starting the year injured, and has pitched pretty well down there. At just 23, I don't know if he's a future star but he's a major leaguer... the 26-year-old Herrin is a pretty average starting pitcher to be honest, very little remarkable about him besides his overall low velocity and pretty good changeup... well, it wouldn't be a great first act for Kirchner today. His first pitch plunked Palacios, and he then allowed Matthew Lugo to single and Winker to drive both men in. Nho would make it 3-0 with a sac fly... in the third, it all went to hell. The Cascades loaded the bases with one out, and Meyer scored two with a double. That'd be it for Kirchner, done after 2.1 innings... Paul Goodwin came in to clean up but only made it worse. Alek Thomas scored two more with another double, and he was later driven in by the pitcher Herrin to make it 8-0... we'd get on the board in the 4th, Ishihara's RBI double scoring Robles and Ishi coming in to score on a double play that Phegley hit into... but Vancouver would get 3 in the 5th off of the Goodwin/Martin Perez combo on a Palacios RBI groundout and Lugo 2-run homer... Guerrero drove in Mesa with a 5th-inning double... two more in the 6th for the Cascades, though, Thomas with two more RBI on a single... no more I want to talk about from this game, except Guerrero would drive in one more meaningless run in the 9th.


W: Tim Herrin (5-2) L: Ryan Kirchner (0-1)
PotG: Alek Thomas

Couldn't have gone much worse as a season debut for Kirchner, and pretty rough for us to get the same number of hits as Vancouver yet lose by 9. Hat tips to Sam Bennerman, though, who soaked up the final three innings for us, all scoreless.

May 25-26: Bees (29-22) vs. Minnesota Twins (27-24)
Minnesota is leading the AL North at the moment, but as you can see their record isn't spectacular. That's the worst record of any team currently sitting in a playoff spot, and 5 of the 6 teams in that division are within 2 1/2 games of each other, so hopefully we can chase the Twins out of town in a worse position than they came in with! In terms of results, they've been an average pitching and average hitting team, that looks a bit like its hitters have gotten unlucky but its pitchers have gotten lucky. Minnesota's lost three straight coming in, dropping the last three of a homestand against Vancouver and Baltimore. This is the start of a road trip that'll see them play a whole week of games in NL parks without their DH - they go to Memphis and Cincinnati after finishing with us.

Game 1 - Griffin Canning (3-1, 4.62) vs. Keith Rodriguez (1-3, 3.93)
MIN: SS Tuero, 3B Bogaerts, RF Mazara, LF Beer, 1B Freeman, C Barnes, CF C. Rodriguez, 2B Cabrera, P K. Rodriguez
SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, LF Shirah, CF Mesa, C Cottam, 2B Phyo, P Canning

Minnesota certainly wins for having the most recognizable names in the lineup of most of the teams we've played thus far - that's Asdrubal Cabrera at second base, and you can probably guess who a lot of these other folks are. They've also got Adam Eaton, Matt Adams and Yolmer Sanchez on the bench... the pitcher Rodriguez, though, is fictional. A Michigan kid, he was the first-round pick of San Bernardino in 2018, and really came into his own with the 66ers last year, making 28 starts and putting up 3 WAR and an 8-7 record. Despite that, he was dumped off by San Bernardino in a December trade in which the biggest prospect is likely to only be a fourth-outfielder type. The Twins' gain, I guess. His ERA is down about three-quarters of a run this year, but his strikeouts are too so who knows how he's really doing... Canning got the win in last Friday's triumph over the Cherries, spinning another quality start... we small-balled Rodriguez to start the first. Mota walked on four pitches, stole second and then scored when the next pitch was rifled for a Robles single. Victor himself would steal second and score on an Ishihara single... the Twins would attack Canning in a more traditional way in the 2nd. Seth Beer doubled, Freeman was hit by a pitch, and Austin Barnes got to within 2-1 with an RBI single. Cabrera would double in Freeman, and Luis Tuero's single would score both runners still on to make it 4-2 Twins just like that... after a quick turnaround, in which Rodriguez retired us on six pitches, four consecutive hits would produce two more runs for Minnesota. The last was not allowed by Canning, but by Justin Wilson coming in to save him. That's 2.0 innings for Canning and six runs allowed. Not good for the ol' ERA or, uh, continued employment... we brought the tying run to the plate in the bottom half, loading the bases with one out for Mesa, but VV hit into a double play... Wilson allowed two more hits while getting two out in the 4th, but Brad Hand rescued him... in the 5th, we went back to work. Mota and Robles started the inning with two hits, Ishi drove one in with a single, and then Shirah crushed one to left-center field for a three-run game-tying home run! 6-6! The homer would be Rodriguez' last pitch, so both starters will get NDs today. Even after that triumph, we'd find room for disappointment, loading the bases again but remaining tied... held off the board in his first three AB, Guerrero would get into the plus column with an RBI single in the 6th giving us a 7-6 lead. Several batters later, we'd get another when Phyo was walked with the bases loaded... Minnesota CF Carlos Rodriguez cut the lead back in half with a single in the 7th... both teams were pretty quiet in the 8th... Miller on for the save against this lefty-heavy lineup. Freeman strikes out... Barnes strikes out... Carlos Rodriguez grounds the first pitch to first! And exhale.


W: Nolan Blackwood (1-0) L: Tim Masters (0-1) S: Jared Miller (11)
PotG: Victor Robles

Offense did a much better job converting hits into runs today, helped by that early pair of stolen bases from the top of the lineup.

Game 2 - Jack Flaherty (5-3, 3.76) vs. Adrian Alderson (4-2, 4.20)
MIN: SS Tuero, 3B Bogaerts, RF Mazara, LF Beer, 1B Freeman, C Barnes, CF C. Rodriguez, 2B Cabrera, P Alderson
SLC: CF Mesa, 2B Phyo, 3B Guerrero, RF Robles, 1B Ishihara, LF Shirah, C Phegley, SS Mota, P Flaherty

Alderson was the last pitcher to pick up a win for Minnesota, on Saturday at home against Vancouver (it's now Friday). In that game he tossed 6.1 scoreless and had 10 strikeouts, a really stellar game. A fictional player originally from Houston, Adrian is an interesting pitcher that doesn't throw a 4-seamer but can get his cutter up to 96. He seems to have a problem keeping the ball in the ballpark, but has been pretty good otherwise... Flaherty also last pitched Saturday, in the game we won vs. Oklahoma, and it was his best start of the year (8 scoreless). He's pitched a quality start in all but two of his appearances this year (did I just jinx it?)... the Twins would strike for one in the top of the first, Seth Beer driving Mazara around from first with a double, but Beer would suffer an injury while getting to 2nd base, and would have to be replaced by Griffin Conine in the outfield... Mesa walked, Phyo and Guerrero both singled, and just like that we had tied it back up without making an out. Alderson then balked, allowing Phyo to score, and Shirah would later drive Guerrero in with a single to make it 3-1 Bees, still in the first... Mota would score in the second, singling and going to second on a bunt, third on an error and home on a groundout... in the third, we opened up even further. Ishihara and Shirah reached to start, Mota singled to load the bases, and then Alderson walked Flaherty with 'em loaded to score a run and end his day after 2.1 innings. All three of those runners would score, first on a wild pitch by Jayson Schroeder, then a single by Mesa and then a double by Phyo scoring Flaherty. Guerrero would tack on one more with a sac fly to make it 9-1... Carlos Rodriguez had an RBI for the Twins in the 4th... it was 3 more for us in the 5th. Guerrero drove one in with a double, and he and Robles both came in later on Shirah's single making it 12-2... Flaherty would indeed get through six innings, so another quality start for Jack... Luis Tuero had an RBI groundout in the 7th off of Perez... the capper was Shirah's meaningless 3-run homer in the 7th, his eighth HR of the year... Perez would finish things off for an unlikely save.


W: Jack Flaherty (6-3) L: Adrian Alderson (4-3) S: Martin Perez (1)
PotG: Will Shirah

A gigantic offensive series, we've now put up 46 hits in our last three games. These guys are rollin'. New Mexico swept their series in Nashville so we remain a half-game behind.

We're now halfway done with interleague play, having played 12 of the 24 games we're gonna play, and we have a 10-2 record against the AL! Of course, that means we're 21-20 against the NL, which might be a bit worrying. Our remaining interleague games will come in June against Tampa, Oakland, Colorado, Cleveland, Texas and New Orleans.

May 27-28: Bees (31-22) vs. San Diego Padres (35-18)
The Padres are a team that is absolutely feelin' it. They actually started the year off 1-5, but since April 1 have a blistering 34-13 record. Zooming in a bit, though, is even hotter, since the Friars have won 3 straight and 10 of 12, and just swept Toronto, one of the AL's hottest teams. They find themselves tied with Oklahoma for the best record in all of MLB at the moment, although we played the Oilers last week at their place and managed a split. If there's any solace for us to take, it's that we'll be seeing the bottom of their rotation, but all their pitchers have been good. All their players have been good, really.

Game 1 - Joey Lucchesi (4-4, 4.61) vs. Matt Cronin (4-0, 3.42)
SDP: 2B Frank, SS Correa, C Bart, 3B Gallo, CF Hernandez, RF Outman, 1B Gonzalez, P Cronin, LF Frazier
SLC: CF Mesa, 2B Phyo, 3B Guerrero, RF Robles, 1B Ishihara, C Phegley, SS Mota, LF Granite, P Lucchesi

A pair of lefties match up on this Saturday afternoon in Salt Lake City. Cronin has been on fire lately, allowing just one run in his last three starts combined! As you would guess, he won all three of those games. San Diego is 7-1 in his 8 starts this year... Lucchesi got a no-decision Sunday in Oklahoma City, in the game that we lost... we took advantage of some early shakiness by Cronin - his first nine pitches were balls! He would rebound to get Guerrero out, but a Robles single loaded the bases and we scored one when Ishihara flew out deep to left for a sac fly... Lucchesi was through three innings without allowing a hit, but there had been three Padre baserunners, on two walks and an error by Phyo... Adrian Hernandez would get the first Padres hit in the fourth but be put out on a fielder's choice hit into by James Outman. Outman himself would be stranded... in the bottom half of the fourth the Bees would have a little fun. Cronin loaded up the bases without us having to swing the bat - walks to Phegley and Granite sandwiching a HBP of Mota - but then Joey Lucchesi helped his own cause in a major way, shooting the first pitch he saw the other way and sneaking it right inside the third-base bag for a two-run double! Mesa's groundout would score Granite, and Lucchesi would come home on a wild pitch. We would actually add two more in the inning, on RBI doubles from Guerrero and then Ishihara. Cronin would be finished after 3.1 innings, responsible for all seven runs! He allowed only 4 hits but walked 6 and hit a man, a tough day for the former Arkansas Razorback... we would tack on three more in the 7th. A triple by Granite scored two runs, and he would come around on a sac fly by pinch-hitter Ben Gamel... the Padres had began the sixth with two straight hits by Carlos Correa and Joey Bart, but a Joey Gallo double play sapped their momentum and those two hits would be the last baserunners they'd get in the game. Lucchesi would be done after 7, a marvelous outing, and Paul Goodwin got six outs in turn!


W: Joey Lucchesi (5-4) L: Matt Cronin (4-1)
PotG: Joey Lucchesi

Not too often that you can straight-up dominate one of the top teams in the league but we barely put a foot wrong today. That puts us to 10 games over .500 for the first time this year at 32-22, and vaults us ahead of New Mexico into 1st place.

Game 2 - RAINED OUT - game has been rescheduled for Friday, September 8. We previously had a scheduled off day between our stops in San Francisco and Cincinnati, but we'll stop home on the way to play one more with the Dads. They themselves will head out to San Francisco for a Saturday game so it's good timing.

An anticlimactic end to a pretty nice week - I'd have liked to get another game in because we're playing quite well. In fact, I had the game and the lineups all loaded up, had a whole thing written about Padres starter Mark Green, but then I left the game to go get details about how SD had acquired him and when I went back into the game it'd been cancelled. That's weird IMO.

Bees' Player of the Week:
I'll take LF/SP Will Shirah this week. Will was 6-15 at the plate, including two of our only 3 home runs on the week (pretty low considering our hefty offensive outputs) and threw 4 shutout innings in the weird situation with Vancouver on Monday when he went on short rest.

On the Leaderboard:
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.: 2nd in average (.362), 1st in RBI (56), 5th in slugging (.598), 4th in OPS (1.015), 9th in WAR (2.5), 3rd in hits (81), 5th in total bases (134)
Victor Victor Mesa: 9th in average (.336), 9th in hits (75), T-7th in runs scored (45), T-6th in stolen bases (12)
Jack Flaherty: T-4th in wins (6), 5th in pitching WAR (1.9), T-4th in innings pitched (73.0), 5th in K/BB (4.9), 6th in BB/9 (1.6), T-1st in quality starts (10)

Minor League Bees:
AAA Hawaii was 5-2 overall, including series wins over Chula Vista (Padres) and Fort Collins (Suns). It's a 2-team race in the PCL Pacific Division between our team and Hollywood (Dodgers).
AA Monterrey had a tough 3-4 week, losing three of four games to Union Laguna (Blackbirds) but beating Tijuana (Saguaros) two of three.
A Burlington continues to roll going 6-1 this week. They won a series against Washington (Explorers) and swept Beloit (Monarques).
We had two minor leaguers win their league's respective Player of the Week Award - OF Andy Pages won the Mexican League award with 11 hits in 7 games, and OF Dylan Cloonan won the Midwest League award by blistering the competition for 13 hits, including 3 HR and 15 RBI!

All-Star Voting Update:
Three Bees appeared in the top 3 of their position for the first week of All-Star balloting. Kole Cottam is the 2nd-ranked catcher, Morio Ishihara is the #3 first basemen and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is the top vote-getter at third, and second only to Mike Trout in overall NL voting. Here are the leaders so far:

C: Buster Posey, Astros
1B: Cody Bellinger, Cardinals
2B: Brad Martin, Silver Sox
3B: Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bees
SS: Francisco Lindor, Cubs
LF: Mike Trout, Blackbirds
CF: Jake McCarthy, Mets
RF: Koshi Higuchi, Silver Sox
SP: Lance McCullers Jr., Dodgers
RP: Durbin Feltman, Suns

And in the AL:

C: Gary Sanchez, Navigators
1B: Rhys Hoskins, Scorpions
2B: Jose Altuve, Rays
3B: Rafael Devers, Yankees
SS: Allen Cordoba, Cherries
LF: Andrew Benintendi, 66ers
CF: Nick Schnell, Scorpions
RF: Bryce Harper, Scorpions
DH: Corey Seager, Mariners
SP: Noah Syndergaard, Yankees
RP: Corey Knebel, Lynx

Standings:



League News:
May 25: Orioles 3B Anthony Rendon, who had been set to be a free agent at season's end, signs a 3-year extension with a team option for 2027 that will pay him $37 million per season! I can't tell if Rendon is aging horribly or if my scout just has a terrible opinion of him, but I'm inclined to lean towards the latter. In 52 games this year Rendon is hitting .306/.372/.553 and just won a Gold Glove last year at third, the first of his career. This new deal comes with $118 million in guaranteed money, counting the buyout he'd be due in 2027 if Baltimore doesn't pick up the option.
May 26: As we were musclin' up, putting 15 runs on the Twins, Buffalo scored 22 against the Silver Sox, including a 14-run fourth inning! LF Travis Swaggerty, the rare power-hitting leadoff left-fielder, highlighted the day going 5-5 with a double, two homers and six runs scored.
May 28: Reno has traded SP Brett Graves to Montréal in exchange for two prospects, most notably 22-year-old 3B prospect Angel Tiburcio. May be a signal that the Silver Sox are giving up, because their pitching staff has been dreadful. Just in the past two weeks they have had games that they lost 15-5, 22-4, 15-3, 13-0 and 22-2... in total, their pitching staff has allowed 42 more runs than any other NL team, and we've only played about 55 games per team at this point. Well, their staff will be even worse now with Graves as a Monarque. Nice move for Montréal to boost a medium-level rotation at the back-end.

Players of the Week:
Astros RF Ramon Gutierrez - 13-24, 1 HR, 6 RBI, 1.384 OPS. Gutierrez is a 33-year-old Cuban who defected this past offseason, and is already looking like a heavy contender for NL Rookie of the Year.
Violets LF Adam Wesche - 15-28, 1 HR, 4 RBI, 1.302 OPS. Austin is not very good this year, but Wesche's current 20-game hit streak is a bright spot.

Power Rankings:
We had a nice 4-1 week against some good clubs, so I thought we'd crack the top 5, but we just missed out! If we'd been able to play Sunday and beaten the Padres I think we mighta nudged them out of the top 5. Instead, we went from 11th last week to 6th this week.
1. Baltimore Orioles
2. Oklahoma Oilers
3. San Diego Padres
4. Louisville Colts
5. New Orleans Crescents
56. Boston Red Sox
57. Hartford Oaks
58. Milwaukee Brewers
59. Arizona Diamondbacks
60. Colorado Rockies

Next Week: we go out on the road, in a pretty OOTP-style road trip that takes us first to LA to see the Dodgers, then we start the month of June in Tampa and Oakland in that order.