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Ruwisc · 01-18-2020, 07:41 PM

Week 10: May 29-June 4, 2023

Five of our next seven opponents will be from the American League, but we start things off with a trip to Dodger Stadium. Monday morning, though, we got some news that SP Michael Pineda will be out a bit longer than expected with his oblique strain. Pineda has been more a hassle than anything this year with all his nagging injuries, but when he has been able to get out there he's been effective, and Kirchner got shelled last time out so I would like to get him back before too long.

May 29-30: Bees (32-22) @ Los Angeles Dodgers (29-27)
The Dodgers are in a bit of a rut at the moment. Predicted to win the NL West, they've had a terrible time trying to score runs, especially recently. They are 4th from the bottom in NL run-scoring overall. That has turned into quite a few Ls recently, as they haven't won any of their last 7 series & have lost four games in a row, all at home. By all accounts this should be one of MLB's five best teams, so it won't be that surprising if they put it together against us here to end May, but we're playing pretty well at the moment so who knows. The Dodger pitching has lived up to its reputation, so at the very least it'll be strength vs. strength this week in LA.

Game 1: Will Shirah (4-2, 4.95) vs. Trevor Bauer (3-3, 3.62)
SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, P Shirah, CF Mesa, C Cottam, 2B Maezes, LF Granite
LAD: CF Cole, 2B Eikhoff, LF Acuña, 3B Sano, SS Mondesi, RF Puig, C Barnhart, 1B Doolin, P Bauer

Bauer is every bit as good here with the Dodgers as he is IRL. He signed a big contract with LA going into 2021 after starring with the rival Padres for the first three years of this game, and in 2021 he lived up to the hype, making his first All-Star team and finishing 2nd in Cy Young voting behind Houston's Clayton Kershaw, but last year he missed a bunch of time due to injury. He was still excellent, but limited, and lost his only postseason start as the Dodgers were upset in the first round by Buffalo... Shirah pitched last Monday on 3 days rest, and now thanks to the rainout is pitching on 6 days rest the next time out. Hope he doesn't care too much about his routine... it was a repetitive first few innings. By that, I mean Bauer and Shirah did the same thing each time. Unfortunately for us, Bauer retired us 1-2-3 in the first three innings, but better was that Shirah at least matched him with zeroes on the scoreboard. The Dodgers had exactly one two-out baserunner each stanza. Ronald Acuña Jr. singled in the first, Tucker Barnhart reached on a Ishihara error in the second, and Nate Eikhoff doubled in the third, but no further... we'd finally get through to Bauer in the fourth in our second try through the lineup. Mota and Robles both singled, Ishihara drew a 4-pitch walk, and Shirah helped his own cause with a two-run single! After a second out, Cottam doubled to the wall, scoring both runners that were still on to make it 4-0... in the 6th, the Dodgers finally got a baserunner before two outs, and I think that's why they scored. Eikhoff singled, went to second on a Cottam passed ball, and scored on Acuña's single. We'd jump back on Bauer the next half-inning, though, Mota driving Maezes in with a hit, and Guerrero driving in Granite, to make it 6-1... LA must have been really desperate for innings, because they sent reliever and former Bee Trevor Rosenthal up to hit for himself in the 8th. Fictional Bees fans everywhere will primarily remember this Trevor Rosenthal for blowing Game 7 of the World Series in 2019, the only time I've made it through the second round of the playoffs with this team. We had a 6-3 lead in the bottom of the 9th in Toronto but he let the championship slip away... anyway, Shirah overwhelmed him with a fastball and he grounded out to short. The rest of the game was uneventful and scoreless!

W: Will Shirah (5-2) L: Trevor Bauer (3-4)
PotG: Will Shirah. 7.1 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 6 K; 1-4, 2 RBI, R

Really nice game from Will. He's really becoming comfortable on both sides of the ball; this is his first full season in MLB after all, so maybe not surprising that he would start slow? Too many plate appearances to still be considered a rookie, but he wasn't a permanent MLB fixture until I acquired him from the Beacons last July in a minor deal (along with the current Midwest League player of the week, OF Dylan Cloonan).

Game 2 - Ryan Kirchner (0-1, 27.00) vs. Ethan Hankins (1-4, 4.21)
SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, CF Mesa, C Cottam, 2B Phyo, LF Gamel, P Kirchner
LAD: CF Cole, 2B Eikhoff, LF Acuña, 3B Sano, SS Mondesi, RF Puig, C Barnhart, 1B Hanson, P Hankins

Hankins is a future All-Star for sure, but he's in a bit of a slump at the moment. IRL, he was a first-round pick by Cleveland in 2018 out of a Georgia high school. Here, he was rushed to the majors a bit by the 2019 Dodgers, and though he did well, he was just 19 and probably coulda used a touch more seasoning. Now 23, he's got three plus pitches and can spot them decently well. Buuuut, he's allowed at least three runs in five straight outings, and LA has lost five of his last six... we might need him to allow more than that if Kirchner can't improve on his outing from last Tuesday, where he allowed 7 runs while getting 7 outs (hence, the 27 ERA) in our only loss last week... we loaded the bases in the top of the first without scoring, and then LA went to work. Acuña singled with two outs, and Miguel Sanó smashed a line drive over the left-field wall, 2-0 Dodgers... Kirchner was actually getting worse on the fly. He got Toby Hanson to start the second, and then things started spiraling when he walked the opposing pitcher Hankins. 4 batters later, it was 6-0 and he was done. Not to be outdone, Martin Perez would allow his inherited runner to score, and then two more of his own, and it was 9-0 after two innings. We got 1 in the third, an RBI fielder's choice for Mesa scoring Robles, but they got one as well on a sac fly by Adalberto Mondesi... threats on both sides, but no more runs until LA brought out Brian Gadsby, who we traded for Brad Hand in April, and we crushed his spirit. Mota walked, and Joe Breaux singled as a PH. Ishihara brought them both in alongside him with a 3-run shot, his 11th. Mesa would later be singled in by Cottam, and we were suddenly within sight of them at 10-5... the sum total of the 8th inning, for both sides, was completed in eight pitches. 3 for LA's Gregory Infante, 5 for former Dodger Hand... we got two runners on in the ninth but never really threatened once we got to 5.

W: Ethan Hankins (2-4) L: Ryan Kirchner (0-2)
PotG: Ronald Acuña Jr., 4-4, 2B, BB, 2 RBI, 2 R

I dunno if this is an overreaction, but I'm gonna have to send Kirchner down just to clear out his head! He's given up 14 runs in a total of 3.2 innings now. RHP William Gonzalez comes back up.

We have Wednesday the 31st off, so this brings the month to an end! We were 15-10 through the month of May, and find ourselves in first place atop the NL Central, 1 1/2 games ahead of New Mexico. (The Suns have played 3 more games than we have, but with 3 more losses.) We have the 4th-best record in this 30-team National League, 3 games behind the current #1 seed San Diego.

Monthly Awards
Batter of the Month:
Nashville 1B Justin Bour - .360, 12 HR, 26 RBI, 26 runs. Bour had 31 hits in 24 games, and 19 of those hits went for extra bases. The 2021 World Series MVP with Milwaukee, Bour's in his first season with the Sounds and doing really well. Nashville had an excellent month of May as a team going 17-9 as well, shooting up to 3rd in the AL South
Columbus LF Kameron Misner - .350, 10 HR, 31 RBI, 20 runs. The Explorers have been without C Nick Fortes and 1B Alec Bohm for almost the whole season but it hasn't mattered with Misner carrying them. Cbus has a 6 1/2 game lead on the Reds and Pirates in the NL North.

Pitcher of the Month:
Sacramento SP Dinelson Lamet - 5-0, 3.44 ERA, 34.0 IP, 50 K. The Solons were 6-0 in his May starts and find themselves in first place in the AL West. Right now he's working on a string of 4 consecutive double-digit strikeout games.
Salt Lake SP Jack Flaherty - 4-1, 1.83 ERA, 34.1 IP, 27 K. Jack has been a rock for us since the last week of April, and he's gotten 6 wins in 7 starts over that period while lowering his season ERA by about 2 and a half runs.

Rookie of the Month:
Austin LF Adam Wesche - .430, 4 HR, 19 RBI, 23 runs. Wesche just won the AL Player of the Week award for the last week of May, so no real surprise I guess. Austin is still not very good, but they played above .500 ball in May so not all is lost. The AL Central is actually in exactly the order that was predicted in the preseason (Las Vegas-Oklahoma-Tucson-Austin-Texas-Colorado).
West Texas LF Miguel Baca - .303, 7 HR, 22 RBI, 21 runs. Baca played 1B in both our games in El Paso a few weeks ago, but he's in LF, and Mike Trout in CF, with Jordan Prendiz out with an injury. He was the 9th overall pick in 2020.

Apparently, this is the first Pitcher of the Month award any of my players have won, which is surprising. I had Yu Darvish as an ace for several years, and I always felt like he had stretches more dominant that Flare is on right now, but just never won it.

In addition, members of our AAA team in Hawaii won both the PCL Batter and Pitcher of the Month Awards! CF Andy Shadid and SP Santiago Elizondo were winners. Shadid really isn't a prospect - he's already 26, and before hitting .354 in May with 9 HR he hit .105 in April, but Elizondo will be a part of our team in the future, this September at the absolute latest. We took him in the inaugural fantasy draft in 2018, honestly well after I had stopped paying attention to who we were drafting, but he's still just 23 and has an 8-0 record with a sub-2 ERA in AAA right now!

Alright, back to the games!

June 1-2: Bees (33-23) @ Tampa Bay Rays (31-27)
The Rays drew a strange straw on the schedule front - they are playing just about all of their interleague games in a row. They didn't play their first game vs. the NL until May 18th (we started on April 24th) but from then until June 18th they will play all 24 of their interleague games and just 4 games vs. the AL. They just got back from a nice long road trip that took them to Newark, Washington, El Paso and Charlotte, where they went 4-4. Overall not the strongest group of teams they've been playing, but a .500 road trip is probably good for anyone a lot of the time. They'd been forced to go without a DH over the past week, meaning that either regular DH Yuli Gurriel or regular 3B Nolan Gorman was on the bench for each of those games. Overall, this is a team that was predicted to earn a playoff spot, and has each of the last two years, but is struggling offensively this year. Star SS Osiris Johnson is on the IL and won't play in this series, and overall there just hasn't been a lot of help around Jose Altuve.

Game 1 - Jack Flaherty (6-3, 3.70) vs. Trey Benton (5-2, 2.94)
SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, LF Shirah, CF Mesa, C Cottam, 2B Phyo, DH Granite
TBR: CF Gray, RF Eads, 2B Altuve, LF Donnarumma, C E. Rodriguez, DH Vaughn, 3B Gorman, SS R. Rodriguez, 1B Rivas

Benton is a really nice looking pitcher, a current real-life East Carolina Pirate who, thanks to the structure of the fantasy draft I ran in this world, became a pro in 2018 instead and made the majors by 2020. Due to injury, his first full year in the Rays' rotation was last season (2022) but he is having his coming out party right now. He's pitching deep into games, striking more guys out, and keeping the ball in the ballpark. He's always had good control too, and even defends his position well. I haven't even seen him pitch but I'm already a fan. He's still just 23 too... though, we've got quite the pitcher going today as well, the guy who was just announced this morning as NL Pitcher of the Month for May! Flaherty was the beneficiary of our offensive explosion last Friday against the Twins, though he also pitched well, scattering seven hits over 6 innings, giving up 2 runs in a 15-3 win... we were set down in order in the first inning, and then Tampa went up in their half on a solo HR by Steve Eads... We finally got our first baserunners in the third, two hits and an error loading the bases for Robles but we couldn't convert... Ishihara led off the 4th with a double, and Shirah singled him around to tie the game... MK Phyo doubled later in the inning to score Shirah and give us the lead... but we would lose the lead in the bottom half. James Donnarumma came in to score on Flaherty's wild pitch, and Gorman followed with a sac fly to make it 3-2... Steve Eads came up again in the 5th with a man on and went long again, making it 5-2 and ending Flaherty's day. That snaps a streak of 6 straight quality starts... the 7th and 8th were pretty quiet... in the 9th, with Tampa's Dovydas Neverauskas on for the save, Phyo and Granite reached on hits before Mota had an RBI groundout. When Robles hit an infield hit, it brought the go-ahead run to the plate in the form of Guerrero... who struck out. Close but no cigar.

W: Trey Benton (6-2) L: Jack Flaherty (6-4) S: Dovydas Neverauskas (15)
PotG: Steve Eads

Bleh.

Game 2 - Joey Lucchesi (5-4, 4.07) vs. Hugo Beltran (2-4, 5.47)
SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, LF Shirah, CF Mesa, DH Gamel, C Cottam, 2B Phyo
TBR: CF Gray, RF Eads, 2B Altuve, SS R. Rodriguez, LF Donnarumma, 3B Gorman, DH Allred, 1B Rivas, C Rosica

Another promising young Rays starter, but this time one who's had a bit less success so far this year. Beltran was worth 3 wins as a swingman last year, making 21 starts and 30 bullpen appearances for this Tampa team. This season, though, has been a little less successful fully in the rotation. Last time out he was shelled by the Blackbirds in El Paso, getting the loss and not making it through five... Lucchesi was the star of our lone game against San Diego before the rainout, throwing seven shutout innings... we got to Beltran in the first. Mota and Robles each singled, Ishihara drew a walk and Shirah scored two runs with a single. Lucchesi only allowed two baserunners in the first three innings, one hit and one walk... the top of the 4th was a veritable parade of Bees hitters. Cottam single, Phyo walk, Mota single, Robles RBI single, Guerrero K, Ishihara 2-RBI double, and then a pitching change. That's 3.1 innings for Beltran, another rough outing for him... now off of Nathan Eovaldi, Shirah 2-RBI double, Mesa RBI single (but an out on the bases), Gamel walk and Cottam 2-run homer! That's eight runs in the 4th. Following that, Phyo came up with the longest at-bat I've ever noticed in an OOTP game: 17 pitches! He made Eovaldi really work, but it would end in a ground ball to first... After all that, Lucchesi got through his next inning on just 6 pitches... he'd allow one hit each in the fifth and sixth but no further damage... in Joey's final inning, the 7th, he allowed a solo HR to Ronny Rodriguez... Martin Perez soaked up the final two innings, allowing a two-run double to Jose Altuve in the 8th but nothing further.

W: Joey Lucchesi (6-4) L: Hector Beltran (2-5)
PotG: Joey Lucchesi

A nice solid team win to earn a split. On to Oakland!

June 3-4: Bees (34-24) vs. Oakland Athletics (30-30)
.500 for Oakland is better than expected - this team went to the playoffs in 2019-2021, but fell back last season to below .500 and were expected to be worse this year. Well, bolstered by a fairly weak AL West, they're making a couple of waves at least. LF Nick Decker is probably their top hitter (though they do have some big names) but he's struggling right now, and the A's have lost 3 straight games, including just being swept by the lowly Anchors at home. The A's are also missing a couple of starting pitchers - Zack Greinke is out for the year, and Jon Gray has been out since late April.

Game 1 - Griffin Canning (3-1, 6.26) vs. Luke Weaver (5-2, 3.65)
SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, CF Mesa, C Cottam, DH Gamel, 2B Phyo, LF Granite
OAK: LF Decker, CF Toles, DH Jimenez, 3B Arenado, 1B Thames, RF Hernandez, C Childers, SS Waddell, 2B Doney

Luke Weaver is proving himself to be pretty valuable here in a contract year. He's got more than 5 strikeouts for each walk, is keeping the ball down and mixing 4 good pitches in well. Last time out he dominated the Brewers at Miller Park, going 7 innings with 1 run allowed in a 3-1 win... Canning was shelled by Minnesota in his last start, but was bailed out by the offense (we came back from 4 runs down to win 8-7)... we scored a run on a wild pitch in the first, Robles coming in to make it 1-0... but Oakland would get it straight back, benefitting from a Phyo throwing error to get an RBI single from Eloy Jimenez... in the second, it all went to hell. Two walks and two hits produced a run, an RBI hit by Nick Decker, and then Andrew Toles delivered a sac fly to make it 3-1 before Jimenez walked loading the bases again. On a 1-1 pitch, Canning allowed his fourth and final hit of the game. Unfortunately, it was a Nolan Arenado grand slam that knocked him out after just 1.2 innings. We're gonna need that comeback magic again... Paul Goodwin came in to rescue Canning, but himself had to leave in the 3rd with a shoulder injury... Weaver was working well, not allowing a baserunner in the 2nd, 3rd or 4th... not much doing until the 7th. The Bees had three extra-base hits in the inning to produce two runs, a Phyo RBI double and a Granite RBI triple... but the A's got them right back in their seventh, back-to-back RBI singles by Colin Doney and Decker... a fielder's choice would get us 1 more run in the ninth but we never really made a serious threat.

W: Luke Weaver (6-2) L: Griffin Canning (3-2)
PotG: Luke Weaver

Paul Goodwin's injury doesn't appear to be major - he will be D2D for about a week.

Game 2 - Will Shirah (5-2, 4.37) vs. Yordy Cabrera (3-1, 2.28)
SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, CF Mesa, C Cottam, DH Gamel, 2B Phyo, LF Granite
OAK: LF Decker, CF Toles, DH Jimenez, 3B Arenado, 2B Flores, 1B Thames, RF Hernandez, SS Waddell, C Baldo

Cabrera was a starter for the A's last year as a debutant, but began this year in the bullpen... until the team was torn apart by pitching injuries. He entered the rotation in early May and has been pitching pretty incredibly, with a 1.53 ERA out of the bullpen and a 2.61 in 5 starts to date. The A's 4th-round pick in 2019 from a community college in south Florida, Cabrera makes up for his iffy stuff with quality control... Shirah, theoretically, should do well in this Oakland ballpark with his tendency to induce a lot of popups... he got the win in LA on Monday, allowing just 1 run over 7.1... Shirah had a very difficult first inning. Decker, Toles and Jimenez all reached with hits, scoring one run, and Arenado scored a second run with his grounder. Wilmer Flores followed with an RBI single to make it 3-0, but Will settled down and finished the inning... the Bees put together a two-out rally in the second but were held off the board... Yordy Cabrera actually had to leave the game with an injury in the 3rd inning, same as Paul Goodwin yesterday, so a golden opportunity for us to get a good starter out of the game... Luke Waddell added a sac fly for them in the 3rd to make it 4-0... in the 5th, Teoscar Hernandez hit a solo HR off of Shirah, his 7th of the year, making it 5-0. That'd be all for Will, going just 4.1 innings with 5 runs allowed... Goodwin actually came in first out of the bullpen, so it looks like Matheny isn't concerned about his injury. Problem was, he walked Omar Baldo and allowed a further home run to Decker to make it 7-0... we would get off the schneid in the 6th, Guerrero scoring on a wild pitch from reliever Raudel Lazo... but that was pretty much the last interesting thing that happened in this game. We only had one baserunner the final three innings.

W: Aaron Moore (1-0) L: Will Shirah (5-3)
PotG: Nick Decker

We've gotta pitch better, for sure. We finish the road trip 2-4 - I'm definitely ready for us to get back home to Utah.

Bees' Player of the Week:
C Kole Cottam - 10-26, 2 2B, HR, 5 RBI, .962 OPS.

On the Leaderboard:
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.: 5th in average (.340), 2nd in RBI (57), T-5th in hits (85), T-6th in total bases (139)
Morio Ishihara: T-8th in RBI (50)
Victor Robles: 9th in runs scored (48)
Victor Victor Mesa: T-2nd in triples (6), 8th in stolen bases (13)
Zack Granite: T-6th in triples (5)
Jack Flaherty: T-7th in innings pitched (77.1), 4th in K/BB (4.8), 5th in BB/9 (1.6), T-1st in quality starts (10)

Minor League Bees:
AAA Hawaii was just 3-3 this week, winning a vital series against Hollywood (Dodgers) but losing two of three at Boise (66ers). They're now tied with Hollywood atop the PCL Pacific.
AA Monterrey lost every game this week! That's shocking considering how good they've been, and they have actually slipped all the way to 3rd in the Mexican League, 6 games behind Monclova (Oilers)
A Burlington, contrarily, swept their whole week with sweeps over Erie (Blue Jays) and South Bend (Cubs). They have won an astonishing 10 in a row and 15 of 16 to sit at 39-12, which from what I can tell is the best record in affiliated ball right now.

All-Star Voting Upgrade:
No update, really - all of our players on the leaderboard remained where they were. Cottam is in 2nd place among catchers, and Ishihara in 3rd place among first basemen (but likely to rise now that San Antonio's Triston Casas is out for the year). Guerrero is still running away with the vote at 3B, but has slipped to 4th in overall votes among the NL behind Trout, Posey and Bellinger. New players in bold:

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: Jose Quintana, Nationals
RP: Durbin Feltman, Suns

C: Brad Debo, Scorpions
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 31: Tough news from Tucson; Saguaros CF Adam Frazier has a broken elbow and will probably miss the rest of the season. An All-Star in 2020, Frazier will finish the 2023 season with a negative WAR
May 31: The Diamondbacks have fired manager Don Mattingly. This was his first season at the helm in Phoenix, having been the bench coach for the prior three years, but he lasted just 58 games in charge. Arizona quickly hired on Nick Hird (fictional) as his replacement.
June 1: Astros reliever Patrick Corbin is done for the year with a torn flexor tendon in his elbow. Corbin had signed for just 1 year and $2.2 million, so he will be without a team at season's end and unable to pitch again until July/August of 2024. Another in a long, long list of Houston pitching injuries.
June 3: I just last post mentioned Anthony Rendon's new contract. Well, the Orioles' 3B signed it at the perfect time, because he will miss three months with a nerve issue.
June 4: Sacramento SP Mike LoPresti has one of the season's best individual performances in a win at San Diego. Not only did he throw a two-hit shutout, he also hit a home run, his first major league hit! Some call this a True Win, a game in which the pitcher beats the other team entirely on his own. A pretty great accomplishment for an American League pitcher!
June 4: In a really weird trade, the Red Sox (one of the league's worst teams) give up RHP James Dykstra and a prospect in order to acquire 37-year-old Yoenis Cespedes from the Braves. Cespedes is a roughly league-average hitter, he's a free agent after this season and Boston has no chance of going anywhere in 2023 so this is an odd one.

Players of the Week:
Colorado 1B Eudor Garcia - 12-25, 5 HR, 15 RBI. The Rockies are still the worst team in the league, but Garcia is a good player. I've mentioned before, but he holds the hitting streak record in this reformed MLB, a 38-game streak he put together two years ago. We'll see the Rox come to Salt Lake for a kind of interleague rivalry series next Thursday and Friday.
San Francisco 2B Spencer Torkelson - 10-24, 4 HR, 10 RBI. We haven't played the Giants yet (we play them at home at the end of this month, then at SF in September) so not a lot of time devoted to Torkelson here, but he's definitely a quality player and every bit as good as he is currently expected to be IRL. I'm hoping he is the #1 pick in this year's real MLB draft, but that's partly because Arizona State is my college team & I'm a big fan of Tork's.

Power Rankings: we had a tough 2-4 week, so it's not surprising that we fall, but I didn't think we'd fall this far. Last week we were 6th, but now we are 17th.

Next Week: the draft is on Monday, so the next post will focus entirely on that. But then, we have one of our (theoretically) easier homestands, with the Blackbirds, Rockies and Indians coming to town. Those three teams are a combined 42 games below .500 at the moment.

01-18-2020, 07:41 PM	#25
Ruwisc All Star Reserve Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: Southwestern Illinois Posts: 610	Week 10: May 29-June 4, 2023 Five of our next seven opponents will be from the American League, but we start things off with a trip to Dodger Stadium. Monday morning, though, we got some news that SP Michael Pineda will be out a bit longer than expected with his oblique strain. Pineda has been more a hassle than anything this year with all his nagging injuries, but when he has been able to get out there he's been effective, and Kirchner got shelled last time out so I would like to get him back before too long. May 29-30: Bees (32-22) @ Los Angeles Dodgers (29-27) The Dodgers are in a bit of a rut at the moment. Predicted to win the NL West, they've had a terrible time trying to score runs, especially recently. They are 4th from the bottom in NL run-scoring overall. That has turned into quite a few Ls recently, as they haven't won any of their last 7 series & have lost four games in a row, all at home. By all accounts this should be one of MLB's five best teams, so it won't be that surprising if they put it together against us here to end May, but we're playing pretty well at the moment so who knows. The Dodger pitching has lived up to its reputation, so at the very least it'll be strength vs. strength this week in LA. Game 1: Will Shirah (4-2, 4.95) vs. Trevor Bauer (3-3, 3.62) SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, P Shirah, CF Mesa, C Cottam, 2B Maezes, LF Granite LAD: CF Cole, 2B Eikhoff, LF Acuña, 3B Sano, SS Mondesi, RF Puig, C Barnhart, 1B Doolin, P Bauer Bauer is every bit as good here with the Dodgers as he is IRL. He signed a big contract with LA going into 2021 after starring with the rival Padres for the first three years of this game, and in 2021 he lived up to the hype, making his first All-Star team and finishing 2nd in Cy Young voting behind Houston's Clayton Kershaw, but last year he missed a bunch of time due to injury. He was still excellent, but limited, and lost his only postseason start as the Dodgers were upset in the first round by Buffalo... Shirah pitched last Monday on 3 days rest, and now thanks to the rainout is pitching on 6 days rest the next time out. Hope he doesn't care too much about his routine... it was a repetitive first few innings. By that, I mean Bauer and Shirah did the same thing each time. Unfortunately for us, Bauer retired us 1-2-3 in the first three innings, but better was that Shirah at least matched him with zeroes on the scoreboard. The Dodgers had exactly one two-out baserunner each stanza. Ronald Acuña Jr. singled in the first, Tucker Barnhart reached on a Ishihara error in the second, and Nate Eikhoff doubled in the third, but no further... we'd finally get through to Bauer in the fourth in our second try through the lineup. Mota and Robles both singled, Ishihara drew a 4-pitch walk, and Shirah helped his own cause with a two-run single! After a second out, Cottam doubled to the wall, scoring both runners that were still on to make it 4-0... in the 6th, the Dodgers finally got a baserunner before two outs, and I think that's why they scored. Eikhoff singled, went to second on a Cottam passed ball, and scored on Acuña's single. We'd jump back on Bauer the next half-inning, though, Mota driving Maezes in with a hit, and Guerrero driving in Granite, to make it 6-1... LA must have been really desperate for innings, because they sent reliever and former Bee Trevor Rosenthal up to hit for himself in the 8th. Fictional Bees fans everywhere will primarily remember this Trevor Rosenthal for blowing Game 7 of the World Series in 2019, the only time I've made it through the second round of the playoffs with this team. We had a 6-3 lead in the bottom of the 9th in Toronto but he let the championship slip away... anyway, Shirah overwhelmed him with a fastball and he grounded out to short. The rest of the game was uneventful and scoreless! W: Will Shirah (5-2) L: Trevor Bauer (3-4) PotG: Will Shirah. 7.1 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 6 K; 1-4, 2 RBI, R Really nice game from Will. He's really becoming comfortable on both sides of the ball; this is his first full season in MLB after all, so maybe not surprising that he would start slow? Too many plate appearances to still be considered a rookie, but he wasn't a permanent MLB fixture until I acquired him from the Beacons last July in a minor deal (along with the current Midwest League player of the week, OF Dylan Cloonan). Game 2 - Ryan Kirchner (0-1, 27.00) vs. Ethan Hankins (1-4, 4.21) SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, CF Mesa, C Cottam, 2B Phyo, LF Gamel, P Kirchner LAD: CF Cole, 2B Eikhoff, LF Acuña, 3B Sano, SS Mondesi, RF Puig, C Barnhart, 1B Hanson, P Hankins Hankins is a future All-Star for sure, but he's in a bit of a slump at the moment. IRL, he was a first-round pick by Cleveland in 2018 out of a Georgia high school. Here, he was rushed to the majors a bit by the 2019 Dodgers, and though he did well, he was just 19 and probably coulda used a touch more seasoning. Now 23, he's got three plus pitches and can spot them decently well. Buuuut, he's allowed at least three runs in five straight outings, and LA has lost five of his last six... we might need him to allow more than that if Kirchner can't improve on his outing from last Tuesday, where he allowed 7 runs while getting 7 outs (hence, the 27 ERA) in our only loss last week... we loaded the bases in the top of the first without scoring, and then LA went to work. Acuña singled with two outs, and Miguel Sanó smashed a line drive over the left-field wall, 2-0 Dodgers... Kirchner was actually getting worse on the fly. He got Toby Hanson to start the second, and then things started spiraling when he walked the opposing pitcher Hankins. 4 batters later, it was 6-0 and he was done. Not to be outdone, Martin Perez would allow his inherited runner to score, and then two more of his own, and it was 9-0 after two innings. We got 1 in the third, an RBI fielder's choice for Mesa scoring Robles, but they got one as well on a sac fly by Adalberto Mondesi... threats on both sides, but no more runs until LA brought out Brian Gadsby, who we traded for Brad Hand in April, and we crushed his spirit. Mota walked, and Joe Breaux singled as a PH. Ishihara brought them both in alongside him with a 3-run shot, his 11th. Mesa would later be singled in by Cottam, and we were suddenly within sight of them at 10-5... the sum total of the 8th inning, for both sides, was completed in eight pitches. 3 for LA's Gregory Infante, 5 for former Dodger Hand... we got two runners on in the ninth but never really threatened once we got to 5. W: Ethan Hankins (2-4) L: Ryan Kirchner (0-2) PotG: Ronald Acuña Jr., 4-4, 2B, BB, 2 RBI, 2 R I dunno if this is an overreaction, but I'm gonna have to send Kirchner down just to clear out his head! He's given up 14 runs in a total of 3.2 innings now. RHP William Gonzalez comes back up. We have Wednesday the 31st off, so this brings the month to an end! We were 15-10 through the month of May, and find ourselves in first place atop the NL Central, 1 1/2 games ahead of New Mexico. (The Suns have played 3 more games than we have, but with 3 more losses.) We have the 4th-best record in this 30-team National League, 3 games behind the current #1 seed San Diego. Monthly Awards Batter of the Month: Nashville 1B Justin Bour - .360, 12 HR, 26 RBI, 26 runs. Bour had 31 hits in 24 games, and 19 of those hits went for extra bases. The 2021 World Series MVP with Milwaukee, Bour's in his first season with the Sounds and doing really well. Nashville had an excellent month of May as a team going 17-9 as well, shooting up to 3rd in the AL South Columbus LF Kameron Misner - .350, 10 HR, 31 RBI, 20 runs. The Explorers have been without C Nick Fortes and 1B Alec Bohm for almost the whole season but it hasn't mattered with Misner carrying them. Cbus has a 6 1/2 game lead on the Reds and Pirates in the NL North. Pitcher of the Month: Sacramento SP Dinelson Lamet - 5-0, 3.44 ERA, 34.0 IP, 50 K. The Solons were 6-0 in his May starts and find themselves in first place in the AL West. Right now he's working on a string of 4 consecutive double-digit strikeout games. Salt Lake SP Jack Flaherty - 4-1, 1.83 ERA, 34.1 IP, 27 K. Jack has been a rock for us since the last week of April, and he's gotten 6 wins in 7 starts over that period while lowering his season ERA by about 2 and a half runs. Rookie of the Month: Austin LF Adam Wesche - .430, 4 HR, 19 RBI, 23 runs. Wesche just won the AL Player of the Week award for the last week of May, so no real surprise I guess. Austin is still not very good, but they played above .500 ball in May so not all is lost. The AL Central is actually in exactly the order that was predicted in the preseason (Las Vegas-Oklahoma-Tucson-Austin-Texas-Colorado). West Texas LF Miguel Baca - .303, 7 HR, 22 RBI, 21 runs. Baca played 1B in both our games in El Paso a few weeks ago, but he's in LF, and Mike Trout in CF, with Jordan Prendiz out with an injury. He was the 9th overall pick in 2020. Apparently, this is the first Pitcher of the Month award any of my players have won, which is surprising. I had Yu Darvish as an ace for several years, and I always felt like he had stretches more dominant that Flare is on right now, but just never won it. In addition, members of our AAA team in Hawaii won both the PCL Batter and Pitcher of the Month Awards! CF Andy Shadid and SP Santiago Elizondo were winners. Shadid really isn't a prospect - he's already 26, and before hitting .354 in May with 9 HR he hit .105 in April, but Elizondo will be a part of our team in the future, this September at the absolute latest. We took him in the inaugural fantasy draft in 2018, honestly well after I had stopped paying attention to who we were drafting, but he's still just 23 and has an 8-0 record with a sub-2 ERA in AAA right now! Alright, back to the games! June 1-2: Bees (33-23) @ Tampa Bay Rays (31-27) The Rays drew a strange straw on the schedule front - they are playing just about all of their interleague games in a row. They didn't play their first game vs. the NL until May 18th (we started on April 24th) but from then until June 18th they will play all 24 of their interleague games and just 4 games vs. the AL. They just got back from a nice long road trip that took them to Newark, Washington, El Paso and Charlotte, where they went 4-4. Overall not the strongest group of teams they've been playing, but a .500 road trip is probably good for anyone a lot of the time. They'd been forced to go without a DH over the past week, meaning that either regular DH Yuli Gurriel or regular 3B Nolan Gorman was on the bench for each of those games. Overall, this is a team that was predicted to earn a playoff spot, and has each of the last two years, but is struggling offensively this year. Star SS Osiris Johnson is on the IL and won't play in this series, and overall there just hasn't been a lot of help around Jose Altuve. Game 1 - Jack Flaherty (6-3, 3.70) vs. Trey Benton (5-2, 2.94) SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, LF Shirah, CF Mesa, C Cottam, 2B Phyo, DH Granite TBR: CF Gray, RF Eads, 2B Altuve, LF Donnarumma, C E. Rodriguez, DH Vaughn, 3B Gorman, SS R. Rodriguez, 1B Rivas Benton is a really nice looking pitcher, a current real-life East Carolina Pirate who, thanks to the structure of the fantasy draft I ran in this world, became a pro in 2018 instead and made the majors by 2020. Due to injury, his first full year in the Rays' rotation was last season (2022) but he is having his coming out party right now. He's pitching deep into games, striking more guys out, and keeping the ball in the ballpark. He's always had good control too, and even defends his position well. I haven't even seen him pitch but I'm already a fan. He's still just 23 too... though, we've got quite the pitcher going today as well, the guy who was just announced this morning as NL Pitcher of the Month for May! Flaherty was the beneficiary of our offensive explosion last Friday against the Twins, though he also pitched well, scattering seven hits over 6 innings, giving up 2 runs in a 15-3 win... we were set down in order in the first inning, and then Tampa went up in their half on a solo HR by Steve Eads... We finally got our first baserunners in the third, two hits and an error loading the bases for Robles but we couldn't convert... Ishihara led off the 4th with a double, and Shirah singled him around to tie the game... MK Phyo doubled later in the inning to score Shirah and give us the lead... but we would lose the lead in the bottom half. James Donnarumma came in to score on Flaherty's wild pitch, and Gorman followed with a sac fly to make it 3-2... Steve Eads came up again in the 5th with a man on and went long again, making it 5-2 and ending Flaherty's day. That snaps a streak of 6 straight quality starts... the 7th and 8th were pretty quiet... in the 9th, with Tampa's Dovydas Neverauskas on for the save, Phyo and Granite reached on hits before Mota had an RBI groundout. When Robles hit an infield hit, it brought the go-ahead run to the plate in the form of Guerrero... who struck out. Close but no cigar. W: Trey Benton (6-2) L: Jack Flaherty (6-4) S: Dovydas Neverauskas (15) PotG: Steve Eads Bleh. Game 2 - Joey Lucchesi (5-4, 4.07) vs. Hugo Beltran (2-4, 5.47) SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, LF Shirah, CF Mesa, DH Gamel, C Cottam, 2B Phyo TBR: CF Gray, RF Eads, 2B Altuve, SS R. Rodriguez, LF Donnarumma, 3B Gorman, DH Allred, 1B Rivas, C Rosica Another promising young Rays starter, but this time one who's had a bit less success so far this year. Beltran was worth 3 wins as a swingman last year, making 21 starts and 30 bullpen appearances for this Tampa team. This season, though, has been a little less successful fully in the rotation. Last time out he was shelled by the Blackbirds in El Paso, getting the loss and not making it through five... Lucchesi was the star of our lone game against San Diego before the rainout, throwing seven shutout innings... we got to Beltran in the first. Mota and Robles each singled, Ishihara drew a walk and Shirah scored two runs with a single. Lucchesi only allowed two baserunners in the first three innings, one hit and one walk... the top of the 4th was a veritable parade of Bees hitters. Cottam single, Phyo walk, Mota single, Robles RBI single, Guerrero K, Ishihara 2-RBI double, and then a pitching change. That's 3.1 innings for Beltran, another rough outing for him... now off of Nathan Eovaldi, Shirah 2-RBI double, Mesa RBI single (but an out on the bases), Gamel walk and Cottam 2-run homer! That's eight runs in the 4th. Following that, Phyo came up with the longest at-bat I've ever noticed in an OOTP game: 17 pitches! He made Eovaldi really work, but it would end in a ground ball to first... After all that, Lucchesi got through his next inning on just 6 pitches... he'd allow one hit each in the fifth and sixth but no further damage... in Joey's final inning, the 7th, he allowed a solo HR to Ronny Rodriguez... Martin Perez soaked up the final two innings, allowing a two-run double to Jose Altuve in the 8th but nothing further. W: Joey Lucchesi (6-4) L: Hector Beltran (2-5) PotG: Joey Lucchesi A nice solid team win to earn a split. On to Oakland! June 3-4: Bees (34-24) vs. Oakland Athletics (30-30) .500 for Oakland is better than expected - this team went to the playoffs in 2019-2021, but fell back last season to below .500 and were expected to be worse this year. Well, bolstered by a fairly weak AL West, they're making a couple of waves at least. LF Nick Decker is probably their top hitter (though they do have some big names) but he's struggling right now, and the A's have lost 3 straight games, including just being swept by the lowly Anchors at home. The A's are also missing a couple of starting pitchers - Zack Greinke is out for the year, and Jon Gray has been out since late April. Game 1 - Griffin Canning (3-1, 6.26) vs. Luke Weaver (5-2, 3.65) SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, CF Mesa, C Cottam, DH Gamel, 2B Phyo, LF Granite OAK: LF Decker, CF Toles, DH Jimenez, 3B Arenado, 1B Thames, RF Hernandez, C Childers, SS Waddell, 2B Doney Luke Weaver is proving himself to be pretty valuable here in a contract year. He's got more than 5 strikeouts for each walk, is keeping the ball down and mixing 4 good pitches in well. Last time out he dominated the Brewers at Miller Park, going 7 innings with 1 run allowed in a 3-1 win... Canning was shelled by Minnesota in his last start, but was bailed out by the offense (we came back from 4 runs down to win 8-7)... we scored a run on a wild pitch in the first, Robles coming in to make it 1-0... but Oakland would get it straight back, benefitting from a Phyo throwing error to get an RBI single from Eloy Jimenez... in the second, it all went to hell. Two walks and two hits produced a run, an RBI hit by Nick Decker, and then Andrew Toles delivered a sac fly to make it 3-1 before Jimenez walked loading the bases again. On a 1-1 pitch, Canning allowed his fourth and final hit of the game. Unfortunately, it was a Nolan Arenado grand slam that knocked him out after just 1.2 innings. We're gonna need that comeback magic again... Paul Goodwin came in to rescue Canning, but himself had to leave in the 3rd with a shoulder injury... Weaver was working well, not allowing a baserunner in the 2nd, 3rd or 4th... not much doing until the 7th. The Bees had three extra-base hits in the inning to produce two runs, a Phyo RBI double and a Granite RBI triple... but the A's got them right back in their seventh, back-to-back RBI singles by Colin Doney and Decker... a fielder's choice would get us 1 more run in the ninth but we never really made a serious threat. W: Luke Weaver (6-2) L: Griffin Canning (3-2) PotG: Luke Weaver Paul Goodwin's injury doesn't appear to be major - he will be D2D for about a week. Game 2 - Will Shirah (5-2, 4.37) vs. Yordy Cabrera (3-1, 2.28) SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, CF Mesa, C Cottam, DH Gamel, 2B Phyo, LF Granite OAK: LF Decker, CF Toles, DH Jimenez, 3B Arenado, 2B Flores, 1B Thames, RF Hernandez, SS Waddell, C Baldo Cabrera was a starter for the A's last year as a debutant, but began this year in the bullpen... until the team was torn apart by pitching injuries. He entered the rotation in early May and has been pitching pretty incredibly, with a 1.53 ERA out of the bullpen and a 2.61 in 5 starts to date. The A's 4th-round pick in 2019 from a community college in south Florida, Cabrera makes up for his iffy stuff with quality control... Shirah, theoretically, should do well in this Oakland ballpark with his tendency to induce a lot of popups... he got the win in LA on Monday, allowing just 1 run over 7.1... Shirah had a very difficult first inning. Decker, Toles and Jimenez all reached with hits, scoring one run, and Arenado scored a second run with his grounder. Wilmer Flores followed with an RBI single to make it 3-0, but Will settled down and finished the inning... the Bees put together a two-out rally in the second but were held off the board... Yordy Cabrera actually had to leave the game with an injury in the 3rd inning, same as Paul Goodwin yesterday, so a golden opportunity for us to get a good starter out of the game... Luke Waddell added a sac fly for them in the 3rd to make it 4-0... in the 5th, Teoscar Hernandez hit a solo HR off of Shirah, his 7th of the year, making it 5-0. That'd be all for Will, going just 4.1 innings with 5 runs allowed... Goodwin actually came in first out of the bullpen, so it looks like Matheny isn't concerned about his injury. Problem was, he walked Omar Baldo and allowed a further home run to Decker to make it 7-0... we would get off the schneid in the 6th, Guerrero scoring on a wild pitch from reliever Raudel Lazo... but that was pretty much the last interesting thing that happened in this game. We only had one baserunner the final three innings. W: Aaron Moore (1-0) L: Will Shirah (5-3) PotG: Nick Decker We've gotta pitch better, for sure. We finish the road trip 2-4 - I'm definitely ready for us to get back home to Utah. Bees' Player of the Week: C Kole Cottam - 10-26, 2 2B, HR, 5 RBI, .962 OPS. On the Leaderboard: Vladimir Guerrero Jr.: 5th in average (.340), 2nd in RBI (57), T-5th in hits (85), T-6th in total bases (139) Morio Ishihara: T-8th in RBI (50) Victor Robles: 9th in runs scored (48) Victor Victor Mesa: T-2nd in triples (6), 8th in stolen bases (13) Zack Granite: T-6th in triples (5) Jack Flaherty: T-7th in innings pitched (77.1), 4th in K/BB (4.8), 5th in BB/9 (1.6), T-1st in quality starts (10) Minor League Bees: AAA Hawaii was just 3-3 this week, winning a vital series against Hollywood (Dodgers) but losing two of three at Boise (66ers). They're now tied with Hollywood atop the PCL Pacific. AA Monterrey lost every game this week! That's shocking considering how good they've been, and they have actually slipped all the way to 3rd in the Mexican League, 6 games behind Monclova (Oilers) A Burlington, contrarily, swept their whole week with sweeps over Erie (Blue Jays) and South Bend (Cubs). They have won an astonishing 10 in a row and 15 of 16 to sit at 39-12, which from what I can tell is the best record in affiliated ball right now. All-Star Voting Upgrade: No update, really - all of our players on the leaderboard remained where they were. Cottam is in 2nd place among catchers, and Ishihara in 3rd place among first basemen (but likely to rise now that San Antonio's Triston Casas is out for the year). Guerrero is still running away with the vote at 3B, but has slipped to 4th in overall votes among the NL behind Trout, Posey and Bellinger. New players in bold: 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: Jose Quintana, Nationals RP: Durbin Feltman, Suns C: Brad Debo, Scorpions 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 31: Tough news from Tucson; Saguaros CF Adam Frazier has a broken elbow and will probably miss the rest of the season. An All-Star in 2020, Frazier will finish the 2023 season with a negative WAR May 31: The Diamondbacks have fired manager Don Mattingly. This was his first season at the helm in Phoenix, having been the bench coach for the prior three years, but he lasted just 58 games in charge. Arizona quickly hired on Nick Hird (fictional) as his replacement. June 1: Astros reliever Patrick Corbin is done for the year with a torn flexor tendon in his elbow. Corbin had signed for just 1 year and $2.2 million, so he will be without a team at season's end and unable to pitch again until July/August of 2024. Another in a long, long list of Houston pitching injuries. June 3: I just last post mentioned Anthony Rendon's new contract. Well, the Orioles' 3B signed it at the perfect time, because he will miss three months with a nerve issue. June 4: Sacramento SP Mike LoPresti has one of the season's best individual performances in a win at San Diego. Not only did he throw a two-hit shutout, he also hit a home run, his first major league hit! Some call this a True Win, a game in which the pitcher beats the other team entirely on his own. A pretty great accomplishment for an American League pitcher! June 4: In a really weird trade, the Red Sox (one of the league's worst teams) give up RHP James Dykstra and a prospect in order to acquire 37-year-old Yoenis Cespedes from the Braves. Cespedes is a roughly league-average hitter, he's a free agent after this season and Boston has no chance of going anywhere in 2023 so this is an odd one. Players of the Week: Colorado 1B Eudor Garcia - 12-25, 5 HR, 15 RBI. The Rockies are still the worst team in the league, but Garcia is a good player. I've mentioned before, but he holds the hitting streak record in this reformed MLB, a 38-game streak he put together two years ago. We'll see the Rox come to Salt Lake for a kind of interleague rivalry series next Thursday and Friday. San Francisco 2B Spencer Torkelson - 10-24, 4 HR, 10 RBI. We haven't played the Giants yet (we play them at home at the end of this month, then at SF in September) so not a lot of time devoted to Torkelson here, but he's definitely a quality player and every bit as good as he is currently expected to be IRL. I'm hoping he is the #1 pick in this year's real MLB draft, but that's partly because Arizona State is my college team & I'm a big fan of Tork's. Power Rankings: we had a tough 2-4 week, so it's not surprising that we fall, but I didn't think we'd fall this far. Last week we were 6th, but now we are 17th. Next Week: the draft is on Monday, so the next post will focus entirely on that. But then, we have one of our (theoretically) easier homestands, with the Blackbirds, Rockies and Indians coming to town. Those three teams are a combined 42 games below .500 at the moment. Last edited by Ruwisc; 01-19-2020 at 12:04 AM.