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Old 01-25-2020, 04:04 PM   #564
pauwoo
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2080 Season (5/21 – 5/23)

Miami United (19-25, .432, 6th NL East) @ Brooklyn Citizens (22-23, .489, 4th NL East)
James Hinckley’s office is nearly a mile from the ballpark and nestled between a Men’s Barbershop and an Artisan Coffee house that hosts live poetry readings every Thursday night. He likes it this way, having resisted the call to move his office to the ballpark in each of his 20 years as the Brooklyn Citizens GM. Other GMs around the league have bandied many theories about - all intending to explain this odd set-up... he doesn’t want to get to know his players (even though he rarely trades his core talent), he doesn’t like the smell in the locker room (plausible, I don’t either), or, maybe, he just doesn’t like to go far for a fade and a cup of coffee. Who knows... and, more importantly, given that he’s made the playoffs 17 times and won the World Series once doing it his way, who cares? 2080 is looking like a down year for Hinckley’s club - his pitchers have been hornswoggled by rapidly declining ability and past success that seems to suggest a recapturing of former glory is right around the corner. Guys like Merl Crawford and Matthew Krebs have had successful runs in the Majors, but if 2080 is any indication those days are gone, replaced by a more pedestrian version of hurling skillfulness. Add in the unfortunate circumstance of having a middling offense at best and it’s easy to see why the recent scuttlebutt suggests that he has one foot out the door and the other rooted in retirement to the Bahamas. Yan has scheduled us an in-person meeting with Hinckley during this trip... we intend to inquire about a possible player swap and to gain some understanding of what a post-Hinckley Brooklyn might look like (and if it might be a possible landing spot should our run in Miami go tits up). If you don’t keep your options open then you won’t have any - that’s my motto... well, that and ‘when in doubt, eat puttanesca’.

But first… Ridgemont Community College passed their first test of the May Madness tournament, defeating the Villanova Wildcats by a score of 5-1. Low-key pitching prospect Paul Grant went the distance, allowed 9 hits, 1 run, and fanned 7 en route to the victory. RF Edwin Pederson, who looks like a late first-rounder in this year’s draft, went 2 for 3 with a 3-run dinger and two runs in the win. SP Delroy Roberts, of the Wyoming Cowboys, pitched a complete game, 2-hit shutout over the Blue Mountain State Goats (forgot to mention them as another unaffiliated team that made the dance in the previous post) to help his team advance to the second round off a 4-0 victory. MIT and San Dimas Community College were both eliminated in the 1st round.

45 of 162: Rad Taylor (4-4, 2.81) @ Merl Crawford (4-3, 5.26)
Loss, 6-5
. Brooklyn rallied against our bullpen late and walked us off in the bottom of the 11th. This is no way to begin a 3-game set in New York. OH HONG secured 2 RBIs, Saucerman hit a double and scored, Manning hit a 2-run double, and Kyle Weaver laid down two SAC BUNTS. Nothing doing though as our less than crackerjack offense wastes another solid effort from Rad.

Elsewhere: Yan and I met with James Hinckley and found out a few things… first, he’s as stingy as they say, completely unwilling to take on any of our recycled trash for any of his less-than-desirable relievers. Second… he is, indeed, planning to retire at the season’s end and is of the mind that his owner will choose his son as the next general manager of the Citizens… nepotism at it’s finest. The kid has an international finance degree from Yale but never played a game of ball in his life. And, lastly, the artisan coffee served by the Beatnik Beantopia is overly bitter, light-bodied, and stale.

46 of 162: Kordell Littles (5-3, 3.37) @ Matthew Krebs (3-5, 4.08)
Loss, 1-0
. Listen, Cheech’s assertion that Crawford and Krebs were starting their slow descent for the heights they had previously attained wasn’t wrong – it was our overestimation of what our offense could do with that reality that nipped us in the fanny here. Krebs left after the 1st with an undisclosed injury and Brooklyn’s bullpen kept us off-balance the rest of the way. Kordell had one misstep in the bottom of the second when he allowed a runner to get by, but was otherworldly the rest of the way, Saucerman stole his 17th bag of the season, and our infield defense completed three double plays. Offensively we were fanned 7 times, could only manage 5 hits, and only drew a single free pass.

Elsewhere: Ridgemont Community College’s march towards eternity hit a snag when they were unceremoniously dismissed from the tournament by a rowdy band of brigands representing Oklahoma State. The Cowboys won by a score of 4-2, outhit the Tasty Waves 15-6, and survived a late rally attempt in the top of the 8th to advance to the Great 8. Wyoming, however, did not meet the same fate – they defeated the New Mexico State Aggies in a tightly contested 3-2 victory to advance. Wyoming will face the Rice Owls next. At this stage of the game, the smart money is on an OK ST versus USC final.

47 of 162: Harvey Allen (2-3, 5.01) @ Dontrell McNeil (1-3, 7.31)
Loss, 2-1
. If I’m being honest, and why shouldn’t I be, life as the President of Baseball Operations in Miami is anything but rainbows and unicorns. We were walked off in the bottom of the 11th for the second time in this 3-game set, got swept, and couldn’t eke out a win despite having an opportunity to do so in each of these contests. We wasted a 9-inning, 11 K, 1-hitter from Harvey when Jerome Dial, after fanning 3 batters in 1.2 innings of work, gave up the game-winning home run to 2B Kenton McMahon in the bottom of that fateful frame – of note… it was Kenton’s 2nd homerun of the year and 6th of his career that did us in.

Notes: This is our 3rd time being on the wrong side of a sweep this month… our second time being on the wrong end of a sweep at the hands of a division rival, and our lack of confidence, as a result, is pervasive… seeped into the fabric of our being. When Cheech, Yan, and I look at our roster, we feel good about it, when we look at our development system, we feel even better – unfortunately, that good feeling and all the fancy vibes associated with them hasn’t translated to anything of value on the field of play. We need to make some moves, do something drastic to shake this thing up… but, I don’t know what that is. They guys we have that are worth their salt can’t be moved, they factor into my long-term plans, and our mid-range guys are overpaid and underperforming at the moment. We are stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place. Up next – no rest for the wicked… we’ll welcome the san Francisco Seals to Miami where the 30-win, 1st place in the NL West club will put it on us like they were running a scrimmage against a junior varsity club… good times. That being said – Radoslav, Cullen Craig, Early Felger, Magee Ives, Kordell Littles, Hamza McDonnell, and Kyle Weaver have all been put on the block and Yan has the green light to pull the trigger on any trade involving those guys that tickles her fancy. Mediocrity will not exist in our dojo.
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Last edited by pauwoo; 01-25-2020 at 04:11 PM.
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