Amarillo Armadillos - Pro Baseball Experience (PBE)

[DoubleDub]

Hello Everyone,

This thread will be covering the Amarillo Armadillos who play in the Minor Leages of the PBE.

The PBE is a simulation baseball league, made up of over 500 active users. Each user has a player that is partaking in their own journey through the Minor and Major Leagues.

If you are interested in the league then feel free to reach out to me and I can answer any questions that you have. I've also provided some links to different things below.

PBE Forums - The forums can look intimidating but after you get the hang of where to go navigating them is a breeze.

PBE Twitch Channel - we live stream games 4 times a week on twitch, it's a chance to watch your player compete and to connect with the community.

PBE Index This is our OOTP index for the league, all of our simulations take place in OOTP.

PBE Discord All PBE locker rooms are run through Discord, this is our main discord server and it's a good way to keep up with what's happening in the league.

Season 40 Draft Class Discord This Discord is purely for the newest rookies to the PBE, this Discord has rookie mentors there to help answer any new create's questions.

[DoubleDub]

My name is DoubleDub and I am a new create in the Pro Baseball League (PBE), I am nearing the end of my first season in the league. My created player, Wayne Wheeler, is a member of the Amarillo Armadillo’s who are in the Western Division of the PBE’s Minor Leagues. The PBE is a simulated league with over 500 users, each user has their own created player like Wayne Wheeler and are currently forging their own stories.

It’s the perfect time to join the PBE if you are interested as any new creates will be eligible for next season’s Minor League draft. Please above for some information or message me on the OOTP forums and I can help point you in the right direction.

I am going to look at three of Amarillo's legends and see what they have made of their career so far, each player is still active in the PBE Major Leagues currently. I will also be profiling possible career trajectories for the five current Amarillo players who are already a part of the Major League farm system. Wayne Wheeler for instance is currently not in a farm system, he will however be drafted by a Major League team in the upcoming offseason. You will find an explainer on how the PBE’s Minor and Major League systems interact with each other here (Pro Baseball Experience - How the Minors Work).

S’Vanaleigh Mykutowicz - San Antonio Sloths Starting Pitcher

I decided to start this post off with a pitcher and the Mykutowicz name is littered throughout not just the Dillos history books but also the history and leaderboards of the entire league.

S’Vanaleigh joined the Armadillos in 2043 or Season 28 (currently it is Season 39 or 2054), she joined as a late season waiver claim which resulted in her only making 4 appearances with the Dillos. Her career spanned 3 additional seasons with Amarillo, this included a history-making 2045 where her ERA of 2.58 was good enough for the 2nd best mark in Franchise history.

Mykutowicz was made the 5th overall pick in the Season 29 Major League Draft, this would prove to be a wise choice by the San Antonio Sloths. Mykutowicz to this point looks to be a one team player and a first ballot Hall of Famer, in her time with the club Mykutowicz has appeared in 230 games with a 3.34 ERA and a WAR of 25.1. She has also been instrumental in the Sloths World Series victories in 2049 and 2050, where she was a prominent piece of the rotation.

From a personal perspective, Mykutowicz has only been selected to the All-Star game twice but this has not stopped her from securing a few podium finishes in the Pitcher of the Year award. She was also able to secure the rookie of the year award in 2047 and finished 2nd in the Reliever of the Year award in her first season.

Reggie Shrub - Vancouver Vandals Catcher

Next up we have Reggie Shrub, Shrub is actually an in-division rival of Mykutowicz as his Vandals currently hold a 5 game lead over the Sloths in the Champions West division. Shrub started his career in 2043 however he never caught Mykutowicz as Reggie was initially a Middle Infielder and played every one of his 216 games with the Dillos at Shortstop. In the end Shrub ended up playing two seasons with Amarillo which resulted in the one All-star game appearance. He also holds the record for the most runs scored in a single season for the Armadillos.

Vancouver made Reggie a Vandal with the 8th pick of the Season 28 draft, here he has blossomed into a league leading Catcher where he has been a mainstay behind the dish for the Vandals since 2047. Shrub is in the process of posting his 5th straight season of 3 plus WAR and is nearing the 25 WAR which normally assures a player’s place in the Hall of Fame - he is also now in the Vandal’s top 10 for career WAR as well as a handful of other categories.

While Vancouver haven’t been able to win a World Series with Shrub they have been getting ever close, last season they fell in the Conference Finals after overcoming Mykutowicz and her Sloths in the Divisional Series. This hasn’t stopped Reggie from appearing in three All-Star games including the last two, he also won the 2050 Gold Glove for his play behind the plate … not bad for a Minor League Shortstop.

Cali Alvarez - Lunar Base Space Rangers First Base

Finally, we have Cali Alvarez, Alvarez is lucky enough to play for a team based on the moon but before that he rose to prominence as Amarillo’s most recent MVP. Alvarez joined the Armadillos in 2051 (Season 36) and he quickly established himself as a demolisher of the baseball. He hit .303 in his first season with Amarillo, but it was in his second season that he truly showed out. Alvarez while DHing for the whole year would wind up slashing an absurd .378/.468/.647, yep a bonkers 1.114 OPS. Franklin DeMars who we will discuss later is currently in the middle of a campaign where he is hunting the triple crown but he isn’t even in the same ballpark as Alvarez with his OPS mark.

Alvarez slipped to the 2nd round where he was selected with the first pick of the round by the Lunar Base Space Rangers. This quickly appeared like the steal of the century when Alvarez secured the Minor League MVP in 2052. In 2053 the Space Rangers brought up Cali but he hasn’t quite been able to find the same groove that saw him post 6.1 WAR with the Dillos. As he continues to round out his skillset there is no doubt that Alvarez can achieve the same lofty heights on the moon as he once did with Amarillo. This was evidenced earlier in the season when he slugged 3 HR’s and 8 RBI’s for the Space Rangers against the Sloths, he is certainly one to keep an eye on in the future.

Current Armadillos

Zodiac Bluesky

Let's start with the most experienced member of the Dillo’s, he was selected 3 picks after Alvarez in the Season 36 class - just like Cali this is looking more and more like a steal for the Cancun Toros. Zodiac is now the GM of Amarillo and earnt the most TPE in the Cancun organisation last season, while the Toros are currently struggling they are no doubt nearing the end of their rebuild. Bluesky will be a key member and is viewed as the long term solution at catcher, with an all-round bat that can hit for power and average it won’t be long until Zodiac leaves his mark on the PBE.

Franklin DeMars

DeMars is currently mashing the ball for Amarillo, as I mentioned earlier he is in the hunt for a triple crown as he leads the Minors in HR’s and RBI’s while sitting second for batting average. DeMars was selected at number 13 by the New York Voyagers in the Season 38 draft, he has quickly shown that this was a wise selection by the VoyBoys. DeMars ability with the bat means that there will no doubt be a position for him in the New York lineup sooner rather than later but his glove may dictate whether that is in a corner OF spot or at the DH position.

JewThe TheJew

The name is a little unorthodox but it is for a good cause as Josh auctioned off his name in the last charity event done by the PBE. TheJew was selected second overall by the Indianapolis Apex in the most recent PBE Draft, he has been a cornerstone for the Dillos this season manning first base and either the cleanup or #3 spot in the line-up. The Apex are another team reaching the end of a long-term rebuild and Josh will be in the majors soon, he will no doubt bring a power bat that the Apex sorely needs.

Jake Mitchell

Mitchell was the third of four Dillos selected in the Season 38 draft, he slipped to the backend of the 2nd round where he joined DeMars when he was selected by the Voyagers. Mitchell this year has been a mainstay for the Dillos manning the important 2-hole in the lineup and the hot corner on the diamond. Mitchell is drawing walks this season at a close to record pace, if he can be a bit more consistent in his TPE earning then he will no doubt be an absolute steal for New York as his output is very consistent for Amarillo.

Jeronimo Ovechkin

Ovechkin was selected in the backend of the first round of the Season 38 draft when he was selected by the Boise Raptors. The Raptors have an aging rotation and no doubt see Jeronimo as the heir apparent as some of their starters start to draw the curtains on illustrious careers. Ovechkin is the ultimate team man and while he hasn’t had the most productive of years for the Dillos he is always present in the locker room supporting his team mates. There is no doubt that this year is just a blip on the radar for Ovechkin and he will be a force to be reckoned with in the Majors in no time, I personally will always be rooting for him.

That brings us to the end, I hope you have enjoyed a brief soiree into the past greats of Amarillo as well as looking at the future GOATS that we are producing.

[DoubleDub]

Hello Everyone, I am back with another piece about the Amarillo Armadillos - there is more information in the first post of the thread but I will cover off the basics now. I am a part of the Pro Baseball Experience (PBE), which is a simulation baseball league - my created player “Wayne Wheeler” has just completed his first season in the PBE. Wheeler was a starting pitcher for the Amarillo Armadillo’s who play in the Minor Leagues of the PBE (MiLPBE), unfortunately we missed the playoffs by four games.

Instead of a standard season review where I tell you exactly what happened, I am instead going to look at our season through three different perspectives. What was a positive, what were the negatives and what were a couple of interesting things that happened to the Dillo’s. If you are looking for the standings then please see below, the MiLPBE playoffs take the best six teams into the playoffs no matter the division.



THE POSITIVES

The Rookie Class

Our Front Office made the decision to throw everything at the MiLPBE draft leading into this season, as such we had 2 first round picks, 2 second round picks and then one pick in both the third and fourth rounds. Because of this the team had a very inexperienced feel about it on opening day, we had a rookie 2B and CF up the middle as well as 3 rookie starters (4 man rotation in the MiLPBE) and one of our relievers was also a rookie. During the season we were also lucky enough to pick up Adelbert Steiner on waivers and he was a jet from the start. Great in the locker room and on the field, even though he had a late start to earning experience he still managed to hit .276.

With the bats we were still carried by our experience but on the mound we were definitely led by rookies, the most prominent being our fourth overall pick Johnny Patey V2. When you take a pitcher in the top five picks I don’t think you can ask for much more than what Patey delivered, he took the bump 27 times, pitched 140+ innings, had 12 wins and an ERA of 3.20. d’Potson (a last minute waiver pick up before Opening Day) in relief was also a crucial piece in the late season run at the playoffs that just fell short. A reshuffle in the bullpen and team strategy saw d’Potson tasked with more high leverage innings and he rose to the challenge.

Overall, while the Dillo’s didn’t make the playoffs there is certainly belief that we have the young core to not just make the playoffs next season but also make some noise.

The Locker Room

Being new to the sim league environment, the locker room was a complete revelation - in the locker room wasn’t just my teammates but also the front office and alumni of the team that had made their way to the big leagues. Everyone there was willing to help me out, they helped me do some tasks that I had missed which got me some crucial TPE.

The locker room was also great on sim day aka game day, we rode every bump as a team. Yes it was a bit quiet when we went 0-6 one sim day but the next day when we went 6-1, it was back to pumping away. This experience is what made my first season in the PBE a very enjoyable one, having everyone in your corner and the team's corner was a great feeling.

The Negatives

The Sim Hates Us

I don’t know what we did to the OOTP sim gods, but man they had it out for the Dillo’s this season. Our highest rated pitcher with the most experience and a solid build struggled all season, on one hand it brings some realism because players sometimes lose their best stuff for no reason and have to work hard to get it back. But also, it affected me negatively so I don’t like it. We also lost a game in extra innings where we allowed a double steal of 2nd and home because the sim had our gold glove catcher lollipop the ball to 2nd instead of holding it and tagging out the runner coming home.

Props to the user ShiderMe, he was still great in the locker room all season long - even when his player was struggling he still gassed everyone up. He also made sure to reply to every single one of my media pieces so he is already my favourite. By the end of the season his player (Jeronimo Ovechkin) started to turn it around, only allowing more than 2 ER three times in his last 10 starts for the season.

Our Fielding

We had a rough time in the field, not quite as rough as others but still it was tough at times. With an inexperienced batting lineup any available TPE makes its way to the batting stats in an attempt to make sure they aren’t a dead fish when they are up at the plate. This means the fielding attributes can be a bit lacking, this was evident in the negative Range Factor that the Armadillos posted over the length of the season. Next season with a bit more experience under our belts the Dillos should fare much better on defense and this should lead to more effective pitching.

The Interesting

Kansas City Hepcats were mortal against Amarillo

The KC Hepcats finished with a league leading 66-42 record, they had only one team who they did not win or tie the season series with … the Amarillo Armadillos. We were the one team who gave the Hepcats some issues, it was just this sort of season for the Dillos - we would take 2 of 3 against the Hepcats but then get swept by the Flamingos who ended up an even 54-54 and just scraped into the playoffs. Hopefully it is a sign of things to come, as the Hepcats will no doubt be strong again next season as we look to take the Division crown off them.

A Double Triple Crown

The Minor Leagues this year had an anomaly where a player won the triple crown but the same player finished runner up in each of the three categories. John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt won the triple crown with a .356 batting average, 31 HR’s and 103 RBI’s - he will most likely go on to claim a well deserved MVP. Sitting right behind him was the Amarillo Left Field Franklin DeMars, he had a batting average of .342, 30 HR’s and 102 RBI’s.

DeMars was phenomenal all year and this slash shows, he also set the Amarillo single season record for RBI’s and he tied the record for HR’s. Unfortunately we will most likely lose DeMars for the upcoming season, he has rightfully earned a call up by his Major League team - the New York Voyagers. We have no doubt that DeMars will continue to mash the baseball at the Major League level.

I was able to get a couple of comments from the team regarding the season as well, DeMars stated “we came up a little short this season, but next season I expect big things from the Dillos”. “The rookies in the rotation exceeded all expectations. And there were individual efforts from them, and others, including some MVP candidate seasons out of the lineup, that were more than worthy of praise. But ultimately, this is not where we wanted to be. The outside looking in. We did not meet our goals as a team. But most of us get a chance next season. And I can't wait.” said Ovechkin. Finally our departing veteran catcher, Zodiac Bluesky, “We didn't make the playoffs for my last ride, but it's honestly been the most fun I've ever had as a Dillo. Looking forward to seeing what this team is capable of next season even if I'm not part of it.”

Lastly we have the comments from Zodiac in the front office, “We have a lot of promise in the younger part of the lineup. This season was a mix of slightly rough defense and a whole lot of bad luck, so we'll come out swinging next season!”. He also added that he was the greatest GM of all time so we are bound to win … ok boss man.

[DoubleDub]

It was about 6 or 7 weeks ago that I joined the Pro Baseball Experience (PBE), the playoffs for Season 37 had just ended and there was a stream or two of the Prospect League left before the Prospect Showcase and the Minor League Draft that happened the next day. Initially I didn’t know what the PBE was going to entail, all I knew was that the concept was interesting - what came next was a great season that has captured my imagination and has made the PBE into a big part of my everyday life.

Straight after joining the PBE and doing my initial build, I started to be contacted by representatives from the different Minor League teams. This was intriguing and really showed me what the PBE could become for me, hearing how these experienced people in the league talked about their teams and their players that they had created. Pretty much all of the discussions that I had (I talked to 9 of the ten teams in the league) were positive and left me with a lot of excitement to get started in the league after the draft. Following these scouting conversations I was left with three teams that I wanted to go to, Amarillo, Kansas City and Louisville. These three teams were the best conversations that I had, it was the ones were I felt like I connected the most with the person that I talked to and I knew that I would enjoy my time with them. When the draft came around I slipped further down the draft than I initially thought I would - I later learnt that as a new create (with a poor build) I shouldn’t have expected to go in the first round, I started to want to be drafted by anyone.

At number 14, Amarillo called my name and the journey of Wayne Wheeler began.

Amarillo selected three starting pitchers in the first 14 picks - so I was a part of a young core that would be together for the next couple of seasons before we make our way to the Major Leagues. Zodiac and BazookaJoe (the Amarillo GM’s) helped me get my head around what I needed to do to be successful in the PBE. First we discussed my build, it was woeful to start with - but they helped make my vision of a pitcher (a pitcher who can dot the zone and get weak contact) a reality in the PBE. Next was how to earn money and TPE in the league, after a week or two this became like second nature as I knew where to go on the forums and what was required of me. I was also able to pick up some jobs within the league - this will help me earn some money and has also helped me get a better understanding of the league and what the behind the scenes of the league looked like.

While this was happening the league was being played out, my results weren’t what I wanted but the Amarillo locker room kept me optimistic that it would come around especially if I kept earning TPE at a good level. The tides changed over the last 10 starts that Wheeler had, he finished the season strong and I finished the season feeling excited and extremely optimistic about his future. Amarillo missed the playoffs by four games this season but the locker room was genuinely a great time, being able to talk about the league or IRL sports and interests was great. Getting to know teammates and the front office was extremely fulfilling and showed how great of a community that the PBE has cultivated.

The season ended and I was excited to see how I could help out the Front Office in the off season, I ended up helping with the scouting of new creates. In a full circle of sorts I had gone from been the prospect to being the scout in the space of a season, I loved the conversations with the recreates but I enjoyed my conversations with the new creates even more. Helping these new people understand what the PBE could be was so much fun and really rewarding, I am really looking forward to being involved with this process again at the end of the next season. I was also helping with some build testing in OOTP, this really helped me understand what impacts the sim results that we see during the season. Being able to pick Zodiac’s brain in particular about OOTP and what impacts performance in PBE was invaluable - he also has incredible patience while I asked him a wide range of questions.

In the second half of the season I also started to get scouted again, this time by the Major League teams which I am being drafted to this offseason. These conversations were so in-depth and the people I spoke to were willing to provide a lot of information and to talk about the composition of their teams and how they were looking to build for a championship in the future. This was so much fun to hear about and it was nice that a lot of the assessments that I made on a teams future or playing list were echoed by the team’s representative that was talking to me. I have my list of teams that I would like to be drafted to but in the end I will give my all no matter who drafts me - I am just excited to get started in the major leagues.

I think I will be drafted at the backend of the first or the start of the second round, I no longer have any naivety about my draft stocks like I did in the minor league draft. This draft class is stacked, it has a fair few recreates that are well known around the league so I understand that I won’t be drafted above them.

Overall this season in the PBE has been extremely rewarding, I have loved seeing my player develop, I’ve loved producing content whether written or via podcasts. Most importantly though I have loved getting to know the community and connecting with different people, I am excited to see how my time in the PBE progresses and whether Wayne Wheeler can actually do anything worthwhile with his career.

[DoubleDub]

Hi Everyone, this isn't going to be a full season preview rather a few words about the players we added and lost during the offseason. I will also discuss a little bit about our approach to this offseason.

Also if you are thinking of joining the PBE then now is still a great time to do so. Anyone that creates now will still get to play in a full season of the Minor Leagues and then be drafted by a Major League team at the end of the season - the relevant links are in the first post of this thread but also feel free to reach out through this forum or through Discord (RJHadden96#4956) if you have any questions.

Well let's start with who we lost, unfortunately it includes our best player last season - Franklin DeMars - he is on his way up to play with the New York Voyagers. This is consistent with Enoch's (their GM) approach to minor league talent - bring up prospects as soon as they can contribute. You can't question the logic either, he currently has the Voyagers on the longest active playoff streak in the PBE.

DeMars was our standout bat last season, he finished second in each of the Triple Crown statistics and finished third in MVP voting for the Minor Leagues. So this is one spot that won't be easy to replace.

We are also losing Zodiac Bluesky who has been elevated by Cancun as they seek to not have the worst record in the league for the first time in 3 seasons. Bluesky has been a gold glove winning Catcher for the Dillos in each of the last two seasons. He is definitely deserving of the promotion but would have been great to have him for another year as we face the rest of Cancun's top tier prospects again including the reigning MVP - John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt.

We will be rooting for Zodiac as he moves onto Cancun this season.

We are also losing Duke Smith out of the bullpen, Smith is an inactive who has now aged out of the Minor Leagues. Even as an inactive Smith has been quite dominant the last 5 seasons, he never had an ERA higher than 3.70. While losing an inactive pitcher doesn't sound like much to overcome the truth is that our bullpen is incredibly thin coming into the offseason. With Smith's departure we are left with one active user - Crabstin D'Potson and then an assortment of bots with reduced TPE to use.

So moving onto the acquisitions, I will also discuss briefly the draft strategy that the Dillos had. Last season we went all in on the draft and ended up with 4 picks in the top 14 of the draft - you can't argue with this strategy considering it has already provided us with 2 all Stars and the Rookie of the Year.

This meant that coming into this draft we had one solitary pick which was 12th overall, we needed a Catcher, a middle infielder and pitching help. The draft was quite deep so we felt like we could get quality picking in the 2nd round but we also needed to add at least one more pick.

We had a player earmarked for 12th OA but understood that we would lose the opportunity to select him if we were to trade back. The decision was not taken lightly, we shopped the pick around and ended up moving back to 16th OA and landing the 31st OA pick as well. We thought through our scouting of other teams that there was a chance that the teams picking from 12 to 16 OA needed pitching and our middle infielder could slip through.

In the end he did and Zodiac and BazookaJoe fell over each other to make the pick and get Binker McTavish to the Dillos. The user (Snussu) is an old Dillo so we were pumped to get them back while addressing a position of need.

Binker will slot into the 2nd base spot while we move Tommy Olson to the outfield to man the vacant Left Field spot left by DeMars. We are sure that McTavish will be successful with us when we get stuck into this new season.

The attention turned to our 2nd pick, we selected Charlie Xu. His build has a lot of potential and we are hoping that Xu can become an active part of the Dillos this season and moving forward.

So that was the draft, with limited opportunities we were able to pick up bullpen help and an immediate contributor in the infield. Where to from here? Well fingers crossed that nothing changes but we may able to get the IA pitcher Joe Borris back for one season before he ages out of the minors.

None of the Major League teams have bid on Borris so far, therefore we are hopeful that we get him back as a stop gap solution in the bullpen.

We thought we were done at this point, we missed out on a highly valued waiver pick up. But accepted that fact and moved onto looking forward to Spring Training. But along came our knight in shining armour.

Cash Thompson created as a new user and being at the front of the waiver priority we were able to claim him. The best part … he is a Catcher.

The heir apparent to Bluesky has emerged at the 11th hour, we were ready to deploy a bot behind the plate. But with Thompson creating the Dillos have been able to Cash in and solidify the team behind the dish.

So there we have it, I will break down the Dillos in more detail in a season preview post but just wanted to peel back the curtain a little with a look at what our offseason was like.

I've enjoyed the process of my first offseason in the War Room, Zodiac and BazookaJoe have been awesome all season and let me scout a bunch of players and at least listened to my at times ridiculous suggestions of trades we could have made.

[DoubleDub]

We are back with another season of the PBE Minor Leagues, Amarillo ended last season 4 games out of the playoffs. They finished the season on a pretty good run of form, my last article in this series listed out the players that Amarillo had lost during the offseason but also the players that they had gained during the offseason as well. The Dillos lost two of their best three bats from last season but there is more than enough talent to take over as we will see in the profiles below.

The PBE is a sim league with over 500 users to date, if you are looking for more information then please look at the first post in this thread. It’s still a great time for people to create, you would join the league as a waiver create and would still be able to play the full season before entering the Major League draft at the end of the season.

The Pitchers

Johnny Patey V2

Patey is the reigning Rookie of The Year in the Minor Leagues, he coupled that with being a late first round selection to the New York Voyagers in the recent Major League draft. Patey won 12 games last season and the scouting report on him is pretty straightforward - he doesn’t walk a lot of batters, he strikes out a lot of batters and throws straight gas.

Patey is a flamethrower but doesn’t let that impact his control too much, as per the flamethrower archetype he also makes sure to strike out a large amount of batters. He ranked in the top 5 in the league last season for his K/BB rate which shows how well his build clicked for him. He will be moving to the top of the Dillo rotation this season as they will look for him to continue his strong form from last season.

Patey accepts this pressure, when asked about his thoughts on the upcoming season he said: “At least a first round playoff series win or we blow the whole thing up”. Hopefully the Dillos come through and there isn’t a need to send any players to the Bad Place (Florida).

Jeronimo Ovechkin

The Boise Raptors prospect had a rough showing last season, he will be the first one to tell you that. But the humble as ever Ovechkin will leave out that he got no run support and was taking losses in games that he was pitching Quality Starts in. It started to come around for Jeronimo at the end of last season as he pitched well down the stretch.

Jeronimo will be taking the ball after Patey in the rotation this season and hopefully his strong Spring results are a sign of things to come. He pitched to a sub 2.5 ERA throughout Spring Training - the Dillos would love to count on that sort of production for the whole season.

Ovechkin himself is ready to bounce back this season, he grunted that “The Russian Machine does not break. I will throw the most innings in the league this season”. Amarillo will certainly hope this is the case with a relatively thin bullpen as we will soon see.

Wayne Wheeler

Wheeler struggled mightily last season, he ended up walking a lot of hitters for a pitcher who apparently makes his living with his control. He turned things around towards the end of last season including pitching well down the stretch of last season, this included a 3.80 ERA over his last 10 starts.

No longer a rookie, the Dillos will be looking for Wheeler to step up and help make the rotation a formidable unit that provides a strong showing no matter who takes the bump. When asked about the offseason, Wayne had this to say: “Zodiac & Joe know what they are doing, couple of good acquisitions during an offseason that we weren’t expecting much from. No excuses anymore, time to get a flag”. Americans need to tell Wheeler that you don’t get a flag from winning the World Series.

Anthony Simmons II

Simmons II was solid but not spectacular in the last Minor League season, with a 4.01 FIP and 2.2 WAR he was a dependable part of the rotation. He has continued this with a strong Spring Training that saw Anthony deliver a sub 3 ERA across his starts.

Simmons II is an example of a player that will need to step up for the Dillos if they are looking to make a run this season. With additional experience under his belt Simmons should be able to continue his Spring Training form over the course of the full season.

Crabstin d’Potson

A solid performer out of the pen for the entirety of last season, this season will look to be no different for d’Potson. However, he will be short of his partner in crime coming out of the pen at the back end of games - Duke Smith. With more pressure on Crabstin there will be an expectation that he sees more innings which he should be able to handle with more experience earnt.

He is the leader of a bullpen that is currently very inexperienced so there will be high expectations for d’Potson. If last season is anything to go by then he is more than ready for any challenge that this season throws at him.

Evan Earley

Well Evan Earley has gone ahead and made sure that I had to update this article at the 11th hour, a late waiver pick-up he will be placed onto the Amarillo roster right before opening day of Season 39. Earley, a junkballer from Houston, Texas has again shown that there is in fact a waiver god that listens to the prayers from Zodiac & Joe.

In Season 39, Earley will see work primarily out of the bullpen as I touched on earlier this is a major weak spot for the Dillos. Prior to claiming Evan, Amarillo were left with only one active user in the bullpen - Crabstin d’Potson. With Earley in the mix Amarillo will be able to get much more consistent innings out of their bullpen, after this season we will most likely see Earley move to the starting rotation when one of the Amarillo veterans are promoted to the Major Leagues.

When asked about his philosophy with baseball, Earley noted “well, the only thing promised in life is death”. No doubt that Earley will work hard to make the most of this opportunity that presents itself to him and to the Dillos.

Catcher & Infielders

Cash Thompson

If you caught my last article then you would have seen that the waiver gods smiled down on the Dillos when they were able to get Cash Thompson to fill a hole immediately after the Minor League Draft. In Spring Training Cash showed his worth, with a .357 batting average, 2 Home Runs and 10 Runners batted in as he stepped immediately into the middle of the lineup.

Thompson has big shoes to fill as Zodiac Bluesky made his way to the Big Leagues, this hasn’t intimidated Cash as he has made an immediate impression on his Dillo teammates. Thompson has mentioned that he is hoping to show the league who the next up and coming prospect is in the Minor Leagues.

JewThe TheJew

TheJew is the best returning bat from last season for Amarillo, his bat got exceptionally hot towards the end of last season as he made up late ground on Franklin DeMars who ended up leading the Dillos in most hitting categories last season. TheJew will man first base in what will most likely be his last season with Amarillo before he is called up to an improving Indianapolis squad.

The Dillos will be looking for more of the same from TheJew this season, he will take on the 3 hole that DeMars left vacant with his departure. With a lot of the star power removed from the Amarillo lineup it will be up to TheJew to step up and try to reach new heights this season.

Binker McTavish

McTavish was Amarillo’s first selection in the most recent draft, although this was a second round selection there is definitely the feeling that Binker will step up and produce right away for the Dillos. McTavish’s calling card is his ability to get on base, but this didn’t stop him from showcasing a bit of pop in Spring Training. In Spring Training he managed to hit .364 while slugging 2 Home Runs and bringing in 11 runners.

The Amarillo pitchers are happy to see Binker out there as well, with a natural 2nd baseman in the infield there will sure be better results for them also. McTavish enjoys the simple comforts of life offering up the line “I love the smell of freshly cut grass in the morning along with leather” when he was quizzed for a quote about himself.

Jake Mitchell

Mitchell nearly wrote himself into the history books last season when he nearly broke (Current GM) Zodiac Bluesky’s record for most walks in a season. Mitchell will no doubt have his eyes on that record when the season begins, Jake will be manning the hot corner for the Dillos as well as batting leadoff. Mitchell performed strongly in Spring Training, with a change of approach halfway through last season that has seen him become more patient at the plate.

Mitchell also has defensive chops winning a Gold Glove at third base a couple of seasons back, if he can bring this form back as well then the Dillos will have a formidable defense to back their starters. Mitchell will be under more pressure at the plate, with Bluesky moving onto the Toros he will need to shoulder more of the load at the top of the order to give bats like TheJew and Steiner a chance to bring him home.

Outfielders & Designated Hitter

Adelbert Steiner

Steiner joined the Dillo’s halfway through last season but made an immediate impression with both his bat and his glove. He found his way on base often when hitting which was paired with a few assists from the outfield, this was enough to earn Adelbert a couple of Rookie of the Year votes even though he played substantially less games than the others.

This season Amarillo will look to Steiner to be an integral part of the order, early indications show that Adelbert is tabbed to take over the clean up spot in the order behind TheJew while manning Right Field. Having Steiner take the step forward to be a consistent threat to Minor League pitching will be key for the Amarillo offense to be competitive this season.

Pelle Schuldiner

Pelle is coming off a stellar rookie year, he was named to the all-star game and he finished top 3 in both the Center Field Silver Slugger and Golden Glove. A first round draft pick in the draft prior to last season, Schuldiner was an instant performer for the Dillos. He occupied the middle of the order, hit at a steady clip and stole more than enough bases to be considered a true threat on the base paths.

Due to the aforementioned departures for the Dillo’s this season will see Pelle take up a more important role in the lineup. He will man the vacant two hole behind Mitchell, both Schuldiner and Mitchell get on base at a decent clip so the hope will be to have some ducks on the pond when the big bats come up.

Message from the Front Office

It’s tough to tie down the self-proclaimed “Greatest GM’s in league history”, but I was finally able to track them down. When quizzed on what they expected from the Dillos this season Zodiac exclaimed the following: "Any team that stands in our way will be sent to the burrow of misery, Dillo Dillo!”

The duo have worked wonders this offseason - they managed to get a trade that got an inactive pitcher that will give the team some much needed depth in the bullpen. The trade to still get the man (McTavish) they wanted at #16 while acquiring an additional pick was an absolute master stroke.

You may have been wondering where the rest of the squad is, well due to the limitations of the Minor Leagues (can be seen in an above post) it is very rare for a team to have a full roster of active players. The Dillos have a few inactives in our lineup and coming out of the pen who will be pivotal to the teams success but not worth a write up for the sake of this article not being more than 3,000 words.

From my point of view I think that the Dillo’s should make the playoffs. They now have a relatively experienced lineup and the pitching should go from being one of the weakest in the league to one of the strongest rotations. What happens in the playoffs? Well who the heck knows - that's up to the sim gods.

Dillo! Dillo!

[DoubleDub]

It was only a week ago that I wrote a super upbeat article, Amarillo had returned 5 of the 6 pitchers who pitched meaningful innings last season. Yes they had lost two key bats but that was going to be replaced through new additions and existing players stepping up. Throughout testing the team made the playoffs about 75% of the time and consistently posted win totals in the 50-60 range (108 games in a season).

So what's happened through 27 games?

Well as you can probably tell through the tone of the opening stanza, the Dillos have started the season in rather bleak fashion. Currently they have a record of 9 and 18, already 8 games back of the Hepcats for the division and 4 games back from a host of teams that occupy the last two wildcard positions.

So that rotation, supposedly stacked with 3 players who were first rounders in the major league draft. Currently the rotation’s ERA ranks 8th in the Minor Leagues at 5.76. There have been bright spots Patey V2's 6 and a third scoreless that included 7 strikeouts or Wheeler's 8 IP allowing 3 earned runs. However as the ERA and the team's record suggests, there have been far more negatives than positives. Patey V2 and Wheeler have been the strongest performers this season but they will need to show more if the Dillos are to make the playoffs. The same can be said of Simmons and Ovechkin, both of them are off to uncharacteristically poor starts. The Spring Training results for both pitchers were strong so this type of start was very unexpected, the starting rotation’s inadequate performances has also left a strain on the bullpen.

The Dillo’s bullpen was thin to begin the season, with additional depth being picked up in Evan Earley only days before the season opening. This coupled with the performance of the starting pitcher’s has resulted in a Bullpen ERA that is dead last in the Minor Leagues. There is optimism however, Earley has gained valuable experience that should see him become far more effective for the Dillos. If the rotation can have better results than we should be able to see a Dillo pen that is far better than the current ERA shows.

Another item that has been affecting the Dillos ability to stop runs is their defense, they have committed 19 errors on the season which currently ranks as the second most in the Minor League. This in conjunction with their negative Zone Rating of 5.8 has meant that their pitchers haven’t been getting any help from their defense behind them. We should see some of this start to correct itself as the 2nd baseman Binker McTavish acquires more and more experience. An opposition BABIP that ranks 8th in the league is more evidence of a defense that is struggling to turn balls in play into outs. The expected improvement in defense will also help the pitchers as they look to have better success in the second half of the season.

The bats haven’t been perfect for the Armadillos either, they have definitely been the bright spot for the Dillos but this doesn’t mean they have been up to scratch. Looking at the good parts of the Dillo offense firstly, they haven’t been striking out a lot and they have had a lot of extra base hits, ranking in the top 3 for both of those categories. The issue stems from getting runners on base so that those extra base hits can plate runs, the Dillos rank 8th or 9th in the relevant batting, on-base and slugging averages. The big bats of Mitchell, TheJew and Steiner have led the team in batting average, home runs and RBI’s - the issue has come from the other batters that the Dillos need to stand up. This was always going to be an issue for the Dillo’s, relying on young bats to produce right away is a risk that the Dillo’s took. It should have been a risk that would not have affected Amarillo’s performance all that much, the initial plan was that the veteran rotation would carry the team to victories while the younger parts of the offense had time to build up experience.

How will the Dillo’s look to turn it around in the future, well first you need to remember that they are only 4 games back and there is still 75% of the season left. That’s another thing that the rotation needs to remember moving forward, these are players with a lot of experience and a build that has been tested and performed well. Trusting the process will be key for the pitching to enact a turnaround, with the defense expected to improve the pitching should also receive a boost from that department.

Dillo management has also enacted a change in strategy and lineup in an attempt to get more out of the Dillo lineup. There are some players who are underperforming in comparison to last year and they have the same or more experience than in the previous season. The ship should right itself and the Dillo’s should be ok, but as they saw last season they can’t leave this too late. A spirited fight back in the last week of simulations in the prior season saw the Dillo’s fall just short, it would be a shame to see it happen again to this group.

Definitely keep an eye on Evan Earley in the coming week of simulations, with extra experience now under his belt we should see him be far more effective at the back end of games. It will just be up to the rotation to give him a chance to show the league what he can do. Schuldiner is the bat that I think will come back in a big way, Pelle was an all-star last season but it has been a slow start for the Dillo center fielder. I would expect him to step up to his usual level of production and be that 4th power bat that this line-up desperately needs.