B-Hawk

[BaseballGuy21]

HawksJournal.com
7/1/2012

I am now the second starter in the rotation. Carmelo Andover is on the DL so that’s probably why I’m 2nd, but Coach Olerud says I’ll probably keep my spot when he comes back. Even though I haven’t been overly successful this year, I feel like I have made a lot of progress.

How about this, I will give a profile of our pitching staff.

1st-Alfonso Cueto (28) has an 8-3 record with a 2.37 ERA. Last year was his worst of four seasons, but this year he is proving that he’s the staff ace.

2nd-Benjamin Hawks (21) 2-3..4.26 ERA..69.2 Innings….51 stakeouts…31 walks.

3rd- Chris Capuano (33) is 8-15 this year with a 4.65 ERA. Last year was just as bad when he went 11-13 with a 5.22 ERA. These are by far the two worst seasons of his career.

4th-Eric Milton (36) has a 5-9 record with a 5.84 ERA. He’s not getting any younger.

5th-Kris Benson (37) is 1-4 with a 4.94 ERA. He has spent a lot of the time in the pen. Kris probably won’t be around too much longer.

Well, that’s the competition right now. I think age has a lot to do with why I am so high on Colorado’s charts. Ah well, I’ll take it Oh, before I forget, I pitched six innings against Philly a couple nights ago. I gave up one run and K’d ten batters, the most so far since I’ve been in the big leagues.

[BaseballGuy21]

HawksJournal.com
8/1/2012

I am the top dawg in the rotation now. I’m 4-5 with a 3.84 ERA and 77 K’s in 103 innings. The press has been talking about me being a contender in the rookie of the year candidacy. I will place money that I don’t win though. Andres Leon of CIN is hitting .335 with 15 homeruns. And then Robert Cortinas of STL is pitching just like me, except he is striking out a lot more guys. Both these guys are pretty legit, they aren’t going to be flameouts like so many rookie of the year winners.

Anyhow, let me mention Ed Demiras. He is really struggling this year. He’s only batting .178 with one homer. I am not worrying him. He will come around. He is too good, and he will eventually be a star.

Lastly, Baseball America put out its annual top 100 list. Even though I’m not on it anymore, I will talk about it a little.
#1 is P Bill Davis (21) for Tampa Bay. He was a second round pick in 2010’s draft. He has shown more improvement than anyone in the minor leagues.

#2 is 2B Tokuhei Anzai (22) of Texas. Do you remember him? He was drafted ahead of me in the 2009 draft. I can’t believe he is still ranked 2nd in all of baseball. He still hasn’t made it out of A-Ball.

Herbert Strauss the other guy drafted ahead of me that year is in Majors right now. Most of this season he spent in AAA before making is ML debut. Anyway, he is ranked 11th now. In the MLB he is batting .286 with 1 homer and 9 RBI’s.

[Bayvann]

This is a great read...keep it up

[Hfthomp]

I am throughly enjoying myself here. Keep the posts coming! I may print all of these posts out, pour some chocolate sauce on top, and then just devour all of them! I can't get enough.

[BaseballGuy21]

HawksJournal.com
8/15/2012

I feel like such a jerk. I called Roache for the fist time today since the day after I got called up. I was being really enthusiastic and asked, “How’s your season going? Good I hope?”

He replied, “Decent, until I was released the week after you got the call up.” I can’t believe I have been so self absorbed that I didn’t even notice he was gone for four months.

Anyway, now he’s going back to school to finish up his bachelor of Material Science. He is also working as an intern for some engineering company down in Oklahoma. I guess he’s lucky he that he went to college out of high school, so he has something to fall back on. Also, he met some girl there that he says is the girl he’s going to marry. We’ll see….

Speaking of girls, I am still with Tracie. We don’t see nearly enough of each other, because she is in college and I am a professional baseball player. Our schedules don’t exactly mesh well. Nonetheless, we are still together and there are no signs that it will ever be another way. The season is drawing to an end, so I plan on spending a lot of time with her this off-season.

Finally, it doesn’t look like we are going to make the playoffs this year. We are 11 games out and there’s only a month and a half to go.

[Hfthomp]

Man, you need to loose that chick!!! She is only weighing you down! You are a professional baseball player B-Hawk! You need to have a girl in every town, not one calling you everynight. Wise up man.

[BaseballGuy21]

HawksJournal.com
9/1/2012

One month left to go in my first major league season and I tear my rotator cuff. The doctors say I will never pitch again. Geese, and I had such a bright career in front of me.

[BaseballGuy21]

HawksJournal.com
9/1/2012

Okay, I was lying; there is nothing wrong with me. I was just messing around, now I have to knock on wood.

Anyway, I can almost guarantee that we will not make the playoffs this year. We are 66-67, 11 games behind Arizona. It would take quite a winning streak to pull it off, but I don’t think the team has what it takes to do something like that.

Coming into the final month, my ERA is 3.57 with a 5-7 record. The last two months I have gone 3-4 with an ERA under 3(I have no run support). I don’t even try striking batters out anymore, because I can’t. I only have 107 K’s in 141.1 innings this year. It’s amazing to me that there are people in the world that can hit a 99mph fastball.

Lastly, Gebhard is out with a strained muscle, and Demiras is finally starting. In his first full month of playing he hit.294 with one homer. I think he is making a case for the starting job even when Gebhard gets back.

Until next time………

[BaseballGuy21]

Originally posted by Hfthomp
Man, you need to loose that chick!!! She is only weighing you down! You are a professional baseball player B-Hawk! You need to have a girl in every town, not one calling you everynight. Wise up man.

LOL, I was thinking about that. He could be living quite the life if he didn't have a girlfriend. We'll see how things turn out.

Everyone, thanks for the kind words.

[BaseballGuy21]

HawksJournal.com
11/2/2012

We finished in third place at 78-84. That was good enough to put us 21 games behind Arizona, who ended up making it to the World Series. In fact Arizona had a 3 games to 1 lead over Oakland before, losing three straight. To give Oakland there 2nd World Series title in three years.

Before I get off the topic of Arizona, I want to talk about the Cy Young winner for there team. Angel Guzman opened the season by losing a game to San Diego. From there, he went on to win 21 straight regular season games is a row. He finished the season 21-1 with a 1.95 ERA.

As the playoffs started, he used the regular season momentum to blow through the playoffs and win five straight games. But just as the season started, in his last game he gave up two runs, and his team lost 2-0.

He went 5-1 with a 1.84 ERA in the post season. It wasn’t enough to earn his team the World Series victory, but it was enough to earn him his second Cy Young Award. Plus, he now claims the longest win streak at 26 games.

Enough of him, I finished the season 6-8 with a 3.65 ERA. It would have been a lot better, but the last two games of the season I gave up a combined 11 runs. I ended up striking out 137 batters in 175 innings and walking 77 (Too much).

Other than that, Demiras ended up hitting .250 with three homeruns. He is still just 20 years old. Nothing compared to me being 22 now Speaking of hitting, Matthew Wilson was the best hitter for our team this year. He hit .299 with 27 homeruns. That’s not too far off from the league leader who hit just 35.

Anyway, I'm off to the off-season. I truly believe next year is going to be a really good year for me. Oh, before I forget, Andres Leon did win the ROY. He hit .323 with 26 homeruns and 90 RBI’s. And Scott Pincus won it in the AL.

[BaseballGuy21]

HawksJournal.com
12/20/2012

I moved into a 9,000 square foot mansion in Scottsdale, Arizona about a month ago. I am living with Demiras and our teams’ first baseman Matthew Wilson (28). It’s Wilson’s house, and he figured since we’re all unmarried, that it would be a good idea if we shacked up together.

Speaking of Wilson, this guy is exactly what you would expect from a young millionaire. He has a garage full of expensive cars, a basketball court, a tennis court and a huge pool. And I swear that he brings home new girls at least twice a week. He is the biggest player I have ever met. His biggest target is ASU parties where girls treat him like a god.

Speaking of ASU, Tracie is in here final year there. I get to see her quite a bit more now. I drive over to her apartment complex and visit and sometimes she stays at my place on the weekends.

I think I am starting to get famous now, because I am getting recognized all of the time. I even heard that pop star Marissa Clyde thinks I’m hot. Demiras actually told me he read that in a People magazine. That is so weird that I would actually be in a magazine other than sports ones. Anyway, I will update you later.

[BaseballGuy21]

HawksJournal.com
3/25/2013

Okay, it’s been quite a while since my last entry. We are just winding down spring training right now. Baseball Weekly is considering me the staff ace this year. I guess Coach Olerud thinks so too, because he still has me slotted at number one.

I honestly didn’t work as hard this off-season as I had in others. It’s hard at times because of the guys I am living with. Wilson is the biggest slacker there has ever been. He doesn’t even like playing catch when he’s not being paid for it.

Anyway, there were always parties going on at my place. Wilson would have 20 to 30 people over almost every night. One time there were like 500 people there and the cops came five different times before finally issuing Wilson, Demiras and me tickets for disrupting the peace. Girls are something else now that I am a major league baseball player. They all want to be with me. And the girls are so hot, and I can’t do anything with them because I am so serious about Tracie. I’m telling you, it’s hard when girls are throwing themselves at you.

Moving on, the Rockies made some moves in the free agency period again. Our biggest pick up is relief pitcher Scott Linebrink who spent the last 7 seasons with the Indians. Throughout the last three seasons his combined ERA is under 2.50. He is going to help my win loss record because he’ll be able to hold leads better than the relievers we had last year.

Also, we picked up former Cy Young winner Danny Graves, but after spring training he got placed on the AAA team. Finally we picked pitcher Felix Diaz who has never pitched outside of Chicago. He’s going to be a good number four guy in our rotation.

One last thing, Sports Illustrated said that they would like to eventually do a cover story on me. But it all depends on how I pitch. Geese, if I think I am somewhat famous now, could you imagine if I was on the cover of Sports Illustrated?

[Eckstein 4 Prez]

BaseballGuy, let me just add to the kudos you've already received for this. This is a great read.... honestly, if I read this in a newspaper as an actual diary of a new player I wouldn't have any trouble believing its authenticity. Great work - keep it up! I can't wait to see if B-Hawk's partying this offseason will hurt his performance in 2013!

[BaseballGuy21]

HawksJournal.com
5/1/2013

Boy oh boy, what can I say? The team is sitting in last place with a 10-17 record. At one point we were 4-16, but we have turned it around a little within the last week. Right now I am 0-3 with a 3.57 ERA. Every game I have pitched has been close, but I keep losing. One article I read said, ‘Hawks has the mentality to keep the games close, but not the mentality to win games.’ How am I supposed to win games when nobody scores runs? I am getting fed up with the poor hitting. I really wish we would go after some hitters during the free agency period, but we never do, it’s usually below average pitchers. It’s so bad right now that our team is only hitting .237.

We only have one guy hitting well, it’s my roommate Wilson who’s sitting at .340 with 8 homers. For a guy that has no work ethic, he sure can get it done. Well, I hope I can actually win some games this month.

[BaseballGuy21]

HawksJournal.com
5/31/2013

The month of May wasn’t that bad for the team. Our team changed the pace a little by going 15-13 to improve our record to 25-30. Now we’re just 13 games back of first place Arizona who’s dominating right now at 38-17. They should be dominating with former Cy Young winners C.C. Sabathia and Angel Guzman to head their rotation. Actually, Guzman is out right now so Joel Hanrahan has stepped up to go 6-1.

Next, I pitched worse in the month of May than I did in April. My 2-3 record and 4.48 ERA in May made my season ERA jump to 4.04. I started the month by pitching two gems, but in the last two weeks I have made three starts losing them all. Two of the games I didn’t make it past the fifth. I really need to start focusing up more. Now I hate watching Baseball Tonight because every time after I pitch they make some comment about the sophomore jinx. Next month hast to be better for me.

Sports Illustrated hasn’t called me lately and I’m not surprised. Why would they want to do a story on some guy that’s 2-6? Anyway, the MLB draft is tomorrow, and there is one guy that is supposedly a future Hall of Famer that is definitely going as the first overall pick. We’ll see if he is as good as they say.

[twins15]

I just started to read this, and it is unbelievable. Just one question, are the ratings for Coors Field still the same? Is it still the best hitters park in the MLB? Anyway, keep up the great work because this is extrememly interesting!

[BaseballGuy21]

I’m glad people are enjoying this. At first I was unsure whether or not I would even post it, but I was having so much fun writing it, I figured why not?
And to answer your question, Coors is not the best hitters park anymore. I changed it to a neutral field before the league started.
Finally something weird I have noticed about my league is that the offensive stats are going down. The league average is only .250. Does this happen in other simulated leagues?

[BaseballGuy21]

HawksJournal.com
6/2/2013

I will give a recap on some of the draft picks made yesterday. The first pick was not a surprise.

Baltimore selects RF Albert Rison (18) from Lincoln HS in California. What can I say about this kid? He is a five tool player who hit .684 with 30 homeruns his senior year of high school. Not only that, but he stole 31 bases without being gunned down. He also might be the top high school pitching prospect with a fastball that reaches as high as 97 mph. In four years of varsity, Albert hit .554 with 72 homeruns, 91 stolen bases and a pitching record of 34-3 with an ERA of .63. This kid is supposedly the real deal.

Detroit selects P Robert Kraker (19) from West Field HS in Utah. He went 13-2 with a .39 ERA while striking out 131 batters in 80 innings. Kraker is another great high school arm that can reach mid to upper 90’s. He’s has very good control for a high schooler, but his fastball is his only effective pitch. Detroit hopes he will learn some pitches and move through the system rapidly.

TB selects LF Robert Summerlin (24) from the University of Michigan. This past season as a senior in college, Robert batted .399 with 25 homeruns. His stats are somewhat skew because of a terrible start that had most scouts doubting his ability. Watch for Summerlin to make an ML debut before 2014.

LA selects P Kan’Ichiou Tanyu (18) from Japan as the fourth overall pick. Tanyu is already polished for an 18 year old, but he is very mature for his age, so this pick is considered risky.

ANA picks P Robert “The Exorcist” Dison (20) from Rice as the 5th overall pick. Last season Dison shut out four top 25 teams, making him very popular with major league scouts. He boasts very good control and movement for a 20-year-old pitcher.

I will talk about some of the Rockies picks tomorrow when I have more time. I will also talk about my high school friend Mason that got drafted by the Indians last year.

[BaseballGuy21]

HawksJournal.com
6/3/2013

The first pick we made this year was for 18-year-old pitcher Peter Catt. Right now he is 6’5 and can touch low 90’s. He has three other decent pitches, so our organization thought they could work with him.

Our second pick was none other than high school pitcher Miguel Tejada Jr. There is no relation to the Miguel that played for the A’s forever. Anyway, he is a knuckle baller that only throws like 80 mph. I guess his knuck is pretty filthy.

Third was a 24-year-old reliever from Stanford. His name is Jeffrey Popovic. He’s basically a control guy that has a fastball and slider that he mixes well. That’s all I know about him.

Finally, about my friend that got drafted last year.
Mason Dalrymple is already in AAA. He is playing mostly backup behind a guy that splits between the pros and AAA. He hasn’t done that well since the call up to AAA. He’s only hit .185 with 2 homeruns, but he’s still just 22 years old. That would be really sweet if he makes it into the big leagues. I never thought he would make it this far when I used to play with him. I though at most he would be a decent college catcher. But somewhere along the way he learned to hit.

[BaseballGuy21]

HawksJournal.com
8/1/2013

I have been so frustrated with my pitching this year that I didn’t feel like giving last month’s update. I really haven’t pitched that bad, but things just won’t go my way. I am on a strict 110-pitch count, so I have to turn over a lot of games to the bullpen. And the bullpen has a problem holding MY leads. It’s driving me nuts. My record is now 5-10 with a 3.73 ERA! My record should not be that bad! I would honestly guess that this season I have left 5 games ahead, and my relief blew it.

Off the field my pitching is carrying over into my real life. I am so irritable lately that Tracie doesn’t like talking to me. A lot of times she catches sports center before our nighttime chats, and when I do bad, she won’t answer her phone. Everything is making me so mad. I really don’t feel like talking about it, so I will leave it at that.

Okay, that’s enough talk about me. We are now 55-51, just 10 games out of first place. Our team is now hitting .264, which is a mile away from where we were at the beginning of the year, so I guess that’s good news.

Next, we traded Jason Gebhard for pitcher Byung-hyun Kim on June 30th, so Demiras has been starting for the last two months. He has definitely taken advantage of these last two months because he has hit over .300 with four homers. I really hope he can keep it up throughout the rest of the season, because that would really help us out with the wildcard spot.

Matthew Wilson is still our best hitter at .289 with 22 bombs. Other than that the team has a couple guys, but nothing extraordinary. Our best pitcher this year is the #2 guy Alfonso Cueto who is 13-6 with a 3.20 ERA. When he’s pitching the players actually score runs. Maybe you can’t tell, but I feel bitter right now.

I don’t want to write anymore, but I feel like I should tell you about some pitchers this year. C.c. Sabathia of AZ is 12-3 with a .94 ERA and WHIP of .61. He is pitching out of his mind. Javier Vasquez of LA is 15-1 with a 1.75 ERA. Anyway, that’s all for right now. I will update again in a month if I am up to it, which I hope I will be