NABO48 w/ MLBPA ... Updated for '26

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Old owner dies and leaves his son in charge. New owner, new goals .... of course after the offseason, when I made moves to meet the old man's goals.

New owner wants me to resign Anthony, which of course I was going to do .... but once his arbitration years started.

Anyway, he wanted something like 309M for 10y, and this is what I offered him. I tried to overpay a bit at the front and get some freedom at the back. He accepted.

So far this season has been primarily hurt feelings and bruised egos.

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I'm a little concerned that Scherzer, Nola, Musgrove are aging, regressing, declining faster than my young arms are developing. The plan was to have the young guns start of in 2A, move to 3A halfway through the year and then join the big club in 2028.

Bad News - 3 SP and Arenado are going to be FA.

Good News - That's a lot of free'd up money.

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Doing well at the money game.

Market grew to average size, Fans are excited ... just need some more home games.

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Well crap, I just noticed that the goal to extend Roman Anthony was the old owner's goal.

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SS Joey Ortiz continues to be StL's 2nd best position player, behind Anthony. He's solid, great defense, gets on base at an above average rate, and enough SLG.

If Anthony wants to develop into a .300-30-100 guy, like the George Brett type bat I was hoping for, I'll be tremendously excited. No way he keeps this up .... I'd like to see ~.300-20-90, with high OBP.

Barossa jumped out red hot, batting like .728 over the first 8 games or so, and then just shut down.

C Drew Romo had an amazing 1st half 2 seasons ago, and then stopped hitting, so he was demoted to 3A to work on it. He spent the entire '26 season in the minors and appears to have figured out the hitting to some degree .... but he's likely not this good at the plate, but an elite defensive catcher.

Adolis Garcia's counting stats at the end of the 1st week are not drastically different than his counting stats at the end of the month. Red hot, then not. 1 BB, 19 K.

I keep trying to give Maurico and Moore playing time at 3B/1B, hoping one of them sticks and solves at least one problem. They are not.

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Logan Webb has been solid, strikeouts are down, but groundballs everywhere.

Scherzer has more walks than K's and is surviving by not giving up home runs. He's in and out of trouble consistently, often being saved by a well-timed DP.

Aldegheri looks legit, and I won't say more. Don't wanna jinx it.

Nola's issue so far is the home runs. Aldegheri has given up 4, but all solo shots. Nola doesn;t like to give up solo shots, he like 3 runs homers, and has the ERA to prove it.

Abreu is my most volatile reliever, 2 seasons ago ... lights out. Last year, much less so ... and was replaced as a stopper by Nic Enright. Abreu is either on or off. On, and it's just doughnuts. Off, and he enjoys walks on the beach, margaritas, and lead-blowing home runs .... usually after a walk, HBP, and WP.

Evan "Sevan" Phillips is just solid. He's going to have his 3-4 meltdowns a year, but he'll mix those in with 30+ shutdowns and nearly as many holds. I think his meltdown so far this year was walking the bases loaded then allowing a triple. Such is the life of a RP.

Orion Kerkering, y'know last season's reliever of the year, has just been a mess, yet he hasn't given up a home run yet.

Musgrove is a legit concern. His subpar performance started in the playoffs last season and has continued in April.

Game Scores
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L. Webb - 75, 42, 32, 55, 52,
M. Scherzer - 57, 40, 46, 47, 50,
A. Nola - 47, 59, 56, 75, 28,
S. Aldegheri - 49, 60, 61, 62, 46
J. Musgrove - 69, 40, 22, 19,

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Philly surges to the top, going 17-12 in May. Gotham holds their standing with a 16-13 record in the month, while BAL (11-16) and NY (13-17) slip down the list.

Montreal pulls further away in the division going 20-10 in May.

Jacksonville moves into first place on the strength of an 18-10 record in May as Nashville slides into 2nd place (16-12). New Orleans view from the top ends with a 13-16 slide in the month.

Defending champs, Orlando, build up their lead (17-10) in their quest to repeat.

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Portland (13-14) and Vancouver (14-14) play average baseball and keep it close in the division.

San Diego has an outstanding 19-9 month and remain in 1st place, largely on their insane 14-1 record in 1-run games. LA slips back despite a 16-14 record in the month.

Oklahoma takes charge of the division going 17-12 as Windy City moves up the ranks after a 16-14 May. StL is still trying to put it altogether, playing an up and down 14-15 mark in the month, winning 7 of their last 9 games.

Texas makes a power move, posting the 2nd best record in May, 20-9. Division rival Monterrey responds with a NABO best 23-6 record in the month.

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Toronto fans are wondering if this is the game that gets Strider back on track being one of the league's dominant pitchers, teaming up with Chris Sale to a great 1-2 punch that propels the Towers back toward the top.

Last year's Triple Crown winner is off to a slower start and dealing with nagging injuries. The news got worse for the New York faithful, as Alvarez heads to the injured list and will likely miss the month of June.

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Gonzales would stay hot, hitting a Grand Slam in the game after hitting for the cycle.

A huge blow to the Lava, as Evan Carter will miss the next 4 weeks, having an MVP caliber season.

As if losing Carter for a month wasn't enough bad news, Los Angeles will be without their ace, Tarik Skubal, until after the All-Star break.

*Reminder* I reset injuries after the All-Star game is over.

With LA experiencing severe injuries to key players, this would be a great opportunity for San Diego to pull away in the division. But the baseball gods are fickle and SD has injuries to deal with of their own.

The big, and last minute, international free agent signing will be out for the rest of the season*.

However due to the magic of "Commissioner Mode"*, De La Torre will be back after the All-Star break.

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A name noticeably missing from the West leader board is that of Back-to-Back MVP, Bobby Witt Jr. After posting 8 and 9 WAR seasons to claim the award, Witt Jr is struggling with a slow start and nagging injuries, as he is projected to put up a slightly above average season, which is nowhere close to the standard and expectations he has set for himself.

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Logan Webb and Sam Aldegheri stay hot as the pitching staff has improved, with the help of fellow rookie SP Cory Lewis, called up as Musgrove moves to the bullpen. Aaron Nola continues to struggle, namely with HRA problems.

The offense stays productive, remaining in the top 10 for wOBA and RS.

The team's ERA moves up 9 ranks by lowering the team ERA by 0.40 points. SP remains largely the same, but the bullpen lowered their ERA by over a full run during the month of May.

The Shires hit the skids mid-May with a series sweep loss against rival Windy City. The batters went into a slump, posting just 35 hits over a 7-game span before ....

... unleashing a 13 run, 23-hit destruction against 1st place Oklahoma, where every batter had multiple hits .... except Barrosa, who went 0-5 on the day, and just cannot get going this season, giving up playing time to UT Tim Tawa.

The upcoming schedule for the month of June will be a minefield for the Shires.

After finishing up a series at rival Windy City, they'll head across the lake to 2nd place Motor City.

Then they head home to host the West's best team, Monterrey, and cross-state rivals, Kansas City.

The team then travels to 1st place San Diego, then to Minnesota, and back home for a series against Mexico City.

The final 6 games of the month will be against the #1 in the West, San Diego, and #1 in the East, Montreal.

If they can manage a .500 record for the month, St Louis should be content and be in a position to make a run at the division lead in JUly, heading into the All-Star break.

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With Moore's injury, a vacancy existed at 1B vs LHP, so the Shires called up their "one trick pony", Tommy White.

However, that one trick is quite a trick, homering 57 times in 670 AB in 3A over the last 2 seasons.

Well, it took one PD update for StL's #1 pitching prospect to from an 80 OVR POT to 54. The other 5 prospects are levelling off, despite great coaching and 36M put into player development. Yeesh.

While trying to make room to send Musgrove to the bullpen, I shopped LR Hodge and SP Dylan Smith (3A). Georgia offered Ornelas, and then came back and wanted StL to add their choice among a group of players. That player ended up being Vejar.

Hodge initially looked promising, but was unable to increase his stamina and Smith is too similar to a handful of other StL minor league pitchers to remain valuable.

StL gets Ornelas ...

Another OF sure, but Ornelas can hit righties to go along with the the OF and 1B that are more productive against lefties. If Ornelas can hit, he could find himself locked in at 1B, helping the team and likely helping the GM fulfill an owner goal.

StL promoted Lewis to fill the 5th spot in the rotation. The club also has Brayan Bello ready to do the same if Aaron Nola continues to throw BP.

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Attendance is back up thanks to the home games in May, but still lags behind last year's figures ... due to the mediocre play of the team.

I'm trin' man, I'm tryin'. Why can't one of the goals be "make me a fat profit every year"? Heh heh.

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It's nice to see a different mix atop the leaders of May batting. The team is not reliant on any one player to remain productive.

Rodriguez and Romo make a nice catching platoon that keeps both players fresh and productive.

Arenado had a great month, putting further decline at least a month or two away.

Anthony's power numbers are still up (surprisingly, while the batting average is quite a bit lower. It's a fair trade, but we're greedy and want both. Also not taking walks as much as he has in the past, with most of them being pitch arounds with 1B open.

Tim "Super Sub" Tawa is hitting just enough to be valuable, the man that can play any position, except catcher.

Ortiz combines an almost league average bat with great defense to remain very productive.

Anthony, at age 23, has transformed into more of a power hitting vs the OBP and doubles guy, but production remains very high, among the league leaders in HR and RBI.

The catcher platoon situation has been outstanding and Gonzales and Arenado are on pace for above average seasons. Nolan wants 20M a year for 3y as an extension, and the club seems unwilling to give such a contract to a 36yo 3B.

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Webb and Aldegheri have outstanding months. While neither pitcher is expected to put up this type of production each month, they have the ability and potential to be highly effective for the rest of the season.

Enright and Cruz were dominant in relief, if the can keep BABIPS of .167 and .050, they'll be great. They won't .... and they won't.

Scherzer is still up and down, but has pitched some great games.

Lewis has been a welcome surprise since being promoted from 3A.

Nola is about 2 more bad starts from watching Bello replace him in the rotation.

Musgrove has pitched well in relief, and hopefully figures it out and possibly make a return to the rotation.