The Lincoln Park Pirates are we

[Lemandria]

Not much to talk about yet, since it's just entry pool. A quick review of what's going on in the Pirate's "family."


(Don't worry, I won't spend much more time with the other teams, beyond a short introduction.)


Entry Pool Follies


Let’s see what kind of memorable moments from the Entry Pool…well, we had a monster 31 run game from the Warm Beers. Guess that happens in the Dominican Republic? A nice fat paycheck, though, which netted us Javier Baez–possibly the best SS who fits the Cerveza theme.

The Pirates put together their SS infield. Honus Wagner, 3B. Ron Hansen, SS. Paul Dejong, 1B. Dejong was too good a stick to leave him holding Hansen’s jockstrap, but I didn’t really have anywhere to put him, except 1B. 2B is Kazuo Matsui and Geronimo Pena. Lot of gold glove potential in this infield. Outfield, not so encouraging.

Tulsa acquired the first 20 of their 34 Braves. Work in progress.

Knight Raid scored several gold achievements and set to work on their overall strategy.

Nemesis needs help. Bad pulls, slow start, no income to speak of.

[Lemandria]

Mayday


No, not like that.

May Day, the first of May.

The Pirates set sail in their inaugural season in high spirits, with vast treasures to acquire and new lands to plunder. The “defense first” strategy was tempered only by the introduction of several staple players into entirely new positions.

For much of the month, the ball player’s unfamiliarity with their positions led to some obvious blunders and simple learning-curve mistakes. But with so many solid defenders on the roster, the natural talent quickly reappeared.

Honus Wagner, the Flying Dutchman, worked the leather at his new home on Third Base. Ron Hansen started the season at short, while second base was shared between Geronimo Pena and Kazuo Matsui. Paul Dejong settled in (somewhat uncomfortably) at first, unhappy to be shifted from his previous spot at SS in AAA.

Behind the plate was Christian Vazquez and his backup, Grayson Greiner. The outfield is anchored by the solid glove of Coco Crisp, with Edman in Left and Zimmer in Right.

Midway through the month, management acquired Joe Mauer, an experienced 1B, to back up and help train Dejong. The two worked out together every day, and Paul is to showing substantial defensive improvement.

Slowly, as the team shook off the rust, the Pirates battled their way out of the basement and powered up the standings. On the last day of the month, Lincoln Park took over the division lead and the benefits of defense begins to be more apparent.

On the first day of May, the management goes all-in on their commitment to the defensive long-term future of this team, acquiring two more top flight prospects from their AAA affiliate. We are pleased to announce the addition of RF Ichiro Suzuki and SS Ozzie Smith, two more outstanding defensive prospects!

But that’s not all, we’ve also added the arm of rookie Shane Bieber to anchor our starting rotation!

What this means to the (several) other outstanding shortstops and 2B already on the team, and who will be shifting to what positions for the future, is all part of the Captain’s secret “plunder maximization strategy.”

Only this is certain: there is never a dull moment at the Lincoln Towing Service!

Hoist the black flag, men. It’s time to slit some throats!

[Lemandria]

July 3, 2020

Approaching the All Star break. As usual, defensive teams are heavily under-represented in the All Star voting.

On a less discouraging note, we lead the Division by 8 games, 4th place overall (48-32 .600). Early projections: Pessimistic Projection Model™ says LPP ends the season with 92 wins, Remaining Schedule Model™ projects 101. Obviously the margin of error in both cases is still enormous.

Position training continues. It’s possible that we could rotate the infield (and start everyone in on training a new position) in early August.

1st in AC for Runs Allowed, 9th in Runs Scored. Pretty typical of a well-functioning run prevention team, to this point.

Ichiro had himself a 5-for-6 game in June, and we had a 4 DP game (of course). The outfield had several Gunning Them Down games (OF assists). Coco Crisp is (arguably) the best run-producer on the team at this moment @ 3.3 WAR, he takes walks and steals bags and has surprisingly good pop for a Defense Guy. Geronimo Pena is having an excellent year with the bat, apparently he’s been eating his Wheaties and has the best ISO on the team so far (.238, .519 SLG).

Nearly all of the pitchers are having career years, of course, given the boost from the ballpark and the fielders vacuuming up the base hits. Shane Bieber and Bucky Walters are both solid 1-2. But the relief staff has been simply stellar, five with ERAs under 2. Taylor Rogers has 27 saves, which projects to 55 by end of season and leads the league.

[Lemandria]

Pennant Chase

Well, it looks like there will be some plunder this year, mates.

Division 1st (+7) Overall 5th. Mag#23 w/29 games to play. Unless there’s a sudden complete collapse, we should cruise to the division and into the playoffs.

Essentially, the pitching is running at or near 1st in every category, as are the defensive stats (ZR and Defeff). The offense is shrug doing what offense does in a pitcher’s park, limping along. Runs allowed 1st Runs scored 13th. Pretty anemic O, but the defense is more newsworthy.

Cross Training:
Paul Dejong 74,-,18,68 (1,2,3,S)
Ozzie Smith 17,90,75,118 (1,2,3,S)
Ron Hansen -,42,88,104 (1,2,3,S)
Honus Wagner 4,29,98,104 (1,2,3,S)

Essentially any of the four guys can cover any of the positions. I’m screwing around a bit too much, really, but a couple of four-position defensive backup players will surely come in handy at some point down the road.

The series? Well, we aren’t the best team in the league, but we might have a shot. Not a good shot, looking over the top teams.

All things considered, not an awful first season.

[Lemandria]

Pirates Plunder 91 in 2020

The Lincoln Towing Service Lot is full tonight, with 91 plundered victories en route to the AC East Division title.



The Captain’s secret Plunder Maximization Strategy appears to be working well so far. Lincoln Park finished 1st in ZR and DEff, 1st in Runs Allowed (554), and 13th in Runs Scored (637).

Staff Ace Shane Bieber won the league ERA crown with 2.53, and closer Taylor Rogers finished second in Saves with 44.

The 2020 post-season bracket will be:
ACW-Quid Pro Roll Podcast
NCC-Ohio Marching 110
ACC-Roswell Aliens
AWC-Exeter Blue Hawks
NWC-Nancy Stars
ACE-Lincoln Park Pirates
NCE-Milwaukee Vacuums
NWC-Portland Mets
NCW-San Diego Beach Bums
AWC-French Ravens



Lincoln Park is seeded fifth in this series, and facing some tough competition.

[Lemandria]

....and go down quietly, one game to three. To the Roswell Aliens (the Series Winner), so we don't feel too badly about it.

Good season anyway, men. Keep up the good work next year.

Edit:
Coco Crisp won the gold glove in center.
None of the shortstops won; my fault really, for playing them out of position so much.

[Lemandria]

May

“The Captain looked over the town with great satisfaction, noting the many fine opportunities for future plunder.”

Well, the first month of the 2021 season went about as expected. 16-10 (.615), 1st in most pitching categories, 1st in Deff and ZR, 1st in base running, 2nd in stolen bases. Typical stuff for a run prevention team.

Runs Allowed 1st, Runs Scored t-13th. The bats are a little more sleepy than we’d like, but it’s early.

Currently we’re division second -½ game out, behind Seattle Reign. Looks like a team built around pop, which means we can expect some interesting series against them.



Training proceeds. About midway through the season we should be able to stabilize and assign more permanent lineups, but there’s already enormous flexibility. We don’t appear to be giving away many games to defense.

[Lemandria]

May 4

Sorry, just had to preserve this one for posterity. Kind of the ultimate pitching duel, a six hour and forty-seven minute game.

Don Sutton pitches a 4-hit CG shutout, followed by 12 innings of scoreless relief work.

Only in a pitcher’s park.

[rburgh]

Pleased to meet you. One of my teams is the Berkshire Bees in your LPP's league - we split a 2-game set in your park late yesterday and are scheduled for 2 in my park around 10 PM EDT today. My team is a big bopper team, and I am working the Live missions to improve it, so I make huge improvements at irregular intervals. But the team was blessed with a good pull from the pre-order starter kit, so it's not bad.


I have a pitching and defense team also working the missions, and at this point it is 24-7 and riding a 9 game winning streak. You can read about my teams in my blog, "Archie's Blog," if you care.

[Lemandria]

Originally Posted by rburgh

Pleased to meet you. One of my teams is the Berkshire Bees in your LPP's league - we split a 2-game set in your park late yesterday and are scheduled for 2 in my park around 10 PM EDT today. My team is a big bopper team, and I am working the Live missions to improve it, so I make huge improvements at irregular intervals. But the team was blessed with a good pull from the pre-order starter kit, so it's not bad.

I have a pitching and defense team also working the missions, and at this point it is 24-7 and riding a 9 game winning streak. You can read about my teams in my blog, "Archie's Blog," if you care.

Hiya. (I read all of these, just don't always comment in other people's "streams".) You drew a pretty competitive division over there in the ACC, good luck with it.

[Lemandria]

Jun 1

12-14 for May, which was the toughest month of the season in schedule terms. Next-worst month is July, which is only mildly negative.

For the season 28-24, Div 2nd Ovr 9th. Defense and pitching numbers all still looking excellent. Hitting numbers are ok. Our primary problem seems to be that we’re trapped in a division with a series contender [Seattle Reign] who put on a pretty amazing winning streak in May. We also dropped three to the Airhogs (another top seed from the NCW).

We’re 6½ GB, and the way Reign’s been playing we may not be able to catch him–he’s just running away with it in the first half.

Earliest projections, huge margin of error: Pessimistic Projection Model™ says 84 wins, Remaining Schedule Model says 83 wins.

Wildcard or nothing? Already? :grumble:

[Lemandria]

Aug 2

Well, the All Star game came and went. We sent a couple of pitchers. Don Sutton ended up throwing 4 (FOUR) innings in relief, after the game was already lost. By that point, there was no one else left on the bench. 4 innings in an ASG is pretty much unheard of.

June and July were terrible see-saws. I can tell you we had virtually every top-seeded team from both leagues roll through, one after the next after the next. We took a battering and fell under .500 for a while, until the unrelenting assault eased up following the ASG, And we started patiently climbing back out of the hole.

For June 11-17 .393, For July 17-8 .680. Crazy streaks in the schedule, just crazy. Who makes these schedules?

Currently Division 2nd (-11) Overall 8th 57-49 (.538). Currently leading NC Wild Card contender at +1—which is good, because there’s no way I’m going to catch up to Seattle Reign now. Wild Card or die, you scurvy dogs.

Defense and pitching are holding up great. Pythagoras says I’m owed three games worth of better luck. Pythagoras owes me many drinks over the years, the old souse.

Projections:
Pessimistic Projection Model™ says 86 wins, RSS models says 85. But the ‘ringer’ teams rolling through the lower divisions on their way to diamond make it so crazy unreliable, all bets are off.

[Lemandria]

Sep 2

All right, you slackers. We’ve had enough lollygagging in the rigging, get in your tow trucks and go find us more plunder! 72 cars collected so far, but you’ve let 61 escape! We need more ransoms.


We’re in an uncomfortable spot.

72-61. Division 2nd (-6), Overall 7th. What that means, realistically, is that we probably won’t catch the division leader. Six games back with a month to play is really, really hard to do. We do have three games remaining head-to-head, we do play them in Lincoln Park. Sweeping those would help.

Assuming we don’t win in a stern chase, we also have some trouble on the wild card front. We’re +3G over the Newmarket Colts. Three games is a lot easier than six to overcome. We have to play Newmarket four more times. Should he sweep those, he could push us right out of the WC berth.

Looks like this particular season could be more of a nail-biter than most.


Projections:
Pessimistic Projection Model™ says 87 wins. Remaining Schedule Strength says 86.

[Lemandria]

Close, but no cookie

We made a damned good run at it, but could not catch Seattle Reign (as predicted). He finally clinched with 2 games left to play. No miracle finish for the Pirates, we’ll have to be happy with the Wild Card.

I’m not, I hate wild-carding into a playoff.

.704 (19-8) for September, you really can’t ask for a much better chase than that. All those home games really helped. Pythagoras still owes us three games, too (grumble).

We have two solid gold glove contenders this season, Coco Crisp finishes playing every day CF with a 1.000 FP, and Christian Vazquez behind the plate #1 in Deff and CERA. I think the infielders were hurt on their GG chances by shifting positions around, but definitely no complaints about the IF gloves this season.

Sutton and Walters both finish top-five ERA, but neither will take the crown.

Saberhagen closed out the season in style, Throwing a Maddux in the season’s final game (1H, 1BB, 10K, 96 pitches). A gem.



This is about what I typically see on the team info page. Okay, we can hit, we can take a walk, and we definitely don’t get enough XBH. We don’t score enough runs, because we lack the boppers (so far). We don’t strike out, though, so that’s good. A fair bit of speed, but it’s not really a priority.

Excellent pitchers in an excellent ballpark for pitchers, check. Excellent defense, check.

Looks to me like we should spend the next several seasons hunting down Barry Bonds (or similar players who can both Defend AND Stick.) We need more balance.

And a LHP or two. I somehow ended up with an all-righty rotation, I’m not comfortable with that in the long term.

[rburgh]

There are lots of quality gold LHSP around. You shouldn't have any trouble unless you are restricting yourself to Live cards.

You were right about my division, I finished 4th and under .500 with a +109 run differential. A couple of really good teams at the top, and one that was enough better than mine to nose me out for 3rd, and the last playoff spot.

[Lemandria]

Oh, a minor league update. Knight Raid (rookie) also wild carded their way into the playoffs. The other theme teams neither won nor lost, no promos and no rels.

They're mostly all still trying to assemble their respective theme jigsaw puzzles.

[Lemandria]

Pirates lose IDS Game 5

Lincoln Park’s post-season ended with a two-run single in the bottom of the 7th of the division series deciding game.

Wainwright was pitching a 4-hit shutout up until Machado’s single to deep center field drove in Winfield and Baines for the #2-seeded Camarillo Airhogs. Musgrove and Iglesias surrendered 7 hits and 2 walks, yet escaped with a shared shutout as the Pirates stranded six on base.

The Airhogs move on to face the #3-seeded Seattle Reign in the sub-league series.


Gold Gloves: C. Crisp CF, R. Hansen 3B, C. Vazquez C

Welcome to the team: Robinson Cano (and other Yankees, assigned to the reserves)

[Lemandria]

Some kind of April

Lincoln Park went on a plundering spree in April. Cutlasses clenched and cannons loaded, they looted more vehicles than in any month in the team’s brief history. The Fat Captain so pleased that he actually ordered some shore leave and free grog and wenches for the men.

From Apr 22-26. Pirates pitchers hurled FIVE back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back shutouts or shared shutouts. During this particular week, the Pirates outscored the opposition forty runs to none. Sutton and Bieber are each 4-0, team ERA is 1.93.

Division 1st (+3) Overall t-1st @ 21-7 (.750).

That kind of streak cannot last forever, but it’s certainly a great start to the season.

Welcome aboard:

CF Al Kaline, who will share the position with 2-time GG winner CoCo Crisp.

[Lemandria]

May 28

Life in a smaller league continues. We’re beginning to see the Big Guns from the other league roll through; there’s a lot more inter-league play than normal in this schedule. 24-team league, that’s almost demanded just to fill out the games.

May wasn’t as spectacular as Mar/Apr, but it wasn’t bad, 15-10 (.600). Division 1st (39-18, .684), Overall 3rd. Looks like August is going to be Shark Month here at the Towing Yard, and our likely Final Four is shaping up.

The Towing Yard park effects are showing up strongly, keeping our pitching hot hot hot and our bats cool. Runs Allowed 145 (1st), Runs Scored 236 (10th). Pretty normal for a deadball park, but at least our ISO is a bit better than last season. Those extra sticks we acquired (Cano and Kaline) are surely helping.

Predictions: (really unreliable, this early in the season)
Pessimistic Projection Model™—98 Wins
Remaining Schedule Strength—91 Wins

[Lemandria]

Jun 28

Not much exciting happened in June. We’re maintaining the pace.

15-9 (.625) for June. Division 1st (+10) Overall 56-28 (.667) 3rd.

Wainwright was Pitcher of the Month for May. Kaline hit a grand slam on Jun 9, Walters threw a Maddux on June 15. Four of the top seven pitchers in ERA and rWAR.

Projections: PPM 99, RSS 93.

August looks like a rough month in schedule terms, we get to face the #1 and #2 seeded teams. Series preview? Gonna be a bloodbath.