The Jacksonville Anchors

[Ruwisc]

Jacksonville Anchors Baseball

In the year 2000, as part of MLB's rapid expansion to 60 clubs, 4 final teams were added to the map, one in each of the 4 major leagues, to bring each to a total of 15. The Northeast League added the Norfolk Navigators of Norfolk, VA; the Central League added the Austin Violets in Austin, TX; the Western League added the San Bernardino 66ers of California's Inland Empire; and the Atlantic League added our Jacksonville Anchors to the First Coast. The Anchors have played 26 seasons now, and had a fair amount of success for a modern expansion franchise, but have just fired their manager and GM after a very disappointing 2025 season. So, we're taking over as GM!

About the League
This version of MLB contains all the teams from my thread in the Mods forum, with an alternate history that dates from 1903. I'll get into plenty of that as we go, but here are some of the broad strokes:

The most successful teams in World Series terms are the New York Highlanders (18), Boston Minutemen (12), Buffalo Beacons (7), and St. Louis Spirits (7). I would normally play as St. Louis, my home team, but they've been a little too successful for my taste - too easy to win there. Three other teams have won six titles. 37 of the league's 60 teams have won the World Series at some point in their history, and 23 have not (including Jacksonville).

Speaking of the Spirits, they are the top team in terms of overall historical wins, with the Brooklyn Kings, Minutemen, Chicago Blues, and Highlanders rounding out the top 5.

The most interesting thing about the league, from my perspective, is having four subleagues. This is not actually possible in OOTP natively, but I make it work with a pack of custom schedules that I wrote a few years back. I will be making some awards decisions myself (OOTP will not pick 4 MVPs, for example), and arranging the playoff bracket manually to match how it should go according to the rules I've set out.

At times I will probably mention the "Original 16". As in the real MLB, there was a long period of time where just 16 teams in two leagues contested everything. The league expanded in 1948, 1955, 1960, 1965, 1968, 1975, 1982, 1989, 1995, and finally in 2000, with between 2-8 expansion teams at each stage. The 1960 expansion marked the introduction of the 4-subleague format, as 8 historical teams from the west coast were absorbed, as if gobbling up the classic PCL.

Each league, like the AL and NL we know, has three divisions of 5 teams each, with divisions labeled North, Central, and South (though not always divided strictly on those lines). The playoff format is similar to that used by MLB in my childhood (the 90s and 2000s). Division winners qualify, as well as one wild card from each league, and division rivals cannot play one another in the first round. The division series round is also expanded to 7 games rather than 5. Once the four leagues have crowned their champions, the bracket is re-seeded with the best league champion playing the worst, regardless of which in-game subleague they play in. This does mess up the History pages in-game sometimes, but that's worth it for me.



About the Atlantic League
The AL contains teams from the eastern parts of the Midwest and the South. The division alignment and 2025 standings look like this:


In the playoffs, the top-seeded Lakers were upset by New Orleans in seven games, while Memphis beat Tampa in six. The Lions then easily took down the division rival Crescents in five games to win the AL championship for the first time in their history (since 1995). Due to upsets in every league, Memphis was the top seed in the League Champions round, and defeated the lowest seed, the Western League champs from Las Vegas, in five games. But they fell to the team of destiny, the CL champion Austin Violets, who became the first team from the 2000 expansion class to win it all.

The most historically successful clubs from the AL are Cleveland and Louisville, who are two of the aforementioned teams that have six championships, while Detroit has 5 and Pittsburgh 4. Those teams all were part of the Original 16, as was Cincinnati. The team that has won the AL championship the most times (1960-present) is New Orleans with 10, but they have only converted those 10 appearances in the "Final Four" to one World Series trophy, in 1987.

About the Anchors
As mentioned, the Anchors were established in 2000. They had a pretty typical start to a franchise, losing over 100 games in the first two years, but put together their first winning season in 2004 at 85-77, only missing the playoffs by 4 games. The first playoff appearance would have to wait until 2008, where that same 85-77 record was enough to win a weak South division. Their first playoff win would have to wait, though, as they were swept by Cincinnati. The following year, in 2009. the Anchors finally got their first playoff wins, winning the AL wild card that year and upsetting a 106-win New Orleans team in the first round, before losing again to Cincinnati in their first ALCS.

After that, Jacksonville entered another fallow period. Losing seasons followed in '10 and '11, after which the face of the franchise, catcher Joe Mauer, left in free agency to sign with San Francisco. Mauer (2002-11) and his longtime teammate, CF Justin Leone (2001-13), still hold a number of team records. Hard to fault Mauer, who let the Seals pay him $225 million over eight years. He would go on to play for five other teams in his career, but thankfully never came back to play against us in the AL. He only just announced his retirement, so it is actually today (November 7, 2025) that the team officially retired his number 7.

There is one more number hanging beyond the outfield fences at the Grounds, and it is the #22 of Mark Prior (2002-15, 17-18). Prior was the first Anchor to win a major award, capturing the 2006 Cy Young award, and accrued 220 of his 261 career wins in an Anchors uniform. Even in retirement, he is part of the lore of the current roster - with one year left on his contract, management chose to trade him to Anaheim for two young players, including the other contender for greatest player in team history, Aledmys Diaz. (I love it when the most random players you can think of become greats.)

In the mid-2010s, the Anchors started to hit big again on some of their draft picks, and it all came together starting in 2018. Their first rounders in 2013-16 were Kris Bryant, Matt Chapman, Harrison Bader, and Nicky Lopez, who were the four most important players on that 2018 team and a couple years beyond. The 2018-24 Anchors won seven straight division titles, and though five of those came with first-round exits, that run also finally, in 2024, produced Jacksonville's first Atlantic League championship with a six-game victory over Louisville. They would lose in the League Champions' round in six games to eventual champion Syracuse, but these were still new heights for the Anchors.

Unfortunately, 2024 was the end of an era in a lot of ways. Bryant and Chapman were already gone before that, and the likes of Miguel Sano, Ryan Zimmerman, Yovani Gallardo, and Robbie Grossman all departed as free agents, leaving not much behind. When the 2025 season started to go south, Bader was traded to Cleveland (where he joined Sano on a playoff team). Of course, this is the season that cost our predecessors their jobs, and what we now inherit.

No player has been inducted into the Hall of Fame in an Anchors cap, but Mauer, Prior, and Dan Haren have yet to become eligible.

There have been two no-hitters thrown in Anchors history, both in the 2023 season, and by the immortal Frank Herrmann, who I had no recollection of (though Guardians fans might). In this league he is still active at age 40, pitching for Ottawa, and is one of five pitchers tied with a career record 3 no-hitters as he also threw one with St. Louis in 2019.



The 2025-26 Offseason

Here's what needs to be done to prep for the 2026 season:

• For one, we have no manager, bench coach, pitching coach, 1B coach, or trainer. I prefer to play GM only and whine and gripe about the decisions my in-game managers make.

• We aren't losing that much in free agency, but we already barely have any pitchers to begin with. I've reached out to pending free agent SP Trey Killian about an extension - he wants about $11 million per season to start negotiation & I might go for that.

• On the hitting side, there's less to do, but it would be nice to find a half-decent center fielder. We didn't have much at that position after Bader was traded.

I'll run down the current state of the team before I do anything too crazy.

[Ruwisc]

2025 Roster Review

This is the current state of the 40-man roster, with 36 players currently on it. Italicized players are free agents in a few weeks:

Pitchers (Stu/Mov/Con/(Stamina))
#21 Hunter Greene - 75/50/50/60
#3 Trey Killian - 45/50/50/55
#47 Cal Quantrill - 45/50/65/55
#31 Bevis Simpson - 45/45/50/65
#23 Hunter York - 40/45/45/55

#5 Michael Gunn - 75/45/45
#33 B.J. Loya - 45/45/45
#1 Luis Madero - 45/45/50
#24 Nate Pearson - 80/60/55
#19 Marco Ramirez - 60/50/50
#6 Eury Ramos - 75/45/45
#26 Alejandro Requena - 45/45/45
#37 Trevor Stephan - 60/55/55
#11 Dannysmel Tavarez - 65/45/35
#10 Dylan TeBrake - 55/45/50
#7 Jose Torres - 60/50/35
#25 Josh Winckowski - 65/60/55

All of these guys except for Madero appeared with the big club this season. York and Loya were listed as our top two prospects in the most recent ranking. I guess Torres won't get a new number until the spring, now that #7 was retired out from under him.

Catchers (Con/Gap/Pow/Eye)
#40 Jim Arada - 50/45/30/40
#44 Bo Naylor - 50/60/50/50

Infielders
#9 1B Jake Cronenworth - 50/50/50/50
#12 1B Aledmys Diaz - 60/50/65/60
#32 2B Nasim Nunez - 45/35/35/45
#20 2B Jose Peraza - 55/45/40/40
#29 2B Ramon Urias - 60/45/45/45
#17 2B Shay Whitcomb - 45/50/50/45
#27 3B Coby Mayo - 50/60/50/45
#8 SS Nicky Lopez - 65/45/30/45

Outfielders
#13 Duke Ellis - 50/45/40/45
#14 Sandro Fabian - 50/50/45/35
#18 Alonso Gaitan - 45/50/40/45
#30 Max Kepler - 45/45/55/50
#77 Chris Lubanski - 50/55/50/60
#2 Kameron Misner - 40/60/45/45
#41 Tyler Nevin - 50/55/50/50
#4 Jhonkensy Noel - 45/55/55/50
#78 Jean Ramirez - 50/45/45/50

Starter Jeff Niemann and 1B Ryan Flaherty had already announced their retirements at season's end. Flaherty started 128 games at first and another 25 at DH this season, while Niemann made 28 starts on the mound. Neither was particularly critical to our success (or lack thereof), with both posting negative WAR totals.

The pre-fab CPU-chosen batting order is

SS Nicky Lopez - .276/2/49
DH Jake Cronenworth - .282/13/47
2B Ramon Urias - .307/18/79
1B Aledmys Diaz - .310/42/116
LF Chris Lubanski - .263/19/63
RF Tyler Nevin - .239/18/87
C Jim Arada - .254/1/31
CF Max Kepler - .248/7/36
3B Coby Mayo - .067/0/1 (10 G)

Of course, Nevin is a free agent. Urias got most of the time at third in actuality, and I'm in favor of that. We'll be fine on the infield, but the outfield is ugly.

[Ruwisc]

November 2025

The 2025 season all happened when I was a neutral observer, but it's still awards season.

• Aledmys Diaz won a Silver Slugger award as the top DH among NL & AL players. I don't really want to research whether any of our guys would be Gold Glovers or Silver Slugger winners if we only considered the AL players - this is one of those deficiencies when it comes to having a league this weird.

Rookies of the Year

• NL: SP Nolan Stensgaard

• AL: SS Jeffrey McCracken

• CL: 3B David Fry

• WL: SP Eli Haile

Relievers of the Year

• NL: Ronald Bolanos

• AL: Chase Cohen

• CL: Luke Chevalier

• WL: Nick Kennedy

Cy Young Awards

• NL: Nolan Stensgaard

• AL: Corbin Burnes

• CL: Spencer Strider

• WL: Triston McKenzie

MVP Awards

• NL: Bryce Harper

• AL: Nathaniel Lowe

• CL: Cody Bellinger

• WL: Marcus Semien

The main thing to do during November was get our new coaching staff in order. We hired:

- Assistant GM: Bill Grosdidier. Bill was actually the manager of our rival, the Tampa Grovers, during their most successful period. The Grovers went to the World Series four times in five years between 2000-2004, but lost all four in a Buffalo Bills-like curse state. If he wants to get into management, I'm not too petty to not give him that opportunity.
- Manager: David Agado. A former minor-league starter in the Portland organization (or the Phillies organization for us), Agado is a first-time manager but rates highly and will mesh well with our pre-existing staff and players. His only really strong preference is that he hates bunting.
- Bench coach: Myron Hunter. Myron had been the manager of the High-A Jeff City Jays (Jefferson City, MO) in the Kansas City organization from 2015-25. He was a free agent, and now gets his first opportunity in the big leagues.
- Pitching coach: Kris Franko. Franko was the pitching coach for the Crescents in the early 2010s, during which time his proteges included Chris Carpenter, Chris Bassitt, and Zack Britton. He had been coaching in the minor leagues for a while, holding jobs in the Omaha, Milwaukee, and Salt Lake organizations.
- First base coach: Yoshi Yoshinaga. A first-time coach who was a minor-league catcher in the New Orleans system in the early 90s. Naturally, he will also handle the catchers.
- Team trainer: Nate Beane. Another first-timer, but his ratings are good and lack of experience comes cheap.
- A few staff members carried over from previous management under manager Olmedo Saenz: hitting coach John Schulte, third base coach Brett Rossler, and scouting director Sandy Guerrero will stick around.

November 11: SP Trey Killian signs an extension for 4 years at an AAV of $9.4 million.

November 21: We did make one trade in this period, and it's with those rival Grovers, acquiring SP Chris Huffman from Tampa in exchange for IF Nasim Nunez, one for one. Huffman is quite a bit older than Nunez (he is 31) but was such a late bloomer that he is just entering his first year of arbitration. So, he's not too expensive (~$2 million), and will easily fit into our rotation.

November 23: Hall of Fame voting opens. The two returning players most likely to be inducted are a pair of outfielders who were teammates for 14 years in Tucson, Vernon Wells and Ryan Ludwick, though neither is a slam dunk. The three best resumes for first-time players are all, like Ludwick, real-life Cardinals: Chris Carpenter (Vancouver), Mark Mulder (Houston), and Albert Pujols (Kansas City). The game is putting together a little fan-service for me specifically, I guess.

November 24: One of the best soon-to-be-free-agents is off the market, as Western League MVP Marcus Semien resigns with Vancouver for 4 years, $34.5 million per. This covers his age 34 to 37 seasons, so we'll see.

November 26: The New York Burros trade 3B Nolan Arenado to New Mexico, bringing in 2B Travis Demeritte and seeing a pitching prospect go in each direction. Good deal for New York I would say, they save some money and my scout likes the prospect they got better.

November 30: We weren't the only ones to complete an in-division trade - Milwaukee has traded OF Randy Arozarena to the Chicago Blazers for RP Nick Vespi and outfield prospect Justin Duong.

November 30 is also the date that free agency begins, so that'll be the story for a little while.

[Ruwisc]

December 2025

Just going to cover the biggest deals here - maybe 1 trade or signing out of 15 is noteworthy enough.

December 2: Atlanta trades OF/DH Kyle Schwarber to Columbus, receiving prospects OF Charles Saunders and RHP Jason Jones. One of our division's most feared sluggers has left it. Barring injury, Schwarber will hit his 500th home run this season.

December 4: The LA Sabers trade SP Rick Porcello to Syracuse for two prospects, RHP Jeremiah Dreher and LF Jamal Griffen. Nice bit of business from the Sabers to get out of that contract.

December 5: Saguaros LF Yordan Alvarez signs a 5-year extension that will make him one of the league's 5 highest paid players, $44.4 million per year.

December 8: Kansas City acquires 1B Willson Contreras from Baltimore, for what is effectively nothing - Baltimore both retained money and included cash, allowing Contreras to play for the Mohawks for free. Contreras is best known for his time in Omaha, and now goes to probably their biggest rival.

December 8: C Sean Murphy had opted out of his deal with the Brooklyn Kings, and signs with the defending World Series champs in Austin for 7 years, $25.4 million per year.

December 10: C Kyle Higashioka, fresh off winning the World Series with Austin but now supplanted, signs with Cleveland for $27 million per year over 4 years.

December 12: We signed OF Tony Kemp to a minor league deal. Even with no guaranteed salary, he's probably our starting CF if no other moves are made.

December 15: What will probably be our biggest coup of the offseason - Jacksonville signs SP Justin Dunn to a 7-year contract. There are a few different options in there, but it will be 7 years, $154 million at most and 5 years, $113 million at the least. Dunn was the best available pitcher under the age of 30, so I'm pretty happy with that even though the news story thinks I'm paying too much. He will almost assuredly be our Opening Day starter. Dunn was a deadline acquisition by Washington from San Francisco this season, and then San Francisco made the playoffs and Washington didn't.

December 15: 1B Vladimir Guerrero Jr. signs with St. Louis for 7 years, $25.2 million per. Probably the #1 available free agent, I thought he would get more than this.

December 15: SS JP Crawford signs a 7-year extension with Nashville for $31.5 million per season. Crawford has played his whole career with the Stars.

December 17: With the Winter Meetings starting today, it's time for the draft lottery. We had the 7th-best odds this year with our 68-94 record, so I was hopeful but not expectant that anything would happen. Our expansion cousins, the Navigators, had the league's worst record and did stay at the top, but we hit gold! Er, maybe silver.

1st: Norfolk (no change)
2nd: Jacksonville (up from 7th)
3rd: San Antonio (up from 5th)
4th: Charlotte (no change)
5th: Houston (down from 2nd)
6th: LA Palms (up from 8th)

The 3rd through 6th picks are all then moved down one slot, due to Hartford failing to sign the #2 pick last year. Toronto (was 3rd) and Atlanta (6th) drop out of the lottery places and will draft 8th and 9th.

December 17: SP Johnny Cueto is still kicking around, and will be kicking around for three more years after signing with St. Louis. Cueto won a Cy Young in 2017 with Cleveland, and won 21 games with Boston in 2025.

December 29: The Rule 5 draft was today - we drafted RHP Tommy Doyle from Ottawa, and did not lose anyone. With a couple of other, more minor, signings on the board, our 40-man roster now has 38 players.

December 31: Well, most of our business is now done - although this signing is not nearly as big a name as he is in the real world, he'll still be a help to us. We have signed RF Ronald Acuña Jr., formerly of Omaha, for an AAV of $12.2 million. We did have to give him six years to do it, but I think that's fine. A clear upgrade over the departed Tyler Nevin on both sides of the ball.

[Ruwisc]

January 2026

Aside from the odd signing of a minor league free agent or two, we're pretty much done with our offseason business. The offseason center's WAR leaderboard has us at the very top in this 60-team league, with our improvement 4.5 wins better than 2nd-place St. Louis.

January 3: Well this is surprising. The top free agent starting pitcher, Gerrit Cole, has returned to our division rival Atlanta Firebirds. The F-Bombs have entirely subtracted from the roster up to this point, with Schwarber traded to Columbus, Trevor Larnach signing with Syracuse, and a whole host of other exits. Cole signs for four years at $33 million per year. He came up with Atlanta, and won a Cy Young in a Firebirds uniform in 2014. Most of this decade was spent with Toronto before a deadline trade put him in Vegas.

January 4: Aaron Judge has signed an extension to remain with the Grays, at a $35 million clip over 4 years. Judge passed the 500-homer threshold in 2025, all done in Washington colors.

January 7: An impressive 5 players were inducted into the Hall of Fame, all in their first years of eligibility:

• Mark Mulder - 99.0% - 343-187, 3772 K, 3.38 ERA, 119.6 WAR, 2 Cy Youngs, 1 World Series

• Albert Pujols - 98.7% - 3493 hits, 608 HR, career .303 avg, 2002 Rookie of the Year, 2 World Series

• Ryan Howard - 97.7% - 710 HR, 2579 hits, 2039 RBI, 1.004 OPS, 2 MVPs, 1 World Series. Howard is only the second former Anchor enshrined in Cooperstown, and the first to have played here more than one season (Howard 2014-17; Lance Berkman 2011).

• Chris Carpenter - 94.5% - 377-244, 4171 K, 3.53 ERA, 110.3 WAR

• Mark Buehrle - 88.7% - 261-139, 3.37 ERA, 2457 K, 77.2 WAR, 2 World Series, 4 Gold Gloves

The first four players will all represent their first teams in the Hall, while Buehrle will wear a Brooklyn Kings cap.

January 10: Still pitching well at age 39, David Price is still good enough to fetch a decent prospect in a trade. New Orleans has acquired Price from Washington for three prospects, most notably OF prospect Oscar Balais.

January 12: In another instance of players you wouldn't expect to still be playing at a high level, San Francisco has signed OF Jason Heyward for 3 years and $31.2 million per year. Heyward was probably the best free agent still available on the board, but definitely pretty pricey.

January 15: International free agency opens on this date. No signings right away but I've got a few players in my sights.

January 21: The official start of preseason this year, and time to load in the new schedule. We will open the season on Friday, March 27 at New Orleans, then go to the Trop to face the Grovers, before returning home to start our home slate against the Miami Waves. We will finish the season at home with matchups against Boston and Louisville. Our interleague matchups this season are against the NL Central (Boston, Hartford, and the three New York teams), CL North (St. Louis, Milwaukee, Minnesota, and the two Chicago teams), and the WL Central (San Francisco, Oakland, San Diego, and the two LA teams). That's a lot of big markets!

I guess I never outlined the parameters of the schedule in my intro post. It's fairly similar to the current modern MLB schedule (although I made these a while ago - it actually predates MLB adopting their current schedule). We play our four division rivals 14 times apiece, the 10 teams in the AL North and Central 6 times apiece, and a total of 46 interleague games against 15 opponents, comprising one division from each of the other subleagues. There's one interleague team that we'll play 4 times versus 3 for the others, and that's the only difference between our schedule and those of our division opponents. This year, our extra game is against Boston - we'll play them twice, at Fenway in mid-April and down here in the final week of the season, two games each, instead of one three-game set. That's a slightly bad beat, since Boston was the league's best team last year (109-53), but 1 game doesn't make that much a difference.

January 21: The player I've gotten the most inbox messages about this offseason has been former Hartford Oaks closer Ronald Bolaños. He is actually a spectacular closer, but the numbers that these teams were bidding against each other with are pretty staggering. He finally signed today with the Salt Lake Bees, for 4 years and $32.5 million per season.

January 22: Former Anchor, RF Tyler Nevin, signs with Oakland for 3 years, $6 million per season. That's a deal that I definitely could have gone for but we've gone with Acuña instead.

[Ruwisc]

February 2026

I had three international amateurs that I originally set my sights on, but ended up signing none of them. The One That Got Away is Australian outfielder Elijah Watson-Williams - I thought I'd be able to snag him for cheap, but the bidding war got out of hand. In the end, he signed with Buffalo for more than triple what my original offer to him was. In the end, we had $8.26 million available as our spending cap, and we spent it on three players:

- corner OF Gabin Imperial (Dominican Republic) - 60 Con/75 Pow/55 Eye/50 Def - $5.04MM
- OF Leonardo Aleman (Dominican Republic) - 60 Con/65 Pow/55 Eye/60 Def - $2.8MM
- P Oriol Navarro (Panama) - 75 Stu/50 Mov/50 Ctrl/40 Stamina - $420K

I'm still pretty happy with this crew - I didn't get a big starting pitcher like I was hoping for, with Navarro probably more of a setup man, but it's still a decent haul.

Spring training began on February 20. One of my most-wanted features is an actual featured spring training with Grapefruit and Cactus Leagues - I've got it all planned out. In the in-universe canon, we share spring training facilites with the New York Highlanders at what is, to us, Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. (I'd have to look back to see who the Highlanders' most iconic owner is!)

February 20: Naturally, in the second inning of our very first spring training game, against those Highlanders, LF Chris Lubanski injured himself while trying to throw a runner out at the plate. The injury will cost him the rest of spring, and the first few weeks of the season. He was set to be our primary leadoff hitter.

February 22: It could be worse, at least. The Suns lost SP Patrick Cooper for the season in the first inning of the very first spring training game.

February 24: One of our foes has taken care of some important business, as Miami and SP Jaime Barria sign a contract extension for 4 years, $27.4 million per year. That's honestly qualifies as a hometown discount. Barria is perhaps the AL's top starting pitcher, and to me clearly Miami's best player.

February 28: I wouldn't actually celebrate an injury, but this one does affect our fortunes positively - Tampa has lost CF Michael Harris II for the year, after he somehow suffered a broken kneecap on a routine fly ball.

We finished the month of February with a 6-2-1 record in spring games, all six of the wins coming consecutively after failing to win the first three.

It feels strange to have pretty much gone through the whole offseason in a few days - I usually like to play very slowly, but I guess I'm amped up to be actually GMing a team instead of running the simulation for the first time in a while. In-season, I'll be posting usually a week at a time

[Ruwisc]

March 2026

(I originally posted some league news here, then had to revert to March 1 when the game crashed on me in one of the early-season games.)

The season starts on March 27 - let's get the rest of the way through spring without anything else going on, then make our roster cuts.

Not much happened between then and the end of spring training. We finished play with a record of 16-11-3, that sounds nice. 24-year-old SP Archie Webb, our 7th round pick in 2024 from Virginia, pushed really hard to make the opening day roster. But, he hasn't pitched yet in Triple-A, so with 5 starting pitchers I like, we'll have him start the year with AAA Orlando.

The final Offseason Center WAR leaderboard rates us at +6.1 WAR added, fifth highest of any team in the league and highest in the AL. We rank behind only Philadelphia, San Francisco, Chicago Blazers, and Syracuse in that metric. The other teams in our division were #12 Charlotte, #31 Miami, #45 Tampa, and #54 Atlanta.

Speaking of which, the preseason predictions like us, projecting us for the second-highest record in the Atlantic League, behind only Nashville and level with Cleveland. The overall predictions are here:



I'd be pretty happy if this were a playoff team - I do think we will finish above .500, but I don't think I was thinking this rosily. I've never noticed this before, but the projected win and loss totals do not properly add up? The teams are projected for a combined record of 4877-4843.

Final cuts were a bit stricter than usual - this team had so many unusable outfielders out of options. We had to waive five players: outfielders Alonso Gaitan, Max Kepler, and Sandro Fabian, and relievers Alejandro Requena and Jose Torres. The final composition of the roster is:

2026 Anchors Opening Day roster



Rotation
RHP Justin Dunn
RHP Cal Quantrill
RHP Trey Killian
RHP Hunter Greene
RHP Chris Huffman

Bullpen
RHP Nate Pearson - closer
RHP Josh Winckowski - 8th inning
LHP Marco Ramirez - lefty specialist
LHP Michael Gunn
LHP Hunter York - long man
RHP Tommy Doyle - no special role, but a Rule 5 pick
RHP Dannysmel Tavarez - opener on Huffman days
RHP Eury Ramos

Catchers/Infield
C Jim Arada
C Bo Naylor
1B Aledmys Diaz
1B Jake Cronenworth (primary DH)
2B/3B Ramon Urias
SS Nicky Lopez
3B Coby Mayo
IF Sergio Alcantara
IF Shay Whitcomb

Outfield
LF Duke Ellis
LF Jean Ramirez
CF Tony Kemp
RF Ronald Acuña Jr.

Injured List
#77 LF Chris Lubanski


I think that gets us ready for Opening Day! Next time out, we begin the 2026 campaign with visits to New Orleans and Tampa, before returning to Jacksonville to start our home campaign against Miami.

[Ruwisc]

March 27-April 5, 2026

Aagh, I got all the way to the start of game 9 of this stretch and had a game crash. We were 4-4 at the time, so I won't feel too bad about whatever happens. But, we had also made a nice waiver pickup, so I hope we at least get access to that guy again.

If there's a start to the season that is going to test our mettle, it's this. We begin on the road against a returning playoff team, then face off against both of our Floridian rivals, at Tampa and then home for Miami.

March 27-29: Jacksonville Anchors (0-0) vs. New Orleans Crescents (0-0)
New Orleans won the AL wild card spot last season, and took out the top-seeded Cleveland Lakers before falling to Memphis in the ALCS. This year's team looks a little better, I would think? The preseason predictions didn't agree, placing them fourth in a tough AL Central.

Manager: Jared Sandberg (4th year)
Typical lineup:
CF JaCoby Jones - SS Nico Hoerner - 2B Jonathan Villar
LF LaMonte Wade Jr. - C William Contreras - RF Layne Meadows
DH Robbie Glendinning - 1B Mike McDade - 3B Edgardo Fermin

Before the game crash, I had actually acquired McDade in a trade (though we sent him straight to AAA). Tried to replicate it this time, but the AI New Orleans GM wouldn't go for it for some reason.

Game 1
Justin Dunn vs. Chad Kuhl
JAX: RF Acuna, 2B Urias, DH Cronenworth, 1B Diaz, SS Lopez, 3B Mayo, CF Kemp, C Arada, LF Ellis
NOC: CF Jones, SS Hoerner, 2B Villar, LF Wade, C Contreras, RF Meadows, DH Glendinning, 1B McDade, 3B Fermin

Both teams went 1-2-3 in the first, Dunn recording outs in his first inning in an Anchors uniform. Lopez would collect the first hit of our season with one out in the second, but Mayo hit into a double play. Things would not go so well for Dunn in inning 2 - Wade singled, and advanced to second when Kemp let the ball get by him in center field. Not that the error would matter, as Dunn walked the next three batters in succession, scoring the season's first run. The damage was limited from there, as McDade hit into a double play (scoring a run) and Dunn struck out Fermin to keep New Orleans at 2. Hoerner made it 3-0 in the 3rd when he singled, stole second, and scored on Wade's second hit of the day.

With Kuhl having faced the minimum through 3, we had the top of the order going in inning 4, and the second time around they found some things. Acuna doubled and was singled home by Urias, and Diaz hit our first home run of the year to tie the game. Dunn walked another two batters in the 4th but no harm done, except to his pitch count - in his Anchors debut, he does not finish the 5th inning despite allowing just the 3 runs. Things quieted down from there, though New Orleans was putting on much more pressure than we were despite the relatively even hit totals. Hunter York came on to pitch for us, and walked two more batters in the 7th inning, and Nate Pearson had to work around a two-on, one-out situation in the 9th. But after all that, we did scrape it to extra innings.

In the 10th, with Kemp the zombie runner at 2nd base, Bo Naylor came up to pinch hit for Arada and had a leadoff, RBI double, which set the tone for the extra frame. Two more RBI knocks would follow, Acuna scoring Naylor and Diaz scoring Acuna. Pearson, on for his second inning of work, got the first two batters to K and induced a flyout from Fermin to end the night.


000 300 000 3 . 6 8 1
021 000 000 0 . 3 7 0
W: Nate Pearson (1-0) L: Geremy Galindez (0-1)
PotG: LaMonte Wade Jr. - 3-3, 2B, 2 BB, RBI, R

Good job by the pitching staff to bend but not break. The Crescents left 13 men on base tonight to our 6.

Game 2
Cal Quantrill vs. David Price
JAX: RF Acuna, 2B Urias, DH Cronenworth, 1B Diaz, SS Lopez, 3B Mayo, CF Kemp, C Arada, LF Ellis
NOC: CF Jones, SS Hoerner, 2B Villar, LF Wade, C Contreras, RF Meadows, DH Glendinning, 1B McDade, 3B Fermin

Same lineups for both sides in Game 2. We got off to a hotter start, as Urias singled & after a fielder's choice, Diaz doubled home Cronenworth to score an early run. McDade countered with an RBI hit with two out in the 2nd inning, however, and RBIs from Jones (solo HR) and Wade (double) made it 3-1 in the third.

The pitching staff as a whole did not really have it today, letting New Orleans score in six consecutive innings. Quantrill exited in the 5th, picking up 6 runs, 5 earned, but the error was also made by him. We battled back valiantly in the middle innings, getting as close as 6-5 - Urias homered in the 5th, and three successive RBI singles by Arada, Ellis, and Acuna in the 6th made it interesting. Tommy Doyle's Anchors debut didn't go as planned either, as he allowed a pair of runs in the 6th inning, and Michael Gunn allowed one as well. Each team got another run in garbage time.


100 013 010 .. 6 11 1
012 123 10x . 10 14 0
W: David Price (1-0) L: Cal Quantrill (0-1)
PotG: LaMonte Wade Jr. - 2-5, 2B, HR(1), 3 RBI

Let's flush today and try to win the series on Sunday.

Game 3
Trey Killian vs. Julio Robaina
JAX: RF Acuna, SS Lopez, 2B Urias, 1B Diaz, DH Cronenworth, 3B Mayo, CF Kemp, C Arada, LF Ellis
NOC: CF Jones, SS Hoerner, 2B Villar, LF Wade, C Contreras, RF Meadows, DH Glendinning, 1B McDade, 3B Fermin

Only a slightly different lineup today against the lefty Robaina. Killian stranded three runners in the first two innings, and then ran into real trouble in the 3rd. After a walk and single put runners on first and second with two out, Trey walked LaMonte Wade on four pitches to load em up, and then plunked Contreras to bring home a run. Meadows followed with a two-run single and it was 3-0.

We had almost nothing against Robaina today. Acuna got our first hit, a 3rd-inning single, and he did walk Diaz and hit Cronenworth with a pitch, but entering the 7th inning we had just the one hit. Diaz got into one leading off the 7th, his second home run of the series, and Cronenworth followed with a hit but was left stranded. Killian exited at that point, meeting just the bare minimum definition for a quality start and letting Gunn take over. Robaina was done after the 7th inning, but we couldn't crack the bullpen either. Two walks against Galindez in the 9th brought the go-ahead run to the plate, but he got Mayo to fly to right to win the series for New Orleans.


000 000 100 . 1 3 0
003 000 00x . 3 6 0
W: Julio Robaina (1-0) L: Trey Killian (0-1) S: Geremy Galindez (1)
PotG: Julio Robaina - 7 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 4 K, 1 BB

What's worse, I was not able to successfully claim CF Guillermo Heredia off waivers this time - he was waived by Oakland, but Toronto got him first.

March 30-April 1: Jacksonville Anchors (1-2) vs. Tampa Grovers (3-0)
Tampa swept their opening series vs. Charlotte, winning three close games at the Trop. They're the only team in our division that won their opening series, which I suppose is pretty much how last year went too.

Manager: Travis Quesada (9th year)
Typical lineup:
2B Luis Rengifo - RF Jarren Duran - C Adley Rutschman
SS Trevor Story - 3B Brayan Rocchio - 1B Joe Panik
LF Julio Morban - DH Steven Kwan - CF Gerardo Parra

Game 1
Hunter Greene vs. Shane Dawson
JAX: RF Acuna, SS Lopez, 2B Urias, 1B Diaz, DH Cronenworth, 3B Mayo, CF Kemp, C Arada, LF Ellis
TAM: 2B Rengifo, RF Duran, C Rutschman, SS Story, 3B Rocchio, 1B Panik, LF Morban, DH Kwan, CF Parra

Same lefty lineup as yesterday vs. Dawson. An auspicious beginning for Greene, allowing Rengifo to hit a leadoff homer - would that foreshadow a poor outing? Yes, kinda. Another solo homer was hit by Gerardo Parra in the third, and another-another from Panik in the 4th, with Kwan adding an RBI double after Morban singled. We had at least one hit in each of the first four innings, and had three hits in the 5th but managed not to score anyway, when Acuna was thrown out at the plate by Parra.

Greene finally met his maker in the fifth inning with two more runs crossing the plate on a double by Panik that made it 6-0. It was only then that we actually got a little bit off Dawson, when Cronenworth hit his first homer of the year leading off the sixth. That was the last real action of the game - we managed just one baserunner the last three innings, with Joe Wieland one out short of picking up a sterling three-inning save.


000 001 000 . 1 11 1
101 220 00x . 6 .7 0
W: Shane Dawson (1-0) L: Hunter Greene (0-1)
PotG: Joe Panik - 2-3, 2B, HR(1), 3 RBI


Game 2
Chris Huffman vs. Daniel Gossett
JAX: RF Acuna, 2B Urias, DH Cronenworth, 1B Diaz, SS Lopez, 3B Mayo, CF Kemp, C Arada, LF Ellis
TAM: 2B Rengifo, CF Duran, C Rutschman, SS Story, 3B Rocchio, 1B Panik, LF Morban, RF Hernandez, DH Kwan

Huffman will normally have Dannysmel Tavarez serve as his opener, but Tavarez pitched 2.2 innings last night so Chris is flying the plane.

This time it was Acuna that hit the leadoff home run, his first in an Anchors uniform. Cronenworth followed him around the bases as well with his second, giving Huff an easy 2-run lead. For Chris' part, he worked around lone hits in each of the first three innings. A first-and-third, no-out situation for us in the 4th fizzled quickly when Lopez hit into a double play, but that at least allowed Cronenworth to score for the second time in the game. Good timing too, as the Grovers used a walk, two hits, and an RBI groundout to get a pair and pull within 1 run.

A quick two-out rally garnered us an insurance run in the 5th, when Ellis doubled and Acuna smacked a liner into right to score him, and Lopez found another run when he homered with two out in the sixth inning, his first of the season. Tampa got one back in their half, though it could have been worse - a quick throw from Urias playing in was enough to nab Rutschman trying to score.

In the 7th, we got our exclamation point. Acuna got hold of a pitch from Tampa's Dylan File and served it out to left-center for his second home run of the night, a two-run shot, and though Tampa would threaten in the 7th, and bring the tying run to the plate in the 9th inning with the bases loaded, Pearson eventually came in and got Rutschman to fly out and end the game.


200 111 200 . 7 11 0
000 201 000 . 3 10 1
W: Chris Huffman (1-0) L: Daniel Gossett (0-1) S: Nate Pearson (1)
PotG: Ronald Acuna Jr. - 3-5, 2 HR(2), 4 RBI

We finally deal Tampa their first loss - they had been 4-0. There's already only one unbeaten team left, the defending champs in Austin, who are 4-0 with the benefit of an off day.

Acuna was the #3 star of the night, behind equally good performances by Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Bryce Harper.

Game 3
Justin Dunn (0-0, 5.79) vs. Jonathan Pettibone (0-0, 0.00)
JAX: RF Acuna, 2B Urias, DH Cronenworth, 1B Diaz, SS Lopez, 3B Mayo, CF Kemp, C Arada, LF Ramirez
TAM: 2B Rengifo, RF Duran, SS Story, 1B Panik, 3B Rocchio, DH Kwan, LF Hernandez, CF Parra, C Okey

The Tampa lineup does look noticeably thinner when Rutschman sits, though I'm posting this before the game so who knows what they'll do to Dunn. Josue Figueroa will actually toe the rubber first for Tampa, as Pettibone's opener.

Neither team had a baserunner until Lopez reached on an error by his counterpart Rengifo, and that forced Figueroa out and Pettibone in. I'm leaving my insult from above in, because naturally the first run came when backup catcher Chris Okey snuck a ball inside the left foul pole to give Tampa a 1-0 lead in their third. From there things opened up a bit. A 2-run double by Rocchio extended the lead, and he went to third on the throw home allowing another run on Kwan's sac fly. We were up to the task of undoing that inning, at least - Urias hit a sac fly in the 5th with one out, and Cronenworth hit Pettibone's next pitch for a long homer, his 3rd, and we were back within a run at least. From the bottom of the 5th to bottom of the 7th, there was a total of 1 baserunner, and he was caught stealing (Panik, thrown out by Arada). So we entered the final innings trailing 4-3.

With Pettibone still going in the 8th, the beneficiary of the opener break, Cronenworth stroked a one out single into short left. Diaz drew a 5-pitch walk, and suddenly, there was a whole rally going. Lopez's ground ball juuust found its way through the middle, and all runners advanced when Parra's throw was too late to get Crone, tie game! Pitching change now, and Antonio Santos provided more of the same (good for us). Mayo hit one into the gap, scoring Diaz, and it took a great defensive play by Teoscar Hernandez (those words appearing in the same order for the first time ever) to get Lopez at the plate. Not to be outdone, Kemp hit one down the line that scored Mayo, and we had turned our deficit into a two-run lead. Good thing too, as Doyle allowed Duran to hit a solo homer in the 8th inning. That was it though: Pearson did walk a pinch-hitting Rutschman, but allowed him to go no further in the 9th.


000 030 030 . 6 10 0
001 300 010 . 5 .5 1
W: Eury Ramos (1-0) L: Jonathan Pettibone (0-1) S: Nate Pearson (2)
PotG: Jake Cronenworth - 2-4, HR(3), 2 RBI, 2 R

Great series win in my book. That caps a .500 road trip as we head back to Jacksonville for the home opener!

On Monday, the draft pool was revealed. We're picking #2 thanks to the lottery balls, so I spent some time scrutinizing the top guys. The #1-ranked player by OSA is last year's #2 pick, OF Wilfredo Ledesma from Puerto Rico, who failed to sign with Hartford. The official mock draft has us taking St. John's lefty starter Louie Hernandez, which looks like a good pick - I'll have to look closer but I'd be happy taking him.

April 2-5: Miami Waves (3-3) vs. Jacksonville Anchors (3-3)
The Waves have a similar pattern to us thus far, losing their first series vs. Columbus but then taking two of three from Atlanta. Despite being .500, they have a -11 run differential so far - their week has included three close wins and two blowout losses.

Manager: Christopher Blackwood (2nd year)
Typical lineup:
RF Alexander Palma - CF Jake Marisnick - LF Tyler O'Neill
3B Armando Alvarez - C Reed Webster - 2B Starlin Castro
1B Carlos Asuaje - DH Jhonny Pereda - SS Thad Hinman

Game 1
George Kirby (0-1, 13.50) vs. Cal Quantrill (0-1, 10.38)
MIA: RF Palma, CF Marisnick, LF O'Neill, 3B Alvarez, C Webster, 2B Castro, 1B Asuaje, DH Pereda, SS Hinman
JAX: RF Acuna, 2B Urias, DH Cronenworth, 1B Diaz, SS Lopez, 3B Mayo, CF Kemp, LF Ellis, C Naylor

No baserunners until the bottom of the 2nd, when Kirby walked Diaz on four pitches. Lopez walked too, and Mayo hit a ball toward Hinman that was booted. When Kemp grounded into a double play, we had scored our first run without a hit. We could score them with hits too, as Ellis showed with a single that made it 2-0. Quantrill was rolling nicely compared to in New Orleans, not allowing a hit until the 5th inning and not letting Mayo's error damage him. By the bottom of the 6th, we still just had one hit (Ellis) despite leading 2-0. But we got a pair of two-run homers in that frame, Cronenworth's 4th and Mayo's 1st, to break it open. That seemed to resign everyone to the result - Cal finished off a strong outing by pitching into the eighth, and in the end he and Hunter York combined on a three-hitter. Great way to start the home campaign!


000 000 000 . 0 3 1
020 004 00x . 6 4 1
W: Cal Quantrill (1-1) L: George Kirby (0-2)
PotG: Cal Quantrill - 7.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 7 K, 1 BB

On Friday, we activated OF Chris Lubanski from the IL, and optioned OF Jean Ramirez to AAA Orlando.

Game 2
Bobby Brunt (1-0, 0.00) vs. Trey Killian (0-1, 4.50)
MIA: RF Palma, SS Castro, LF O'Neill, 2B Gelof, C Webster, DH Pereda, 1B Asuaje, CF Williams, 3B Hinman
JAX: RF Acuna, 2B Urias, DH Cronenworth, 1B Diaz, SS Lopez, 3B Mayo, CF Kemp, C Arada, LF Ellis

We got off to another good start, taking an early lead on an RBI double from Cronenworth. Gelof injured himself legging out his infield hit to start the second, requiring Hinman and Castro to slide over on the infield to accomodate 3B Armando Alvarez, who was supposed to have the day off. Alvarez would come around to score, along with Webster, on a two-run hit by Jett Williams that gave Miami the lead, and Hinman extends it with a sac fly.

After a few slow innings, we would tie the game in the 5th on RBIs from Urias and Cronenworth. We would have scored one more if not for Urias getting himself thrown out while trying to advance to second on his own hit. Killian's pitch count got up fast, and he would only go 5 1/3, but not a bad 5 1/3. It would take us five relievers to get through the ninth inning, which was especially bad news because this game went to extra innings.

Pearson got a couple of key strikeouts in the 10th to avoid scoring the zombie runner, but we couldn't capitalize, leaving the bases loaded; York got them in order 1-2-3, but Miami's pitchers did the same after walking Lubanski intentionally in his season debut; in the 12th inning, it was an intentional walk in either direction but no more. We started with the same strategy in the 13th, but finally got burned for it. Walking O'Neill brought up Alvarez, who doubled, and Pereda would drive both of them in to put up a 3-spot. We finally managed to score one of our own automatic runners in our 13th, but with runners on first and second, Chambuco retired both Naylor and Ellis to ice the game.


030 000 000 000 3 . 6 .9 0
100 020 000 000 1 . 4 13 0
W: Davis Sharpe (1-0) L: Hunter York (0-1) S: Jose Chambuco (3)
PotG: Trey Killian - 5.1 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 6 K, 2 BB

Game 3
Vance Worley (0-0, 0.00) vs. Hunter Greene (0-1, 7.71)
MIA: CF Marisnick, 2B Gelof, C Webster, DH Pereda, 1B Asuaje, RF DeLuca, LF Kim, SS Williams, 3B Hinman
JAX: LF Lubanski, 1B Diaz, RF Acuna, DH Cronenworth, 3B Mayo, CF Ellis, 2B Whitcomb, SS Alcantara, C Arada

Greene had a tough first game, and looked shaky in the first, but after leaving runners on the corners in the first he seemed to settle in. Our order set the tone by hitting back-to-back home runs for the first time this year, coming from Diaz and Acuna. Starting with the last batter of the first, Greene would retire 11 straight Waves, and didn't allow another hit until the 6th. Shay Whitcomb recorded his first RBI of the season in the 5th inning, driving Mayo around, and Acuna extended the lead further with his second home run of the game and 4th so far this season in the 7th.

Eury Ramos allowed three Waves to reach in the 9th, breaking the shutout, but at least we didn't have to use Winckowski or Pearson today.


000 000 001 . 1 .5 3
200 010 10x . 4 15 0
W: Hunter Greene (1-1) L: Vance Worley (0-1)
PotG: Hunter Greene - 6.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 9 K, 2 BB

Acuna had three extra base hits in the game, so it's a confounding choice for PotG despite Greene's 9 K.

Game 4
Grayson Rodriguez (0-1, 8.44) vs. Chris Huffman (1-0, 4.26)
MIA: RF Palma, CF Marisnick, LF O'Neill, 3B Alvarez, DH Gelof, 2B Castro, C Pereda, 1B Kim, SS Hinman
JAX: LF Lubanski, 2B Urias, SS Lopez, 1B Diaz, DH Cronenworth, CF Kemp, RF Ellis, 3B Alcantara, C Naylor

This game was weird early. O'Neill's 2-run homer gave Miami an early lead off of the opener Tavarez, while Diaz countered with one of his own for Jacksonville. Duke Ellis hit his first homer of the year in the second inning, while O'Neill went yard again, this time off Huffman and a 3-run shot, to give the Waves the lead back. When O'Neill came up again in the 4th, he didn't homer, but he almost did, hitting an RBI double deep off the wall in right center. But we came right back - Sergio Alcantara picked up his first two RBI of the year with a bases-loaded double, and then Kemp scored on a wild pitch to tie the game at 6.

Unfortunately, the Waves took the lead right back on a Gelof home run in the 5th, and trying to outdo O'Neill, Gelof cracked another one in the 6th off of Tommy Doyle, this time a 3-run shot. Urias had a two-run single in the next half inning to halve the lead, but Tyler O'Neill came up one more time and beat out an infield hit to post his 4th RBI knock of the game. One more run scored on a wild pitch, and we didn't muster much after that.


203 113 200 . 12 14 0
210 302 000 . .8 .7 0
W: Davis Sharpe (2-0) L: Chris Huffman (1-1)
PotG: Tyler O'Neill - 4-6, 2B, 2 HR(3), 7 RBI

So, Miami earns a split, and we finish this first week-plus of games on a split as well, 5-5.

Elsewhere:

March 28: Already out for the season with Tommy John surgery, Miami SP Alex Krumroy suffers a setback that will cost him the first half of the 2027 season as well. Krumroy is a fictional player, Miami's 1st-round pick in 2024 (the first year that I added fictional players).
March 29: Pines ace Suk-min Schmidt (which, what a name for a fictional player) is done for the year. He exited Minnesota's opening day loss to Dallas with a shoulder injury, which turned out to be a torn rotator cuff.
March 29: SP Greg Smith, who in our world won a total of 8 games between the 2008 A's and 2010 Rockies, picked up his 250th win in this afternoon's 3-0 win for the Javelinas at Citi Field against the Burros. Smith honestly is probably headed for the Hall of Fame. He is one of the most dependable pitchers of all time, making over 30 starts in every season of his career, which dates back to 2006!
March 29: Another milestone on this Sunday afternoon, as Joey Gallo hit his 400th career home run in an 11-1 loss to the Silver Sox.
March 29: One more - Chris Davis picked up his 2,500th career hit in a win over Dallas, a 2-run single in the 5th inning as part of a 4-RBI day.
April 1: Cherries 2B Yoan Moncada brought his hit streak to 25 games dating back to last season. This is already longer than any streak that was ended in 2025 - Fernando Tatis Jr. of the Scorpions got a 29-gamer in late 2024. The all-time record in this alt-history, for what it's worth, is the 49-game hit streak of Hall-of-Fame Washington Grays 1B Mickey Vernon in 1944, the year he won his first batting title. Moncada's streak would be snapped on Friday at 26 games, however.
April 2: Acorns 3B Jake Lamb hit his 400th career home run in a 7-6 loss to the Chicago Blazers.
April 3: Centurions SS Ha-Seong Kim hit for the cycle in dramatic fashion in Cincinnati's 6-4 win over Pittsburgh. He drove in 5 of the 6 runs, finishing his cycle with a bases-clearing double in the 8th inning that gave the Cents the lead.
April 3: The day after his team allowed Lamb's 400th homer, Blazers LF Alex Gordon hits his 400th home run in a loss to the LA Sabers.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AL Standings:


Anchors' player of the week(s): Ronald Acuna Jr. - 16-42, 3 2B, 4 HR, 9 RBI, 1.133 OPS.

Players of the week:

NL: Trea Turner - 11-24, 2 HR, 3 RBI
AL: Devon Travis - 13-26, 5 HR, 13 RBI, 9 R
CL: Randy Arozarena - 10-19, 4 HR, 11 RBI, 6 R
WL: Julio Rodriguez - 12-28, 2 HR, 3 2B, 9 RBI, 8 R

Power rankings: 32nd of 60. Makes sense with a perfectly .500 record.

Next week: after our first off day of the season, we welcome a return visit from the New Orleans Crescents, then have our first interleague trip of the season as we head to Milwaukee.

[Ruwisc]

April 6-12, 2026

One thing I forgot to mention last week: on Tuesday, we traded OF Max Kepler to New Orleans for IF Edgardo Fermin, who had started all three games of the opening series. Here are the Crescents again, with a familiar face:

April 7-9: New Orleans Crescents (4-5) vs. Jacksonville Anchors (5-5)

This is already our final matchup with New Orleans. After beating us two of three at their place, they lost their two intervening series, at home to Charlotte and at Detroit. After they play us for the second and final time, they'll go home and do the same with Detroit. (We won't see Shohei Ohtani's Spark Plugs until just before the All-Star break.)

Manager: Jared Sandberg (4th year)
Typical lineup:
CF Robert Gonzalez - SS Nico Hoerner - 2B Jonathan Villar
LF LaMonte Wade Jr. - C William Contreras - RF Layne Meadows
3B Robbie Glendinning - 1B Mike McDade - DH Max Kepler

Game 1
Chad Kuhl (0-1, 1.98) vs. Justin Dunn (0-0, 6.30)
NOC: LF Gonzalez, SS Hoerner, 2B Villar, DH Wade, C Contreras, RF Meadows, 3B Glendinning, CF Jones, 1B Mann
JAX: LF Lubanski, 2B Urias, SS Lopez, 1B Diaz, DH Cronenworth, RF Acuna, CF Kemp, 3B Mayo, C Arada

Same pitching matchup as on opening day in New Orleans, but this time with us in our pinstripes and the Crescents in their beautiful cornflower blues. The two #7 hitters, Glendinning and Kemp, traded solo shots in the 2nd inning. Otherwise, the early story was missed opportunities - Dunn walked four batters in the first three innings, while Kuhl was scattering Anchor hits. Devin Mann, making his first start of the year, hit a double off the wall over Kemp's head to score Meadows and break the tie, as Kuhl worked around two hits by Cronenworth in the middle innings, and was helped a bit by eager Anchor bats giving him a 4-pitch seventh inning.

Dunn gave up one more solo homer, to William Contreras, in the 6th, and faced two more batters but that was it for him. 5 1/3 innings, 3 runs, and leaving in line for an L. Not worse than his first two starts, mind, but not a great start. Contreras added a sac fly later on, and Villar hit his first homer against Doyle in the 9th. Mayo had a sac fly in the 9th, but all that did was give Geremy Galindez credit for a save.


010 101 101 . 5 8 1
010 000 001 . 2 8 0
W: Chad Kuhl (1-1) L: Justin Dunn (0-1) S: Geremy Galindez (3)
PotG: Robbie Glendinning - 3-3, HR(1), BB

I needed a second trade to properly get rid of Kepler, since the former Crescent Fermin would not accept an assignment to the minors either. So we've made another trade with a team we played recently, sending Fermin to Miami for LHP Jakob Hernandez. Hernandez pitched an inning against us in our 4-1 win last Saturday, and his most useful asset is his greater than zero option years. Between the two deals, we also saved about $5 million.

Game 2
Christian James (1-0, 0.00) vs. Cal Quantrill (1-1, 3.86)
NOC: CF Gonzalez, SS Hoerner, 2B Villar, LF Wade, C Contreras, RF Meadows, 3B Glendinning, 1B McDade, DH Kepler
JAX: LF Lubanski, 2B Urias, SS Lopez, 1B Diaz, DH Cronenworth, RF Acuna, CF Kemp, 3B Mayo, C Arada

We didn't see James last time out - this is just his second start. The game properly began when Cronenworth hit the first pitch of the second inning for a home run, and then Acuna followed him by hitting one out to the batter's eye. Back to back bombs, and the 5th of the season for both of them. Diaz added a 2-run double in the 3rd, went to third base on the throw, and scored on Crone's groundout to make it 5-0. Quantrill showed cracks in the 4th inning, allowing two hits which enabled Villar to scamper home on a wild pitch. While we added on a run on a Lopez double, New Orleans tallied 4 hits in the 6th inning, which would be Quantrill's last, and scored 3 runs on them. Suddenly, it was a fairly close game.

But, the bullpen shut it down. The combination of Marco Ramirez, Eury Ramos, and Nate Pearson threw three perfect innings to close down a Jacksonville win.


000 103 000 . 4 .7 0
023 010 01x . 7 11 0
W: Cal Quantrill (2-1) L: Christian James (1-1) S: Nate Pearson (3)
PotG: Jake Cronenworth - 2-4, HR(5), 3 RBI

Game 3
David Price (1-0, 4.09) vs. Trey Killian (0-1, 4.76)
NOC: CF Jones, SS Hoerner, 2B Villar, LF Wade, C Contreras, RF Meadows, 3B Glendinning, 1B McDade, DH Kepler
JAX: LF Lubanski, 2B Urias, SS Lopez, 1B Diaz, DH Cronenworth, RF Acuna, CF Kemp, 3B Mayo, C Arada

(whoops, I accidentally originally cut this report short somehow.)

Important for Trey to be efficient in this game to try to keep his pitch count at a reasonable rate, and he did that to start, working around hits by Contreras and Gonzalez early on. The scoring began the second time through the order, as Lubanski went deep for his first of the year! New Orleans hit right back with an RBI groundout from Contreras, but Diaz then pushed on over the wall to extend the cushion. The Crescents came back to tie us a few times, in fact. I remember the first baseball video games I had as a kid was one of EA's Triple Play series, I think 2001, for our family's Windows XP computer. At some point, I messed with the settings & cheat codes in just the wrong way that the game had an extreme "rubberbanding" effect in my games; any time my team went ahead, the opponent would lead off the next inning with exactly as many solo home runs as they needed to tie the game, then go back to normal difficulty once it was tied. Maybe I was a bad pitcher as a preteen nerd...

Anyway, after Lubanski extended the lead with a sac fly to 3-1, the Crescents immediately responded with a two-run shot from Layne Meadows; when Acuna drove Lopez around with a hit to go up 4-3, New Orleans got a walk and a double to tie it back up off of Winckowski. (Killian was pretty efficient in the game after all; his 7 innings in 93 pitches, not too bad.) We had two hits in the 8th and one in the 9th, but not enough to avoid extra innings.

With Kepler the automatic runner for New Orleans, JaCoby Jones executed a sac bunt, but in Pearson's second inning of work he got out of it with a K and a ground ball. Nothing doing in our half of the inning, though, with Urias stranded at third as well. Pearson went out for a 3rd inning, but after getting two out (and an intentional walk) he was starting to get gassed. York came in and finished the 11th. It was his win, then, when Alcantara pinch-hit for Whitcomb (who had pinch-run for Arada) and drove a ball up the middle to score Acuna and walk it off.



000 102 010 00 . 4 .7 0
001 111 000 01 . 5 11 0
W: Hunter York (1-1) L: Charlie Furbush (0-1)
PotG: Trey Killian - 7 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 10 K, 1 BB

WIth that, we earn a split of the season series against the Crescents - that works for me. I'm trying to remind myself that this team did only win 68 games last season.

Now let's head back out on the road - time for some interleague action. This'll be a short trip, just 5 games as we go to Milwaukee first, then Boston.

April 10-12: Jacksonville Anchors (7-6) vs. Milwaukee Coopers (6-6)
Being a Central League team, we only play Milwaukee once every three years, so let's drink in the sights and sounds. The reverse of Miami last week, the Coopers are a .500 team so far, but with a +19 run differential in 12 games. They are returning home for just their second home series of the season, having just wrapped a three-series road trip through Texas (Austin, Dallas, El Paso).

Manager: Edison Payro (2nd year)
Typical lineup:
CF Ji-hwan Bae - DH Lourdes Gurriel Jr. - 3B Alec Bohm
SS Ezequiel Tovar - LF Nails Ragland - 1B Dash Winningham
RF Ruben Cardenas - C Jesus Montero - 2B Orlando Arcia

Game 1
Hunter Greene (1-1, 3.27) vs. Newman Micele (0-0, 9.00)
JAX: LF Lubanski, 2B Urias, SS Lopez, 1B Diaz, DH Cronenworth, RF Acuna, CF Kemp, 3B Mayo, C Arada
MIL: CF Bae, DH Gurriel, 3B Bohm, SS Tovar, RF Cardenas, 1B Winningham, LF Duong, C Montero, 2B Arcia

Micele is fictional, Milwaukee's 2nd round pick in 2024 who has been really rushed to the majors in my opinion. He made his major league debut last Saturday in Dallas, in a wild game that Milwaukee ended up winning 14-11. We had four singles off of him in the 1st inning, culminating in a two-out, two-run hit for Acuna. But when Milwaukee's 6th-place hitter came up with two out, he did Ronald one better - with one run already in Winningham smashed a 3-run homer, right out to about where that truck used to sit in right-center in Milwaukee. Urias got one back in our second, driving Mayo around after he'd reached on an error by Bohm, but the Coopers again doubled our output, Gurriel hitting his 4th homer with Montero on to make it 6-3. Needing 69 pitches to finish two innings, our manager Agado gave Greene the hook after that and let Hunter York go for a stretch.

It was 6-3 for quite a while. We weren't helped by Micele's ability to get us to ground into double plays - that happened in the 3rd and in the 5th. York stabilized for Jacksonville as well - even though there were five hits and an error over his three innings, he didn't allow any runs. Arada, for his part, reached on an error to start the 7th against reliever Rosmel Purroy. Two outs later, Lopez singled and Diaz homered, tying the game at 6 and tying him for the early AL lead in home runs, also at 6. We didn't threaten much in the 8th or 9th. With Pearson having thrown 2 2/3 innings yesterday, Eury Ramos was tabbed for the 9th in a tie game, and it didn't go well. With one on, one out, Gurriel smashed his second home run of the night to walk it off.


210 000 300 . 6 12 1
420 000 002 . 8 14 2
W: Horacio Andujar (1-0) L: Eury Ramos (1-1)
PotG: Lourdes Gurriel Jr. - 4-5, 2 HR(5), 4 RBI, 3 R

Bullpen was good, despite Ramos giving up the walkoff. Greene seems to be prone to these blowup starts - in the crash version of week 1, he gave up 9 runs in 2+ innings to Miami. Can I put "consistency" in the dev lab?

Game 2
Chris Huffman (1-1, 6.97) vs. Jeff Prado (0-1, 7.20)
JAX: LF Lubanski, 2B Urias, SS Lopez, 1B Diaz, DH Cronenworth, RF Acuna, CF Kemp, 3B Mayo, C Arada
MIL: CF Bae, DH Gurriel, 3B Bohm, SS Tovar, LF Ragland, 1B Winningham, RF Cardenas, C Montero, 2B Arcia

One thing of note - it's quite cold this time of year in Milwaukee. Game time temps are below 50 for all three games this weekend. I've never looked into this with OOTP - does temperature actually affect the game? We might expect to see low offensive outputs this early in the season, and heating up in August and beyond.

Dannysmel Tavarez started as the opener again, and despite allowing two hits and a stolen base, he got through two clean innings, thanks in part to one double play and the second inning ending on a deep fly ball that Cardenas just barely didn't get enough of. In between those two innings, we had taken the lead on a Cronenworth homer, and when his spot came around again in the next inning he put a two-run double over Ragland's head in left. Huffman came in to begin his outing in the 3rd inning and promptly allowed a homer to the #9 hitter Arcia, and Milwaukee briefly tied the game in the 4th on a pair of RBI singles from Winningham and Montero. Prado could just not stop Jake Cronenworth, though! Crone had his third extra-base hit of the afternoon in the 5th, driving Diaz home from first with a double off the centerfield wall, and Acuna finally provided an RBI from the rest of the lineup by getting Cronenworth around.

The Coopers got back within one on a sac fly from Winningham that scored Tovar, but against Rafael De Paula in the 7th the order went walk, single, wild pitch to score Cronenworth, then two more singles, Mayo driving in Acuna for a 3-run lead. That's where we would eventually end up. Arcia hit a second solo homer in the 7th inning, which ended Huffman's night after 4 1/3 innings, and Cronenworth would add a fourth RBI hit in the 8th, this time a single which scored Urias. Pearson closed it down to get one of the less stressful saves he'll have this year.


012 020 210 . 8 16 0
001 201 100 . 5 .9 1
W: Chris Huffman (2-1) L: Jeff Prado (0-2) S: Nate Pearson (4)
PotG: Jake Cronenworth - 4-4, 2 2B, HR(6), 5 RBI, 3 R, BB

Our linescore by inning was pleasingly palindromic. You don't see that too often with that few zeroes.

Cronenworth was the #1 star of the day on a busy Saturday, even surpassing the game score of Brooklyn's Khalil Lee, who had 3 HR against Hartford.

Game 3
Justin Dunn (0-1, 5.87) vs. Micah Szymanski (1-1, 4.96)
JAX: LF Lubanski, 2B Urias, SS Lopez, 1B Diaz, DH Cronenworth, RF Acuna, CF Kemp, 3B Mayo, C Naylor
MIL: CF Bae, DH Gurriel, 3B Bohm, SS Tovar, LF Ragland, 1B Winningham, RF Cardenas, C Montero, 2B Arcia

Both pitchers started quickly, getting through two innings facing the minimum with the help of a double play on both sides. The start of the offensive day came off the bat of Coby Mayo, hitting his second homer of the young season, and we doubled that lead in the 4th on an RBI groundout from Diaz. Dunn never got all that comfortable, allowing hits in six of his eight innings, but hey he pitched into the 8th. He was fairly efficient in doing so, and the only guy who got too far was when Ruben Cardenas homered in the 5th inning. Szymanski would go even further despite trailing - he pitched into the 9th inning, only needing 93 pitches to get 8 1/3 innings down and leaving with only a man on first. Too bad for him that reliever Sam Bragg would allow that runner to come around and then some. Nicky Lopez beat out a would-be inning-ending double play, giving Aledmys Diaz the turn he needed to smack his 300th major league home run to make the scoreline insurmountable. With no more save situation, Tommy Doyle counted it up 1-2-3.


001 100 003 . 5 7 0
000 010 000 . 1 7 0
W: Justin Dunn (1-1) L: Micah Szymanski (1-2)
PotG: Justin Dunn - 7.2 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 8 K, 0 BB

Nice pair of series wins this week.

Elsewhere:

April 7: Cody Bellinger, the reigning Central League MVP, is likely done for the 2026 season with a broken kneecap. If he is able to return, it would only be if the Blazers could make a run to the playoffs without him - not likely.
April 10: On Friday, two of our minor league pitchers threw complete-game shutouts. At high-A Gainesville in the Florida State League, Riley Kinser blanked Ocala 3-0, and at A Lafayette in the Texas League, Carlos Concha threw a one-hitter against Huntsville.
April 12: On the same day as Diaz, Waves LF Tyler O'Neill hit his 300th home run as well, which tied the game in the 9th inning ahead of Zack Gelof's walkoff as they beat Nashville 4-3.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AL Standings:


Anchors' player of the week: DH Jake Cronenworth - 11-24, 3 2B, 2 HR, 8 RBI.

Players of the week:

NL: RF Nomar Mazara - 11-25, 6 HR, 13 RBI, 9 R
AL: RF Ronald Rightnowar - 9-17, 2 2B, 3 HR, 7 RBI
CL: C Austin Hedges - 6-14, 2 2B, 4 HR, 10 RBI
WL: 2B Gunnar Henderson - 14-21, 4 HR, 7 RBI

Hedges didn't start any of the games in our series, and only pinch hit twice, which is weird considering he had 4 home runs in their El Paso series.

Power rankings: 21st of 60.

Next week: it's a sparser week - we have two days off surrounding our two-game trip to Boston, then return home to face Columbus to start a stretch of 20 games in 20 days.

[Ruwisc]

April 13-19, 2026

On Monday, we finalized a contract extension with DH Jake Cronenworth, for 2 years, $9.4 million per year. I was surprised to see him only wanting two years, so we just went for it.

April 14-15: Jacksonville Anchors (9-7) vs. Boston Minutemen (6-9)
It's been a very frustrating start for the Minutemen, who have lost 5 of 6, including a sweep at the hands of their archrivals, the Highlanders, at Hilltop Park. They're on the tail end of a quick 5-game homestand at Fenway, having just hosted Montreal.

Manager: Vince Lachance (4th year)
Typical lineup:
RF Ian Happ - SS Wenceel Perez - LF Alek Thomas
CF Daulton Varsho - DH Matt Wieters - 2B Javier Baez
1B David Thompson - 3B Joey Orio - C Alex Isola

Miguel Rojas is expected to return from injury in time for Wednesday's game, while Travis Shaw will miss the series for Boston.

Game 1
Cal Quantrill (2-1, 4.58) vs. Nolan Stensgaard (2-1, 2.82)
JAX: LF Lubanski, 2B Urias, SS Lopez, 1B Diaz, DH Cronenworth, RF Acuna, CF Kemp, 3B Mayo, C Arada
BOS: RF Happ, SS Perez, LF Thomas, CF Varsho, DH Wieters, 2B Baez, 1B Thompson, 3B Orio, C Isola

Stensgaard is possibly already the best pitcher in the league just 36 starts into his big league career. Given that Paul Skenes didn't amount to much in this timeline, I have thought about renaming Stensgaard to give Skenes a presence in the league. That's how I think of him, anyway. He is fictional, and was just the #35 pick in the 2024 draft - normally a player this good this fast would never get as far as Boston in the draft with their consistent quality.

Our best chances against Stensgaard would come early. Diaz doubled to lead off the 2nd, but eventually was stranded at third base, and singles by Urias and Diaz in the 4th would give us runners at the corners and one out but Cronenworth was doubled up. In between those two opportunities, the game had gotten away from Quantrill. Javy Baez broke the ice with an RBI single in the bottom of the 2nd, which would have gone for two runs if Wieters hadn't gotten himself thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double. The third is where it really got away, where Thomas doubled home two runs with the bases loaded, Wieters added a sac fly, and Baez tripled... his RBI total on the night by hitting a home run. 6-0 Boston.

Stensgaard was nails after that, pretty much. We grounded into three double plays, which helped him be efficient. Baez tacked on another run with a groundout, and in a later inning he was doubled home by Isola. The only consolation was that we were able to prevent Stensgaard from shutting us out, when a leadoff double by Lubanski in the 9th was followed by two groundouts. He finished off his complete game on the next batter.


000 000 001 . 1 .6 0
015 010 01x . 8 12 0
W: Nolan Stensgaard (3-1) L: Cal Quantrill (2-2)
PotG: Nolan Stensgaard - CG, 6 H, 1 R, 9 K, 1 BB

Let's hope we don't face him again in September when the Minutemen come to Jacksonville.

Game 2
Trey Killian (0-1, 4.42) vs. Jen-Ho Tseng (0-2, 10.12)
JAX: LF Lubanski, 2B Urias, SS Lopez, 1B Diaz, DH Cronenworth, RF Acuna, CF Kemp, 3B Mayo, C Arada
BOS: RF Happ, SS Rojas, LF Thomas, CF Varsho, 2B Perez, 1B Thompson, DH Wieters, 3B Orio, C Isola

There we go, I'd much rather face Tseng, although it was Killian who buckled first, allowing Wenceel Perez to plug the gap for a two-run double. After Trey hit Miguel Rojas on the wrist (causing him to leave the game in his first game back from injury) Thomas hit a double to score the pinch-running Baez. Killian settled in from there, with the help of a couple double plays - he also stranded the bases loaded in the 5th inning. Ultimately, he was only able to go 5 1/3 innings, but it's not the disaster start it could have been.

Down 3-0 entering the 4th, Acuna got one back for us by splitting the speedy Thomas and Varsho in the outfield, winding up with an RBI triple to get us on the board. Tseng ended up having his best start of the year, pitching a very efficient 8 innings (85 pitches) with just the one run allowed. So we entered the 9th down 3-1, going up against Boston closer Eric Johnson. He got the first two men out, needing 7 pitches to retire Diaz but getting him and Cronenworth with no damage. But Acuna hit the first pitch for a two-out single, and when Johnson ran a 3-1 count against Kemp, he smashed a ball to right field that went over the short wall at Fenway and over the bullpen entirely, tying the game. Pearson got the Minutemen in order in the 9th, so we were off to extras again.

Johnson back out for the 10th, we were unable to advance the zombie runner Mayo any further than 3rd, thanks in part to a weak ground ball back to the pitcher hit by Lubanski, but Pearson held serve as well so further into the night we went. In the 11th, with runners on first and third and one out, Cronenworth hit a ball that in some parts of the field gets through for a hit, but was caught easily by Nick Maton, a defensive replacement at third base. Acuna popped out to end that threat, but again, Pearson came up big in the bottom of the 11th, intentionally walking Perez then getting Thompson to hit into a double play. Winckowski came in and ensured we would have a scoreless 12th as well, although Boston loaded the bases. Javier Baez, having entered the game when Miguel Rojas was hit by a pitch, left after being hit as well, with Andrew Benintendi now forced to play third base in the 13th, a position he has never played before.

In that 13th, we got the first run of extras as Lopez drove Lubanski around. I very briefly thought Benintendi was going to turn a triple play after that, as he got a ground ball from Diaz right near the bag, but it was a 5-4-3 double play instead. Nonetheless, we were held to one run. Still, that was enough for Winckowski, who went 1-2-3 in his second inning of work to grab a Jacksonville W!


000 100 002 000 1 . 4 9 1
201 000 000 000 0 . 3 7 0
W: Josh Winckowski (1-0) L: Duane Underwood Jr. (0-1)
PotG: Jen-Ho Tseng - 8 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 6 K, 0 BB

Feels like an undeserved split of this two-game set. How often do you hold a team scoreless for four extra innings nowadays?

April 17-19: Columbus Explorers (12-7) vs. Jacksonville Anchors (10-8)
Columbus is off to a strong start, currently just a half game behind Cincinnati in the North, but they are 4-5 across their last three series, having started particularly well. They have been a very strong hitting team to this point, scoring 109 runs in their 19 games so far, 2nd-most in the AL (again behind Cincinnati).

Manager: Ignacio Rodriguez (4th year)
Typical lineup:
CF Evan Carter - DH Sheedy Gitelman - 3B Reuben Winters
LF Kyle Schwarber - C Reese McGuire - 1B Colt Keith
RF Tyler Naquin - 2B Brendon Davis - SS Luther Sala

Game 1
German Marquez (1-2, 3.65) vs. Hunter Greene (1-1, 6.92)
COL: CF Carter, DH Gitelman, 3B Winters, LF Schwarber, C McGuire, 1B Keith, RF Naquin, 2B Davis, SS Sala
JAX: LF Lubanski, 2B Urias, SS Lopez, 1B Diaz, RF Acuna, DH Cronenworth, 3B Mayo, CF Kemp, C Arada

Marquez is, nominally, the Explorers' ace, and though he had picked up two losses so far his numbers seem fine. Sending Greene in vs. this potent offense feels dangerous... Naquin was the first to do damage, hitting a solo homer with two out in the 2nd inning, and Winters added an RBI knock the next time around. We were flailing against Marquez early, with Arada the first Anchor to reach base via a 3rd-inning walk. Both teams went in order in the 4th, and then we finally got our first hit of the night when Acuna led off the fifth inning with a base hit. He stole second, got to third when Kemp walked, and then scored on a hit by Arada along with Cronenworth. The rally was stifled by Kemp getting thrown out at third on that same play, but the game was tied entering the 6th.

Greene was done after 5 - no immense damage, good for him, but too high a pitch count. Marco Ramirez was the first out of the pen, and he had a rough go of it. He walked Keith, Naquin and Davis with one out, and pinch-hitter Jose Fermin singled to score Keith. We were a bit lucky that it was just one run, as Evan Carter hit a sharp ground ball that just happened to be right at Urias, which helped us get out of it. An RBI double by Kemp in the bottom of the 7th tied the game, but not for long: Winckowski gave up a pair in the 8th on Naquin's second homer of the night, and the combination of Tavarez and York allowed four more runs in the 9th. Kemp's RBI double for us was too little too late.


011 001 024 . 9 11 0
000 020 101 . 4 .6 0
W: Hayden Yuenger (2-0) L: Josh Winckowski (1-1) S: Howard Craig (1)
PotG: Tyler Naquin - 3-4, 2 HR(5), 3 RBI, BB

Naquin was the #2 star of the night.

Game 2
Kyle Gibson (0-0, 6.19) vs. Justin Dunn (1-1, 4.30)
COL: CF Carter, DH Gitelman, 3B Winters, LF Schwarber, C McGuire, 1B Keith, RF Naquin, 2B Davis, SS Sala
JAX: LF Lubanski, 2B Urias, SS Lopez, 1B Diaz, RF Acuna, DH Cronenworth, 3B Mayo, CF Kemp, C Arada

In this game 2, we definitely have the pitching advantage. Both teams were playing a bit shaky at first; Schwarber made an error in left field, which was countered by Lopez making one at short, and Mayo also made an error in the 4th inning that ultimately led to the game's first run, when Keith drove Winters around on a double. Acuna started a rally for us in the bottom of that same inning by singling with two out and stealing second. A sharp single by Cronenworth into left-center tied the game, and Mayo atoned for his error with his third home run, giving Dunn a two-run lead to work with.

Dunn ultimately allowed just three hits, all of which were doubles for some reason, in 7 1/3 innings. Lubanski, Urias, and Mayo all had further RBI hits in the late innings, and Michael Gunn retired all five batters he faced to finish off a clean win.


000 100 000 . 1 .3 1
000 300 21x . 6 10 2
W: Justin Dunn (2-1) L: Kyle Gibson (0-1)
PotG: Justin Dunn - 7.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 9 K, 3 BB

Shoutout as well to Coby Mayo, who despite his error that led to the lone run for the Explorers, had three extra-base hits in the game.

Game 3
Robert Dugger (1-1, 7.11) vs. Chris Huffman (2-1, 7.98)
COL: CF Carter, DH Gitelman, 3B Winters, LF Schwarber, C McGuire, 1B Keith, RF Naquin, 2B Fermin, SS Sala
JAX: LF Lubanski, 2B Urias, SS Lopez, 1B Diaz, RF Acuna, DH Cronenworth, 3B Mayo, CF Kemp, C Arada

With Tavarez as the opener, Columbus put together a two out rally with Winters drawing a walk, stealing second, and then scoring easily on Schwarber's double. We got off to an auspicious start when Lubanski had to be helped off the field following his leadoff double, though it looks like he'll avoid IL time; Diaz drove home the pinch-runner Duke Ellis to ease our minds on that front, & Urias would have an RBI triple in the 2nd inning. The Explorers were just as capable of stringing hits together as we were, and with Huffman now in the game, Winters tied the game in the 3rd with a hit, and Sala gave them the lead in the 4th.

The game looked like it might spiral away from us when Evan Carter's home run made it 5-2, but the see-saw swung right back our way again. With the benefit of an error on Fermin, Ellis hit his 2nd home run off of Jose Alvarado to get us within 1, and two baserunners later, Acuna tied the game with a single. Both bullpens did their jobs from there, with just one total hit in the final three innings, and we go back to extras for the 5th time already this year.

Nate Pearson continued his excellent record in extra-inning games (and excellent record in general), coaxing two shallow fly balls that Winters could not advance on, and a groundout to keep Columbus scoreless. Leading off the 10th for us, Arada hit a ball to right that Kemp didn't read properly, so wasn't able to score on the single; however, he could walk home when Urias also singled through the drawn-in infield, his fifth hit of the night. Anchors win!


101 102 000 0 . 5 .8 2
110 003 000 1 . 6 13 0
W: Nate Pearson (2-0) L: Seth Nordlin (0-1)
PotG: Ramon Urias - 5-6, 2B, 3B, 2 RBI, R

We're now 4-1 in extra innings, which fully accounts for the fact that we're 3 games over .500 as a whole. Nate Pearson now has 16 2/3 scoreless innings under his belt, the most of any pitcher with a 0.00 ERA in the majors.

Elsewhere:

April 13: Explorers LF Kyle Schwarber hit his 500th career home run in the 4th inning of Columbus' eventual 6-5 win over Louisville. I was slightly relieved to see this, since that meant it wouldn't happen against us on the weekend.
April 15: Forrest Outlaw isn't just a pseudonym for Robin Hood, he's also a promising young 3B for the Pilots, and he had a nice 5-5 day in a 13-10 win over the LA Palms in Anaheim. This was a bit shaky for Seattle, who led by as much as 12-0 and 13-1 in the game and watched it slowly slip away from them.
April 16: Grovers SP Jonathan Pettibone, who pitched against us a couple of weeks ago, is out for the season with a torn labrum. Pettibone was a minor league free agent who has bounced between several teams the past few years - Indy, Oakland, Philadelphia, and his original team the Palms.
April 17: At 40 years old, Tim Lincecum is still out there shoving it - or at least he was. After a reunion tour with his original team, the Violets, ended with him getting a World Series ring (despite being injured), he wasn't quite ready to hang them up and signed with Denver for this season. But, he also suffered a torn labrum in Tuesday's win over the Blazers, ending his season prematurely. Who knows if he'll try to return for 2027 - it's surprising enough that he made it this long.
April 18: SP Will McEachin, a prospect of ours pitching at AA Tallahassee, has also had his season ended by a torn labrum.
April 18: A momentous occasion, as Racers 1B Paul Goldschmidt recorded his 3000th hit, albeit in an 11-8 loss to Atlanta. The milestone single came in the bottom of the 5th inning, Goldy having homered in the previous inning for his 2999th hit. His 3001st hit later would also be a homer.
April 19: It really is pitcher injury season, as Suns SP Jose Berrios is also done for the year, and into next year as well, where he will be a free agent.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another winning week. Now we're in the midst of our stretch of 20 games in 20 days, with our next off day coming on May 7.

AL Standings:


Anchors' player of the week: closer Nate Pearson - 5 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 4 K/3 BB, 1-0

Players of the week:

NL: 3B Yoan Moncada - 9-19, 3 2B, 3 HR, 10 R
AL: SS Osvaldo Abreu - 13-21, 2 HR, 4 RBI
CL: SP Michael Wacha - 14.1 IP, 2 ER, 19 K/2 BB, 1-0
WL: 3B Alex Bregman - 12-22, 4 HR, 8 RBI, 9 R

Power rankings: 12th of 60 this week, up nine spots.

Next week: we have played a pretty difficult schedule so far, with our worst opponent so far by record being 10-11 Milwaukee (after splitting with us, Boston immediately swept Norfolk to get to .500). That difficult schedule continues next week with two division leaders: 4 games at home vs. Tampa, then a visit to Cincinnati.