Sim #34: Two games to go.

Yes, since the last race was so hot, we decided to break it into two sims.  Two games tonight and two on Monday leading to the playoffs starting on Wednesday next week.

In the playoffs:

Brooklyn, Miami, Brattleboro, Tupper Street

Charleston, Chicago, DC

That leaves Rochester, New York, North Jersey fighting it out for the last playoff slot.

Sadly, chaser Maui was eliminated in this two-game sim.  The team from the Rainbow State lost games to rivals New York and North Jersey to drop out of contention.

Rochester: 1-1 this sim

New York: 1-1 this sim

North Jersey 2-0 this sim

North Jersey and Rochester are now TIED for the final playoff spot while New York is 1 game back.

Rochester faces: Cleveland for 2 games

New York: Chicago for 2 games

North Jersey: Maui for 2 games

It’s anyone’s wildcare slot.  Go get ’em guys.

On the Disabled List:

Miami loses Jim Lyon for 3 weeks with a fractured thumb

Maui loses Marcos DeJesus for 6 weeks with a fractured rib

DC loses Ernest Townsley for 5 weeks with a fractured thumb

Jeremy will have the final two games – maybe – of the regular season on Monday.  Be there!

Sim #31: Filling Playoff Slots

Dateline: September 14, 2023

Another sim in the books, my fellow babies.  And with this one playoff slots are beginning to fill in.

Right now, these teams are in:

• Brooklyn (playoff slot – current divisional leader)
• Brattleboro (divisional winner)
• Charleston (playoff slot – current divisional leader)
• Chicago (playoff slot – current wildcard)
• DC (divisional winner)

Also in the running:

• Miami (PL wildcard leader)
• Tupper Street (PL 2nd wildcard)
• Pittsburgh, San Diego (9 games out of wildcard)
• Rochester (SL 2nd wildcard)
• Maui, North Jersey, New York (3 games out of wildcard)

In the Headlines:

• PL Player of the Week: Wen Won of New England
• SL Player of the Week: Antonio Martinez of Chicago
• Miami’s Jason Palmer threw a 1 hit shutout of San Diego

On the Disabled List:

• Petersburg’s Nate Buchanan is out for 5 weeks with a fractured hand
• DC’s Tomokazu Sato is out for 13 months with a damaged elbow ligament
• Chicago’s Jason Helms is out for 6-7 months with a torn flexor tendon

 

Sim #28: The Rosters, they Expand

Yes, my friends, the rosters have expanded.  Bring up those rookies and get them some time in the sun without getting exposed to playoff baseball.  I’m sure they’ll enjoy their cups of coffee.

Dateline: August 30, 2023

Standings:

• Brooklyn up by 7.5 over Miami
• Brattleboro up by 24.5 over Pittsburgh
• Charleston up by 8 over Chicago
• DC up by 14.5 over New York

Wildcards:

• Miami and Tupper Street (Pittsburgh 6.5 out)
• Chicago and New York (Rochester 2.5 out, Maui 3 out)

In the headlines:

• Charleston is the first team to clinch a playoff berth
• Brattleboro’s Mark Rice is the PL Player of the Week
• Maui’s Marcos De Jesus is the SL Player of the Week
• Brattleboro’s Manuel Marquez throws a 5-hit, 9-K shutout against Cleveland

On the Disabled List:

• DC will be without Wan-hua Ran for 1-2 weeks after he was injured by his cat
• New England’s Edge Collins will miss 3 weeks with a torn hamstring
• Miami will be without Jean-Francois Langlois for 5 weeks with a bone spur
• Tupper Street’s Miguel Orozco is out for 2 weeks with a herniated disc
• Tupper Street’s Esteban Soriano will miss another 7-8 weeks after a setback
• San Diego’s Aubrey Schaal will be out 2 weeks with an oblique strain
• Charleston will be without Terumoto Sekine for 7 weeks with a strained tricep
• Chicago’s Conry Kift will miss 5-6 weeks with a strained abdominal muscle

See you next time, people.  Jeremy’s up on Monday as we head to the playoffs.

Sim #25: Cause I been waiting such a long time.

Dateline: 8/15/23

Six weeks of regular season baseball to go.  Can you dig it?  Yes, I can.

Standings:

• Brooklyn up by 8.5 over Miami
• Brattleboro up by 19.5 over Pittsburgh
• Charleston up by 5.5 over Chicago
• DC up by 14 over New York
• PL Wildcards: Miami and Tupper Street (San Diego 3.5 back)
• SL Wildcards: Chicago and New York (Rochester 0.5 games back)

In the Headlines:

• Miami’s Scott Tiley is the PL Player of the Week
• New York’s Eduardo Barron is the SL Player of the Week
• New England’s Wen Won ends his hitting streak at 20 against DC

On the Disabled List:

• Cleveland’s Conry O’Tumulty will miss 3-4 months with a concussion
• Miami will be without Mal Murray for 4 weeks with an ankle sprain

In roughly two weeks – one week IRL – we’ll see rosters expand.  Get ready for it!

Sim #22: The Deadline Approacheth

Yes, fellow babies, it’s the trading deadline.  The very next sim, Friday’s sim, takes us there.  If you’re gonna make those changes, the time is here, the time is now.  Be one of the cool kids and make your dealios, wheelios, cool cats.  Be hep to the craziness.

Don’t miss out.

Standings:

• Brooklyn up by 9.5 over Miami
• Brattleboro up by 16 over Pittsburgh
• Charleston up by 2.5 over Chicago
• DC up by 9 over New York

Wildcards (where the real action is):

• PL, Miami and San Diego – Tupper Street 1 back, Pittsburgh 2.5 back
• SL, Chicago and Rochester – New York 1 back, Cleveland 4 back, Maui 4.5 back, North Jersey 6 back

In the Headlines:

• Brattleboro’s Albert Aguirre hit his 300th home run against Petersburg.  Aguirre is currently 19th all time and 13th among active players on the homer list
• Miami’s Scott Tiley is the PL Player of the Week
• New York’s Bob Chase is the SL Player of the Week
• Charleston signs CF George Jones – He Stopped Loving Her Today – to a 3 year contract at $960K per year

In the Box Scores:

• Anthony Hansen of New England four-hits Maui in an 8-1 win
• Angel Fernandez of Pittsburgh four-hits DC in a 2-0 win
• A slugfest in Jersey as North Jersey beats Cleveland 14-10
• Jesse Holmes of Cleveland swats 2 doubles and 2 homers in beating North Jersey 12-7
• Pittsburgh dominates New England in a 20-1 rout
• Jorge Rangel goes 8.2 innings of six hit, no ER pitching with 9 strikeouts to get no decision in Charleston 3-1 win over DC

On the Disabled List:

• Charleston will be without Ken Miller for 2 weeks with an oblique strain
• Chicago will miss RF Nakamaro Watanabe for 6 weeks with a fractured rib
• San Diego’s Darwin Briggs with be out 2 weeks with a herniated disc

The next sim is Friday!  Don’t miss out!

Sim #20: Pinch Hitting

I’m running the sim due to Jeremy’s computer issues.  No time for a write up.

Next sim’s Friday!

Sim #19: The Fourth of July

Dateline: July 6, 2023

It’s me, your humble commish, pinch hitting for Jeremy.  He’ll be back later in the week.

Standings:

• Brooklyn by 12 over Miami
• Brattleboro by 14 over Pittsburgh
• Charleston by 6 over Chicago
• DC by 14 over New York

Wildcard:

• Miami and San Diego (Tupper Street back by 1, Pittsburgh by 2)
• Chicago and Rochester (Maui back by 1.5, New York by 3.5)

Headlines:

• Charleston deals its 3rd round pick to SD for AA Catcher Mateo
• Cleveland deals SP Mu and CL Mercado to SD for AAA 1V Matsuo, AAA OF Martinez and AA RP Duran
• Brooklyn’s Jacob Allen is the PL Player of the Week
• Maui’s Goto is the SL Player of the Week

On the Disabled List:

• Rochester’s Bob Miller will be out 3-4 months with forearm inflammation
• North Jersey’s Steve Holt is awaiting diagnosis after a collision on the basepaths
• Charleston will be without SP Corey Lee for 6 months with a torn labrum

The next sim will feature the All Star Game!  I know you’re waiting for it!

Sim #18: Halfway Mark

Dateline: July 1, 2023

We’re officially done with three months of the 2023 season.  That’s the halfway point.  Let’s find out where we are, shall we?

Standings:

• Brooklyn up by 13 over Miami
• Brattleboro up by 13.5 over Pittsburgh
• Charleston up by 5.5 over Chicago
• DC up by 10.5 over Cleveland

Wildcards:

• Miami and San Diego (Tupper Street 1 back, Pittsburgh 2.5)
• Chicago and Rochester (Maui 2.5 back, Cleveland 4)

Hitting Leaders:

• AVG: Emery Dyer (BRK): .385
• OPS: Jacob Allen (BRK): 1.073
• HR: Dae-Ho Park (BRK): 25
• WAR: Jacob Allen (BRK): 4.2

Pitching Leaders:

• ERA: Jorge Rangel (CHA): 1.76
• H/9IP: Jorge Rangel (CHA): 6.60
• K/9IP: Eugene Beck (NYK): 11.33
• WHIP: Jorge Rangel (CHA): 0.95
• WAR: Jorge Rangel (CHA): 4.6

Awards:

• PL Batter of the Month: Jacob Allen (BRK)
• SL Batter of the Month: Trevor Klein (CHA)
• PL Pitcher fo the Month: Weston O’Keefe (BRA)
• SL Pitcher of the Month: Alonso Hernandez (CHI)
• PL Rookie of the Month: Scott Montgomery (BRA)
• SL Rookie of the Month: Vernon Peters (DC)

Injuries:

• Cleveland’s Miguel Angel Morato has a ruptured medial collateral ligament and will miss 9 months
• Maui will be without Jim Fontenot for 5-6 months with a fractured knee
• New England’s Ken Ayers will miss 6 weeks with a herniated disk
• New England will also miss William Corless for 4 weeks with a intercostal strain caused by his dog
• Miami will be without Armando Hernandez for 4-5 months with a broken bone in his elbow

Jeremy’s up on Monday!

 

 

Sim #17 – Post Draft Blues

Game date: June 26th, 2023

The first half of the season is always filled with excitement – new players, players/teams that start hot, the build-up to the draft – and by the time we get to late June, you realize just how long the season is. There’s still a lot of baseball left to play!

Standings:

In 3 of the 4 divisions, the lead is essentially 10 games (but, again, there is a lot of baseball left to play), and in the other, Charleston holds a 5.5 game lead over Chicago. The wild cards, however, are totally up for grabs.

In the SL, Chicago is a pretty much a lock, but we have a tie for the 2nd wild card between Cleveland and Rochester, and no team is more than 4 out of a playoff spot.

In the PL, it’s Miami and San Diego, with Tupper Street just a game back.

Games:

6/21 – Miami beats New York 2-0 in 21 innings (not a typo). Each team needed 8 pitchers to get through the game.

6/22 – DC and Brooklyn only make it 14 innings before DC scores in the top of the inning to win 2-1

6/23 – Brooklyn fires back with a walk-off single against DC, and Rochester and New England get in an extra inning shootout (7 runs scored in extra innings) as New England wins 11-10

6/24 – Tupper Street’s Jose Segura throws a CG SHO in a win over San Diego

6/25 – Rafael Montes goes 5-6 with 2 HRs and 6 RBI (i.e. all of his teams runs) in a 10-6 loss to DC

Next sim is Friday by Nate!

Sim #16 – No Snow in Our Forecast

None of our games got snowed out this sim (which is good cause we are in June) unlike the real baseball today.

Game Date – June 21st, 2023

Leaders:

PL Kant – Brooklyn by 11 over Miami

PL Hobbes – Brattlesboro by 11.5 over Pittsburgh

SL Hegel – Charleston 2.5 over Chicago

SL Calvin – DC by 7.5 over Cleveland

Wildcards – PL – Miami (+2) and San Diego by 2 games over Tupper Street – SL – Chicago (+10) and Cleveland by 1 game over Rochester

News:

Two Trades – Miami got some ML help in the form of 31 year old LF Jim Leon from Brattlesboro.  In return they get SA CL Brandeis Wendlinger.  The other trade had to be completed in 2 trades becasue you are only allowed to include 5 player from one team in any one trade.  Cleveland sent veteran SS Soseki Takeuchi to San Diego for a haul of players. They received ML Randy ‘Tiny’ Dantzler and 5 minor leaguers (I will let you look up all their names and $100,000 in cash.  Busy dealing in the OEL after the Draft.

Players of the Week – PL – Brattlesboro 2B Antonio Sandoval was 16 for 30 on the week and that was enough to win the award. – SL – Charleston 2B Ken Miller batted .500 with 2 HR and 7 RBIs with 8 runs scored.

Injuries:

Brattlesboro 3B Carlos Avila and SD RP Aubrey Schaal both have a diagnosis pending on injuries they suffered this sim.

Game Action:

(Last Sim) June 15th – There were two extra inning games in which the winning team won by 4 runs.  Brattlesboro scored 2 in the top of the 9th to take the lead only to have Miami score 1 in the bottom of the inning.  No more runs were scored until the 16th when Brattlesboro scored 4 in the top half of the inning to win 7-3.  Brooklyn and Petersburg entered extra innings tied at 3 as well.  Now Brooklyn manager Jeremy Goldman made a tactical error going into this game.  He put in an extra SP, John Bland in the rotation to give Ace Natsu ‘Tiger’ Tanaka one more day to recover from his day-to-day injury.  Well this was a mistake becasue Bland threw 54 pitches the day before so he only made it through 2 innings of this game.  To add insult to injury (literally), the pitcher that Brooklyn brought up just for this game, Victor Garcia was injured after just one batter whom he struck out with an injury of his own.  Over the next 7.2 innings, Brooklyn ran through all of their available pitchers in this game and in the 11th they had to bring in C Reynaldo Hernandez to pitch.  Now you might think that this means that Petersburg was the team that scored the 4 runs to win the game, but this was not that case.  Hernandez pitched 2 innings of scoreless ball while only giving up 2 hits. Brooklyn scored 4 runs in the top of the 12th and gave Hernandez his first (and most likely only) win, 7-3.

(This Sim) June 16th – Charleston’s Jorge Rangel struck out 12 in 8.1 innings in an 8-1 win over NY.

June 17th – Miami’s SP Carl ‘Sheep’ Shearing pitched a CG while only giving up 1 ER with 4 K’s in a 2-1 victory over SD.

June 18th – Charleston scored 7 runs in the bottom of the 7th to break open a 4-4 game and beat Rochester 12-4.

June 19th – Brattlesboro got a gem out of SP Raul Alvarado, 8 IP and 9 K’s is enough for them to get the 2-1 win after they scored 2 runs in the 8th to pull ahead on a 2 run 2 out HR by Mark Rice.

June 20th – Rochester scored 1 run in the 8th and 3 runs in the 9th to pull ahead of NE and win 6-4.

That is the goods on this sim.  I hope that you enjoyed it.  Get those AS ballots in so we can have two all star teams for the mid-summer classic.  Brian will have us Wednesday for five more days.