Manama musings 2.0

[jjw]

Welp, Manama was definitely worried after losing their all-star batsman, Patrick Strolz, to a knee injury last week -- with an estimated two weeks on the IL to recover. Strolz was leading the UMEBA in batting with a .381 average, which put him a full 29 points ahead of Tripoli's Antonio Román, and the problem of how to fill that slot in the lineup loomed large. Plus, the Pearl's other top hitter, first baseman Nick Selkirk (341/386/659), broke his arm back on May 5 and is not due to come off the IL until the coming week, and will likely need some rehab time at Khartoum before he can rejoin the big leaguer club. But the Pearls surprise the pundits this past week by going 6-1 and adding a game and a half to their Burt League lead. Can they continue to play this well without Strolz and Selkirk? It is doubtful, but at least they now have some breathing room, and unless they have a total collapse this next week they should still be on top by the time these two guys return.

The club's pitching was pretty good over this last stretch, with the team ERA remaining best in the Burt and second best in the Association. Setting some pitch count limits on a few starters may have helped in this regard, Santiago Zúñiga did a good job in both his starts after being shifted to the rotation, and the bullpen continued to pitch very well: Huang Cheng has certainly been successful as the new closer, saving two and winning one last week while not surrendering a single run in 3.1 innings of work, dropping his ERA to 1.67, and Armando Rodriguez has been outstanding as the set-up man and sometime-closer, throwing three scoreless innings and earning his second save. Middle-relievers Wayne Mawle, José Velásquez and rookie Su-yeong Pak (who never pitched above AA prior to joining Manama) all have ERAs well under 3, and together threw 10.2 innings over the week while giving up but 3 runs.

Yet it was more their hitting the kept the Pearls in front. They now lead the Association in slugging and are tied with Tripoli in BA. Outfielder Taylor Barfoot had another fabulous week (he now leads the UMEBA in both RBIs, driving in 13 in week, as well as slugging) and first baseman Michael Pedarzolli really stepped up big in Strolz's absence, batting .476 with an OPS of 1.357 for the week. Moreover, catcher Patrick Faber remained very hot, hitting .375 with a 1.359 OPS over the week.

[bschr682]

It’s good to see so many familiar names tearing it up for you.