As their inaugural season progresses the Montevideo Leones are getting to grips with the new South American Baseball League (SABL). Flirting with .500 baseball early on, as we move in the second half of the season the Leones are 12 games over .500 at 49-37. A few of their players have already got promotion to Triple-A, but they’ve just recently received two exciting prospects from Taipei.
22-yr-old Jeff McClain had been tearing up A-ball, in his third season there it had finally clicked for him. Posting an 8-1 record in 10 starts with a 1.85 ERA, he had struck out 72 batters while only walking five in 68 IP. His WHIP was 1.00 with WAR of 3.1 recorded already. Now in five starts in AA he is 1-2 with a 3.26 ERA. Quickly getting to grips with the higher level he has 23 strikeouts in 30 IP and just six walks. Continue like this and he could well be in Triple-A come 2042.
21-yr-old Javier Cuellar is just as exciting. In A-ball he hit .429/.517/.700 in 61 games during his third season at that level, coupled with 15 homers and 70 RBI he was a no-brainer for promotion. He charged into AA like a bull in a china shop, in his first four games he got eight AB’s and recorded six hits and walked twice. Three of those hits vanished over the fences for an incredible .750/.800/.1.875 slashline and a 2.675 OPS. Very early days of course and a minute sample size, but in his two starts he has gone 3-4 & 2-3 (both hits being homers against the third best side in the league).
June was the best month so far for Montevideo, going 16-9 and establishing the Leones as firmly in the top half of the table. Asuncion & Santiago appear to be out clear at this time, but then Lima are just ahead of Bogota and Montevideo in that chasing pack. Most of the Leones pitching stats are in the top-four of the division but the batting needs work as a fair few stats there are sliding into the bottom half.
Apart from McClain, who has just arrived with the team, all the other starting pitchers have winning records and 18-yr-old Damon Urry has the only losing record on the staff (1-3). He has only now given up seven runs in his last 13 outings and five of those were in one game.
23-yr-old Justin Montgomery is swinging the bat well (.345/.444/.593) but really needs to work on his appalling defence at first base if he’s going to progress. He has 12 homers though tied for the team lead with 24-yr-old Ramiro Vega. Vega was a December 2040 minor league free agent signing for Cairo after seven years in the Seattle Storm organisation. Although he is capable in right field, he is usually played in the DH role currently as 20-yr-old Anastasio Correa gets the nod in right field. Correa is playing regularly in right to help improve his defence which has certainly come on in leaps & bounds over the last three seasons. The other corner OF, 24-yr-old LF Vincente Guerra, leads the team in RBI with 55 as well as impressing with his glove work in left field.
Position Players mentioned
| Player | POS | Slash Line | OPS | HR | RBI | WAR | RNG | ZR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Javier Cuellar | CF | .750/.800/1.875 | 2.675 | 3 | 4 | 0.7 | 1.13 | -0.4 | |
| Ramiro Vega | DH | .254/.309/.434 | .743 | 12 | 45 | -0.3 | 4.50 | 0.2 | * |
| Justin Montgomery | 1B | .345/.444/.593 | 1.037 | 12 | 52 | 1.7 | 7.02 | -8.1 | |
| Anastasio Correa | RF | .323/.408/.594 | 1.002 | 9 | 26 | 1.1 | 1.94 | -1.8 |
Pitchers mentioned
| Pitcher | G | GS | W | L | Sv | ERA | IP | K's | BB's | WAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jeff McClain | 5 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3.26 | 30.1 | 23 | 6 | 0.7 |
| Damon Urry | 0 | 22 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 4.10 | 26.1 | 21 | 13 | 0.4 |
