2064.17 Ugly Baseball in Charlotte

[Krathan]

Last season, the Flyers were one of the best offensive teams in the Johnson League. I started the year with basically the same lineup I used last year but with the addition of Jacquot Natta. We are currently one of the worst offensive teams in the JL.

Last season, Charlotte had one of the best pitching staffs in the Johnson League. I traded away Logan Hill, who had such a rough start to this season that he was released by Atlantic City after just 2 starts. I also declined the team option on Josh Dougherty, who is currently 1-4 with an ERA of 5.63 in Austin.

Clearly, keeping those guys would not have made this any better.

What has gone wrong? Pretty much everything.

Jose Vargas got off to such a bad start that I ate over $26 million releasing him so that I could have anyone else take up that roster spot. He had an OPS of just .537 in his first 22 games. This occurred after a 2063 campaign that was easily his best season in a Charlotte uniform.

Jose Bedreddin, who has a career OPS+ over 120, currently has an OPS+ of 86 this season.

Lawrence Stewart, former Gillstrom Rookie of the Year winner, currently has an OPS+ of 46.

Domingo Chavez leads the team in WAR but has an OPS+ of just 95, which is 16 points lower than last season, when he seemed to have a bit of a sophomore slump but still came in at 111.

Tommy Anderson is not slugging at as high of a rate as he did last year.

Alfredo Trujillo, who has a career OPS+ over 130 currently has an OPS+ of 103.

Buwono Mainaky, coming off of two seasons with ERA+'s of 158 and 159 currently has an ERA+ of just 92.

Bandit has been inconsistent on the mound and at the plate, with an OPS+ of 97 and a FIP- of 109.

Ron Madden, coming off of two seasons withERA+'s of 141 and 174 currently has an ERA+ of 80.

Dana Munce currently has an ERA+ 160 points lower than last season.

Bob Anderson was 0-5 with an ERA of 6.55 before being traded to Vancouver.

And now Tony Villa, with a 140 OPS+ is hurt, and will mis 5 weeks.

So, I'm going to mix things up a bit more dramatically.

Lawrence Stewart is headed to AAA. Dana Munce is being waived/DFA'd.

Francisco Rios, Roberto Villalobos, and Cipriano Martinez are all being promoted to the big league club to see if they can infuse some energy into the ball club. They will all be given ample opportunities to play over the next few weeks as I try to find something to get the team turned around.

[BaseClogger]

I don’t get why Mainaky has big platoon splits. His pitches don’t match up.

[Krathan]

I don’t get it either.

[lordtoffee]

I had the same thing happen to me last year. You will get through this.

[Krathan]

I had the same thing happen to me last year. You will get through this.

It reminds me a bit of my 2061 season as well. Everything just seemed to go wrong. That season I at least had my awkward manager change to blame. This time it kind of came out of nowhere.

[Trebro]

The thing about a game that uses random number generation is that periodically you get ALL the zeroes.

Sorry you're having a horrible year. I know the feeling all too well.

[BaseClogger]

Charlotte should have an upper half JL offense, not bottom half.

I expect Chavez to pick it up.

Natta should improve a bit on both sides of the ball, although I'm worried injuries have somewhat derailed his career.

Anderson should hit for more pop but he's always going to be an OBP liability (still a good player when considering the total package).

Bedreddin is a perfect example of what's bugging me about OOTP these days. He's been a ratings overachiever, but he's done it three years in a row to the point where you'd think 4 WAR is the player he is. Now he's falling off at 25 years old!?

The career arcs of Stewart and Vargas seem realistic enough. They gave Charlotte some good years and are now in their 30s.

The pitching has the second lowest LOB% in the league (still a couple points better than San Fernando ) and that really hurts, causing ERAs to be much higher than FIPs. That's just bad luck. The defense is average which seems reasonable. Mainaky could pitch a bit better but he's now 34 and has seemingly at least somewhat overachieved for years. The individual pitching results look reasonable enough now that Bob Anderson is gone (no explanation there lol).

Hopefully that wasn't me prying too much but just giving you my thoughts. I've always followed your team closely after doing a couple of team previews. I'd love for somebody to do the same for me because I'm having a similar season (albeit with lower expectations coming into the year).