Johnson League Roundup Sim No.3

[Fat Nige]

Reaching mid-May, the hottest Johnson League race appears to be in the Pacific Division where three out of four are above .500

ISSUE 3: MAY 1st to 15th

Washington extend their lead in the Atlantic Division as the rest can’t break .500 in the period, Omaha sweep from 4th to 2nd as Chicago and Phoenix stall and Hawaii burst past Valencia & California to lead the Pacific.

Atlantic Division Round-up

Washington threaten to run away with the Pacific going 10-3. Bobcat closer Acosta gave up in the bottom of the ninth the only run of their period opening game at Madison but they bounced back to shutout Vancouver twice and then sweep both Chicago and Phoenix. In the final series of the period they gained a 2-2 split at second placed Louisville. Only Henry Ellis (5.84) in the rotation has an ERA over 2.25 while Waichirou Moronobu hit 5 HR’s.
Louisville cooled down to go 7-7. A loss at Valencia was followed by a 2-1 series win over Chicago and at California. Returning home the Sluggers went down 2-1 in the series with Hawaii and split the series with high flying Bobcats. Gil Daniels went 0-1 with 6 saves and a 3.68 ERA and Akiru Matsumoto hit .362 (21/58)
The Greenville GM is still waiting for the Moonshiners to break out as they finished 7-7 as well for the period. A win at California was followed by just one win in the series at Madison before they ended the road trip with a 2-1 series victory over Pacific pacesetters Valencia. A six game homestand saw them swept by Vancouver and gain a 2-2 split with Atlantic cellar dwellers Baltimore. Jay Lee went 2-0 with a 1.11 ERA while Shawn Carter drove in 10 runs.
Baltimore fell further behind as they went 6-8. Losing 4-1 at Chicago they took just one game from each series in a homestand with Madison and Omaha. They finished the period with a 2-2 split at Moonshiners. Larry Laselle went 2-with a complete game shutout while Masuichirou Bunjiro hit three home runs, 18 RBI’s and a .356 average.

Midwest Division Round-up

Madison went 7-7 for the period but retained leadership of the division. A bottom of the ninth win against Washington was followed by 2-1 series wins over Greenville and Baltimore. The Wolves stalled then as they were swept at California and could only split the home series with Phoenix 2-2. Rick Cushing went 1-0 in four starts with 22 K’s and a 1.69 ERA and Brock Lee went yard five times.
Omaha’s 8-6 was enough to lift them from 4th to second as 5 ½ games separate all four Midwest teams. A 6-3 win over on fire Hawaii was cancelled out by a 2-1 series loss at California. Barnstormers then beat Vancouver two games to one before losing the series 2-1 at Baltimore. In the final series Omaha took Chicago 3 games to one. Butch Henry went 3-0 with a slightly high 4.12 ERA while Pat Listach hit two home runs, 12 RBI’s but struck out 16 times before a torn labrum brought his season to a premature end.
Chicago crashed and burned slumping to 5-9. A 4-1 win over Baltimore gave way to only one win in six road games against Pacific top two, Washington and Louisville. Returning home Valencia were beaten two games to one but the Black Sox went down 3-1 in the series against Omaha. Chet Steadman kept his head and recorded 2 wins, a 1.35 ERA with 22 strikeouts in his three starts, Henry Jones hit five into the crowd with 13 RBI’s and a .324 average
Phoenix slipped two places to bottom as they only won three out of 14 games in the period. An opening 9-3 victory over Vancouver was a false dawn as Talons lost 10 straight, swept in series by Valencia, Hawaii and Washington. They saved face a bit by splitting the period’s final series 2-2 at Madison. Emile Yost was the pick of a bad bunch going 1-2 with a 2.66 ERA with even the normally dependable Andy Nebraska ending with a 9.64 ERA, Doug Gwosdz hit four long balls and 11 RBI’s.

Pacific Division Round-up

After going 9-4 the previous period Hawaii bettered that this time out going 10-4. Two losses at the start were followed by seven wins on the bounce before Louisville took a game off the Tropics. The period ended on a high as former division leaders Valencia were defeated three games to one. Brian Fisher went 1-0 with seven saves and a 0.00 ERA in eight appearances, there was a lack of offence though as despite their record the Tropics only outscored their opponents 52-44.
Valencia ended the period second after going 7-7. Four straight wins were followed by losing the home series to Greenville 2-1 and a 2-1 series loss at slumping Chicago before rounding out the period losing the series to surging Hawaii by 3-1. The bullpen did its bit with Jan Starr win three games with a 0.00 ERA from five appearances; the offence hit a paltry .212 but still put 14 over the wall.
California crept closer to the Stars going 8-6. Defeat to Greenville and a 2-1 series defeat to Louisville was balanced by a 2-1 series win over Omaha before ending a 10 game homestand by sweeping Madison. Their only road trip saw a 2-2 split with Vancouver.Felix Pan in his three starts went 1-1 with two complete games, a shutout and an unreasonably small 0.36 ERA. As the offence scored just 43 times, Billy Wilson hit four home runs and drove in 11 runs.
Vancouver went 6-8 and are starting to get detached from the leading three teams. A loss at Phoenix, 2-1 series losses at Washington and Omaha started a disastrous road trip not really balanced out by a 2-1 series win at Greenville. The final homestand brought a 2-2 split with California. Allen Bartlett’s three outings saw him go 2-1 with two complete games and a 1.08 ERA, Jimmy Dugan hit four home runs while three others hit three.

I’m not moving (pt. 2): JL pitchers pitched another 22 complete games, with five ending in shutouts.

Oh so near: there were 44 triples in this JL period

Sit down you bum: 84 JL games saw a total of 1,289 K’s

[clashcity]

Billy Wilson needs to get going or I'm not going to love him anymore...

[Afino]

I need to get Daniels more innings.

I didn't realize Jay-Z was in the MBBA too. Sweet.