June 17, 2057
Long Beach, CA
I really didn’t want this to happen in the middle of the season. Of course there’s never a good time to release a player that’s made his mark all over the franchise career leaderboards, but the middle of a season like this is especially rough.
Grab a drink, and let’s have a toast to left hander Luis Manuel Rodriguez, one of the greatest relievers that has ever worn a Long Beach uniform.
Rodriguez (let’s go with LMR for the rest of the article), was released today by the team after refusing an assignment to AAA Commerce. His ratings have diminished to 6/9/6, and his ERA of 7.65 is just not sustainable for a team currently on a 102-win pace. So, instead of focusing on this season, let’s take a look at his career, and why he may be deserving of a spot in the Long Beach Hall of Fame and a retirement of his number 25.
Drafted in the 3rd Round (99th overall) of the 2038 Mega-Draft, and as of this writing, is the seventh ranked pitcher from that draft by WAR, with 27.2 for his career.
LMR hit the ground running in his debut season, pitching 83.1 innings in 68 appearances in the 2043 season. He struck out 73 batters and posted a 170 ERA+ and 1.8 WAR. His record was 8-1 and he saved four games. As you likely know, the Surfers are notoriously anti-closer role in the bullpen, and this is proved out with LMR’s usage throughout his 15-year career.
With two exceptions over those years, LMR never appeared in les than 60 games per season, with a high of 103 games in 2046, and despite a total of 1042 appearances, he recorded only 100 saves. This of course speaks to the usage patters of the Surfers and not his performance.
Let’s talk about 2044 and 2045, two of LMR’s best seasons, and two of only three playoff appearances for the club in his tenure. The 2044 Surfers won 100 games and their division, and advanced all the way to Game 7 of the Brewster Memorial Series, which they lost to the San Antonio Outlaws. LMR appeared in 9 games during that deep playoff run, providing the team with an otherworldly performance, allowing just one run and six hits over 10.2 innings. Though the team fell just a hair short of winning a ring, this was absolutely one of the highlights of his career.
He didn’t seem to suffer from a hangover following the long 2044 season, in fact the next campaign was his career best. He found another gear for this season, appearing in 89 games and pitching 130.1 innings. His strikeout rate was a career best of 11.7, resulting in an astonishing 167 K’s, and a 2.76 ERA for the year. His 8-5 record with 13 saves helped the Surfers win 90 games and again win their division. Unfortunately they were dispatched in the Doubleday Series by the Twin Cities River Monsters, but with 4.6 WAR, LMR had a season to remember.
A quick glance at his career stats shows that he was extremely consistent, only thrice before this season posting an ERA+ under 121. In addition to the consistency in performance, he was extremely reliable from a health standpoint, missing just three weeks (mostly due to flu or sinus infections) in his fifteen seasons. Unsurprisingly, his career numbers are impressive, with a 3.14 ERA (135 ERA+), 1.14 WHIP, and 1399 strikeouts in 1248.2 innings (1042 games).
Despite this consistency, he appeared in only two all star games, and the highest he appeared on a Jason Egan Reliever Award was third place, for the 2053 season. Astonishingly, his 4.6 WAR 2045 season was only good for fourth place, with the award going to teammate Cornelio Lozano who put up an un-fucking-believable line of 0.96 ERA, 0.64 WHIP, 344 strikeouts and 7.8 WAR over 149.1 innings. That mid-‘40s Surfer bullpen was quite something.
Anyways, back to LMR. We’re going to wrap this up with a summary of his career rankings in Long Beach franchise history, and a couple notable spots in BBA history.
His 3.08 career ERA ranks fourth in team history, 87 wins are eighth, 100 saves is fifth, and with different usage he likely would have challenged franchise leader Chris Malone who had 484 in essentially equal number of appearances. With 27.3 WAR, he is fifth in franchise history, and second to Malone in appearances (1030 vs 1069). Thanks to his durability and stamina he even makes an appearance on the career innings pitched leaderboard at ninth and strikeouts (fourth, 1387). Of course he makes the cut for rate stats as well, with K/9 (seventh, 9.4) and WHIP (fourth, 1.13).
Finally, his best statistic, and a place in the record books that may not be moved, opponents OPS. He blows away the franchise competition with a mark of .6299 (second place is Lozaano at .667), and even makes an appearance on the BBA career leaderboard at ninth.
I’m sad to see LMR go, especially with an unceremonious release mid-season. However he’ll be remembered by Surfers fans for a long time, a testament to his consistency and loyalty on the field from 2043 through 2057.
