jiminyhopkins wrote: ↑Mon Nov 19, 2018 9:10 pmName: Hugh Mangrouthormone
Bats: R
Throws: L
Hometown: Anywhere in Florida
Position: DH
Ethnicity: Caucasian
1 Elite Talent: POWER POWER POWER, I mean like 14 rated power.
1 Good Talent: Can run a little
1 Weakness: Free swinger, won't take a walk, can't play defense to save his life, injury prone.
One Personality Trait: Dumb as a box of rocks
Hugh is a big kid. Maybe too big. Can a guy the size of an offensive lineman be a major league baseball player? The BBA is about to find out. Oh, and he's pretty stupid, too.
The OSA in 2056 had this to say about the 35-year old Florida man: "He is unthinking". This writer disagrees: He only thinks about crushing the crap out of the ball.
Who Are Hugh?
Hugh is a 6'6, 245 lbs righty from Melbourne, Florida. A 2nd round pick by Calgary in 2038, his large power was clearly a draw. In 75 career HS games, Hugh logged 85 career hits. 40 of those hits left the ballpark. 47% of the time when Hugh connected, it was a dinger.
This is the tantalizing power that few GMs can resist. Hugh was a stud in HS, playing for the Pillsbury Doughboys and logging a career slash line in HS of .288/.354/.749. It's no wonder Hugh went so early in the draft given these MVP type numbers, despite his career -4.6 ZR and awful .779 defensive efficiency at 1B. Hugh was playing without a glove, but it didn't matter. Hugh was built to DH. The less he had to think about anything other than hitting, the better. In the BBA, he wouldn't need to field unless absolutely necessary.
But that's high school, and many of the folks Hugh competed with never amounted to anything on the diamond. What happened next?
Grouth in the Minors
Hugh took some time to adjust to the minors. At age 17 on Calgary's R-ball team in 2038, he posted a .197/.248/.350 slash line. There's no mincing words here, it was bad. (This was also the best way for Hugh to understand his performance, too.). Was this a sign of things to come for Hugh? Doomed to flare out as quickly as he entered the league?
After a weak showing in R ball and a better showing (albeit on a smaller sample) in the Florida Prospect League, Hugh was shipped to Louisville RP Kahsay Mudada, SS José Montaño for SP Ken Bates and SP Sean Gardner. Mudada never made it past AA. Montaño is still active and has played in part-time roles in the BBA and GBC and is currently, at age 34, on Tokyo's AAA squad. Bates and Gardner didn't stay in Louisville past that season, with both fizzling out in classic pitcher fashion: waiver claims, minor league FA deals, the GBC, and the final stage, retirement. A full analysis of the ripple effects of this trade may be interesting, but Hugh didn't care. And neither should we right now.
Louisville proved to be good to Hugh. On their A-ball squad In 2039, Hugh put up 1.5 WAR in 303 PAs. 24 homers. A slash line of .251/.277/.560. This sort of high octane, low OBP performance was risky, but tolerable. A 132 wRC+ works as a bat-only type.
It didn't take long after that for Hugh to debut. He skipped AA and went straight to AAA, hitting 22 homers in 62 games. As a 19 year old, Hugh made the show. The minors couldn't contain his power, and Louisville felt he was ready to crush the snot out of BBA pitching. However, the power went out -- in 85 games in 2040 BBA, he only logged 14 hits, and only 2 were homers (the worst hit to homer ratio of his career). .171/.200/.468 slash line was not a good look, and this would continue.
Hughge Struggles
Despite sticking w/ Louisville for the better part of 6 years (and 2 championships), he received minimal playing time. He logged roughly a full season's worth of PAs in the BBA during his age 21-24 seasons, only hitting above .200 once. He did hit 80 homers, with 46 of them coming in his age 20 campaign -- good for -1.5 WAR.
It's remarkable to see eye-popping homer totals with negative WAR. While WAR is not kind to DHs (he only appeared at 1B 5 times in Louisville), you'd think 46 homers would be above replacement level. Not for Hugh. He didn't care about wins. He cared about homers.
After failing to put up more than 1 season of positive WAR (a .2 WAR effort) as a part-time DH in Louisville, Hugh was once again shipped off -- this time to Des Moines in 2045. He was sent out with RP Jae-myung Kim and $4 million for LF Lúcio De La Cruz. Unlike the last trade Hugh was in, this seemed to work out for both parties (although ultimately Louisville won the trade). Kim is still kicking around in DM's farm system after many seasons as a full-time bullpen arm, while De La Cruz put up over 10 WAR in ~4 seasons with Louisville before he was shipped to San Antonio and promptly declined.
Hugh would get the majority of his BBA playing time with DM in the ensuing years. In 378 games over 3+ seasons Mangrouthormone had 1467 PAs, 270 hits, 101 HRs, .192/.222/.450, 39.7% K%, 75 OPS+, good for -4.5 WAR
Hugh's gravity defining numbers once again were on display -- despite his power, it never seemed to translate into being above replacement. Most replacement players couldn't dream of Hugh's overwhelming power. Somehow, Hugh managed to be worth negative value despite the obvious virtues of the long ball. Truly, it was because he did nothing else.
After his stint in Des Moines, Hugh's contract wasn't renewed, and it seemed Hugh's time in the BBA, at the tender age of 26, was nearing its end. In 2047, Hugh became a free agent and went to the GBC. He had a resurgent 2048 in Mumbai (1.1 WAR as a full-time player w/ 35 HRs) and a less stellar year as a part-timer in Bucharest in 2049.
Being a mediocre part-timer in indy ball would've likely spelled retirement for anyone. Despite his flashes of brilliance with the bat, Hugh seemed to wear out his welcome wherever he went. At 28, Hugh played in parts of 8 pro seasons, posting positive WAR twice. Hugh was down, but not out.
Hugh once again defied logic and signed the biggest contract of his career, followed by his biggest moment.
Mangrouth and Mad Popes
2050 saw Hugh return to the BBA on a 4.5m deal with Sacramento signed in May, his biggest single season contract of his career despite coming off mediocre seasons in weaker GBC at age 29. The Popes were clearly mad. Hugh could hit dingers, sure, but his overall value was below replacement level.
Hugh part-timed in Sacramento, with 151 PAs over 61 games. He posted a solid season by Hugh's standards: 38 hits, 12 homers, and a .247/.275/.558, good for .5 WAR and a 136 wRC+. This could've just been another high point in Hugh's roller coaster career, but the Popes were playoff bound, and Mangrouthormone's put the pop in "popes".
The 2050 Mad Popes were a 105-win team, but finished 2nd in a competitive Pacific behind 108-win Portland. They played Vancouver in the Geoghegan round. On the surface, this series wasn't much to write about. The Popes swept Vancouver 3-0. There isn't much drama on the surface. But if you're Hugh Mangrouthormone, this is the series you'll tell your grandchildren about.
On October 3rd, 2050, Hugh went to the batter's box and delivered a climactic moonshot. A walk-off grand slam. He'd earn the Geoghegan Series MVP for his efforts. It was his sole post-season homer in 52 career PAs. While the Popes would exit in the Doubleday, Hugh's efforts were enough to bask in the sun just one more time.
Sun sets on Hugh
Despite his accolades and post-season performance, Hugh was granted free agency at the conclusion of 2050. Curiously, he went unsigned in 2051. He signed a 1 year deal w/ Vancouver for $1.4m for 2052 season (perhaps they remembered how it felt to see him hit a dinger), where he went on to have the best season in his BBA career. In 310 PAs, Hugh hit .245/.278/.603 with 33 HRs, good for 1.7 WAR (a BBA career high). He made 5 ABs in the 2052 post-season, and was not re-signed.
It was Hugh's last appearance in the BBA. He went unsigned in 2053.
In 2054, at age 33, Hugh played in Sydney in the GBC: 540 PAs, 43 HRs, .240/.259/.547 good for 1.9 WAR (the best he'd ever put up outside of AAA)
But 2055 would not be so kind. He signed on with Tokyo and put up the worst season of his career: -3 WAR, 538 PAs, 95 hits, 30 HRs, .183/.204/.390 (55 OPS+). Yes, 30 homers and 55 OPS+. It's mind-bending.
Summary
I'm not the first person to write about Hugh. He was featured as the subject of Is WAR Working in OOTP?, examining the conundrum of Hugh's eye-popping homer numbers and negative WAR. But Hugh's full story hasn't been told, and in fact, is still being written.
Despite it all, Hugh currently sits as a 55 OVR in FA.
He is willing to sign on to any team in the BBA-verse. "Just one more dinger", I'm sure the 35-year-old is thinking, if he is thinking at all.
Here are a few numbers on Hugh:
* 623 career hits, 226 homeruns -- 36.28% of all hits are home runs.
* 35% career SO%
* -3.9 career BBA WAR, -4.9 across all levels.
* Career BBA slash: 834 games, 3001 PAs .208/.240/.480
* Career GBA slash: 431 games, 1694 PAs: .238/.259/.491
* 71 SBs on 100 attempts
* $19,350,000 career earnings
At age 35 and coming off his most woeful season yet, the question I'm asking: Will Hugh get another chance?
He has 12 power, currently unsigned and is willing to take a minors deal. It's clear Hugh Mangrouthormone won't be more than a footnote in the history of the BBA -- a career part-timer who managed 15+ pro seasons despite negative value and 226 homers.
Hugh's clearly enthralled GMs with his power, going all the way back to his HS days. It's hard not to be intrigued by the homers. Does Hugh's negative value outweigh the high rate of dingers?
