Blowing in the Wind 2055.4: Jacksonville On Eight Game Winning Streak

[aaronweiner]

https://statspl.us/brewster/reports/new ... eam_3.html

The Jacksonville Hurricanes have been on a roll lately. Since April 12th, they have not lost a game, and they've done it in convincing fashion: just one one-run win and a run differential of 56-27, an average score of 7-3, and three convincing wins over Montreal, a playoff team last year. At this point it's safe to classify this version of the Hurricanes Class 5, but will the success blow over?

"When we reworked the team this offseason, we expected it to work well, but we were hoping that it might work just like this," said manager Khayyat bin Luqman. "This is exactly what we envisioned."

What was Jacksonville's plan? According to team officials, it went something like this: offensively, don't worry about batting average, stress walks, count on the middle of the order for home runs, and then count on the revamped pitching staff to keep the team in games. So far it's worked: Jacksonville is fourth in home runs and first in walks, and despite a team batting average of .253 are 6th in OPS. And the team is also fifth in runs allowed.

"We're getting big performances from our top four starters," said Pedro Hozven, who has been rock solid in 2055. "It's why we were so excited to see the team really work on the pitching staff."

Barring a trade, the rotation is basically locked in until 2058, so the fact that it's working so far is a big relief to everyone. Bernie Stuart has been great over his past two starts, allowing three runs in his last thirteen innings, Gerald Sizemore has been consistently good, and Mark Thomas has picked up where he left off last year. And Bob Anderson - well, Bob Anderson has been spectacular, again, as advertised; he doesn't have a decision yet but he's thrown 24 innings of genius-level baseball.

"It's so encouraging to see us as a unit," said Anderson. "It's even better getting to work with Bernie and Gerald, guys who have really been there, especially Bernie, who was like me - nobody thought I'd become anything like a star, and now I have a Steve Nebraska and we're just a bunch of guys on the same team and it's so great."

Jacksonville is currently 11-7 and on a 95-win pace, and there's a real possibility they haven't even gotten their best lineup yet. Management has been buzzing about the idea of using some of their $15 million in cap space to try to land a difference maker on offense, and if they get someone like that it might be a huge deal for this team.

"We're not going to absolutely rely on the team we have right now - we're looking to improve, maybe," said Hurricanes GM Aaron Weiner. "There are places we could get better and we plan on trying."