Brains! 2062.3: Zombies' season going as planned...but where are the wins?

[aaronweiner]

If you had told Jacksonville Zombies' GM Aaron Weiner that on August 7th, the team would be second in home runs and first in walks, and were second in walks allowed and sixth in home runs allowed, Weiner would have definitely told you that the team was performing precisely as intended - in other words, on pace for the team's fourth straight playoff appearance and their seventh in their last eight seasons. Maybe they would even be challenging Charm City, finally. And yet, the team is on pace for just 78 wins, potentially their first losing season since 2054, Weiner's first year with the club. So where are the wins?

"Considering the landscape around us, calling this season apocalyptic would be a little bit hyperbolic, I think," Weiner said, while distant luminescent flames flickered outside his huge picture window in his 11th story office. "However, this has been a strange, unpredictable lost season so far."

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An accurate depiction of the Jacksonville Zombies' current hopes for this season.


Several things the Zombies tried have worked. The teams' triumvirate of Pepe Aragon, Steve Holcombe (finally healthy!), and Gabriel Manuel have been very successful this season, and neither Majd bin Nawaf (on pace for 3 WAR) nor Majid bin Husam (130 OPS+) have been disappointing, leading to a fifth place in runs scored despite shortstop Don Colbert's total and utter collapse. More later on Colbert, but mostly the lineup has been solid, and the bench has been excellent.

"We would have liked better from our hitting, but we really can't complain," said manager Shoiab Kardar. "But we have had a lot of trouble putting together the parts into a whole."

Some of this has to be chalked up to bad luck, too. While Jacksonville's 573 runs are fifth, numerically they are closer to 15th place Brooklyn offensively than 3rd place Calgary. Similarly, Jacksonville's luck has been horrendous on the pitching side: despite the metrics listed above (2nd in walks and 6th in HR allowed), a league average batting average on balls in play (BABIP) and a strikeout rate that is, while low, less than one per game less than the league leaders, they are 11th in team ERA.

"We don't know exactly what's happening, but we do know that next year, we have a considerable amount of cap space and only a small number of holes to fill," Weiner said. "And this year is not over yet, though it's slipping away pretty quickly. Maybe we can turn it around."

[BaseClogger]

Jacksonville’s Runs Allowed is 43 runs higher than your xRuns Allowed. If I had to blame one metric it would be the 65.7% LOB%, lowest in the BBA. League average is 71%. Your bullpen could be better but that’s a lot of bad luck.

[aaronweiner]

Jacksonville’s Runs Allowed is 43 runs higher than your xRuns Allowed. If I had to blame one metric it would be the 65.7% LOB%, lowest in the BBA. League average is 71%. Your bullpen could be better but that’s a lot of bad luck.

It just feels like there was no way this should have happened, and yet it's all happening all at once. And we're STILL in the playoff hunt.

[ae37jr]

The Atlantic is tough. For my money it's probably the best division in the Brewster right now. Charm City, Charlotte, and Montreal are all on a run that I don't see ending anytime soon. Cape Fear has built a respectable team in short order. Excited to see where they go from here. And Aaron and Jim have been two of the best GM's for a long time. Heck, even ACY and BRK have more talent than any other 7/8 th place outside of Phoenix. Put Jacksonville in any other division and they are probably a 2nd, 3rd place team at worst.