The Form of Youngsters, Goulding & Tavares, gives hope (2037-11)

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The Form of Youngsters, Goulding & Tavares, gives hope (2037-11)

Post by Fat Nige » Tue Jan 15, 2019 9:46 am

June 16th, 2037

A three-game wining streak at the end of May left Louisville one game above .500 for the month which cheered the fans, still down 22-30 overall but not as bad as it could have been following the second disastrous April in a row. Axel Goulding, who had taken the closer’s role after Carlos Rosa was ruled out for the year, had been terrific. In his first full month in the BBA he had been credited with seven saves in 11 outings as well as a 2-0 record with a 1.59 ERA, for this he had collected the BBA Johnson League Pitcher of the Month Award. The start of June saw away series wins completed in Huntsville and Wichita, leaving the Sluggers 6-5 on their 12-game road trip, one game in Mexico was inevitably rained out and will be rescheduled for later. Louisville returned home to split a four-game series with the Jimmies before being clouted three games to one by Montreal in their second successive four game set. Moving to the middle of June the Sluggers played a double-header at San Antonio losing the first game 3-7 but comfortably taking the nightcap 10-4, all of this leaving them one game below .500 in June and half a game behind Huntsville at 29-38. Huntsville had endured a recent 1-9 streak in late May to sink them closer to Louisville but going 5-5 over the last ten had just kept them off the bottom of the JL Southeast.

First week into June it had been decided that Lou Cotton wasn’t making the hoped for progress and he was optioned to Missouri. Ricardo Tavares, who had had his first two BBA games in 2036, was called up in his place. It was an instant success as Tavares only had an 0fer in one of his first six games and had multi-hit games in his last three games (two three-hit games) including his first ever BBA homers, one in each of the San Antonio double header games. Small sample size but it boosted morale as he finished the week hitting .417. Rookie shortstop Joey O’Brien had also suddenly developed a bit of pop in his bat, hitting his first ever two BBA homers in a game on May 28 in California. He drove in all three runs there in a 3-2 win and followed that up with homers against Charm City & Montreal at the Kentucky Truck Plant Stadium in early June. Despite the Sluggers 7-8 record for the month so far only one of the regular starters were hitting below .250.

The rotation perked up too with Pepe Jaramillo, Ramon Gaza and fit again Kevin Morales all winning two of their three starts so far in June. Rule 5 draftee Carlos Guzman had hit a wall though, after getting to a 5-1 record he had lost four straight games although he had only received seven runs in support of him in that time, four of with had been in his last outing. Axel Goulding had continued his bright start, four more saves in six outings in June, totalling 12 saves, a hold and two wins in his first 20 BBA appearances with a 19/6 K/BB ratio.

The farm wasn’t fairing too well with only Triple-A Missouri rising above .500 and the rest pretty much sinking to the bottom of their divisions. Brightest spark was Double-A DH Yoshiaki Ohayashi who had suddenly gone wild with his bat. After hitting a career high 20 homers in 2035 at A-ball he has launched 33 so far this year in his 65 outings, driving-in 61 runs and scoring 44 times. Starting Pitcher Chris Johnson, a 2035 second-rounder, has posted a 3-0 record in his first ever nine Triple-A starts. He’s only surrendered 13 runs in that time but will need to work on his control, a 5.7 BB/9 ratio will get him shelled pretty quickly in the BBA. Hungarian lefty Jani Forsbacka had a 5-1 record in Ocala mid-May but now a month later has dropped that to 5-4 but in that time has reduced his ERA from 2.28 to 2.18 !! A career high 82 K’s in 13 starts is all credit to him but his pitches lack movement and will surely be found out higher up the organisation.
Nigel Laverick
(former GM of El Paso Chilis #WeWereShitty) ,
Now GM Riyadh Red Crescents #WeBeNotSoNewNow #WeAreJustAsShitty


Riyadh GM since May 2046

JL Manager of the Year 2000 (Baltimore Monarchs)
Nothing since


An MBBA GM since 1995 (off & on)

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