Young Sluggers fall short again (2038-16)

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Young Sluggers fall short again (2038-16)

Post by Fat Nige » Mon Feb 18, 2019 11:16 am

October 2038

The Kentucky Truck Plant Stadium echoed with the sound of explosions, bangs and clouds of smoke at the end of September. It wasn’t the fans celebrating any unlikely post season appearance, it was the sound of Louisville’s season finally imploding and crashing down on top of itself. To be honest real hope of upsetting the odds had gone when the team turned in a 9-18 record in the opening month. May and June provided a modicum of hope when the team went first one game .500 in May and then three games over .500 in June. It was still along way back to .500 overall. July was the month that really said, “Abandon all hope there”. The team lurched inconsistently from one state to another, a seven-game losing streak was followed by a six-game winning streak and the final nail was losing four out of the last five games in the month. That set the month’s total at 11-15, 49-58 overall, and the Sluggers were in effect chasing last year’s total of 63 wins at best. Louisville flickered in August but couldn’t get up a head of steam, only twice did they string as many as three-game winning streaks and they finished three games under .500 for the month. September brought roster expansion and very few extra players as the team figured that there was few that deserved to be promoted back to the BBA or to receive that precious ‘Cup of Coffee’. Those that did come up were in no way really responsible for the team’s abject final month collapse in which they only won seven of the 26 games played. Injuries to Abay Omoruyi & Scott Martin that meant the two outfielders contributed only a few innings to Sluggers’ month and all it did was highlight the team’s absolute lack of backup outfielders that come close to BBA level. One that could have perhaps contributed something was ‘the forgotten man’ Desiderius Kirchbaum, benched by the team for virtually all of 2038 in an attempt to get him to opt out of his 2039 option, he spent most of the year asking to be traded. Let’s hope he really wants to play and does the decent thing by opting out.

The pitching was a mess from opening day virtually, Kevin Morales again for the second year running hardly contributed in the first two months due to injury while Pepe Jaramillo went 0-6 in his first eight starts. Anytime you reach the latter days of May and your two supposed ‘Aces’ are a combined 0-6 in 11 starts you sort of get the feeling your season’s not going to end well. Add into that your expected #3 starter lost his job in Spring Training and your #4 is a Rule 5 pick that’s only ever pitched 22 games above A-ball, and those were at Double-A. It didn’t start well, and it didn’t end well. Jaramillo at 11-15 was the only pitcher to reach double figure wins with Morales, Ramon Gaza and Carlos Guzman all anchored on nine wins. Rule 5 pick Guzman started with a bang and reached the heights of a 5-1 record mid-May before the sky fell in and his record was 5-7 a month later. Established closer Carlos Rosa pitched just 11 innings in 2037 before blowing his UCL and sitting the rest of the year out. Axel Goulding who was expecting to be settling into his first full Triple-A season stepped up to the mark and the 20-yr-old did better than expected, blowing only five of 20 save opportunities; Axel also finished with a 4-3 record but his ERA of 5.19, coupled with a BB/9 of 3.3 & a HR/9 of 2.2 shows he has really a lot of growing to go yet. The one pitcher who enhanced his reputation was the BBA's #16 prospect, 21-yr-old Augusto Sanchez, who made use of his first ever September call-up by posting a 3-2 record in five starts. His 0.92 BB/9 & 1.19 WHIP was great but his 12.58 R/9, his 9.82 H/9 and his 3.68 K/9 will need working on, probably back in Triple-A next season.

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Jose Vazquez's 44 homers, 111 RBI and .291 BA won the Sluggers Triple-Crown

The team offence was led by second-year DH 23-yr-old Jose Vazquez, he smashed his career records with 44 homers and 111 RBI (good for him but nowhere near good enough to get him on to Sluggers’ top-10 single-season leaderboards. 31-yr-old Shag Hopkins cracked 32 over the fence, equalling his 2025 total but eight behind his 2030 career high of 40, his tally of 64 runs driven in was probably not as many as he would have liked though. 23-yr-old Pedro Saldana, 23-yr-old Pedro Debesa & 25-yr-old Scott Martin who all broke into the BBA the same season as Vazquez all reached past the 20-home run plateau, but even that blast of long ball offence couldn’t overcome the pitching deficiencies. Jaime Ramirez took moving to the hot corner in his stride, stealing 62 bases for the second year running, doubling his HR total (from one to two) and only losing a few points here & there. Saldana for the second straight year made 58 attempts to steal a base and fell three short of last year’s total of 50. Emerging this season were 20-yr-old Shortstop Joey O’Brien and 23-yr-old 2B Ricardo Tavares who could well be the middle-infield double-play duo for years to come, both of them into the 90’s for DP’s. Very few teams boasted a better combo, perhaps only Yellow Springs Nine had a better defender in both positions.
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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