Wise Kraken 43.2032: 2-4 Leads To Grumbles Despite 20-0 Win

[aaronweiner]

The Carolina Kraken's numbers look like a team that was robbed last week, outscoring their opponents 35-17 while posting their third consecutive losing sim. There is some truth to this notion. After all, the Kraken lost three one-run games this week and knocked the snot out of the Havana Sugar Kings in the final game of a four-game set, winning 20-0. However, the Kraken scored just 15 runs in 5 games other than their football score, and it's become apparent that the team has serious offensive issues.

"It's a very tough situation playing on a team with this little offense," said 3B Davis Locke, who had one of his best sims as a member of the Kraken, hitting .368 with a 1.084 OPS. "It's hard going out there and doing our thing knowing that we just aren't getting the job done."

The worst part of Carolina's offensive power outage is that it wasted a very solid effort by the team's pitching staff and defense this week. Andre Georges was the zero in the 20-0 shellacking. Arthur Dempster had maybe his best sim of the year, with 15 innings of outstanding baseball. Marcio Idanha continued his outstanding season for the Kraken in long relief. Even Bill Lewis got in on the act, pitching an eight-hit complete game eight-hitter in a loss. The outstanding sim by the pitching staff also put them into fifth place in runs allowed on the year.

"We're just not consistently doing what we need to do," said Valeri Kharlamov, who raised his average to .307 with a big sim for the Kraken. "We've got to find a way to put runs on the board."

The 20-0 win came with the Kraken at 10 games below .500 on the season, the lowest they had sunk all year long. Despite winning their last game also, the third consecutive losing sim ran the Kraken's record to 15-23, tied with Halifax for last place in the JL Atlantic. The team will continue an eight-game home stand next sim, facing off with the champion Jacksonville Hurricanes, then the Huntsville Phantoms.

"We can't pay attention to power rankings or people who say we're tanking," said Kraken manager Chet Rouse. "We're not tanking and we're trying hard every day."

[ae37jr]

Probably the most interesting stat about that 20-0 game is that Havana used just 2 pitchers. The starter went 3+ innings and gave up 13 runs. Then the RP came in and gave up 7 runs in his first inning of work, then was left out there the final 4 innings. Both pitchers passed the 100 pitch mark.

[aaronweiner]

I noticed that earlier - I should have mentioned it.

[usnspecialist]

No sense wasting the full pen i guess. Don't mind that actually.