Sticking Points 2047.8: A Few Early Season Returns

[aaronweiner]

The Rockville Pikemen are 10-7 on the year, a 95-win pace, after three weeks. Some things have worked, some haven't. Let's take stock of a few of them.

1) Po-sin Shi is the Rockville MVP so far, and maybe of the Johnson League.

Hey, you remember all the way back to last year when we wondered whether Po-sin Shi could bounce back to his All-Star form? Well, um, right now he's on pace for, um, 13 WAR, um. Nobody thinks this will happen, but he's played plus defense in center field and has a .444 OBP through 16 games and 72 plate appearances. Though his BABIP is lower than his batting average, so there's some hope he keeps this up a little.

2) Rockville is third in stolen bases.

The Pikemen haven't finished above 11th in stolen bases since 2039, not coincidentally the last time that Chip Puckett was a regular on the ballclub, and they did that just once - most years they've been 14th or worse. Two Pikemen already have 8 steals through 17 games; last year three members of the team had above that number for the season.

3) Daniel Pepper is just fine.

He's hitting .315 since starting the year 0-20. Said Pepper: "I just got a huge new contract. Let's just say I was pressing more than my dry cleaners."

4) Matthew Reilly is not.

Nobody's talking about benching him yet, but Reilly has been totally useless through three weeks. Reilly is a real stand-up guy, and talk that the Wilson Alomar trade put too much pressure on him is absurd; his walk rate is way up and he's not really striking out any more often. (Alomar has been just as bad for Portland so far, too.) He'll come around, but maybe given his 2043 and 2044 seasons the Pikemen might have been hoping for too much out of Reilly after his breakout 2046.

5) The pitching staff has been very productive.

So far: Ray Verhoeve, 3.41 ERA, Esteban Cruz, 3.38 ERA, Danny Leach, 3.51 ERA. Even more promising: Rockville is near the league average in BABIP and there's some noise in that, since Rockville's park is among the easiest in the BBA to get a base hit. And they're fifth in runs allowed. So maybe they're turning a corner.

6) But the defense hasn't been good.

Rockville currently has allowed 14 unearned runs this year, tied with Brooklyn for the most in the Johnson League, and so far there have been real issues defensively. It could and should pick up, though.

[7teen]

I'd trade Verhoeve now. He typically has high value at the start of the season before he tanks.

[lordtoffee]

Shi probably would get my vote right now for MVP. I like how you set up the team Aaron.

[aaronweiner]

Shi probably would get my vote right now for MVP. I like how you set up the team Aaron.

He hasn't done anything like this for years, but I had hope.