Sticking Points 2049.5: Technically Not Eliminated, But...

[aaronweiner]

With four games to go, Rockville is down two games to the New Orleans Crawdads in an effort to extend their record-tying 15 straight playoff appearances to a sixteenth. New Orleans gets Brooklyn for three games. Rockville gets Charlotte. All of this makes the odds of Rockville making the playoffs at this point roughly 2%.

"So you say there's a chance," laughed manager Denny Dooley. "The organization is bracing themselves for a long month off in October. I understand that our GM has actually made travel plans."

Rockville wasn't too far away from consecutive playoff appearance #16, but a few things knocked them back. Their pitching staff was inconsistent, and while it seemed to gel a bit in September the offense wasn't quite as dominant as it's been in recent years. Rockville might have needed to finish first in offense to make the playoffs again, and they'll likely finish third.

"It's nearly impossible to finish that high up every year," said star right fielder Julio Barajas, who is having one of the best seasons of his career after winning the batting title last year. "It requires everyone staying healthy and pulling their weight."

Rockville does have one of the deepest offenses in the BBA, but lacked the weightiness to push forward. Daniel Pepper fell back to normalish star numbers, Po-sin Shi started to look his age, Pablo Lara suffered a small sophomore slump, and Matthew Reilly, finally posting the numbers the team envisioned when they drafted him in the first round, got hurt in September. Rockville may still get to 30 WAR offensively, which is very good, but it's not the dominant teams of recent years.

Rockville's pitching was also up and down. Danny Leach's advanced numbers look great, but on paper he's 7-12, 4.82 for the year. Jafar Haamid fell way back after a strong first year in Rockville. There was quite a bit of good news in the rotation for a team that finished ninth in pitching, though: offseason acquisition Mike MacRobb looked like a potential star; down the stretch, former #1 overall Gerald Sizemore looked a lot better; top prospect Sergio Tormes was called up and has gone 4-0, 3.68 in six starts. Edward Johnson looks like a viable closer and the bullpen actually wasn't bad.

"We weren't bad, but we weren't lucky either," said Leach. "We're really hoping to bounce back in 2050."

The Pikemen will likely part ways with oft-injured Bing-de Zhao, aging Miguel Ayala, and buy out center fielder Po-sin Shi as soon as their season ends - which may not be long. Along with declining Colin Lee's arbitration again, that will make them players in free agency, as they should have as much as $20 million to spend on some kind of rental.

"The team is hoping to make a little bit of a splash this offseason," said Rockville GM Aaron Weiner, boarding a plane. "Hopefully it's a big one."

https://statspl.us/brewster/reports/new ... am_15.html

[recte44]

Let’s see what the offseason brings!