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The Sim: 5-1, 4-2 (2-1 vs. LOU, 3-0 vs. YS9, 1-2 @ SFB, 3-0 vs. SEA) Reporting on two weeks because I missed one over the holiday weekend. But 9-3 in the past two sims brings Des Moines to 22-16 and just two games back of the #Heartland.
The Good: Was able to sign four hitters the past few sims: C Dave Butler, 1B Robert Chenoweth, OF Girolamo L'Archibudel and 3B Roberto Rivera. The Kernels were really struggling to score the few weeks of the season but with the recent additions have put up much larger run totals in May. In the 11 games this month, we have scored 10+ runs in three of those games. In the entire month of April, we did that only twice.
Also over the past two sims, RP Arnold Richmond made his BBA debut. In Spring Training he had a 10.1 K/9, in Triple-A that number jumped to 14.0 and in six innings of BBA relief, his K/9 is 15.0! That currently leads the ENTIRE LEAGUE in pitchers who have thrown more than four innings. It's early, a small sample size and I probably just jinxed him, but he's been great this year.
Swingman Susila Kartosuwiryo got his first start of the season: 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 K. He was used predominantly in the bullpen last year but might do the opposite for the foreseeable future.
The Bad: What currently separates this team from the upper tiers of the league, is the paltry road record, 8-14. Amongst all the teams with 20+ wins, 15 teams in total, only RMO has a worse record away from home. That will have to improve for this team to be a true contender.
The Ugly: The past two weeks have been really good for the team, but man, what a poor season coming from IF Juan Medrano. He's making $12M this year, has a team option that will cost $2.4M to buyout and this year he has produced... a -0.4 WAR and 10 OPS! TEN! Previous front office members made the decision to sign him long-term and it worked out, for awhile. The issue is he can't really play SS anymore, doesn't have the bat needed to play 3B despite good defense and can't really hit or field up to an average BBA 2B. He still has value as a pinch runner, defensive replacement and PH against lefties (10 eye)...but he expects to start and I'm just hoping he doesn't get upset or he will get his pink slip early.
The Minors: Triple-A has fallen below .500 but Double-A and Single-A have been playing good ball.
Dave Lachance finally put together a good start in Triple-A after two duds. I would really like his control to improve this summer and potentially bring him back up for the pennant chase. Doesn't look promising as of May.