WHIV 2059.19- How'd The Hustlers Get Hot And Make The Playoffs?

[recte44]

The Hustlers of recent vintage are nothing if not maddeningly consistent while being awfully inconsistent. Confused? So are the Hustlers. In 2057, they finished 90-72, made the playoffs, and exited early. Last year, they finished 90-72, lost a one game playoff to Charlotte, and missed the playoffs (final record: 90-73). This year, it took a feverish stretch run to end up with a record of.....


...you guessed it, 90-72 and another Wild Card berth. How'd they do it though? How did the "meh since April" Hustlers suddenly finish September with a 15-8 record and their last five series, all against Frontier foes, with an 14-6 mark to nudge out Calgary and New Orleans (while tying Charlotte and Rocky Mountain), setting up a grudge match with the Charlotte Flyers in the Geoghegan Round, a best of five blood match???



"Some of the nerds upstairs convinced me that Rocky Mountain and Calgary both sucked against lefties," said manager Henry Rectenberg. "So we came up with some craziness that we haven't done in my time here."

It started on the final game of a four game set against the Oysters (the Hustlers took three of four). Given the ball to start the finale in Las Vegas was Reese Newsome. Yes, that Reese Newsome. The guy who gave up ten homers in his first twenty three innings as a Hustler. What most casuals hadn't noticed is that despite the early homers (and there would be more), Newsome was absolutely dominating as a Hustler in many other ways. Like this: 68.1 innings, 5 walks, 63 strikeouts. Yes, those are real numbers. They sound like video game numbers, but no, that's real life. "We finally figured out that if we pick our spots with Reese, we can make it work," said Rectenberg. "Like against an Oysters club that struggled badly against lefties." The result? Five plus innings, four hits, just one run, no walks, seven strikeouts and the win.

Next came a four game series at San Antonio. Since the Outlaws hadn't really shown a tendency either way towards lefties or righties, the Hustlers just went with their normal rotation, and split the series.

Then it was onto Calgary, and here's where the real experimentation started. "They have a crazy split," explained Rectenberg. "For the season the Pioneers were 69-43 against RHP, and just 20-30 against LHP. "We understood the assignment."
- Game 1: Another Newsome gem. 7 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 3 K. Hustlers win.
- Game 2: Steve Warren, the veteran lefty, got his first start since the week he became a Hustler. It wasn't really his day, he allowed four runs in four innings and the Hustlers lost.
- Game 3: Who else could the Hustlers throw out there? How about Perry Wallace as an opener? Five batters, 1 hit, four outs and then the follower was Gamal bin Badr, with 5.2 solid innings earning his twelfth win of the season, leading to another Todd Stone two-inning save (his 42nd). Hustlers win.
- Game 4: Kazuma Yoshida, the lefty, got the start as the opener. Four batters, one walk, three outs. Then the baton was handed to follower Mahad Einan, who with 6.2 solid innings earned his fourteenth win of the year. Hustlers win, and take three of four against Calgary (one of the teams they had to jump).

Boise then came to town. Like San Antonio, they are kinda neutral to handedness. The Hustlers took three of four here, only using Warren as an opener in the third game (which they lost as follower Arnold Cantrell got shelled).

The final series. Mexico City, the cream of the Frontier Division, comes to Las Vegas for a four game affair. The Aztecs captured the division crown on September 21st, but they still wanted to play their division rivals tough. "Again, they struggle against lefties," said Rectenberg. Indeed, they were an amazing 76-46 against RHP and just 19-21 against LHP.
- Game 1: Wallace starts, gets two outs and turns it over to bin Badr, who gets his thirteenth win. Stone pitches two shutout innings for his 43rd save. Hustlers win.
- Game 2: Bret Harrell pitches six shutout innings, getting his 13th win and staking claim to the 2059 Johnson League ERA title (3.14). He's relieved by John Dawson, Carlos Berrera (who has been a revelation in the second half), and Stone (44th save). Hustlers win.
- Game 3: Warren starts, goes four innings and allows just one run. Cantrell relieves, pitches three scoreless and earns his eighth win. Hustlers win.
- Game 4: They decided to start Einan (a righty), and it didn't work out. They took the loss, but still managed to make the playoffs.

Will they try some monkey business against Charlotte? "They're really good against lefties," smirked Rectenberg. "We'll have to see."

[BaseClogger]

Cantrell struggled a bit but the upside with him is that he should be a killer reliever at least.

[Knucklehead254]

Smart decision to extend Newsome, he has his rough stretches but when he gets the strikeouts rolling he’s hard to beat.

[Trebro]

Smart decision to extend Newsome, he has his rough stretches but when he gets the strikeouts rolling he’s hard to beat.

Newsome is the kind of player I can't personally stand to have on my team. He's amazing at times, but those bad stretches just kill me. I tend to rid myself of any feast or famine types like him. Which probably hurts me a bit, but I just can't do it. Plus at the time, the Heartland had muderer's roww of HR hitters, which just about made him worthless.

Sometimes I wish I'd kept him, but only sometimes. Glad he's still out there doing well.