The Tucson Prick 2022.3: .522 Ball and in Last Place

[c-mitch]

Such is the curse of residing in the Frick Pacific. The Cactus, much like last season, have gotten off to a decent start. Last year things fell completely apart in June. Will it happen again? My record at the moment is 24-22. Pythagorean record is 23-23. Not a big difference, so I guess that's good. We have scored 219 runs and allowed 215, so that's a big improvement from past seasons when run diff was negative by a wide margin.

The funny thing is that in my opinion, the offense isn't really playing that great. I only have 3 batters in my lineup against RHP who are hitting better than .238. Yet team average of .259 is squarely in the middle of the Frick, ranking 6th. We are also hitting with power much better than in past years, ranking 6th with 54, while doing very well in limiting opponents' long balls. They have hit only 42 against us, which has the Cactus ranked 2nd in the Frick in that regard. One philosophy that I have used to some success in OOTP is HR differential. I prefer a team that hits for power across the board if possible, sometimes at the expense of speed, and one that features high movement starters that can limit HRs from my opponents. This team is far from perfect as it relates to that plan, but it is heading in the right direction.

Still, despite doing well at preventing HRs, the team is allowing too many runs. The starters rank 10th in the Frick with a 4.52 ERA combined, and the team ERA as a whole is 11th at 4.33. The team was at 4.51 last season, so it has improved a little, but not as much as I would prefer. Martin 'Bulldog' Lewis, my oldest SP at 27, has also been my worst in ERA at 6.59, but his FIP is only 3.86. That has to be one of the biggest differences I have seen. He is obviously being hurt by a combination of bad luck and poor fielding when on the mound. My rotation is very young, with Juan Cruz also 27 years old, while Chunk Cavazos is 22, Jose Rivera is 23, and Tully Crow is 21. Crow and Rivera are rookies, and Crow is struggling a little with a 6.13 ERA, but like Bulldog, his FIP is much better, at 4.63. Crow is also the only SP I have with less than '8' movement. Chunk has finally turned into my best starter, happily, as he is 5-1 with a 2.48 ERA, and has a Quality Start percentage of 77.8%. Li 'Sonny' Beggs has been sent to the bullpen on what I expect to be a permanent switch. I may use a conversion award on him next off-season. I plan on being patient with these guys and hopefully they will all continue to get better as a group.