Long Beach Press-Telegram - 6-1-2000

[jcrmoon42]

Long Beach management is pissed. Just a few short weeks removed from being within shouting distance of both .500 and first place, the club has gone 4-14 and is now a whopping 16 games behind. They are now interested in trading away any parts that might help a contending team as they continue to build for the future.

As of mid-May, the club got Ted Sale and David Hulse back in the lineup and expected them to help contribute to their surge. Sale has hit a whopping .188 with a .549 OPS since his return. Hulse has been slightly better but still full of suck at .224 and .627. They continue to get good production out of B.R. Poc at short and veteran Dave Nilsson behind the plate. The Aussie Nilsson should get strong consideration for the All Star team with his .339 average to go with 9 bombs, even though he really doesn't seem to feel the need to actually throw out basestealers, catching them at only a 19.4% clip.

Two of the starters have been decent as junkman Jerry Spradlin continues to pitch well, only giving up 8 walks in his 66 innings after returning from a pre-season foot injury and 27-year old rookie Raymond Hecht who went 4-1 with a 3.66 in May.

Some of you may be familiar with the Beane Counter. It basically says that teams that keep the ball in the park and don't allow homers should do well. Obviously, the opposite is true for batters. And it is here that we find what is causing the Surfers pitching to suck. They have only allowed 31 homers on the season, less than half of some of the front-running teams, and their walks allowed are at least middle of the pack. Under conventional wisdom, this should mean that the Surfers pitching should be in the top quarter of the league. However, that is not the case. Why is that? The answer is found in their last-in.350 BABIP, last in the league. The problem is not pitching, it is defense. These guys have blown chunks. It was hoped that Sale and Hulse's bats would overcome their defensive deficiencies, but that obviously hasn't happened. The club has also gone with a subpar center fielder much of the year, because the best defensive center fielders in the organization are not up to snuff with the bat. That is likely to change soon before one of the pitchers shoots himself.

Unfortnuately, the club is going to have to throw in the towel on 2000, but the future is still bright and the solutions seem obvious.

[recte44]

The past few versions of OOTP have made defense progressively more important, and I gotta say I love it. Combined with our talent levels plateauing and normalizing liek I thought they would, we're seeing true defensive players starting for teams in this league now.

[jcrmoon42]

It is a welcome adjustment. That "4" ability in center field just isn't going to cut it anymore. Making 80% of the plays a normal centerfielder would is going to result in a lot of runs.

[braveheart]

BRPOC!

Ha - forgot about that!