November 21, 2035
Long Beach, CA
They days of the Long Beach Surfers leading the BBA in power numbers have long gone by the wayside, but the lineup of 2035 still packed some punch.
The dual threat of Carlos Gonzales (8/7/8/5/7 Ratings, .298/.351/.538, 43 HR, 115 RBI) and Mark Simpson (8/8/8/8/6 Ratings, .273/.389/.526, 40 HR, 102 RBI) was supplemented by midseason acquisition DH Juan Parra (6/6/8/8/5 Ratings, .237/.333/.489, 41 HR, 111 RBI). The trio combined for 124 HR and 328 RBI on the season.
For CarGo, it was his third season of 40+ HR, and the second consecutive with exactly 43. While he will likely never again see the heights of his 2031 Sawyer Silk season (65 HR, 166 RBI) his power output remains steady. For his career, he sits at 281 total HR. A bit of playing with Bill James' favorite toy gives the now 31 year old slightly better than 50/50 odds to reach the magical number of 500 career HR.
Simpson has been the Surfers most consistent hitter since 2030, and an excellent counterpart to CarGo. He's five years younger, and now has 206 career HR. He's also got about a 50/50 shot at 500, though we may think that he's got even better odds considering his age, position and the fact that he's a switch hitter. If he were to figure out a way to reduce his strikeouts, he could be an all-time great.
Finally, there's Juan Parra. The right handed hitting DH had a career year in 2035. He struggled a bit making the adjustment from Boise to Long Beach, but still ended up with a career high 41 HR on the season. He's not nearly the caliber of hitter that Gonzales and Simpson are, but he is as much of a HR threat. A full season in the middle of the Long Beach lineup could help improve his 2036 results even more.
