Off Topic
An Overview of the Bikini Krill Across the Months
It was the best of teams, it was the worst of teams.
The 2058 season on the Atoll was essentially a Jeckel and Hyde remake. Or, mixing in another literary mishmash, it was the best of teams, it was the worst of teams. The club was very, very young. The season started with rookies at catcher (Pedro Jimenez), second base (Napoleon Mellott), and both corner infield slots (Mike McClure and Kata Ishibashi), and essentially a rookie in left field (Graham Aubry). So some perturbation was to be expected. Larry Barkin as shortstop and Run-ming Gui added a veteran presence, and Michael Buckley in the outfield was in his third year. With journeyman John Henderson patrolling center, well, it was a collection of guys hard to peg.
Given that the rotation was patchwork, though, and (with the exception of new arrival Shane Valance) the bullpen unproven, the preponderance of questions made the prognosis less that positive. Everyone figured Samuel Nebraska would be a positive, but the rest of the rotation was oft-injured Enrigue Aguilar, Lucio Juarez, and journeymen arms in Jayden Nicholls and Francisco Ortiz. Astute readers will note the dearth of lefties in that mix…though the club had a stable of them in the bullpen.
The pre-season predictions were not particularly good. Probably better than last year’s 66 wins, but not by enough to care.
April
The club came out of the gate well enough, though. They dropped series to Sacramento, Vancouver, and Valencia before sweeping San Fernando, and taking series victories with Portland and Long Beach. April saw them 14-13, right in the middle of the scrum in an ultra-competitive Pacific division. Behind young Ishibashi’s offensive explosion, the bats had proven themselves as an offensive force, clubbing homers and leading the Pacific in OPS, and the pitching had been holding its own.
There were dark clouds on the horizon, though. Spring training had already seen the oft-injured Aubry have to sit a while. Starter Lucio Juarez got dinged up early. Then Barkin picked up a “7 week day-to-day” quad strain, which eventually ended up bringing rookie Keith Williams up for a pretty horrific month-long cup of coffee. Williams would return later, and maybe the stint helped him then…but it was clear he was in over his head. The team lost Carlos Silva for what turned out to be essentially the year. Silva had been pitching well, and spot starting—a valuable entity in a team needing lefthanded help.
May/June
The calendar turned to May, and at that point the club simply could not stay on the field. Mellott sprained a knee. Aubry suffered a string of problems (again). Veteran outfielder Gilberto Falchionelli found himself on the DL twice. Relievers went down. Michael Buckley got a strain that put him on the shelf for a couple weeks. The trainer’s room was a triage wreck for two months, culminating in the losses of Aubry (who had been having a fine season), Barkin, and Ralph Page for the season.
On top of this, rookie third baseman Kata Ishibashi went as cold in May and June as he was hot in April, and catcher Pedro Jimenez seemed to become allergic to hitting RHP—which was the primary thing he’d been brought in to do. The team’s defense was essentially a sieve, which admittedly was no surprise. May and June were miserable, and saw the team post an 18-38 record, a moribund performance that seemed to cut their aspirations off at the knees.
To their credit, the club kept churning. Manager Richard Lawson kept a trial and error dynamic going, finally settling on the odd two-pitch repertoire of lefty Norberto Garcia to spend most of his time in the rotation. Jayden Nicholls eventually emerged as a reliable rotation point, as did Ortiz. In late June, the team signed lefty Armando Rodriguez, who wasn’t going to win any Nebraska’s but who became mostly reliable before signing a cheap extension later in the year (and then, of course, getting hurt).
June saw the club sell center fielder John Henderson to the Hustlers, which opened to position for the year’s feel-good story, Craig Ablett, a 32-year-old career minor leaguer who came up, played solid enough defense, and clouted 16 home runs. It’s unlikely Ablett will hang on for the long term, but he was a gem when he arrived, and became a major part of the team’s July resurgence. Another part was Run-ming Gui, who took back the fulltime role at third when Ishibash was optioned back to AAA, and proceeded to have arguably his best year ever at 2.7 WAR in 459 PA.
Still, the club was 32-51 entering July, a record that forced the Krill’s PR department to focus on a long string of aging veterans that they signed to minor league contracts and who mostly just filled the AAA roster, though Jay Hodge did toss a few innings here and there.
Summer
A funny thing happened at the All-Star Break, though. The Krill seemed to catch their second wind. Gui came on. Mellott found his HR swing, and would blast 18 homers in the last half of they year. With Aubry on the shelf for the rest of the season, Bikini called up young bookend outfielders Tony Munyiga and Zora Maidykov (a couple guys GM Ron Collins had made half-hearted efforts to trade in the months prior), and both of them pretty much went off after being slid into the #1 and #2 slots against right handed pitching. Munyiga scored 62 runs, and finished with 21 doubles, 13 homers, and a.328/.356/.539 slash. Maidykov was right behind him at .301/.356/.454. With guys on base, Gui, Mellott, and veteran DH Pedro Guzman had guys to drive in.
Michael Buckley, suddenly relieved of his need to hit tougher right handed pitching, finished with 24 homers. He was a defensive mess, but…well…welcome to the club.
On top of this, when Barkin tore a groin bad enough to be lost for the rest of the year, young Keith Williams came on for the second time and found his sea legs. He played reasonable defense, and slashed .320/.354/.440 in July, then .345/.367/.483 in the first half of August before he strained his rotator cuff, and essentially missed the rest of the year.
Just as that was happening, though, the Krill claimed ex-Surfer Jim Vineyard from the waiver wire, and with the shortstop position now open, Vineyard slipped in and dropped a .292/.331..472 slash with four homers and 12 extra base hits in his 157 PA. His work with the glove was only middling, but all together, he made a huge difference.
The team plowed through the Heartland division, then continued to rake when the schedule turned to the Pacific. July saw the club go 16-11. August was even better at 18-11. Bikin was seven games out of a wild card spot. Not close enough to get terribly excited, but not far enough out that one couldn’t dream.
September
Cutting to the chase, September was a solid month, but not as good as it needed to be. The Krill posted another winning month, going 12-11, but they missed what would have been an unlikely postseason spin by two games, finishing on a 10-5 run, but posting a 9th-inning loss to Portland and a pair of close ones top Hawaii at the end of the string.
It was a close, but no cigar ending.
Alas.
Still, the club went toe-to-toe with the best baseball teams in the league (who aren’t named Nashville, anyway, and nearly pulled off the trick of the decade. One has to consider this 789 win season a feather in the cap for now.
Along the way, the front office has added several interesting parts, and has built the foundation of a young team who maybe just needs a couple big pieces to make a final push. One suspects they will bring a majority of the team back as insurance (since payroll after Wilson Andrade is gone will be in the low 70s), and use the free agency period as a shooting gallery to pick off things that might help best.
That’s the plan, anyway.
As always, though, we’ll see. The future is never certain.
It was the best of teams, it was the worst of teams.
The 2058 season on the Atoll was essentially a Jeckel and Hyde remake. Or, mixing in another literary mishmash, it was the best of teams, it was the worst of teams. The club was very, very young. The season started with rookies at catcher (Pedro Jimenez), second base (Napoleon Mellott), and both corner infield slots (Mike McClure and Kata Ishibashi), and essentially a rookie in left field (Graham Aubry). So some perturbation was to be expected. Larry Barkin as shortstop and Run-ming Gui added a veteran presence, and Michael Buckley in the outfield was in his third year. With journeyman John Henderson patrolling center, well, it was a collection of guys hard to peg.
Given that the rotation was patchwork, though, and (with the exception of new arrival Shane Valance) the bullpen unproven, the preponderance of questions made the prognosis less that positive. Everyone figured Samuel Nebraska would be a positive, but the rest of the rotation was oft-injured Enrigue Aguilar, Lucio Juarez, and journeymen arms in Jayden Nicholls and Francisco Ortiz. Astute readers will note the dearth of lefties in that mix…though the club had a stable of them in the bullpen.
The pre-season predictions were not particularly good. Probably better than last year’s 66 wins, but not by enough to care.
April
The club came out of the gate well enough, though. They dropped series to Sacramento, Vancouver, and Valencia before sweeping San Fernando, and taking series victories with Portland and Long Beach. April saw them 14-13, right in the middle of the scrum in an ultra-competitive Pacific division. Behind young Ishibashi’s offensive explosion, the bats had proven themselves as an offensive force, clubbing homers and leading the Pacific in OPS, and the pitching had been holding its own.
There were dark clouds on the horizon, though. Spring training had already seen the oft-injured Aubry have to sit a while. Starter Lucio Juarez got dinged up early. Then Barkin picked up a “7 week day-to-day” quad strain, which eventually ended up bringing rookie Keith Williams up for a pretty horrific month-long cup of coffee. Williams would return later, and maybe the stint helped him then…but it was clear he was in over his head. The team lost Carlos Silva for what turned out to be essentially the year. Silva had been pitching well, and spot starting—a valuable entity in a team needing lefthanded help.
May/June
The calendar turned to May, and at that point the club simply could not stay on the field. Mellott sprained a knee. Aubry suffered a string of problems (again). Veteran outfielder Gilberto Falchionelli found himself on the DL twice. Relievers went down. Michael Buckley got a strain that put him on the shelf for a couple weeks. The trainer’s room was a triage wreck for two months, culminating in the losses of Aubry (who had been having a fine season), Barkin, and Ralph Page for the season.
On top of this, rookie third baseman Kata Ishibashi went as cold in May and June as he was hot in April, and catcher Pedro Jimenez seemed to become allergic to hitting RHP—which was the primary thing he’d been brought in to do. The team’s defense was essentially a sieve, which admittedly was no surprise. May and June were miserable, and saw the team post an 18-38 record, a moribund performance that seemed to cut their aspirations off at the knees.
To their credit, the club kept churning. Manager Richard Lawson kept a trial and error dynamic going, finally settling on the odd two-pitch repertoire of lefty Norberto Garcia to spend most of his time in the rotation. Jayden Nicholls eventually emerged as a reliable rotation point, as did Ortiz. In late June, the team signed lefty Armando Rodriguez, who wasn’t going to win any Nebraska’s but who became mostly reliable before signing a cheap extension later in the year (and then, of course, getting hurt).
June saw the club sell center fielder John Henderson to the Hustlers, which opened to position for the year’s feel-good story, Craig Ablett, a 32-year-old career minor leaguer who came up, played solid enough defense, and clouted 16 home runs. It’s unlikely Ablett will hang on for the long term, but he was a gem when he arrived, and became a major part of the team’s July resurgence. Another part was Run-ming Gui, who took back the fulltime role at third when Ishibash was optioned back to AAA, and proceeded to have arguably his best year ever at 2.7 WAR in 459 PA.
Still, the club was 32-51 entering July, a record that forced the Krill’s PR department to focus on a long string of aging veterans that they signed to minor league contracts and who mostly just filled the AAA roster, though Jay Hodge did toss a few innings here and there.
Summer
A funny thing happened at the All-Star Break, though. The Krill seemed to catch their second wind. Gui came on. Mellott found his HR swing, and would blast 18 homers in the last half of they year. With Aubry on the shelf for the rest of the season, Bikini called up young bookend outfielders Tony Munyiga and Zora Maidykov (a couple guys GM Ron Collins had made half-hearted efforts to trade in the months prior), and both of them pretty much went off after being slid into the #1 and #2 slots against right handed pitching. Munyiga scored 62 runs, and finished with 21 doubles, 13 homers, and a.328/.356/.539 slash. Maidykov was right behind him at .301/.356/.454. With guys on base, Gui, Mellott, and veteran DH Pedro Guzman had guys to drive in.
Michael Buckley, suddenly relieved of his need to hit tougher right handed pitching, finished with 24 homers. He was a defensive mess, but…well…welcome to the club.
On top of this, when Barkin tore a groin bad enough to be lost for the rest of the year, young Keith Williams came on for the second time and found his sea legs. He played reasonable defense, and slashed .320/.354/.440 in July, then .345/.367/.483 in the first half of August before he strained his rotator cuff, and essentially missed the rest of the year.
Just as that was happening, though, the Krill claimed ex-Surfer Jim Vineyard from the waiver wire, and with the shortstop position now open, Vineyard slipped in and dropped a .292/.331..472 slash with four homers and 12 extra base hits in his 157 PA. His work with the glove was only middling, but all together, he made a huge difference.
The team plowed through the Heartland division, then continued to rake when the schedule turned to the Pacific. July saw the club go 16-11. August was even better at 18-11. Bikin was seven games out of a wild card spot. Not close enough to get terribly excited, but not far enough out that one couldn’t dream.
September
Cutting to the chase, September was a solid month, but not as good as it needed to be. The Krill posted another winning month, going 12-11, but they missed what would have been an unlikely postseason spin by two games, finishing on a 10-5 run, but posting a 9th-inning loss to Portland and a pair of close ones top Hawaii at the end of the string.
It was a close, but no cigar ending.
Alas.
Still, the club went toe-to-toe with the best baseball teams in the league (who aren’t named Nashville, anyway, and nearly pulled off the trick of the decade. One has to consider this 789 win season a feather in the cap for now.
Along the way, the front office has added several interesting parts, and has built the foundation of a young team who maybe just needs a couple big pieces to make a final push. One suspects they will bring a majority of the team back as insurance (since payroll after Wilson Andrade is gone will be in the low 70s), and use the free agency period as a shooting gallery to pick off things that might help best.
That’s the plan, anyway.
As always, though, we’ll see. The future is never certain.
