2061 Nashville Bluebirds

[Krathan]

The Nashville Bluebirds enter the 2061 season as the reigning champions of the Brewster Baseball Association. The Bluebirds have been in the Monty Brewster Memorial Series three of the last four years, winning two titles. They have five consecutive division titles and thirteen consecutive playoff appearances. What does the 2061 season hold in store for Nashville? Let’s take a look.


Starting Pitching:

Last year, the Bluebirds had 6 pitchers who started at least 15 games. Two of those, including Barney Lindsay (17-7, 4.08) and Billy Kelly (8-3, 5.28), are no longer with the team. Kelly was replaced at the trade deadline last year by Phil Cole (6-3, 4.25), who pitched well after the trade.

The 2061 rotation looks like this.

Eric Stevens, a dominant right handed pitcher.
Mark Lolololo, a dominant left handed pitcher
Phil Cole, a former number 1 overall pick who has 15 years in the BBA with a career FIP- of 85 and has never had a FIP- higher than 97. He has had some negative development reports over the last year, but he is still a high quality pitcher, especially as a number 3 starter.
Bob Loblaw, a 40 rated starter who went 12-7 with an ERA of 3.95 in his first extended opportunity in the BBA.
Bin-ying Yen, a rookie who was absolutely dominant at the AA level last year.

Stevens and Lolololo will continue to be one of, if not the best 1 and 1A starter combinations in the league. Yen looks like he is going to be a star at the BBA level. He is not fully developed, but his ratings are already better than several teams’ number 1 starters. However, it is possible that the jump from AA to the BBA could cause some growing pains. Will he adjust quickly or will he struggle in his rookie campaign? Cole and Loblaw are the other question marks here. Can Loblaw repeat his excellent 2060 performance, or will he look more like his somewhat underwhelming ratings. Can Cole fight off Father Time and ride his knuckle ball to another productive season, or will the development lumps continue to roll in?

I have serious doubts that all three of those pitchers will come out on the negative side of those questions. It is likely that 4 or 5 of those pitchers are going to pitch well and give the Bluebirds a chance to win most nights.

Bullpen:

David Molina has a remarkable career FIP- of 54. He pitched 147.2 innings in 2061 and if the lesser Nashville starters can get into the 6th inning with a lead, Molina is going to make sure it stays that way.
Giustino Modica pitched 94.2 innings out of the pen in 2061 and was outstanding as well. Modica converted 24 saves with a FIP- of 79.
Glenn Dennis also returns to the bullpen for 2061. He struggled in 2060, but his career track record (FIP- of 93) says he is likely to be better this year than last.
Terence Harris was claimed off of waivers in April of 2060 and finished the year 4-0 with an ERA of 1.86 and a FIP- of 85.

There are some less impressive pitchers in the bullpen with the four mentioned here, but they won’t see many important innings. When the game is on the line, these pitchers will help make sure the Bluebirds come away with the win more often than not.

Offense:

The Bluebirds lost multiple starters from their 2060 squad. The most notable names are Wafid Bishr (5.5 WAR), and Juan Rivera (4.8 WAR).

Even with those two players gone, Nashville still has a lot of talent on their roster.

Chrissy Tingle returns as the starting CF when he is healthy. Tingle is an amazing defender with a career OPS of .386. He has a career wRC+ of 118, with his two highest season totals coming in the last two years.

Alfonso Gonzales will start in RF. He is a prolific power hitter, with 128 home runs and 371 RBI over the last 3 seasons. He has compiled a whopping 25.1 WAR in just over 3 seasons in the BBA.

The new full time 1B will be De-shi Kuo. Kuo made a strong impression in 71 games as a rookie last year, hitting 17 home runs with a wRC+ of 155.

Brooks Eliot will once again be the starting shortstop. Eliot is coming off of his best season, in which he hit .353 with 19 home runs, 112 RBI, and posted 6.2 WAR. All of those were career highs.

Colby Triska will once again man 2B. He is not a very good defender there, but his 47 home runs and 118 RBI, leading to a wRC+ of 164 and 6.2 WAR in 2060, make him an extremely valuable player.

Akeem Joffer, and his 78 stolen bases, returns to LF. He’s a good defender who has a career OBP of .358. Combined with his ability to seal bases, he is often in scoring position. He scored 102 runs in 2060 and figures to score many times in 2061 as well.

Francisco Calderon returns to the hot corner after an excellent rookie season, in which he won the Gillstrom. Calderon hit 29 HR, drove in 98, and posted 4.6 WAR. He looks to build on that in his sophomore campaign.

Fernando Sanchez looks like he will take over the DH duties, whether that is at the start of the season, or a few weeks into the year. Sanchez is the number 13 prospect in the BBA. He has immense power and should also be able to get on base with good contact and eye skills.

Michael Cantu is a defensive marvel behind the plate. He is also a captain in the clubhouse. Cantu might start the year in AAA, but I would expect to see him at the big league level before too long. Cantu won’t be a great hitter, but he won’t be a bad one either, at least once he develops a bit more.

The team also has some veteran bench players to provide depth and step in while a couple of the youngsters likely start the year in AAA. I could see the offense getting better as the year progresses because of that. However, it will still be good out of the gate.

The offense lost some great players, but this team is still going to score a lot of runs. Instead of creating holes in the lineup, the losses created small but noticeable nicks and scrapes in the paint.

This Nashville Bluebirds team is not quite as good as the last three, but it’s still very good. I would expect Nashville to battle with Twin Cities, but eventually pull away and win the Heartland with 106 wins. The Bluebirds will once again find themselves with an opportunity to try to win a title.

[jiminyhopkins]

What an interesting team. Someday, if they keep it up, they may be as good as the Liberty!

[BaseClogger]

Seems about right.

[Dington]

Spot on. I think we will be right around that 106 win mark.

[RT60]

Nicely done! I am constantly underestimating the number of wins they eventually get. I just add ten to whatever I was going to say.

[Knucklehead254]

What an interesting team. Someday, if they keep it up, they may be as good as the Liberty!

This team couldn’t even hold the Liberty’s jockstrap

[lordtoffee]

I'm very interested to see how Nashville integrates their prospects with the established stars. I have them at 103 wins.