Madison Wolves 2032 Preview

Team, Division, League, Playoff, and all other comprehensive previews go here.
Spiccoli
Ex-GM
Posts: 1376
Joined: Fri Jun 23, 2017 4:24 pm
Has thanked: 123 times
Been thanked: 118 times

Madison Wolves 2032 Preview

Post by Spiccoli » Sat Jul 29, 2017 11:50 am

Image MADISON WOLVES 2032 PREVIEW – “Keep the Momentum”

Lead by Skipper Millard Davis and GM Chris Wilson, the Madison Wolves enjoyed a very successful season in 2031 with 90 wins, a 3rd place wild card finish and a ticket to the playoffs. However, the Wolves fell to Louisville in the first round, 3 games to 1, with the vaunted Wolves bats shutdown by the Sluggers.

The strength of the team will be the solid #1 & #2 aces in the Starting Pitching rotation and the high caliber offense in the one through five spots. The Bullpen has a few questions going in, mainly the closer spot, but there appears to quality arms in the reliever core to step up and take the role during the season.

STARTING PITCHING STAFF

Alfredo Granados - Signed as a Free Agent for $18.5M/year from Vancover, “Brainwave” enters the rotation with his 86 Career Wins and 3.62 ERA. Alfredo was outstanding last year at 18-8 and will turn the Wolves starting pitching into a dominant force.

Luis Soto – Providing a solid 1-2 Punch, 33 Year Old Soto teams up with Granados to provide as good #1 & #2 starters as there is in the league. More importantly, in a potential playoffs series, the ability of these pitchers to dominate a series will give the Wolves an edge against most opponents. After a shaky 2030 season with Montreal, Soto rebounded solidly last year and looks to keep that momentum.

Battling for the #3 spot should be sneaky crafty Brook McHall,Tommy Dietz and Marco Villegas. Based on raw talent alone, Villegas should have the #3 spot locked up, but he continues to struggle instead, putting up losing record in 5 of the last 6 seasons. On the other hand, don’t be surprised if Ricardo Ortiz earns a spot on the rotation. Ricardo had success in his limited service time in the BBA last year with a 4-1 record (2.81 ERA / 1.06 WHIP). Sometimes scout ratings don’t tell the whole story behind a player’s potential success.


RELIEVERS

Madison looks to fill the void left by the departure of Manny Vargas and his 36 saves to Carolina. The early indications are that Emilio Sanchez may slide over from his set up role last season (14 holds). However, Sanchez was called upon to close some games last year and struggled with 6 blown saves in 11 attempts. He may have a short leash if he struggles in the early going. Furthermore, he’s been shelled in spring training to this point.

Other solid candidates to fill out the late inning reliever roles are Pedro Chaves(2.62 ERA – 15 Holds),Reynado Limon (AAA), German Gomez (5.01 ERA and possiblyHector Diaz (AAA). Pedro definitely looks to be the lead candidate based on previous history.

The wild card of the rotation will beTomaz Suarez (4.34 ERA) who’s able to pull an emergency start and is a solid Middle Reliever.
The takeway from all this is that the Bullpen situation is definitely more fluid than the rock solid Starting rotation. Madison will need a player to emerge and grab the closer role and hope the other slots shake out on the way down.

POSITION PLAYERS

There’s no getting around it, the biggest surprise performance of 2031 BBA Season was the explosion of Rookie of Year Mons Raider and his 117 Stolen Bases. He broke a 41 year stolen base record held by Zebidiah Williams from 1990. Unfortunately for Raider, he's only around 1,050 SB behind Williams for the Career Record. However, there have been rumors floating around that he's entirely capable of swiping 200 bags in a season and it would only take one or two of those types of seasons to put him on pace to fly on by 1,185. He’s an amazing contact hitter with a great eye who consistently puts the ball in play and let’s his speed on the base path do the rest. Stretching ground balls into singles, turning singles/walks into doubles or triples by stealing bases at an incredible 87% percent. He’s only 21 and is positioned to terrorize pitchers and catchers for at least a decade or longer.

It doesn’t end there, following closely in Raider’s rearview mirror is Batting Champ and 2B’s leader, RF Steve Dempsey (.356 AGV, 62 2B, 80 SB). Only a player like Raider could prevent Dempsey from hitting leadoff. As it is, the Wolves have possibly the best 1-2 leadoff combo in the league. Dempsey definitely benefited from Mons's ability to get into scoring position by himself. Steve had 105 RBIs, probably with 80% of them coming from bringing home Raider.

Providing RBI production in the middle of the order will be DH/1B Porky Mick (.317 avg / 48 HRs / 153 RBI), C Luis Barrera (.291 / 24 HR / 90 RBI) and 1B/DH Dusty Rhodes (.302 / 17 HR / 99 RBI).

Anchoring the middle of the infield with Mons Raider is the talented SS Don Draper, able to play both 2B and SS, while hitting .345 last season and bringing home 84 runs.

Ageless veteran, 36 year old Mark Stuart was brought in from San Antonio this off season. Stuart has been a career .305 hitter, surpassing the .300 mark six times in the last ten years. At 35 years old last year, Mark set a career high in batting average (.330) and hasn’t showed any signs of slowing down yet.

With all the key position players returning for the Wolves, they should be a force in the league. Don’t count on the offense disappearing again in the playoffs this year. As long as the bullpen situation shakes itself out, the combination of both a top offense and pitching rotation should give Madison as shot of going deep into the playoffs this year.
Scott Piccoli GM Twin Cities

User avatar
ae37jr
BBA GM
Posts: 2980
Joined: Fri Feb 05, 2016 1:37 pm
Location: Davenport, FL
Has thanked: 40 times
Been thanked: 645 times

Re: Madison Wolves 2032 Preview

Post by ae37jr » Sat Jul 29, 2017 1:05 pm

This lineup, more then any in the BBA, can destroy an opposing pitching staff. The whole lineup is filled with high contact guys who take a lot of pitches and you can't strikeout. Then once they are on base, they'll run like crazy. An average game against Madison may feature more throws to first then pitches. A four game series with them will wear out your entire rotation.
Alan Ehlers
GM of the Twin Cities River Monster
Image

User avatar
7teen
BBA GM
Posts: 9806
Joined: Sun Apr 04, 2010 7:59 am
Has thanked: 223 times
Been thanked: 1135 times

Re: Madison Wolves 2032 Preview

Post by 7teen » Sat Jul 29, 2017 1:35 pm

Nice writeup. I'll have a Twin Cities' up tomorrow or Monday at the latest.

After a lot of down years, I have some high hopes for this team. Not sure we are quite Landis contenders but I think we should at least be contending for a post-season spot. The bullpen has some question marks for sure, especially with the lack of a shit down closer but I think a bullpen is the easiest thing to fix and piece together.
Chris Wilson

LB Surfers 95-96
FL Pac Champs: 95

Madison Wolves 99-2039
JL MW: 99-2009, 17, 20, 21
JL WC: 12
JL: 01, 04, 09, 12
FL Heartland: 32
FL WC: 31, 33
BBA Champs: 04, 09

Portland Lumberjacks 2040-
FL Pacific: 50
FL WC: 49, 51
FL Champs: 49, 51

Vic Caleca TN of the Year 2046

User avatar
7teen
BBA GM
Posts: 9806
Joined: Sun Apr 04, 2010 7:59 am
Has thanked: 223 times
Been thanked: 1135 times

Re: Madison Wolves 2032 Preview

Post by 7teen » Sat Jul 29, 2017 1:37 pm

ae37jr wrote:This lineup, more then any in the BBA, can destroy an opposing pitching staff. The whole lineup is filled with high contact guys who take a lot of pitches and you can't strikeout. Then once they are on base, they'll run like crazy. An average game against Madison may feature more throws to first then pitches. A four game series with them will wear out your entire rotation.
Definitely a unique build to a lineup I have in Madison. It isn't often you see the team score the most runs in a league while hitting the 3rd fewest homeruns. We did though have nearly 100 more hits than the next closest team and a team batting average over .010 higher than the next team. We may not hit for power often but we hit. And run. Haha
Chris Wilson

LB Surfers 95-96
FL Pac Champs: 95

Madison Wolves 99-2039
JL MW: 99-2009, 17, 20, 21
JL WC: 12
JL: 01, 04, 09, 12
FL Heartland: 32
FL WC: 31, 33
BBA Champs: 04, 09

Portland Lumberjacks 2040-
FL Pacific: 50
FL WC: 49, 51
FL Champs: 49, 51

Vic Caleca TN of the Year 2046

Spiccoli
Ex-GM
Posts: 1376
Joined: Fri Jun 23, 2017 4:24 pm
Has thanked: 123 times
Been thanked: 118 times

Re: Madison Wolves 2032 Preview

Post by Spiccoli » Sat Jul 29, 2017 7:02 pm

7teen wrote:Nice writeup. I'll have a Twin Cities' up tomorrow or Monday at the latest.

After a lot of down years, I have some high hopes for this team. Not sure we are quite Landis contenders but I think we should at least be contending for a post-season spot. The bullpen has some question marks for sure, especially with the lack of a shit down closer but I think a bullpen is the easiest thing to fix and piece together.
Thanks!

Yeah, if I had to pick a part of the team to be lacking, it would be the bullpen. It's the easiest to put a bandaid on. Twin Cities maybe has two, maybe three players that could start for the Wolves. Mostly likely the closer and set up guy. FYI - Alvarado is still on loan.
Scott Piccoli GM Twin Cities

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic

Return to “Previews”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 8 guests