37.14 Quick Thinking: Sim #3

[crobillard]

The winners and losers on the Jackrabbits from sim #3:

The Good

1B Christophe Claudel - 5 for 14/1 2B/1 HR/3 RBI/3 BB - He was just claimed off of waivers and in his debut with the Jackrabbits he reaches base in all five at bats. Two on a walk, two singles and a homerun. His very first at bat was a homerun. With a big injury to a starter this sim, Claudel made a compelling case to put him in the lineup.

CF William Wood - 9 for 22/4 2B/4 HR/7 RBI/5 BB - According to OOTPOU, he had the second best performance of any batter this sim. He's so good. He may have heard the rumors about being on the trading block before the sim lol. First game of the sim he walloped the Stars' pitching with two homeruns and a single.

C Eric Fabre - 10 for 18/1 2B/1 3B/2 HR/7 RBI/3 BB - He continues to tear it up in April. This probably wont last, but Edmonton will be happy to have this extra production. The concern with Fabre is his two passed balls already for the season. He had 11 last year. If he continues this offensive production though I can't complain.

IF George Bluth - 7 for 22/4 BBs/6 SBs - This is certainly unexpected. Bluth is hitting way over his head right now. All seven hits were singles. Bluth was never expected to contribute very much with his bat. He was only here for that sweet defensive combo with Dong-soo Chon. This makes me very happy.

Jackrabbits' pitching - WOW. A 1.43 ERA for the sim. This will likely be the best sim we have all year in regards to pitching. The entire bullpen didn't even give up a run. That's seven pitchers not giving up a run in 18.1 innings. Moving Hiroyuki Rin to the closer spot proves to be a solid move.


The Bad

SS Dong-soo Chon - 1 for 20/1 Error - He's really just there for defense, but he can't just stand at the plate and hope to get on base. He's 5 for 50 with 11 walks on the season. I hope this is just a slump because I was definitely hoping for something in the 200 range for batting average. He's .187 on his career though, so he might be a regular in this spot this season. His last nearly full season at SS was with Des Moises in 2035 though and he had a +11.7 ZR with six errors at short. That year he had a 2.2 WAR. He will need to perform up to those levels, otherwise if the offense slumps he may be the first one replaced.

Luis Soto's 3B Defense - 2 Errors - The resistance for keeping Steven Collins III down in AAA is floundering. Felix Arrojo's offense has been atrocious. Soto has been better, but his two errors in one game this season will not quiet the whispers of Collins' call up away. I may move him to second, but his defense isn't really better there and I'd prefer Bluth-Chon to help get our pitchers some double plays.


The Ugly

OF Declan Crauen broke his elbow and is out for 8 months. The Jackrabbits have some depth, so they should be able to overcome the loss, but I was really hoping Crauen would break out this season or I could deal him. He totally looks like he just needs a change of scenery to tear up the baseball, but we wont get to see that this year.

RP Arturo Lopez strained his rotator cuff and will be out for 3-4 weeks. Pretty lucky here with just the strain, but Lopez is one of the best pitchers in the bullpen so this is a bigger loss than it may look like. Probably means Wen Huang gets more time on the mound which makes me sick.

[recte44]

Chon is soooo frustrating good luck with that.

[bcslouck]

I'd say if you think the 9-7 (.563) start is legit, bring up Collins. He's ready enough and will boost your lineup. Though it may be too early to make a call like that. Didn't think he should of been up last year since he didn't need to be yet and the team wasn't going anywhere. And it's still too early to tell if this one is or isn't. But I've been told while you can't win a division in April, you certainly can lose it.

[crobillard]

Chon is soooo frustrating good luck with that.

Yeah, I can totally see how he can be frustrating. If he can just give me that excellent defense I think I can be okay with his terrible bat. I'll never be happy with it of course, but if we're getting more double plays out of him then that's probably a good thing? Gosh, let's hope so because I have no idea how I am going to move things around otherwise. I really don't like any other options as starters.

I'd say if you think the 9-7 (.563) start is legit, bring up Collins. He's ready enough and will boost your lineup. Though it may be too early to make a call like that. Didn't think he should of been up last year since he didn't need to be yet and the team wasn't going anywhere. And it's still too early to tell if this one is or isn't. But I've been told while you can't win a division in April, you certainly can lose it.

This well describes the conundrum I am in. I have one more year of Collins in the minors. If I call him up, I feel like I should keep him up. I have no idea if this 9-7 start is legit though and I would really prefer to keep him down for the entire year. He's just starting to tear up AAA pitching. He wont see major league pitching in this sim or probably the next, but May is probably now or never time where I want to make a decision whether to go for broke. If one of these scrubs I have at third could hit a little better than this could make my decision a lot easier. Really rooting for Luis Soto, a guy I didn't even expect to bring back this offseason.