Charm City 2058.6 - Johnny Lovell Player Profile

[DaveB]

Quick question. Which pitcher has the second lowest WHIP on the Charm City Jimmies? If you guessed Johnny Lovell you would be correct. What a ride it's been for Lovell and his current success this season. Lovell was originally signed to a minor league deal after being discovered tossing hockey pucks in the streets with the Omaha Hawks (Yeah I had to do a double take on that as well) way back in 2041. Lovell was apart of the rebranding of the Omaha organization to the Cyclones and was traded to the Edmonton Jackrabbits back in 2046. Fast forward to 2049 and Lovell was claimed off waivers by your Charm City Jimmies by our former GM. Lovell finally made his big league debut in 2050 appearing in 50 games posting a 4.40 ERA and 95 ERA+. In 2051, Lovell was able to ascend the depth chart as our setup man by the time 2052 closed. He did that by posting a 3.16 ERA with a 151 ERA+. Lovell looked to be a solid linchpin for the Jimmies in the near term until a bomb was dropped.

Lovell was traded to the Boise Spuds along with Gary Allen in a theft of a trade that saw Héctor Silva, and 4 prospects brought over to the Jimmies. Silva has been pretty good for us, but this story isn't about him. In 2052 with Boise Lovell struggled with a 5.08 ERA and a 90 ERA+ and being released at the end of the season. 2053 saw Johnny go to the independent Sydney Sharks where he didn't appear in any games. 2054 saw Lovell sign with the Tokyo Pearls and play the entire season with the A ball Shanghai Catbirds going an impressive 19-0 with a 1.54 ERA starting 28 games. After resigning with Tokyo Lovell made his way to AA where he was name the SABL reliever of the year while pitching for the class AA Bogota Caballeros Blancos. In 2056 saw Lovell return stateside signing a minor league deal with the Omaha Cyclones. 2056 saw Lovell continue a string of very good pitching posting a 1.73 ERA with 27 saves for AAA Lincoln Loggers. Unfortunately Omaha didn't see enough from Lovell as he became a minor league free agent. Thinking his recent success would lead to a job in 2057, Lovell waited...and waited...and waited. Pondering retirement as the season had started Lovell received a call from a familiar team. The Charm City Jimmies. "We had Johnny back in 2051 and were expecting to use him in the setup role in 2052 until we had the big deal to move Gary Allen's contract off the team and get an unknown Hector Silva. We kind of lost track of him after that. In 2057 we were reviewing players on the free agent market to see if anyone would be a good fit in case of injury possible future usage and noticed him on the market. I reached out to our scouting department to see what they thought and they felt he would be a solid fit." said Assistant GM Chris Bennett. Lovell signed a deal with the Jimmies on May 27th, 2057 with a 160K signing bonus. Lovell raised some eyebrows amongst Jimmies management posting a 2.45 ERA with a 163 ERA+. We knew Johnny had a very good fastball/curveball combination from our time with him in the earlier this decade, what we didn't know was how much heavier of a ball he was throwing from an improved command of both of those pitches. We saw movement out of his stuff that we never had seen before" added Bennett. The success in 2057 saw Lovell added to the Jimmies 40 man roster with an eye towards the 2058 opening day roster. "Once I was added to the 40 man roster I knew I had a good chance at sticking on the major league roster because I'm out of minor league options and they would've risked the chance of losing me. I spoke with Coach Medina and he told me that management really liked what they saw with Annapolis last year and that they don't like letting players go without a return. This gave me some confidence to keep doing what I was doing and I've felt the best on the mound that I have in quite some time" said Johnny Lovell.

Through 26 games so far in 2058 Johnny Lovell has been a very solid piece out of our bullpen. He's posted a 3-1 record with a 2.08 ERA striking out 36 in 43.1 innings while giving up only 1 homer. "Johnny has been terrific for us. He's a guy who you love to see come into the game in tight situations as he's just not rattled" said pitching coach Juan Paredes. Not rattled indeed. Lovell this season has stranded an impressive 94.1 % of inherited base runners. "When I first came up back in 2051 I was rattled, by 2057 I was almost out of the BBA and ready to head home to Surrey British Colombia and join my family in the advanced manufacturing field to help provide for my family. I'm trying to live in the moment and enjoy every game I play because you never know when it might be your last" said Lovell as our interview finished. It's been a journey for Johnny Lovell from being discovered tossing hockey pucks in the streets to pondering retirement to key member of the 2058 Charm City Jimmies bullpen.

[BaseClogger]

A story of volatile ratings that doesn’t seem unfathomable in the real world.

[trmmilwwi]

Great writeup, it was a fun read. Age limits certainly would have affected that 19-0 but still impressive at any age down there.