Warehouse Wire 2039.05: Sosa the Opener

[bcslouck]

Alfredo Sosa has been mentioned a lot lately here at the Warehouse Wire. Between his POTM and his 1st All-Star bid, the RP has been deserving of the recognition. Or should we say, Opener.

Starting this week, he will start at least one game, maybe two, on a pitch count. In turn, Manuel Soliz and Takanori Goto have both been demoted to the bullpen in Long Relief and Follower rolls. Yes, that means the rotation is currently 4 men.

"The rotation hasn't been what it needs to be," said GM Brandon Slouck in a conference call. "Soto has been rock solid out of the 'pen, throwing multiple innings and up to 70ish pitches every couple days. We think he can help us get off the right foot in games while letting our better arms throw. We figure 60 pitches should allow him to throw every 2-3 days. So we aren't to worried about the 4 man rotation at the moment."

The team is 46-47 and within playoff contention despite the best efforts of the rotation to hinder that. The starting rotation is 14th in the JL at a whopping 5.59 ERA. When you take away Jorge Nevarez numbers, the team starting pitcher ERA balloons to 6.37. While the bullpen as been mediocre, it's ERA of 4.06 is much better and 7th in the JL. Sosa has been the bridge between the starters and back end of bullpen arms. Is that the smartest thing to do?

"We are making some moves that should help out there from within to deal with Sosa getting starts. We haven't managed to reach out to those guys yet on their fate so we'd like to keep those names private until they've all been notified."

Don't be surprised to see the team still pursue a move for either a SP or RP. A SP may put Sosa back in the bullpen. That isn't even guaranteed given the lack of production from certain players. Thiongo Muiru has taken a big step back in what the organization hope is just a sophomore slump. Any rebound from him would be a big boost to a team lacking rotation depth. Acquiring a RP may signal Sosa stays as an Opener. But given the bullpen is mediocre, that may be just as need as a new SP.

Either way, the team is desperate to get solid innings. They aren't ready to sell the farm for to make this happen, but they are open to smaller deals in hopes of some sort of help. The offense has picked it up since June 1st, scoring 5.3 runs per game. It remains to be seen if that production is something they can keep up. But if they can't get better innings out of the arms, it won't matter.

[RonCo]

Pitching in the BBA is like walking a tightrope over a crocodile pit. You do whatever you can to stay above the water.

[jleddy]

Pitching in the BBA is like walking a tightrope over a crocodile pit. You do whatever you can to stay above the water.

Yeah, and road trips to California is like breakdancing in a den of snakes...just ask Allan MacHugh.

Best of luck with the opener, I'll be interested to see if it fulfills your needs and expectations. I've used it to some degree of success off-line in single-player mode but I've yet to make it work in Boise...I'll keep trying though!

[bcslouck]

Noted it on the Sim Chatter. Team went 2-0 in his starts. He pitched 8.1 innings with a 3.24 ERA. Followers weren't great but offense keeps playing well. So for the time being, he will get 2 starts a week and to make sure that happens, I set the rotation to strict and I'm doing 7 day lineups, something I usually only do for DTD injuries.