2032.4 River Monsters Beat - Week 1 Update

[Spiccoli]

Twin Cities finishes the first week with a 5-2 record and was a blown save Grand Slam away from finishing with 6 wins. The week was highlighted by 3 complete game pitching gems from the #2, #3 & #4 starting spots and solid batting production from unexpected players. A struggling high price veteran continues his poor play from last year and the team leader wasn't much better. Here's a quick update on the highs and lows of the 1st week.

HOT

SP Reese Raynor lead the pitching parade this week with a 5 hit, complete game shut out. He pitched decently in his following game against Yellow Springs until the 7th inning, up 5-3, when he loaded the bases. The bullpen allowed all three runners to score, blowing the save and giving Raynor the loss.

SP Jose De La Cruz put together a 3 Hit Complete game shut out against Carolina. De La Cruz finished the game with only 101 pitches while issuing only 3 walks. He had the Change Up working, keeping the ball down and getting 13 outs by ground balls.

Wild Thing, Juan Jose Elizando defied the odds with a 3 Hit, 1 Run Complete Game.... while somehow issuing only 2 walks. Despite having electric stuff and top notch pitches, the whole team and stadium holds their collective breath when Elizando sends a pitch to the plate, since no one seems to know where it's going. Though it's too good to be true, if he can somehow regain some semblance of control, Juan Jose might be the free agent signing of the year. Most likely, we'll soon be seeing him sending pitches to the back stop soon.

Rookie Catcher, Gerald Gonzalez, hit .455 with 4 HR's in the first week. He also brought home 8 runs. Gerald has a league leading 7 extra base hits to date. Obviously such production is impossible to maintain, but if he can maintain consistent above average production, he'll be a surprise highlight in a below average TWC batting lineup.

Lead by speedsters, 3B Gonzales (4), SS Warehem (5), CF Harsnett (5) and 3B Limon (3), Twin Cities swiped 20 stolen bases in the first week, 5 more than the next team (1st - FL). Similar to Madison, the lack of a true power on the team means that small ball will be key to any offensive production this season.


NOT SO HOT

With Reese Raynor pitching well, the River Monsters were leading 5-3 against Yellow Springs in the 7th when Raynor left with the bases loaded, Alphonse Salvarani came in with one out to put out the fire and promptly gave up a Grand Slam to Rookie Carlos Garcia to put Yellow Springs up 7-5. Alphonse then set the whole stadium on fire by allowing 4 more runs. The Nine went on to secure the barn burner 12-9 as the bullpen continued the collapse. Hopefully not a sign of things to come from the reliever core.

$16M per year RF Juan Cruz's struggles from 2031 continued in the early going in 2032 by hitting .188 and a improbable .176 OPB. He's in the precarious position of being benched and missing out on his final year which has a vesting option of 450 plate appearances.

Team Leader, LF Ray Cooper was ice cold through 7 games, batting .167 with no home runs and 2 RBI's. Manager Jared Brown is ecstatic that the whole lineup contributed to a productive week, scoring 39 runs (2nd FL) and 15 HR's (1st FL) with little to no contributions from Cooper. However, the team definitely needs Ray to step up and continue his solid work from the last 2 years. There seems little doubt he'll emerge and break out, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Putting an end to his hot start, 2B Xue-Quin Man, hit the disabled list for 3-4 weeks with an oblique strain. His let his anger in himself show on his sleeve, upset that he's letting the team down. Switch hitting Jack Bates looks to fill in until his return.

For the first time since the team was founded three years ago, Twin Cities finishes a week with an overall record above .500. Sure it's only the first week and may it only last a week.... But the fans and owner will take it.

[ae37jr]

Wild Thing, Juan Jose Elizando defied the odds with a 3 Hit, 1 Run Complete Game.... while somehow issuing only 2 walks. Despite having electric stuff and top notch pitches, the whole team and stadium holds their collective breath when Elizando sends a pitch to the plate, since no one seems to know where it's going. Though it's too good to be true, if he can somehow regain some semblance of control, Juan Jose might be the free agent signing of the year. Most likely, we'll soon be seeing him sending pitches to the back stop soon.

Carolina is a great matchup for Elizando. Outside of Padilla, their lineup against lefties doesn't like to walk. The 8 other hitters average a 4.3 eye rating. So you could say it was the perfect storm for the tornado. I took a chance on Elizando a few years ago and have several similar(just not as extreme) pitchers. Some days he'll be you're favorite player, other days you'll hover over the "release player" button with a perplexed look on your face.

[aaronweiner]

My lineup doesn't actually like to do anything, as it turns out.

[Spiccoli]

Wild Thing, Juan Jose Elizando defied the odds with a 3 Hit, 1 Run Complete Game.... while somehow issuing only 2 walks. Despite having electric stuff and top notch pitches, the whole team and stadium holds their collective breath when Elizando sends a pitch to the plate, since no one seems to know where it's going. Though it's too good to be true, if he can somehow regain some semblance of control, Juan Jose might be the free agent signing of the year. Most likely, we'll soon be seeing him sending pitches to the back stop soon.

Carolina is a great matchup for Elizando. Outside of Padilla, their lineup against lefties doesn't like to walk. The 8 other hitters average a 4.3 eye rating. So you could say it was the perfect storm for the tornado. I took a chance on Elizando a few years ago and have several similar(just not as extreme) pitchers. Some days he'll be you're favorite player, other days you'll hover over the "release player" button with a perplexed look on your face.

Yeah, I figure if he can get a quality start once every 4 games, it'll be a good year for him.