2052-0004: Talons Heroes and Zeros - The Hitters

[jiminyhopkins]

Phoenix, AZ--

When its crunch time for articles, you know its gonna be a bunch of lazy content to fill out the requirements. So here we present the Heroes and Zeros of the Talons hitters.

HEROES

3B Steven Collins III
Hall of Famers gonna Hall of Fame, we guess. A 5.1 WAR season for the 35 year old veteran proves he is still firing on all cylinders. .326/.392/.445 slash with 18 stolen bases and a +2.5 ZR for the old man at third base. Super popular with the fans and one of the hardest grinders on the team. WOuld have done even better were it not for a three week DL stint in June.

C Ichizo Sugiyama
One month on the DL in April and rigorous management of playing time the rest of the way meant that Sugi only saw 395 at bats, but that was still enough for the veteran backstop and former ROY winner to amass nearly 4 WAR after a .281/.377/.514 campaign, a=for the best OPS+ since his rookie year.

LF/1B Brad Parkinson
Brad had the season of his life in 2052, and it was refreshing to finally see the talented Arizona native finally live up to his ratings while playing for his home team. 49 home runs, 135 RBI, 20 stolen bases, and 4.2 WAR were the totals he put up, and that WAR total was notable because it pulled his career WAR from the negatives all the way up to 2.2!

DH's Pankratz Isekenmier and Werner McConnell, Jr.
After McBride went down, and then SP/DH Don Jaramillo got hurt, the Talons turned to their legendary Single A team to find some DH's. Werner and Pankratz combined to form quite the duo toward the end of the season, with Isekenmier at .353/.395/.575 in 40 games and McConnell at a crazy .372/.400/.703 in 45 games. They combined for 3 WAR in a little more than two months of full-time platoon action.

ZEROS

1B/DH Ernest McBride
Yeah we said it. His fractured knee in April pretty much derailed the Talons' whole season, which depended on a massive offense to win games with a below average pitching staff. At first the Talons were hoping he would opt out of his contract, but what with the new, higher salary cap, he might as well opt in. Why not? 1 at bat for the Talons next year will get you 28 million dollars. Do the math, bro.

2B Bing-de Zhao
The former Rockville Pikemen star was derailed by 5, count em, 5 DL stints this season and spent most of the first third of the season batting below .200. That plus a -2.4 ZR total at first and second base, where he is supposedly rated 10 and 8 respectively, meant that he was nowhere worth 11 million dollars.

Don't worry, there will be many more Zeros in the pitching article!

[Jwalk100]

Bing-de Zhao injured himself picking up the pen to sign the contract.

[Dington]

Yeah I counted my blessings when he was a Bluebird. Only got hurt once I think.