2064.14 - The Fruits of Dev Lab

[R.Umali]

Ert Plabes, director of the Development Lab at Northwestern University, was preparing his morning matcha and looking forward to the pros coming up from the South Side. It was a good year for the Black Sox, and even Plabes attended a few games. Previous years he had often sent an assistant, usually a grad student, for observation.

But he had gotten to know a bunch of the players: Timofei Gadomsky spent parts of 3 off-seasons up at Evanston, and a handful cycled through for a couple years, including Tony Cochran and the affable Adam Hines, up-and-comer Jeff Feagin, and the up-and-came Forrest Rockburn. All were great to work with and certainly different from the college athletes with whom he usually works, at least in mindset. Players like Forrest and Feagin were pretty much the same age as many as his usual charge, yet Forrest especially was mentally still in high school. Some, like Anbar bin Ubaid, Norihisa Kobayashi were truly young and barely out of secondary school.

Ert whisked his drink and looked at last year's results. They did well, 6 out of the 12 Black Sox participants posted real gains. How did they do in the season?

1. Jeff Feagin (21, 2B)
Successfully completed training to improve his quality of contact.

In 2063, he hit above .300 in Short-A and Single-A before going into the Dev Lab. He spent quite a while in Double-A Peoria where he slashed .251 / .331 / .544 over 60 games. Promoted to Triple-A Rockford, he slashed .293 / .355 / .532 over 50 games, clearly improving and earned a call-up. That was the plan all along but it can be argued that he should've been called up earlier to be eligible for the playoffs. The Black Sox regular 2B, António Martínez, slashed .229 / .250 / .229 over 11 playoff games. Their regular 3B, Richard Egan, had a some good games against the Sluggers (6-for-21) but went cold against the Bluebirds (2-for-17).

In 10 September games with the Black Sox, Feagin went 13-for-31 with 3 home runs (.419 / .486 / .839). He was a major reason the Black Sox won the Frick Heartland.

2. José Easton (24, 1B)
Successfully completed training to improve his infield defense.

Easton spent the entire 2063 in AAA-Rockford and hit very well: .305 / .374 / .532 with 30 HR. There was no place for him. The Black Sox had Timofei Gadomsky (.294 / .313 / .477), Enrique Caballero (.245 / .333 / .396), Lysander Ruvelas (.279 / .325. / .454) covering 1B and DH.

Easton spent sometime at 2B:

2063: 592.1 innings 10 E 34 DP .970 PCT 4.98 RNG -11.3 ZR .892 EFF
2064: 126.0 innings 02 E 12 DP .974 PCT 5.36 RNG -03.1 ZR .795 EFF

Consider ZR is cumulative, the only real improvement is in RNG, and that's probably marginal at best. But his bat still lives: .322 / .385 / .491.

3. Timofei Gadomsky (26, 1B)
Successfully completed training to improve his strength and conditioning.

In 2063, Gadomsky played 153 games, suffering only 2 very minor injuries.
In 2064, Gadomsky appeared in all 162 games and all 11 playoffs games for the Black Sox.

4. Tony Cochran (24, LF)
Outstandingly completed training to improve his two-strike approach.

This was Cochran's first full year with the Black Sox, and he did not disappoint. He slashed .296 / .367 / .515 with 33 HR, driving in 97 and scoring 90. Plabes remembers the recommendation from two years ago. He had written to the old trainer, Bhujablin Padmesh: "I don't think he's ever going to hit for average. The upside: I do think you have a 30-home run guy in your hands. At the BBA level." He was proven both wrong and right.

In 2064, Cochran struck out 113 times in 643 PAs. That's 17.6%, better than he's ever posted - even as a member of the Pfizer Blues High School All-Star team. In short stints with the Black Sox 2062 and 2063, it was 27.7% and 35.7% respectively.

5. Juan Brown (21, CF)
Outstandingly completed training to improve his quality of contact.

In 2063, the 2060 2nd round supplemental pick appeared in 132 games at Single-A Huntsville and slashed .311 / .351 / .489.

He took a step forward this year in Double-A Peoria, hitting .323 / .356 / .525 with 25 HR in 123 games.

With CF Dan Morris most likely heading to free agency, there may be some room to sneak this guy's bat in the Black Sox lineup and a hit to the outfield defense.

6. Odysseus Katsourinis (18, C)
Odysseus spent the entire year in the International Complex. No stats are available.

-----
Ert tabbed over to the rosters for all the teams in the organization. A dizzying list annotated by the new team trainer. The new team trainer, Sojuro Ikeda. Ikeda was nothing if not thorough.

From this sprawl, Plabes began marking recommendations: Sihâb Hayreddîn, Jin-guo Jing, ... .

[mragland]

Ert Plabes must be an anagram. I just can't figure out for what. Rep Tables, Splat Beer...

[R.Umali]

Ert Plabes must be an anagram. I just can't figure out for what. Rep Tables, Splat Beer...

I love a good anagram but Ert Plabes is not one, at least not intentionally. The name was one made up by my son when he was quite young and it has stuck in my head ever since.

[chicoruiz]

Ert Plabes must be an anagram. I just can't figure out for what. Rep Tables, Splat Beer...

I love a good anagram but Ert Plabes is not one, at least not intentionally. The name was one made up by my son when he was quite young and it has stuck in my head ever since.

“Best Plaer”? So close…