Broken Bat - League Forum: IV.2

Post ID	Date & Time	Game Date

#90664	01/20/2023 8:53:15 am	May 3rd, 2058
5L1NK Joined: 06/10/2015 Posts: 296 Farmington Hills Cardinals Legends	Wowza, after clawing back to 8-9 for the first cycle and getting a much needed sweep of New London, back to back sweeps from Belleville and Livermore have me starting to sweat. Belleville truly has my number. The RNG noticed my comments on their pitching staff and made sure that my ass gets thoroughly kicked by them. 0-7 with a -31 RD so far and I wouldn't be surprised if I get swept again before interleague. 4 out of 5 starters have an ERA over 6 and my staff ace who just won a cy young is 0-4. Two rookies in the lineup haven't broken the Mendoza line so far and we're flirting with relegation consistently. Even our drafting has been sub par. There are dark clouds over Farmington Hills right now...

#90666	01/20/2023 12:41:16 pm	May 3rd, 2058
amalric7 Joined: 01/20/2016 Posts: 2257 New York Lancers V.4	The east is going to be a slugfest with the exception of Orlando. They're going to go bot in a few weeks and by the time an owner comes in to pick up the pieces it'll probably be too late. LOL, they're doing okay so far! We swept them in the first series of the season, but they then returned the favour. We had a nice start but a 3-7 run has kinda pumped the brakes, I'll still take it. We've also had a couple of nice draft picks, so I'm still optimistic.

#90673	01/21/2023 11:17:14 am	May 6th, 2058
5L1NK Joined: 06/10/2015 Posts: 296 Farmington Hills Cardinals Legends	Hahahaha. As you can probably tell, my predictive skills are as weak as my team right now. You are the object of my envy with Jurado and Bourne. 2 franchise level bats in back to back picks is a nice setup.

#90764	01/30/2023 10:38:10 am	Jun 8th, 2058
5L1NK Joined: 06/10/2015 Posts: 296 Farmington Hills Cardinals Legends	What an emotional roller coaster. It's a miracle we managed to come out of divisional play with a 23-27 record. I've been absolutely pummeled by Belleville and Livermore going 3-17 against them. Somehow Lakeville has shown me mercy going 5-5 with us but New London and Provo are the only teams my guys show up to play against. My team as been swept 4 times already and the highest i've had in a season since 2050 is 5 times, we're well on pace to break that record with the trajectory of this ball club. We're the 2nd worst offense in the entire league, and it's highly debatable that we could be the worst. Apparently we can't hit against a lefty to save our lives and glancing at the rotations in the east, we will have 18 more games facing left handed starters in interleague which is gonna wreck us. Pitching has been the only bright spot and even that's pretty dim. Our ERA may be top half of the league but our FIP in near the bottom, meaning our gloves are bailing us out. We walk way too many guys and barely strikeout anyone. Control, which is the attribute I try to focus on in my pitching staff, has been suspect this season so far with us having the second lowest strike %. I guess this should have been expected with 8 rookies on the major league roster. The blitz of interleague is going to push my roster to the limits and basically be our sink or swim test. I love and hate Interleague due to it's 5 games a day pace. It means any injuries are very costly and 2 days can put you 10 games ahead or behind someone. From now until Feb 18th, this league has the potential to either be turned upside down or set in stone. Struggles aside, I'm excited to find out!

#91024	03/06/2023 1:32:30 pm	Oct 22nd, 2058
amalric7 Joined: 01/20/2016 Posts: 2257 New York Lancers V.4	Well that was interesting. Didn't see the East St. Louis coming through to win the West, given how Livermore have performed all season, and given how close Farmington Hills have been all season. The West was the class of IV.2 by some distance - 4th place Lakeville would have won the East by two games. Such is life in Broken Bat, and baseball generally. We managed a comfortable 3rd place (we actually led the division for a point down the stretch), despite a -38 RD. Hitting was solid as usual, pitching was a mess as usual. Hitting will be an adventure going forward, after we cleaned house before the season ended: longtime leadoff man Meyer (.299/.378/.434 career hitter), 35, is gone; longtime cleanup hitter Leon (180 HR in five seasons), 34, is gone; longtime #5 hitter Ledesma (133 HR in five seasons), 35, is gone. Three mainstays of the lineup, and all were flyball hitters. We do have some depth with the bats, but those are some major holes to fill. Longtime 2B/OF Alonso may also be gone, as he turns 34 at the flip and has declined over the last four seasons while piling up GIDP (52 in four seasons). Had a great career though, and for a longtime was my best draft pick in about ten seasons. Pitching can only go up, as usual. We have a ton of young arms, half of which are just starting their majors development, which usually equates to growing pains. Longtime RP Watts may be gone, as he also turns 34 at the flip: 699 games, 86 holds (one off a tie for 3rd in team history), 3.95 ERA - not a bad career for a FA signing. Interesting times ahead.

#91050	03/10/2023 9:03:18 am	Nov 2nd, 2058
5L1NK Joined: 06/10/2015 Posts: 296 Farmington Hills Cardinals Legends	Another Season of being the highest ranked team to not achieve promotion. We really turned it around in interleague and had momentum going into the final 50 but Belleville still had my number and stole first right out from under Livermore. Incredible turnaround for Knor from last season and a well deserved promotion. I guess my earlier terrible prediction flipped, West was the slugfest with 5th place getting demoted with a winning record. I'm happy Lawrence beat out Orlando cause then I'd feel even more like an idiot. The awards were interesting, both Pitcher awards went to relievers and i can't say it's a shock. 50 fewer quality starts and a higher league ERA this season made this year very offense focused. this year felt a lot like my releivers were bailing out my starters poor performance. Last year out rotation accounted for 75 of our wins, this year it was only 49. I'm hoping we can return to our 2057 pitching numbers and put 2058 as an outlier season. We heavily featured 6 Rookies and it was quite interesting: Montejo MR1 (9-2, 2.65 ERA,RPOTY) Lang MR2 (7-2, 3.73 ERA) Sanford SP5 (9-12, 5.61 ERA) Holden SS/LR (1-8, 8.87 ERA) Copeland OF (.239,7HR-54RBI) Espinoza 1B (.247,11HR-66RBI, Gold Glove) Lang and Montejo definitely got a boost from the defense as their FIP was garbage but I'm not complaining with their success so as long as our D remains solid they should as well. Copeland and Espinoza were underwhelming on the offensive side of the ball but hopefully next season will allow them to grow into decent hitters. A Rookie Gold glove isn't anything to scoff at so I'm satisfied with Espinoza's rookie campaign. Holden and Sanford tested my patience, more so Holden. I'm hoping I can throw out this years performance an he can carve out a role in the staff next season. Sanford is out of the rotation and will be a lefty out of the pen, just not sure where his talents will be best suited, especially after Lang's success. I have a fair bit of excitement going into 2059. Virgil and Katz are ready for the show so my best on paper rotation is assembled, 2060 is when they should be fully developed but I'm leaning to the optimistic side for their performance in 2059. I should only need to break in one rookie hitter next season so I have an expectation that we will be competing for promotion instead of spending most of the season trying to avoid relegation. 2059 league outlook West Burnsville Dragons OR Chula Vista Padres Livermore Generals Farmington Hills cardinals Lakeville Bears Rohnert Park Rebels West Allis Devil Dogs East Lakeland Vikings OR Memphis Redbirds Orlando Orcas New York Lancers Stillwater Stallions North Bergen Polar Bears Duluth Yeti I won't even bother with analysis or predictions for fear or reprisal from the RNG. All I will do is agree with Amalric, interesting times ahead indeed.

#91054	03/10/2023 6:06:08 pm	Jan 13th, 2059
TheGmEra Joined: 04/30/2015 Posts: 36 Inactive	Won my division in v3 west and now im here. Im ready to have some human compitition this time as 4 of the 5 teams were bots. We are going to have some fun this season 5l1ink

#91198	03/28/2023 2:28:42 pm	Mar 25th, 2059
TheGmEra Joined: 04/30/2015 Posts: 36 Inactive	Nice 15-13 win to start things off

#91308	04/17/2023 2:12:15 pm	Jun 9th, 2059
5L1NK Joined: 06/10/2015 Posts: 296 Farmington Hills Cardinals Legends	And here we are, out of the fire of division play and into the frying pan of interleague. It's been a tale of 3 teams so far R1: 5-12, -30 RD R2: 11-6, +15 RD R3: 8-8, +25 RD Abysmal start to the season with my stud closer blowing saves right out the gate. The pitching I take pride in was an utter embarrassment. Hitting was and still is lackluster but it's not much of a surprise. Still can't hit lefties if our lives depend on it and our 1 run games and extra innings games are gifts to the opposing team. The team is the antithesis of clutch. we certainly have positives but they are far outweighed by negatives. ending off a game below .500 is a miracle when my team can't establish consistency. Just like 2057 it appears Burnsville has taken the early lead and will likely establish further dominance, ironic considering Lakeland is back in the east and they appear to be a dominant force once again. even better news is I get to start off interleague against them. We're still trying to get the sour taste out of our mouths from getting swept by Lakeville and luckily splitting a series against Burnsville. One thing I will say is I'm very excited to see if the low RA in the east is due to dominant pitching or weaker hitting. I'm hoping to see a lot of pitcher's duels against Orlando, New York, Lakeland and especially North Bergen (187 RA is some elite pitching and D) Loads of fun ahead!

#91616	05/25/2023 6:19:21 am	Nov 2nd, 2059
amalric7 Joined: 01/20/2016 Posts: 2257 New York Lancers V.4	New York and Farmington Hills are moving on up! The home advantage was fortunately in favour of the East this season, and we went 3-1 there in taking the series in the full seven games. Won the first two at home, lost the next two on the road before taking game five, then promptly lost game six at home - it really was a series that could have gone either way. But on to more important matters, and on to LLIII after six seasons away. I'd hope results are better this time around, but I'm not putting on any wagers!