Broken Bat - League Forum: V.7

Post ID	Date & Time	Game Date	Function

#50144	06/13/2017 1:01:10 pm
Benchwarmer Joined: 01/06/2015 Posts: 445 Inactive	Yeah, I'm surprised at how low NY is right now. I really thought you'd bounce back like I did. As I expected, we got the pep back in our step and have rebounded to the top. We'll see what interdivisional games bring, on paper St. Clair looks like it should be a juggernaut, but the stats seem to say otherwise and don't really worry me. Makes me wonder if interdivisional may be easier than I think.

#50204	06/15/2017 5:56:36 am
amalric7 Joined: 01/20/2016 Posts: 2241 New York Lancers V.4	You guys are surprised? Welcome to my world. I thought after going 3-2 against Everett we were turning things around, especially after we won the first game against Beverly Hills last night. But we lost the next four, with the bullpen blowing up in spectacular fashion (after having been rock-solid thus far) with three straight leads blown in the last 2-3 innings to end the series. Not that I was completely surprised - we always struggle against the Hornets, usually for no good reason. I think my players see the bright lights of Hollywood and break curfew to party the night(s) away, because I can't put their performances there down to anything else! Inter-division has been fine for us in the past, just the one losing season and that was one game under at 29-31 a few seasons back. But Beverly Hills and Olympia are always bogey teams for us - must have been all those Missoula games keeping our record up (but I doubt it)! Pitching has cooled a little, ERA up to 3.51 from 2.31 just a week or two back. And although the hitting has improved it has been marginal and is still our biggest issue by some distance: .243 AVG from what, .221? Still very poor. Losing Ortiz for the last 3 games last night might have really cost us, and he's out for two more, but he still hasn't gotten untracked - hitting about 50 points below his usual LLV average, and his doubles are down too. Jorgensen is hitting 10 points below what he did last season, in LLIV. We're last in the league in OBP. The guys who take walks aren't taking walks, and the guys who don't...still don't. Burkhart has been our one saving grace, but we're still waiting for big-money signing Tan to show up: he's hitting 100 points below his LLVI average this season. And I doubt the 15' wall in left field is the reason, given the 35' walls in his previous home stadium (something of the dimensions of either Petco, or Yellowstone). We have too many lefties who can't hit LHP (to be fair most in this game can't) and too many righties who can't hit RHP. Plus some who can't hit either! Hard to blame young guys with 13 Hitting for not hitting when the 'studs' with 17-19 hitting can't do it either. But hey, sure we'll turn it around in the next 100 games...cough

#50574	06/29/2017 6:25:17 pm
Benchwarmer Joined: 01/06/2015 Posts: 445 Inactive	Interesting, I am the only team above .500 in the East at the moment, everyone else is .500 or below. I guess that means the West is getting the better of us in interdivisional play.

#50864	07/08/2017 2:06:46 pm
Benchwarmer Joined: 01/06/2015 Posts: 445 Inactive	Well, well, well. Look who is back in second place after sweeping my guys. Should be a fun run to the end of the season.

#50910	07/09/2017 11:48:13 pm
JJNZ Joined: 12/09/2014 Posts: 1583 Yakima Monster III.3	Good to see, although Bowie's built up a fairly good little buffer there. Will watch with interest from the sidelines!

#50913	07/10/2017 5:46:07 am
amalric7 Joined: 01/20/2016 Posts: 2241 New York Lancers V.4	Heh, that Bowie sweep was a pleasant surprise! Was away in Amsterdam last week so could only do basic stuff on my phone, and even then was lucky if I could make any changes after the first game each night. Had to wait until the following morning to check the remaining scores. But that was very much out of the blue - we're just 10-10 for our last twenty games, if you exclude the Bowie series. We have improved in the second half of division games with a 14-10 record, but after that appalling start at 21-29 we're still under .500 at 35-39. Not sure why we can't win more in our division, when us and Bowie were the only two East teams with a plus record against the West (NY 34-26, BOW 36-24, all the rest were below). Ortiz eventually broke out of his half-season slump, all numbers back to previous levels, and Jorgensen and Tan have come around too. Our team AVG is up to .266, or 45 points higher than it was in early season. Those big walls I put up in my home park in the offseason (particularly in LF) might actually have hurt me, as most of my hitters have better road AVGs and the better home hitters are the switch-hitters and lefties. The bad luck in 1-run games evened out, and we've climbed from dead last to 3rd overall in OBP. But we have too many bad starts, its like a theme, too many guys over the seasons who haven't gotten untracked until the halfway point, and its not like you can do anything to change that apart from chopping and changing, or riding things out. Had no thought whatsoever of contending after our start, just wanted to turn things around and get back up the table to safety. And yet that Bowie sweep suddenly had us only 8 games back! But with just 26 games left I very much doubt we have a shot, and in fact I'm already considering putting the youngsters in and looking to the future. Will see how tonight goes against the Hawks. All tight in the West, Everett the favourites at this stage but only 8 games separate the top five!

#50921	07/10/2017 4:39:25 pm
amalric7 Joined: 01/20/2016 Posts: 2241 New York Lancers V.4	Never fails, post anything and you tempt fate - Ortiz is now out for 10 days. And I also jinxed Everett who have now lost four straight and dropped out of the lead in the West. Same old...

#50953	07/11/2017 4:16:29 pm
Benchwarmer Joined: 01/06/2015 Posts: 445 Inactive	Hey, look, the magic number has appeared. 12 games and counting.

#50956	07/11/2017 5:45:33 pm
amalric7 Joined: 01/20/2016 Posts: 2241 New York Lancers V.4	Make that 11. You're good now BW, no catching. We've been very average in the division all season, and it was only our inter-division success which took us out of danger - which is funny, because the West dominated the East outside of our two teams, as I said before. I'm going to have to review at season's end where it all went wrong (or right, might have been worse). Will start throwing out my underwhelming young arms for more development (ie. getting shelled). They've all grown nicely this season but the results have been worse than I'd expected. Couple of the young hitters really need to step up next season, been some poor showings there too. Still, can't wait for the flip, new season = new hopes!

#50997	07/13/2017 4:27:00 am
amalric7 Joined: 01/20/2016 Posts: 2241 New York Lancers V.4	Down to the last cycle, five series left. Bowie's magic number is down to 9, with New York 8 games back. Still trying not to contend but took 2 of 3 from the Blue Crabs last night even with some of the kids in for game three, so we've evened up our season series at 8-8: 3-7 in the first half, 5-1 since. I'll be shocked if the last series of the season doesn't end 2-2, its always around .500 between us. No idea how we can play evens with the best team in the division (league?) and yet just 33-35 against everyone else. Crazy.