Monday, July 27, 2015

Week Fifteen Recap (10-5): All-star shimmy. Just make it green, baby

ATLANTIC CITY SHARKS  586
VERACRUZ POSSE               560




Lineup Moves:  Kept Christain Yelich on as regular dropping the oft injured Josh Harrison.  Yelich is having a down year, but has good stats over the past month and looks like he could put up numbers similiar to last year.  Off day Waiver wire starters posted a decent +22 with David Murphy doing the most damage 18 in 4 starts.

Pitching Moves: Added Aaron Nola to regular rotation with solid results (30 points in two starts).  Added Jason Motte to bullpen with mostly positive results (14).

Conclusions:  Lineup is SET, baby.  Regulars posted 300+ points, albeit in the expanded timeframe, still a very satisfying performance.  Cano seems to finally be coming around and Franco is still tearing the cover off the ball.

Pitching staff is still in flux though.  Adding Nola to the regular rotation should help to stabilize the day to day cliff jumping exercise.  Bullpen needs a bit of work.  Overall the staff posted a respectable 266, going 10-6 with six saves in an expanded 18 starts.


Pitching Staff as currently constructed:

SP Felix Hernandez
SP Aaron Nola

RP Trevor Rosenthal
RP Kenley Jansen
RP Jeurys Familia
RP Joakim Soria
RP John Axeford
RP Carson Smith
RP Jason Motte


Tuesday, July 21, 2015

The All Star Boogie: Sandberg, Frenchin' and the flight of the fingerbird

balance between kickin ass and hugging and Sandberg never seemed to find it.  It's possible that behind closed doors and not in the dug out, or in the any public or private place where someone other than the players could see and interact with him that Ryno was a warm, generous soul who inspired confidence and focus.  Unlikely, but maybe

Monday, July 13, 2015

Week Fourteen Recap (9-5): Winning is just more fun, but..

ATLANTIC CITY SHARKS            391
NEW YORK METROPOLITANS   289


Lineup moves:  Off day waiver wire pickups did nothing.  Literally.  They posted a cumulative zero.  Josh Harrison injured again added Christian Yelich.  Overall, the group posted an uninspiring 177.

Pitching moves:  Waiver wire picks were awful this week as starters posted a combined 2-7 record.  Bullpen picked up the slack for the most part with 16 saves as the group overall posted a pedestrian 214.

Conclusion:  Its time to take a hard look at the roster design and perhaps make a few tweaks.  King Felix has been severely up and down and in a week like this one, if he would have pitched poorly, your looking at a possible 40 point swing.  Perhaps adding another frontline (or number #2) talent to the pitching staff might offset a poor week from the King.

Adding another starter, however, will limit roster flexibilty and really cut down on off day lineup opportunities.

Food for thought.


SOME Names to consider adding to the rotation:

Aaron Nola - he's been as advertised in the minors and should be pitching in the Bank any day now.  Might be worth a look his first time through the league.

Lance McCullers - another rookie, but this guy has frontline starter stuff and is playing for what looks like a division champ.  Lots of K's.  Check.  Good shot at the W.  Check and check.

Louis Severino - this guy is going to be great.  96+ fastball with crazy movement and a swing and miss combo of change and curve.  Cashman has been quoted as saying this guys "untouchable" so I'm thinking with all of the Yankees starting pitching problems, he very well could be pitching in the bigs this year.

Stephen Matz - if he's still available, this big left-hander might be the best of that group of young, fireballing starters the Mets are collecting.  Oh, did I mention he's a left-hander and pitching in Citi-Field.

Monday, July 6, 2015

Week Thirteen Recap (8-5): How the mighty have fallen... WHAT! So get back up.. It's get back up time.

TEAM MARGOT                      434
ATLANTIC CITY SHARKS     409


IT ain't over til the fat lady sings and I don't hear no singing, do you?

Lineup and Pitching Staff still a hair away from utter domination again.