Could Chapter Four have possibly gone worse than it did for the boys in spotted caps? I'm hard-pressed to think of a way that it could. Not only did we suffer our first losing chapter (11-13) of the season, but the despicable Blazers of the South played miles above their heads and finished the chapter with a BDBL-best record of 21-3.
Needless to say, the division race is now over, as we are now 14 games behind with two chapters remaining. All that is left for us now is to play out the string, try our best to avoid those nagging overusage penalties, and prepare for an OLDS showdown with either the Blazers or Undertakers. Both teams are on pace to win more than 120 games this season, so it hardly matters which team we face. We will be the heavy underdog either way.
The Good
Our offense continues to excel beyond our expectations. We hit .291/.355/.437 as a team in Chapter Four, and crushed left-handed pitching to the tune of .319/.407/.514. We scored 108 runs on the chapter, which averages 4.5 runs per game. That should be enough run support for any team to sport a winning record.
Our recent acquisition, Martin Prado, has been an absolute beast for us since we acquired him two chapters ago. He hit .455/.500/.818 in 22 at-bats last chapter, and will be a tremendous weapon in our lineup against Kershaw, Sale, Quintana, and Moore in the OLDS.
Trea Turner (.429/.451/.633) continued to mash the ball last chapter, as did all-star Jose Ramirez (.356/.407/.505). Cameron Maybin (.382/.404/.455), Carlos Ruiz (.321/.441/.357), Elvis Andrus (.303/.391/.434), and Gary Sanchez (.281/.395/.656) also had a stellar chapter at the plate.
On the mound, there really isn't much to include in the "good" column. Stephen Matz posted a 1.84 ERA in four starts, but went just 2-2. Jon Gray owned a 1.82 ERA in his four starts, which is an encouraging turnaround to his disappointing season. David Phelps owned a 1.23 ERA in 7+ innings of work, including one spot start.
The Bad
Where to begin? As a whole, our pitching staff posted a 4.43 ERA for the chapter. We allowed more hits (220) than innings (215+). We allowed a whopping 29 home runs (1.3 per nine), and allowed a 722 OPS.
The offensive performances of Jose Altuve (.264/.313/.349), Odubel Herrera (.259/.348/.483), and Miguel Cabrera (.253/.355/.374) were far below their normal level.
The Ugly
It is very difficult to understand why our pitching has been so horrendous this season. In particular, Stephen Strasburg continues to be a stunning disappointment year after year. He went just 1-3 with a 5.76 ERA in Chapter Four, and now owns a record of just 4-5 on the season. Four wins. From our ACE. The most perplexing and aggravating part of his performance continues to be his propensity to serve up longballs by the bushel. He allowed 15 home runs in all of the MLB 2016 season, and yet has served up 18 in the BDBL already -- in more than 40 fewer innings. He is on pace to allow 30 home runs in this BDBL season. THIRTY. In case you didn't notice, that's TWICE as many home runs allowed in our simulated season -- while pitching in a ballpark that is less conducive to home runs than his MLB park!
As if it weren't agonizing enough to deal with the pain of watching Aaron Judge launch one 500-foot bomb after another throughout this MLB season, we've also had to watch the man we acquired in that Judge trade, Junior Guerra, turn in one horrendous outing after another -- both in MLB and the BDBL. It could have soothed our aching heart somewhat if Guerra dominated for us as we expected, and/or if he gave us some value going forward. Instead, he has been absolutely useless for us this year (5.95 ERA in 19+ IP last chapter), and will likely be released on Cutdown Day.
Mike Montgomery posted a 2.52 ERA in 100 IP last year in MLB. For us, he's sporting a 5.09 ERA in 63+ innings. He's allowed 30% more hits than he allowed in MLB, 21% more walks, and his OPS against right-handers is 57 points higher. He looks like two completely different pitchers when you place his MLB and BDBL numbers side-by-side. There is literally no resemblance.
Sammy Solis posted a 7.27 ERA last chapter, and Liam Hendricks' ERA was a whopping 8.59. 'Nuff said.
Our newest acquisition, Nate Jones, was supposed to fill the role of "closer." Instead, he posted a 5.40 ERA, lost two games, blew three saves, and allowed seven walks in thirteen innings. Note that this is the guy whose MLB walk rate was less than 2.0 in MLB! Just to add insult to injury, Jones is now out for the remainder of the 2017 MLB season and will be released on Cutdown Day.
We lost our first series of the season in Chapter Four -- a four-game sweep by our likely OLDS opponents, the Undertakers. We managed to score just eleven runs in that series, and were outscored 21-11. A sign of things to come.
We also somehow managed to split a series against the Myrtle Beach Hitmen, who sport the second-worst record in the Ozzie League.
A Look Ahead to 2018
We finally have a top-30 hitter for 2018 thanks to the tremendous month of June posted by Jose Ramirez. He is hitting .316/.372/.558 on the season. Unfortunately, that is the only bit of good news we have for 2018. In other news...
- Trea Turner has missed several weeks with a broken wrist. Even when healthy, he was hitting a disappointing .279/.324/.422 at the time of his injury.
- Our $13 million first baseman, Miguel Cabrera, is having arguably the worst year of his 15-year major league career. He is hitting a robust .257/.343/.417 on the season, with a whopping 12 homers, and a WAR of -- get this -- 0.1. Zero point one.
- Gary Sanchez missed a huge chunk of the season due to injury, and is hitting a relatively-mediocre .266/.342/.479 in just under 300 PA's.
- Elvis Andrus has hit a surprising 13 home runs this season, but has sacrificed his plate discipline (.326 OBP) for power.
- Andrew Benintendi (.266/.347/.412) is having a decent year for a rookie, but we expected a little more than what he has shown so far.
- Odubel Herrera (.271/.315/.436) has been pretty much useless. Heading into the season, we were optimistic that the gains he made at age 24 last year would be carried over to his age-25 year. Not so much.
- Of course, we also had great optimism that this would be the breakout season for another 25-year-old, Jorge Soler. Again, not so much. He's hitting just .154/.245/.275, which may rank as the worst offensive season in 2017.
- We had hoped we wouldn't need to eat Martin Prado's $4.5 million salary next year. But instead, he decided to injure himself and miss the rest of the season after racking up 147 PA's. Nicely done, Martin.
- On the pitching side, we hoped that Clay Buchholz would find new life in the National League. Nope. Injured and out for the season.
- We hoped that this would be the year that Stephen Strasburg finally translated his electric stuff into a Cy Young-worthy season. Nope. He's now injured, too.
- Would Steven Matz build on his breakout season at age 26, and finally stay healthy for more than a month? Nope. Not only is he sporting a 5.51 ERA at the moment, but he's racked up less than 50 innings thanks to countless injuries.
- This was the season that Jon Gray would break out and become a top-15 ace, right? Wrong. He's sporting a 5.84 ERA in just 37 innings. Way to go, Jon. Maybe next year, eh?
- Surely, THIS would be the year where Daniel Norris becomes a legitimate ace, fulfilling the prophecies of so many scouts, experts, and prognosticators! Errr....no. He's also sporting an ERA over 5.00, has thrown just 85 innings, and is currently nursing an injury with no timetable to return.
- Drew Hutchison? Hyun-Jin Ryu? David Phelps? Mike Montgomery? Surely, one of these fliers panned out! Nope, nope, nope, and nope.
- Okay, how about Matt Shoemaker? He broke out in a big way in the second half of last season. Surely, that momentum carried over into 2017! But no. It didn't. And now he's injured, too.
Basically we had TEN starting pitchers who were all heralded as "breakout candidates" heading into the 2017 MLB season -- and ALL TEN failed miserably. It looks more and more like 2018 will be yet another rebuilding year for Salem.
