The Good:
We won four of the seven series we played in Chapter Five, including sweeps of Myrtle Beach and Western Kansas. We finished with a respectable 17-11 record. Our .621 winning percentage is the fourth highest in the BDBL. We are on pace to win 99 games this season. If we can go 18-12 in the final chapter, we will reach 100 wins for the eighth time in franchise history.
It's been a hot-and-cold season for Miguel Cabrera. He was hot in Chapter Five, hitting .330/.389/.504, with a team-leading 21.2 runs created. Alex Dickerson (.405/.465/.730) and Gary Sanchez (.345/.429/.517) also brought the heat in Chapter Five.
On the hill, Jon Gray (3-2, 2.27 ERA in five starts) finally showed the type of performance we expected from him this season. Daniel Norris (1-1, 2.35) also pitched well in three spot starts. Matt Shoemaker (3-1, 2.60) continues to provide solid efforts every time he takes the mound. And let's not forget to mention the stellar pitching performance of Jayson Werth, who posted a 2.84 ERA in six-plus innings as a mop-up man.
The Bad:
Stephen Strasburg (3-2, 3.94 ERA in five starts) continues to be an enigma. He has allowed home runs in fifteen of his twenty-three starts this season, and a total of twenty-two on the season. He allowed just fifteen all of last MLB season. This is nothing new in his BDBL career.
Jose Altuve hit a respectable .284/.344/.371 for the chapter, but it was yet another mediocre performance for him that was well below his MLB numbers. When we traded a top-five prospect for him, we expected an all-star performance in return. Instead, his numbers are barely league-average.
The Ugly:
We had our asses handed to us by the Blazers last chapter -- at home, no less. We lost all four games, and two of them were complete blow-outs. Stephen Matz allowed fourteen runs in four innings in one of those games. (That game featured a relief appearance by Jayson Werth, who allowed just two runs in his five innings of work.) Junior Guerra allowed five runs in his five innings in the final game of the series. Nate Jones and Sammy Solis -- arguably our best two relievers -- then followed his performance by allowing five earned runs combined while recording just one out.
Our chapter ended by losing three out of four games to the Granite State Lightning, who own the worst record in the BDBL. We were shut out twice, and our offense managed just three runs combined in three of the four games. (We scored eight in our one and only win.)
Matz's performance last chapter was an embarrassment. He posted a 7.50 ERA in four starts, hiking his season's ERA from 2.76 all the way to 3.69. Guerra (5.55 ERA in Chapter Five) continued to disappoint. Raisel Iglesias' line (4 IP, 10 H, 9 R, 8 ER, 4 BB, 5 K) speaks for itself.
Offensively, Kyle Seager remains a head-scratching disappointment. He hit just .200/.327/.367 last chapter, and is hitting only .240/.324/.421 on the season. He has hit only half as many home runs (15) as he did in MLB, and his numbers against right-handers (.239/.324/.422) dwarf his MLB performance (.307/.394/.538). It's as if he's a completely different hitter.
2018: A Look Ahead
Our 2018 offense is beginning to round into form nicely. Jose Ramirez (.309/.363/.566) is having an MVP-caliber season. Elvis Andrus (.304/.348/.494 with a surprising 20 HR) is enjoying a career year. Gary Sanchez (.279/.348/.535 with 30 HR) is a potential all-star behind the plate. Andrew Benintendi (.276/.357/.436) and Odubel Herrera (.292/.337/.472) look like useful contributors at this point.
The pitching side is much worse. Not one of the nine starting pitchers we had heading into this season is projected to log more than 180 innings. Strasburg currently leads all Salem starters with just 156 innings. Matt Shoemaker and Stephen Matz have already been shut down for the season, and neither pitched well enough to deserve a roster spot next year. Jon Gray has pitched well of late, but has just 93 innings under his belt.
Junior Guerra (65 IP, 5.15 ERA) pitched so poorly he was demoted to the bush leagues, and will likely be cut from our roster this winter, giving us nothing to show for our Aaron Judge trade. Clay Buchholz and Ruby de la Rosa were also shut down early in the year, and both will likely be released. Drew Hutchison never made it back to the big leagues this year, and will also be released. He occupied a much-needed roster space all year for us, which made it impossible to pick up free agents.
Daniel Norris (89 IP, 5.36 ERA) has been abysmal this season after so much pre-season hype. Mike Montgomery (116 IP, 3.64 ERA) could provide some spot starts, and Hyun-Jin Ryu (118 IP, 3.59 ERA) has been serviceable.
All told, we have roughly 483 innings of serviceable starting pitching innings for 2018. We only need to find 477 more, and we might have a decent rotation. This puts us in the worst possible position heading into this winter. We are neither good enough to compete or bad enough to tank. We could trade Andrus and Ramirez for future considerations and punt the 2018 season altogether. Or we could fill in the gaps with fillers and hope the Baseball Gods are kinder to us next year. With Shohei Otani reportedly on the way, it's looking more and more like 2019 will be our next competitive season.
