Chapter One in Review

Our first chapter is now in the books. We ended up with a respectable record of 18-10, which puts us five games ahead of the Joplin Miners in the McGowan Division. The story of our chapter is pitching. If our entire pitching staff were a single pitcher, we'd be looking at a surefire Cy Young winner: 258+ IP, 195 H, 21 HR, 86 BB, 308 K, 2.44 ERA. By the time the other teams catch up in terms of games played, that 2.44 ERA will likely obliterate the next-best team ERA in the BDBL. Unless something strange happens, we will likely end up with the OL's co-Pitchers of the Chapter.

Our offense was a lot less impressive. We hit just .247/.310/.400 as a team. Our OBP and slugging are both below the OL average, as of this writing. Our runs per game of 4.3 is also below the league average of 4.5.

The Good

We could not have asked for better starting pitching in Chapter One. It is difficult to choose which pitcher had the better chapter: Stephen Strasburg (4-0, 0.88 ERA in 41 IP) or Max Scherzer (4-2, 0.81 ERA in 44+ IP). Jon Gray (1-1, 1.72 in 31+) and Sonny Gray (3-0, 1.95 in 37, with 3 SV) were beyond excellent as well. And Framber Valdez (1-0, 1.59 in 22+) served as the best #5 starter in the BDBL, bar none.

In the bullpen, Aaron Bummer (1.38 ERA in 13 IP, 3 SV) and Alex Colome (2.08 ERA in 8+, 3 SV) got the job done.

The part-time backups, Aledmys Diaz (.345/.418/.466 in 58 AB) and Nick Senzel (.292/.320/.521 in 48) enjoyed the most impressive offensive chapter.

Andrew Benintendi (.288/.354/.479), Trea Turner (.280/.344/.415), Rafael Devers (.273/.316/.500), and Yadiel Hernandez (.262/.380/.477) also deserve an attaboy.

The Bad

Christian Walker (.213/.253/.307) has been just about useless, and is most likely the worst-hitting first baseman in the league.

Shohei Ohtani (.212/.281/.442) has been mostly useless, and is such a liability in the field that his bat hasn't come close to compensating for his lack of glove.

Jose Pirela (.209/.292/.326) began the season on fire, but cooled to zero.

The Ugly

Spencer Howard's BDBL debut: 2 IP, 5 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, 3 HR. 'Nuff said.

Hoby Milner (9.45 ERA in 6+ IP), Sam Tuivagina (7.20 in 5), and David Bednar (6.57 in 12+) were godawful embarrassments. Bednar was particularly disappointing, given that he was supposed to be our closer this year. Incredibly enough, those three combined to blow only one save and lost only two games.

Our catching tandem of Christian Vazquez (.158/.200/.211) and Robinson Chirinos (.125/.227/.214) has been so godawful that it's like having two pitchers in our lineup at all times.