Chapter Five Review

It's official! Your Salem Cowtippers have captured our eleventh division title! We have four more to go before we catch the Los Altos Undertakers' record, but we're getting there! This day has been all-but-certain for months now, but it still feels good to get it out of the way. We clinched the division with our second win against the Lake Norman Monsters -- a 12-4 laugher in which we scored seven runs in one inning. Rafael Devers was an absolute monster the entire series. He went 4-for-4 in that game with three homers and six ribbies. It was a nice moment of celebration at our home in Salem.

We had a rather pedestrian 17-11 chapter, in which we lost five games to the sub-.500 Flagstaff Peaks, Darien Blue Wave, North Carolina Iron Spider Pigs, and Lake Norman Monsters. We also won six blowout games by scores of 11-2, 15-9, 12-1, 16-5, 17-1, and 12-4. It's tough to find a more inconsistent team outside of the Bronx.

We scored a crazy amount of runs (182, an average of 6.5 per game) again this past chapter, but our pitching completely fell apart once again. Luis H. Garcia (8.58 ERA in 28+ IP) would have pitched himself off the postseason roster in a sane world, but we will likely end up keeping him around. Framber Valdez (5.76 ERA) went a well-deserved 0-3 this chapter. The OL Pitcher of the Chapter last chapter, Shohei Ohtani, posted a 6.26 ERA in four starts, and allowed six longballs in those four games.

I don't know what to do with this pitching staff as we move into November. I can't count on anyone, it seems. Every member of our bullpen has taken turns being horrendous and brilliant. We never know what we'll get from any of them. Ohtani, up until this chapter, had been our one and only reliable starting pitcher. Now we have no idea who he is.

On the year, we're sitting at 88-44 (.667), which is just barely better than Charlotte (77-39, .664) in the race for that number one playoffs seed. We've outscored our opponents by an even 300 runs, which should put us far ahead of the pack, but we own the worst Pythagorean difference (-6) in the BDBL.

Now we sit back and try not to overuse any of our guys the rest of the way. That is my one and only goal in Chapter Six. We have enough 2023 expenses as it is. We don't need any more.

Midseason Pick-ups

We made one last deal before the final trading deadline, adding Aaron Bummer to our pitching staff at the cost of Thomas White and Luis Gonzalez. In our championship year of 2019, we had one absolutely dominant shut-down closer against lefties (Oliver Perez) and one dominant shut-down closer against right-handers (Ryan Brasier.) We are hoping to catch lightning in a bottle a second time using that same formula. Bummer kills lefties, and Luis A. Garcia stifles righties.

Of course, we already have a pitcher who dominates left-handed hitters in Ranger Suarez. In fact, he's better against lefties than anyone else in the game. The problem is that we only have one reliable starting pitcher in this postseason: Shohei Ohtani. On paper, we should have at least two, but Lance Lynn has pitched like dog shit for most of this year.

That leaves Jon Gray, Framber Valdez, and Luis H. Garcia to fill two more spots in our playoffs rotation. The word "blech" doesn't quite do enough justice there. If we use Suarez as a starter, then he is automatically limited to just eight innings in the entire series. If we use him as a reliever, his usage is unlimited. As much as we'd love to use him as a reliever, I don't think we have a choice.

Shohei becomes our Game One starter -- and possibly Game Four and Game Seven as well. Lynn becomes our Game Two and Game Five starter by default. If Suarez starts Game Three, then we only have Game Six to worry about. There are no great options for us, but as of now, this is what I am thinking will happen.

MIDSEASON DRAFT

There were four guys I would have been excited to get in this midseason draft. In order:

1. Jackson Chourio

2. Ezequiel Tovar

3. Jackson Holliday

4. Ethan Salas

After those four, all of the other 90 or so names on my list were a toss-up. The one guy we absolutely needed for the playoffs was Andy Ibanez. He is the perfect fit for our ballclub. He plays four different positions and clobbers lefties to the tune of .344/.371/.527. When Shohei is on the mound, Andy will slot into that extra hitting spot much better than Andrew Benintendi or any other option we have.

Two chapters ago, I nearly reached out to Jeff Paulson to ask for Ibanez in trade. Then I noticed that his usage was almost depleted. I had a hunch Jeff would release him because of that, and sure enough, he did! That made Ibanez a free pickup! Thanks, Jeff!

With the dead-last 24th pick in the draft, I did not expect to get any of those four names above. Yet, when our first pick came up, Salas was still on the board! The funny part is: we didn't pick him. By the time that first pick came around, I decided there was another, better, option: Chase Dollander, who is arguably the best pitcher in college baseball. And to my utter shock and gratitude to the league, Salas was still available in round two!

Dollander instantly becomes our best pitching prospect. The last two people to hold that title -- Asa Lacy and Spencer Howard -- did not exactly work out as we hoped. We're hoping Dollander breaks that streak.

I passed on Salas in the first round solely because we already have two roster spots filled by high-risk/high-reward Latin American lottery tickets (Felnin Celesten and Ricardo Cabrera), and our track record with those guys is mostly abysmal. That said, when we have won that lottery (Rafael Devers and Wander Franco), we hit big! Celesten is considered to have the highest ceiling in the 2023 international class. Salas is considered to be the safest pick in that class, with a long history of excelling against older competition. We'll cross our fingers with both and hope we catch lightning in a bottle a third time.

With our fourth pick, we selected J.P. Sears, who has been dominating Triple-A for two years. In each of those years, he has walked fewer than 2 batters per nine, and has struck out more than 10. The Yankees gave him two spot starts this season, and he didn't allow a run in either game. They then sent him packing to Oakland as part of the Frankie Montas/Lou Trivino deal. He is expected to join their rotation immediately, so we could get two months of starting pitching usage out of him before this MLB season is over.

Our next two picks were Wyatt Langford and Enrique Bradfield. Both are projected to be taken in the first ten picks of the 2023 MLB draft, but that is where their similiarities end. Langford is a classic slugger. He smashed 26 home runs this past season, and hit .356/.447/.719 overall. He also owned a decent 36/44 BB/K ratio. A product of the University of Florida, I may even see him a few times in person next year, which will be nice.

Bradfield is a burner. He's an easy "80" for speed on the 20-80 scouting scale. If you've ever seen video of him, you'd agree that even a non-scout could notice that he is something special on the basepaths and in the field. He has no power worth mentioning, but gets on base at a high clip (.415 this past year, and .451 as a freshman.) He evokes comparisons to Kenny Lofton, which would be nice to have on the Cowtippers.

Our final pick was merely a seat-warmer: Stephen Vogt. We'll need him to avoid usage penalties down the stretch -- which will be our greatest challenge over that time.