Monday, August 29, 2022

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.

No comments:

Post a Comment