The 2073 Daily Keg - Week 5

May 15, 2073

Toronto had the best week in the league, going 6-1 to climb to 19-13 and the top of the Domestic League Wildcard race, with Regis Bryant hitting .448 over the stretch. Santo Domingo, New Orleans, and Phoenix all had strong weeks of their own at 5-2, with Santo Domingo's Micah Lumsden and Lucas Slater both posting huge lines to keep the Rum Runners rolling at a league-best 26-6. On the other end, Syracuse had a week to forget, going 1-6 to fall to 7-25, the worst record in baseball.

May 15th also brought a full slate of weekly hardware: Wilmington's J.D. Dorn won the Domestic Player of the Week after hitting .519 with 2 homers, and New York's Alexander Charter took the Import honor with a .546 week and 8 RBI. Elsewhere, Dontaveon White's 24-game hitting streak came to an end against New Orleans, Coreonte Lee's season came to an end with a torn UCL just a week after his best start of the year, and Carolina's Jayden McQuagge tossed a 2-hit shutout against California.

1) Santo Domingo Rum Runners (150.3, o)
2) Pittsburgh Millers (132.4, +)
3) Los Angeles Sharks (119.5, -)
4) Washington Bats (113.5, o)
5) Toronto Canadians (112.9, ++)
6) Philadelphia Freedom (107.9, -)
7) Phoenix Roadrunners (105.9, +)
8) New Orleans Voodoo (103.2, ++)
9) Denver Bulls (102.3, -)
10) Hartford Whalers (91.2, --)
11) Indianapolis Clowns (90.0, +)
12) Maine Guides (88.0, -)
13) Dallas Drillers (85.9, ++)
14) Baltimore Bulldogs (84.3, --)
15) California Kodiaks (82.9, +)
16) Montreal Exports (82.3, --)
17) Windy City Blues (77.3, +)
18) Pawtucket Patriots (75.9, --)
19) Seattle Sasquatch (75.3, -)
20) Batavia Muckdogs (74.1, +)
21) Wilmington Wildcats (67.5, +)
22) New York Cyclones (62.5, -)
23) Carolina Tobs (47.9, +)
24) Syracuse Snappers (28.4, -)

Performance of the Week

P Jayden McQuagge, CAR - McQuagge delivered the best start of his career on May 11th, blanking California over a complete-game two-hit shutout with 7 strikeouts and 3 walks in a 5-0 Carolina win. The 25-year-old right-hander improved to 2-3 on the year, and the outing was a much-needed bright spot for a Carolina club mired at the bottom of the Import League, backed by a Game Score of 87 and Player of the Game honors. It's a real step forward for McQuagge, who came in with a 6.14 ERA in April, and while his season ERA still sits at 4.91, a shutout against a California lineup limited to just two hits shows the swing-and-miss stuff that made him a former third-round pick is still there when it clicks.

Prospect of the Week

1B Quinton Adams, PAW - Pawtucket's fourth-round pick from 2071, first baseman Quinton Adams, is having a strong follow-up to a productive 2072 in the low minors. The 19-year-old is hitting .264 with a .632 slugging percentage, 8 home runs and 15 RBI through his first 22 games at Single-A Lowell, and he's been especially dangerous at home, slugging .825 with 5 of his 8 homers. He's climbed the prospect rankings steadily since being drafted, most recently checking in at #51 overall in the league's April rankings, and with plus raw power already translating to game production this early in the season, Adams looks like a first baseman worth tracking as he continues to move through Pawtucket's system.

Five Things We Think We Think

1. Trent West and Brian Van Hook both crossed career milestones this week, veterans still producing at a high level in their late 30s and early 30s respectively. West, the 37-year-old New Orleans left fielder, reached 1,000 career extra-base hits, joining a group of just 40 players in league history to get there, a mark built across 21 professional seasons that have taken him from Carolina to Pawtucket, Wilmington, Seattle, Washington, California, Denver, and now New Orleans. He's been terrific in this latest stop too, hitting .293 with 9 home runs and a .618 slugging percentage in just 33 games.

Van Hook's milestone came on the basepaths rather than at the plate: the 32-year-old Philadelphia center fielder swiped his way to 400 career stolen bases, a mark reached by 80 players in league history, to go along with a strong 2073 season of his own, .333 with 7 home runs and 5 stolen bases through 28 games. Both moments are a reminder that even with the league's spotlight on younger breakout stars like Siemion and White this year, some of the game's most durable veterans are still finding ways to contribute at a high level.

2. Coreonte Lee's 2073 was shaping up as the best of his career right up until it ended. The 33-year-old right-hander was putting together a career year for Indianapolis, a 1.83 ERA and 0.94 WHIP through six starts that dwarfed anything he'd produced across seven previous seasons in the league, before a torn UCL suffered during his May 9th start against Syracuse ended his year and will keep him out for roughly 12 months. It's a brutal turn for a pitcher who'd already fought through a torn rotator cuff that cost him nine months back in 2071 and washed him out of Pittsburgh entirely, only to land in Indianapolis on a modest free agent deal and finally find the form that had mostly eluded him since a strong rookie stretch in Philadelphia back in 2067 and 2068.

At 33, with a new elbow reconstruction now standing between him and a return, it's a genuinely sad way for a breakout season to end, especially for a North Korea-born pitcher who overcame long odds just to get his shot in the league in the first place.

3. Regis "No Neck" Bryant looks like the player Toronto thought it was getting when it took him first overall back in 2068. The 25-year-old right fielder is hitting .369 with 7 home runs, 27 RBI and a 1.107 OPS through 31 games, by far the best offensive season of his career, and it's coming at the perfect time for a Toronto club that's climbed to 19-13 and near the top of a crowded Wildcard race. It's a real bounce-back too: after a huge rookie year in 2069 that had him finishing top-three in the league in hits, doubles, and OPS, his production had slipped each of the last two seasons, dipping to a career-low .273 average and .778 OPS in 2072.

This year he's rediscovered that peak form and then some, an OPS+ of 179 that would be a career high, and he's done it while playing his best defense in years and staying mostly clear of the injury bug that's interrupted several of his previous seasons. For a Toronto team fighting for a playoff spot, having their former #1 pick finally look like one again is exactly the kind of boost they needed.

4. Collin Edson is putting together the best season of his career, and it's not close. The 25-year-old right-hander leads the entire Import League with a 1.39 ERA, going 3-0 with a 0.97 WHIP and 39 strikeouts over 45.1 innings, numbers that stand in sharp contrast to a career mark of 3.97 built mostly on unremarkable seasons since Los Angeles took him in the fifth round back in 2068. Last year was actually his worst yet, a 4.65 ERA that had him fighting for a rotation spot, which makes this turnaround even more striking, an ERA+ of 317 that dwarfs anything he'd produced before.

He's been especially dominant this month, a 0.84 ERA across three May starts, and with a fastball that's ticked up to 97-99 miles per hour, it looks less like a hot streak and more like a genuine step forward for a pitcher anchoring the best rotation in the league on a Los Angeles team that's running away with the Bock.

5. What’s on tap?

• Philadelphia Freedom (19-13, On Road: 12-6) at Santo Domingo Rum Runners (26-6, At Home: 12-1) -- May 19.

  Two of the league’s best teams collide, with Santo Domingo having lost just once at home all season. Micah Lumsden has scored in 9 straight games for the Rum Runners, and Troy Yordan has gone deep in 4 straight, while Philadelphia counters with Brian Van Hook, who’s hitting .435 over his last two weeks.

• Denver Bulls (18-14, On Road: 7-9) at Pittsburgh Millers (23-9, At Home: 17-2) -- May 19.

  Pittsburgh’s home record is nearly untouchable at 17-2, and Sean Blosser has driven in a run in 8 straight games to help fuel it. Denver counters with Cole Shults, who’s riding a 13-game hitting streak of his own, in a matchup between two of the Domestic League’s top teams.

• Los Angeles Sharks (22-12, On Road: 12-6) at Hartford Whalers (18-16, At Home: 8-10) -- May 19, 3-game series.

  Los Angeles brings one of the league’s best rotations on the road, Collin Edson has been nearly unhittable at a 0.84 ERA over his last three starts, and Cady Amaro has been perfect out of the bullpen at 0.00 ERA. Hartford will need to find offense against a Sharks staff that’s been the best in baseball over the last two weeks.

• New Orleans Voodoo (18-16, On Road: 10-8) at Washington Bats (20-12, At Home: 12-10) -- May 15.

  New Orleans enters on a 4-game winning streak against a Washington club that owns the best record in the Stout. Tommy McDaniel has been locked in for the Bats, hitting .425 with 5 home runs over his last two weeks, giving Washington a real answer if New Orleans’ streak carries into this series.