The 2073 Daily Keg - Week 7

May 29, 2073

Los Angeles was nothing short of perfect this week, going 7-0 to push its record to 34-13 and jump to the top of the Power Rankings, unseating Santo Domingo for the first time this season. Santo Domingo still leads the Lager outright at 34-11, but its 3-4 week was its shakiest stretch of the year and dropped the Rum Runners to second in the rankings. Toronto and Wilmington were right behind Los Angeles at 6-1 apiece, with Toronto climbing to 27-18 and within seven games of Santo Domingo in the Lager, and Wilmington playing its way back to .500 at 23-23. Pittsburgh (5-2) and Indianapolis (5-2) kept pace atop the Ale, with Pittsburgh improving to 31-14 and Indianapolis to 26-19, still five games back. On the other end, Dallas was the week’s biggest loser, dropping six straight to finish 0-6 and fall to 19-26, last in the Lager and riding an eight-game losing streak, while Syracuse (1-6) remains buried in the Ale cellar at 9-36.

Monday’s hardware went to Santo Domingo’s Micah Lumsden, who hit .520 with three home runs and five RBI to claim the Domestic Player of the Week, and New York’s Richard Oltman, who put up a preposterous .588 average with two homers and seven RBI in just 17 at-bats to win the Import honor.

1) Los Angeles Sharks (147.1, +)
2) Santo Domingo Rum Runners (138.1, -)
3) Pittsburgh Millers (126.0, o)
4) Toronto Canadians (117.0, ++)
5) Indianapolis Clowns (109.0, o)
6) Wilmington Wildcats (102.0, ++)
7) New Orleans Voodoo (98.8, --)
8) Maine Guides (95.0, ++)
9) Batavia Muckdogs (94.0, ++)
10) Phoenix Roadrunners (93.9, -)
11) Philadelphia Freedom (92.9, o)
12) Washington Bats (92.1, --)
13) Montreal Exports (90.0, --)
14) Denver Bulls (89.0, --)
15) Pawtucket Patriots (82.3, ++)
16) New York Cyclones (81.3, ++)
17) Baltimore Bulldogs (79.3, ++)
18) Hartford Whalers (75.2, -)
19) Seattle Sasquatch (73.3, -)
20) Windy City Blues (71.0, -)
21) California Kodiaks (67.4, +)
22) Carolina Tobs (64.2, -)
23) Dallas Drillers (62.0, --)
24) Syracuse Snappers (24.0, o)

Performance of the Week

P Neil McClaine, WIL - McClaine tossed a complete-game shutout against Syracuse on May 26th, needing just 102 pitches to go the distance with four hits allowed, four strikeouts and no walks in a 5-0 win, the week's best individual pitching performance (Game Score: 83) and an easy Player of the Game call. The 26-year-old left-hander said afterward that he and his catcher were in sync all night. It capped a stretch in which he's allowed just one earned run over his last two starts, and it's brought his season ERA down to 2.93 across eight starts, a real bounce-back after a 4.64 mark over a full 33-start workload in 2072.

Prospect of the Week

SS Johnathan Urushadze, IND - The 24-year-old is quietly having a strong first full season in Indianapolis, hitting .255 with eight home runs and 17 RBI through 40 games, and he was a big part of the Clowns' hot week, going 8-for-22 (.364) with two homers, three RBI and four runs scored as Indianapolis went 5-2. A former top-25 organizational prospect out of Azerbaijan, Urushadze has stabilized the shortstop spot with plus range and a strong arm, and his .463 slugging mark suggests the power that made him a prospect is starting to show up at the highest level.

Five Things We Think We Think

1. Philadelphia's Isaac Rampone and Phoenix's Brian Wheat both reached 400 career home runs this week, becoming the 76th and 77th players in league history to do so. Rampone got there first, going deep against California on May 26th, part of a season in which the 33-year-old first baseman is hitting .238 with 10 homers so far.

Wheat followed a day later against Batavia, continuing a career that began when Toronto made him the first overall pick in 2056. He spent nine seasons in Toronto before a pair of trades sent him to Denver and then Montreal in 2066, and he's found his longest-running home in Phoenix since signing there as a free agent in 2069. Both are signed through 2075 and remain everyday players for their clubs, proof that power production can stick around even as the rest of a game ages.

2. Not every league leader plays for a contender. Seattle's Justice Siemion owns the league's best slugging percentage (.711) and OPS (1.102) in the Import League, and Windy City's Nigel Torres isn't far behind at .655 and 1.101, yet both clubs sit in the back half of the Bock standings. Seattle's case looks especially unlucky by the numbers, the Sasquatch have a 24-22 Pythagorean record based on runs scored and allowed, four wins better than their actual 20-26 mark, so Siemion's production hasn't been the problem. It's the kind of individual brilliance that usually gets buried in a bad season, worth watching if either name comes up in trade rumors as the summer wears on.

3. The Pythagorean records tell a different story than the win column in a few key spots. Santo Domingo’s +5 differential is the largest in the league, its 34-11 record outpacing a 29-16 expected mark, and the one-run game numbers back it up: the Rum Runners are 12-5 in one-run games, the second-best mark in the league, meaning they’re not just outscoring people, they’re closing out the tight ones too. Denver has been even better in close games at 9-2 (.818), the league’s best mark, a big reason the Bulls sit above .500 despite a modest overall run differential.

On the flip side, Seattle, California, and Syracuse are all sitting four wins below their expected record, and Syracuse’s case is compounded by a brutal 4-14 record in one-run games, the worst in the league. Dallas rounds out the unlucky column at -3, a real number behind that eight-game losing streak.

4. Money isn’t buying wins this season. Santo Domingo has the 19th-highest payroll in the league at $89.7 million, barely above league average, yet owns the best record in baseball at 34-11, working out to roughly $2.6 million per win, the most efficient mark among the league’s top teams. Los Angeles is right there too, 21st in payroll at just under $89 million, tied for the league lead in wins at essentially the same cost efficiency. Toronto tells a similar story on a smaller scale: the third-lowest payroll in the league at $83.9 million, yet a 27-18 record and five straight wins, roughly $3.1 million per win. Even Hartford, dead last in payroll at $65.9 million, has gotten more than expected for a rebuilding club, 22 wins works out to under $3 million each.

Compare that to Philadelphia, the league’s biggest spender at $149.7 million, sitting at a pedestrian 24-21, over $6.2 million per win, the worst efficiency of any team with a winning record. Phoenix isn’t far behind at $144 million for the same 24-21 mark, and Washington, third-highest in payroll at $133.6 million, has a solid 25-20 record but nothing that separates it from the pack of cheaper, better teams above it. Montreal rounds out the expensive-and-mediocre group at $124.4 million for a 24-22 record. It’s shaping up as a season where scouting and player development are outperforming payroll, with the league’s model franchises running lean while some of the biggest spenders tread water.

5. What’s on tap?

• Toronto Canadians (27-18) at Santo Domingo Rum Runners (34-11), May 29 — The Lager’s top two teams meet as Toronto, winners of five straight, tries to keep chipping away at a seven-game deficit. Jim Miller (2.53 ERA over his last three starts) gets the ball for Toronto against Santo Domingo’s Devonta Mabry (5-1, 3.84 ERA), while Micah Lumsden, fresh off the Domestic Player of the Week award, has hit .426 over his last two weeks to anchor the Rum Runners’ lineup.

• Windy City Blues (19-26) at Los Angeles Sharks (34-13), May 29 — The best record in baseball keeps rolling as Los Angeles carries a nine-game winning streak, the longest active run in the league, into a home date against a Windy City club still finding its footing. Closer Blaine Near has been perfect lately, an 0.00 ERA with 15 straight converted saves, and Blayke Ramos brings a 14-game hitting streak of his own.

• Wilmington Wildcats (23-23) at Montreal Exports (24-22), May 29-31 (3-game series) — A Lager series with momentum running in opposite directions, Wilmington riding a four-game winning streak behind Jerian Barnes (.413 over the last two weeks) and Neil McClaine (0.53 ERA over his last two starts, coming off a four-hit shutout), while Montreal has dropped four straight and needs a response at home.

• Maine Guides (23-23) at Indianapolis Clowns (26-19), May 29-31 (3-game series) — Two clubs bunched near .500 in a tightening Ale race, with Maine’s Julian Noll riding a four-game home run streak and Indianapolis countering with Bailey Gray, who’s gone deep six times in his last 12 games, and Billy Zook, who hasn’t allowed an earned run in his last two starts.

• Philadelphia Freedom (24-21) at Denver Bulls (23-22), June 1-4 (4-game series) — A four-game set between two clubs separated by a single game in their respective divisions, with Denver's Logan Clark needing to right the ship (7.71 ERA over his last two starts) against a Philadelphia club still fighting for position in a crowded Stout race. Philadelphia counters with York Goldschmidt, hitting .357 on the season, second-best in the league, and Alec Bridges, who's driven in 37 runs to rank fifth in the league.