Pedro Lewis to retire

 After a difficult season, 40 year old Pedro Lewis will retire. He finishes his career with 247 wins, 137 losses, and 3413 strikeouts.

SL wild card game 1

 The fans of the Mud Hens have waited a long time to see postseason baseball. Their team sent Ryan Sargent to the mound, taking on Baltimore and Elton Quintanilla.

Elton would prove a tough challenge for the Mud Hens. In his rookie season he struck out 171 in only 143 innings and had a 2.83 ERA. With the game scoreless in the 3rd, Sargent felt pain in his elbow and had to come out of the game. Lefthander Michael Farley took over.

The game remained scoreless until the 5th when Mark Rodriguez singled in the first run for the Hens. Next inning Toledo added 2 more on homers by Roberto Gomez and Cary Lee.

Farley did a great job, providing 4 2/3 scoreless innings in relief. Justin Evans, who in the regular season split time between the starting rotation and bullpen, pitched the final 2 innings.

Toledo takes game 1 by the score of 4-0. As the series moves to Baltimore, Toledo will need to find a new center fielder as Cary Lee will take the mound for game 2.

Post Season Award Predictions - Part I

As the regular season ends and the playoffs is set to begin, lets take a look at the top candidates for the major awards.

Major League Manager of the Year:

This award generally goes to the manager of truly great teams, managers of the top contending teams, and managers who were generally perceived to outperform the talent level.  

The Candidates:

George Kird, New York Cobra, 108-54

Wally Calhoun, Florida Penguins, 91-71

Todd Reynolds, Alaska Snowsox, 94-68

Paul Hudson, St. Louis Robins, 91-71

Keith Grace, Hollywood B’s, 103-59

Skip Yoder, Bay Area Bandits, 88-74

Sonic Russell, Portland Decepticons, 88-74

As great and historic as George Kird’s 4-year run with New York has been, some think that instead of being the great tactitioner that he is, he is merely in the right place at the right time.  The real difference maker is the New York payroll and their ability to field a monstrous team.  These people also theorize that Kird’s job (whose contract expires after the season) could be in jeopardy if they don’t win the World Series again. Don’t count me in that group though.  Kird is a very strong contender for this award.

The Penguins came on strong to take the 2nd wild card at the end of the year.  This is another historically strong franchise, but they probably underperformed their ability.  I’ll pass on Calhoun.

Todd Reynolds did a great job in Alaska again this season.  Alaska was the team that outperformed their ability the most this season (at least according to their expected Pythagorean record).  I think there might have been other factors that led to this performance than the manager.  I’ll pass here too.

Paul Hudson had one of the most talented teams this year and they only won the wild card.   Hudson also has had some interesting game management calls this year (and last) related to pinch hitting for his star lefties, Burgos and Parkman.  I think that unless Hudson gets his team to the LCS, his job is in jeopardy.  I’ll pass on Hudson.

Keith Grace led the Hollywood B’s to a stunning record of 103-59.  Although they were not considered a juggernaut at the beginning of the year, their true talent won out over the season.  This is a really good team fueled by great pitching, and helped by some career years from certain hitters.  Grace is a very strong contender for this award.

Skip Yoder led Bay Area to 88 wins, but to some extent, this team really faded when it mattered most.  I think they have too much talent to have fallen short of the playoffs.  This is not the resume for the Manager of the Year.

Portland won the division last year and advanced to the LCS where they contended in each game against New York.  Despite that performance, Portland proceeded to completely overhaul their team this year.  Portland was a contender all year long and even outperformed their Pythagorean record.  However, their true undoing was the poor performance from their bullpen (especially in clutch situations).  It’s not like Portland didn’t spend money on this part of the team either.  It’s hard to tell whether the manager should take some blame for the performance of the bullpen or not.  Either way, this is not Manager of the year material.

My Choice:

I think George Kird doesn’t get nearly as much credit as he deserves for being an all time great manager.  He should be a slam dunk winner of this award.

Superior League Playoffs

 It is likely that the Superior League will send a new champion to the world series this year. Four of the five remaining teams have never been to the world series.

The Louisville Sluggers, who won the Superior League East with 91 victories, return to the playoffs for the first time since 2006. They had regular playoff appearances for their early history, but have never played in a world series.

Baltimore, 88-74, will have home field advantage in the wild card series. The team had 6 playoff appearances between 2008 and 2014, but has not returned since. They also have never played in a world series.

Toledo (85-77) has played in 3 postseasons, most recently in 2007. They are the second wild card team.

Cleveland has 3 postseason appearances in their history, most recently in 2018. With a 95-67 record, Cleveland won the Central Division and will have home field advantage throughout the Superior League playoffs.

Mars (86-76) won the west division and is the only team to play in the world series, though no active player was part of it and many on the roster were not even alive at the time. Mars was the league champion in the inaugural season of the Superior league. They lost a thrilling 7 game series to the Portland Decepticons. In between, Mars played in the postseason in 1995, 2005, and 2008.

3 teams end a postseason drought of more than a decade. May the best team win.

Crawford homers in last 2020 AB

 Mark Crawford was not in the starting lineup for the Rabbits’ final game. In the 6th inning, with the Rabbits leading 6-5, he pinch hit against Carl Rice and crushed a homer to right, 392 feet. This was the 589th homer for his career and may go down as his final appearance.

It has been a difficult season for Crawford, who hit .225 with 9 homers in 262 at bats. He began the season at first base, but struggled on both offense and defense. Crawford signed a 10 year, 300 million dollar contract before the 2012 season. He led the Rabbits to a world championship, the first in team history.

While one more season remains on the contract, Crawford has not committed to returning for the 2021 season.