NLD 45 - The Vote for Pedro (Martinez) Version

jeep got me this time....

So sweet to get some revenge and have it happen so quickly. Didn't have time to fester.

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Wow! Don''t know if one of my teams ever scored so many runs in one game. It's just a ray of light in a so-so season. Sorry, nythawk!

yeah, you used up two weeks worth of runs in one game!!!

In the meantime we actually won a series. Hopefully we can get back to playing good ball gain. We've fallen completely out of a playoff spot during this awful stretch. It might be tough to make up the six games on Semper, but given that only two teams are more than 1 game over .500, we still have chance to sneak our way back in if we can just get lucky. Of course, I don't know that anyone is truly out of it so it will be an interesting stretch drive (at least I hope it's interesting for us!)

An Amazingly tight NLD. Only 10 games separate the best record from the worst!

This is really quite remarkable, on the morning of Friday 8/4 we were 47-29 (.618) on pace for 100 wins and comfortably in a playoff spot. We won the first game of a series with Big A that night and then....Since that time, for no apparent reason, we have completely tanked.

Since that first win, we have gone 15-38 (.283), a 46 win pace. We've lost close games, blow outs, games were we left a ton on base, games where we were shutdown by crappy pitchers or good pitchers or scored a ton only to allow more. We haven't won two series in a row since then. We've had a 10 game losing streak, but mostly it's just losing two every night with an occasional sweep or us actually winning two. We haven't swept at all or won back-to-back series.

A lot of the blame falls on Betances who has blown at least 8 games, has gone 2-8 with a 2.32 WHIP and an 8.27 ERA. Interestingly enough he has fives saves too. Most Incredibly RHB are hitting .291 against him. If you've seen his card you'll realize how hard this must be to do. You'd have to have RHB hitting over .500 on their cards.

Cervenka who had pitched pretty well to start the season, has also been brutal posting a 1.93 whip and a 6.49 ERA in 30.7 IP. Admittedly he isn't great, but.... Then there's Stroman who, again isn't awesome, but RHB are hitting .302 against him and overall it's .289. It goes on, LHB are hitting >2.90 v Quintana and in 58 PA (SSS warning) RHB have hit an incredible .378 with a .518 OBP versus Cingrani.

Hitting isn't too bad except for my LH platoon players. Rollins just rode a hot streak to get to .260, but was languishing below .200 for much of the season. Suarez and Gutierrez and Arcia are all below .220

And then there are the anomalies like Herrera and Realmuto actually hitting well v LHP and there are others that are pretty close to what you'd expect and maybe a couple doing better.

Both our hitting and pitching have sunk to well below the run level predicted by the ratings.

I'm not saying it's just bad luck because I don't think this is a 100 win team either. I think we should be above .500 but this up and down from the best team to recording setting worst is very puzzling and not a lot of fun.

Joe, you have my team from the last season.

Joe, you have my team from the last season.

The thought has crossed my mind.....

Exciting series with Stones last night. After getting blown out in Game 1 by a 19-4 score, our guys came back with two 9th inning rallies to take the series.

Exciting series with Stones last night. After getting blown out in Game 1 by a 19-4 score, our guys came back with two 9th inning rallies to take the series.

Nice going Jeep, that's the way to do it. Let them use up all their runs in the first game and then squeak a couple close ones. Wish my team could remember how to do that.

We are the worst team in the history of baseball.

I don't think so Joe. There's the '62 Mets and a Live Draft team I had in 2004 that was worse. But, I feel your pain, been there many times.