55.045 – New-Look Offense Seems Almost Offensive!

[RonCo]

Byline: Max Offen Sichtlich

Off Topic

Fresh Bats Turn Tides?

August 31, 2055

New General Manager made news—some of it not the positive kind—when he took a look at the team’s offense at the All-Star break, and went to what some people called dumpster diving by dropping a million bucks or so on three veteran free agents. One understands why that might create some ruffles, we suppose. The guys Collins grabbed were a mottled mix of older guys no one seemed to be able to find homes for.

Bob Dempsey had been teaching summer school, Lee Stone was doing blown glass in a artist’s colony, and Curt Lehman had been contemplating signing on to a crab boat in the Bering Straits. Not exactly the guys you want to bet on barreling up to a 99 MPH heater with the game on the line.

The early results were mixed.

But as time moves, the winds of fate are looking more and more to be on the Mad Popes’ favor. Since the trio arrived, the boys from Sacramento are 20-12, and in August, they’ve outscored their opponents 134-98.

While not exactly elite lumber count, that, as they say, will play.

Here are the individual lines: (adding in the mid-season acquisition of Tsuyoshi Kobayashi).

• Kobayashi: 12 2B, 1 3B, 10 HR. .252/.293/.543 (125 OPS+, 1.1 WAR) 39 G since arriving
• Dempsey: 4 2B, 5 HR, .241/.299/.405 (93 OPS+) 31 G *
• Lehman: 3 2B, 2 HR, .375/.394/.656 (184 OPS+, .4 WAR) 9 G
• Stone: 4 2B, .379/.429/.517 (161 OPS+, .3 WAR) 9 G

Dempsey, it should be noted, was horrible for his first two weeks with the club. His numbers in August have settled out to a quite workable .260/.322/.442, including all 5 doubles and four homers.

Perhaps of more import, the addition of these three has allowed Unem Ploid to rotate back out to the field, where he’s not exactly stellar, but where it means that and has resulted in both Todd Rice and Okay Nisanci being able to sit against the tough lefties in the league.

Rice’s numbers in August: .337/.363/.430 – his best month since April.

Nisanci: .352/.395/.507, his best slashing month of the season.

“I love the guys we had,” Collins said at a recent luncheon. “And we’ll see a lot of them back next year, I’m sure. But it seemed clear to me that we needed a few guys who could hit the ball harder right now, so it seemed to be worth it.”
Then from behind him, Assistant GM Carlos Camacho began choking on his shrimp cocktail, and the interview was over.

POS	Player Name	Age	B	T	OVR	POT	Con	Con P	Gap	Gap P	Pow	Pow P	Eye	Eye P	AvK	AvK P
3B	Tsuyoshi Kobayashi	29	S	R	70	70	6	6	7	7	9	9	6	6	6	6
	Source		Ht	Wt	SPD	STE	RUN	CAB	CAR	IFR	IFE	IFA	TDP	OFR	OFE	OFA
	Trade		6'0"	180	8	9	5	1	2	6	5	10	3	4	3	8

POS	Player Name	Age	B	T	OVR	POT	Con	Con P	Gap	Gap P	Pow	Pow P	Eye	Eye P	AvK	AvK P
1B	Bob Dempsey	29	R	R	50	50	6	6	7	7	8	8	6	7	7	7
	Source		Ht	Wt	SPD	STE	RUN	CAB	CAR	IFR	IFE	IFA	TDP	OFR	OFE	OFA
	MLC		6'3"	205	3	5	2	1	1	5	5	3	2	2	1	1

POS	Player Name	Age	B	T	OVR	POT	Con	Con P	Gap	Gap P	Pow	Pow P	Eye	Eye P	AvK	AvK P
RF	Curt Lehman	31	R	R	50	50	7	7	8	8	7	7	6	6	6	6
	Source		Ht	Wt	SPD	STE	RUN	CAB	CAR	IFR	IFE	IFA	TDP	OFR	OFE	OFA
	MLC		6'6"	200	9	9	9	1	1	1	1	4	1	6	7	8

POS	Player Name	Age	B	T	OVR	POT	Con	Con P	Gap	Gap P	Pow	Pow P	Eye	Eye P	AvK	AvK P
LF	Lee Stone	31	R	R	55	55	7	7	9	9	8	8	6	6	7	7
	Source		Ht	Wt	SPD	STE	RUN	CAB	CAR	IFR	IFE	IFA	TDP	OFR	OFE	OFA
	MLC		6'2"	200	2	4	5	1	1	1	1	3	1	2	6	7

[mragland]

Awesome to see Lee Stone get back to form.

Not awesome to see him do it against us.

[RonCo]

Stone's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the tenth beat Valencia 1-0 (what is, essentially, the SAC version of a perfect game). Unfortunately, Valencia did manage two hits and a walk in those ten innings ... so it soooooo close to the absolute perfection of all perfections.