My Traverse City Fighting Tigers are at the midway point in the Ultimate APBA League (UAL). We are very happy with where we are sitting with a 52-28 record (27-13 at home). We entered December tied in first with a 39-21 record, while another team sat only a game back. I am in good shape for the playoffs which accepts a very generous 6 teams from each league, I would prefer 4 teams from each league, but what can I say?
My team is lead by co-captains Buster Posey and Jose Altuve.
Jose Altuve is batting .369 for the season (.424 at home), while he entered December leading the entire UAL in that category. Altuve has reached base 43% of the time, while posting a .955 OPS, he also has already stolen 30 bases. His power numbers consist of 11 HR, 24 doubles & 58 RBI with .527 slugging. He also has 58 runs.
Buster Posey's home run numbers slowed down (7 HR during first half) towards his realistic pace, at one point I believe he was on pace for 24 homers. Posey has only hit 1 HR in the last 25 games, while Posey's batting average has decreased from .335 to .316 as well.
Domingo Santana's home run rate is starting to get up towards his 2017 MLB rate, hitting 7 HR during the last 25 games, as he leads the Tigers with 17 long balls. Domingo already has 4 walk-off hits for the team as well.
Justin Bour's numbers have went up slightly as he is batting .273, 12 HR & 35 RBI (.859 OPS) in 49 games this season. Like Bour, many of the guys have earned more rest in first half, and will get more playing time in the second half. Bour will start 59 games in the second-half, as his games limit sits at 108 games.
Jean Segura (pictured above) has sat a good portion of his games off in the first-half, and will be in the lineup a lot more during the remainder of the season, and at the right time... Segura has been heating up, and it's going to be wonderful having him bat in front of Altuve 74 of the next 80 games. Segura is batting .308 with 6 HR, 32 RBI & .825 OPS through 51 games.
Gerardo Parra continues to underachieve, batting .242 with .275 OBP & .639 OPS... I was thinking about plugging him and Marwin Gonzalez (who took a bad December dip) in different parts of the lineup, but am afraid of messing with the chemistry of the rest of the lineup. The Traverse City Fighting Tigers are batting .278 as a team with a .776 OPS, those are strong numbers considering it's a league of 24 teams, which means the starting pitching for each team would be better than say the MLB's 30 teams... tougher pitching usually (and most often) means lower numbers in team hitting.
Back to Gonzalez, I have been batting Marwin 3rd in the lineup, and have been thinking about bring Domingo's bat up as high as 4th in the lineup, on some days Domingo is up to #4 and #5 when players like Yoenis Cespedes and Bour have off-days. Marwin had a strong 2017 MLB season, the best of his career, but after a bad December, he is batting .260 with 10 HR, 43 RBI & .731 OPS through the first half.
The pitching has overall underachieved which makes me more excited about the second-half, we can only get better right?! My starting pitchers seem to have got hurt with the long ball, Jimmy Nelson, who was supposed to be my ace has a 4.63 ERA & 13 HR allowed... yet, he somehow has won 9 games. Rich Hill, who is limited when it comes to games started and innings, has gotten no run support I believe in his outings, because he is only 3-1 (3.63 ERA) through 10 starts.
Jeff Samardzija has overall done well, he got a little beat-up in December after an excellent November, as his ERA rose back up to 4.03 from where it sat at 2.80 through 55 game-point in the season. Samardzija has a 10-4 record, while he is one of three starting pitchers on the team that's on pace for 200+ strikeouts. Yu Darvish leads the team with 108 K's, but was held to only one win in all of December, he has also given up the most home runs on the team (14), while his ERA could be better, as it sits at 4.55 for the season.
The bullpen is finally getting towards where it should be as most of the pitchers have respectable ERA's. Chris Rusin got roughed up in December, as he is the only reliever with an ERA over 4 (5.60 ERA through 24.1 innings) -- he has plenty of games and innings (61 usable innings left) to improve on these numbers.
Bryan Shaw (The 7th Inning Man) has improved over December, decreasing his ERA from 5.00 to 3.95 over the last 25 games. Andrew Miller (2.47 ERA) and Ken Giles (19 Saves, 3.28 ERA) have been more consistent of late, pitching good, while we just need to watch their innings limits the rest of the way. I plan to sit them more against weaker opponents.
Stay tuned to what should be an excellent second-half for the UAL.
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