The Village Idiot (3.31.2039)

[Alan T]

What's next for Pichette?

He won a minor league Hitter of the Year award. He has won the Benny Myers Award, even over a teammate that won the Prado award as a rookie. He was an international sensation in the FOOL World Baseball Classic. So what is next for the 22 year old Gael Pichette? How about a FOOL title for the New York Heroes?

Pichette has found himself in the heart of the lineup for a very young Heroes team that appears to make their mark on the Republic League scene for the next five to ten years. The city of New York has a special relationship with the superstars that are part of winning teams. Just ask former Heroes such as Juan Sierra or Nick Vega about what can happen from just a little success in the right spot.

Pichette is already one of the best hitters in the league and many scouts think that he can even get better over the next few years. We asked him what his biggest goal might be, and his answer was a quick one,"Help the Heroes win it all!"

As a youngster that grew up in Toronto, his family having relocated there from Montreal before he was born he says his parents were die-hard Toronto Osprey fans. That carried over to him being a Montreal Majestics fan growing up. He told VI that as a kid, his hero was Emmett Quero. Pichette wanted to be a pitcher just like him when growing up. He didn't end up the pitcher like Quero, but in the end he seems like he might just be one heck of a player.

Idiot's guide to Records that may never be broken:

One of the delights of following the FOOL season is keeping an eye out for those future hall of famers who some day will sit a top of the FOOL Record Books. Here are a few career records that the Village Idiot thinks may never be broken...

1235 Stolen Bases (Thierry Fournier) - Thanks to teams like Chico, FOOL has become all about the long ball these days. Waiting out the big 3-run Home Run is more en-vogue than small ball with a bunch of stolen bases. Since 2011, only one player (Jim O'Neill) has even broken 600 Stolen Bases in his career. The current active leader? 40 year old Matthew Blatherwick with only 577.

248 Triples (Dan Hurley) - Legendary players such as Rich Lang, Edgardo Reyes and Luke Crawford made their livings hitting over 10 triples yearly. Perhaps the best triples hitter of the modern era of FOOL, Joe Hughes only was able to put together 150 triples for his career.

734 Saves (Denny Hennessey) - Hennessey averaged over 36 saves a season for 20 years! The probability of that happening, even for the best of pitchers is so small that I don't see that ever happening again. You have to be a great pitcher, on a great team for a very long time. These days teams are not able to sustain the type of success that Hartford did over a 20 year span. This record is officially safe.


198 Complete Games (Dylan Robinson) - If Juan Sierra was not even able to crack 100 complete games, it seems unlikely that this record will be touched for some time. The way teams use their pitching staffs these days are different. When managers get a stud pitcher, the behavior these days is to ride them as often as possible, pitching them on short rest to get more starts out of them. This means on the back end they are not able to complete as many of the games as a side-effect.



Youngsters to watch out for

Ann Arbor minor leaguer Pepillo Garza was a sparkplug in the Cuban lineup in the recent World Baseball classic after having an OPS of over 1.100 last season in AA. In Spring training this season, he's hit over .300 with an OPS over 1.000. Look for him to completely skip AAA and be a leading candidate for the Myers Award this season.

Hammersmith Pitcher Manuel 'Doom' Sanchez not only has one of the best nicknames in baseball, he also has a devistating fastball. He was ready to come up last season but Hammersmith management kept him in the minors for one more season after a disappointing spring. This spring he pitched good enough to earn him a spot in the bigs. Look for Sanchez and Bettancourt to provide one of the best 1-2 punches in the RL.

Chua chay 'Spanky' Chao sounds like a dance that teenage girls may do. That is also the name of perhaps the best Ann Arbor pitching prospect since Bartolo Rodriguez. He also has the novelty of being one of the causes of a debate about Chinese Canadians that can only occur during a FOOL sim.

Gerard 'Raptor' Burrow is perhaps the first of the great Newark prospects that appear poised to hit the big leagues soon. He had an OBP of .465 in AA last season, but it is uncertain if Newark will bring up the 25 year old this year or give him one season at AAA before giving him a shot in 2040.

The winners will be...

Chico will be better this year than last. That seems hard to believe, but there is little reason to think they will fall off any at all. Instead, look for them to win a bazillion games, clinch the Republic League by June and then lose in the RLCS.

The runner ups in the Republic League looks likely to be one of three teams. Ann Arbor, New York and Hammersmith all appear to be ready to bring up a solid core of young players that could help each of them challenge for the next 5 seasons. One of the three will likely finish second in the Republic League this year. Watch out in the RLCS, especially if New York or Hammersmith end up facing off vs Chico. Both teams have incredible top end talent in the pitching staff and could be poised to be Goliath-slayers.

It seems that the VI often picks Apex in the CL only to jinx them. We never shy away from a good VI jinx however so will be choosing the Assassins to win again. The Continental League should be quite an impressive race however as Tokyo, Apex, Napa Valley and Boston all look fairly evenly matched. Napa Valley still is a team to watch for however as they still have the best pitching and now may also have the best hitter in the Continental league in Hitomaro 'Lurch' Okamato

[Chief Rum]

Awesome read, as usual. Love the records that will never be broken.

How about Sierra's win total? Or the consecutive games hitting streak? Or the top single season average? Will we ever see .400 again? Or 60 HRs? Or a sub-2.00 ERA from a SP? Or 30 wins?

On Pichette, man, you have to think last year's nutty Benny Myers award race was one of the best seen in years. Pichette, Zuniga, Blowey, Watanabe. I mean, these guys aren't just good for their rookie status, they're good period. Those four are probably four of the best players in the league now, and they all came up in the same year.

No massive pronouncements from me this year regarding the Hooligans. Are we more talented than last year, when we had the fourth worst record in FOOL? Yes. Are we more talented than we were when we went to the playoffs two seasons ago, and finished in third the two seasons prior to that? I am pretty sure, befuddingly (given last year's results), yes.

But last year shook my confidence. I don't know what to make of this team. I am excited to have Basher and Doom finally at the top of my rotation, something I have been waiting for for several seasons. And Martin is a very strong pitcher that I get to throw out in the #3 spot. The pen is still very good, and deeper now. We finished 3rd in ERA in SP and 3rd in ERA in the pen last year--and ended up in 5th overall ERA. You tell me how that makes sense.

The defense is improved--especially at SS--, and the improvement of Watanabe, the addition of Hatfield, and the promotion of Terry should help make up for the loss of Roy and Jackson in the Martin deal.

But there's still plenty to be concerned about. Can Padno supply enough starts in relief of Gonzalez to solidify the backend of the rotation? Is the fantastic fielding of the Carrasco-Mendoza duo at SS going to be enough to make up for less than ideal offensive output? Can the lineup as a whole succeed despite being, again, very weak on discipline? Is a middle relief crew of soft tossers going to be enough to get the ball to the harder throwers at the back end of the pen?

And, of course, if everything comes through, is it even then enough to overtake the powerful amount of talent on teams like Chico, New York, Colorado and Ann Arbor?

I have no idea. I'll be at work tonight, so I guess I'll find out when I get home.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

How about Sierra's win total? Or the consecutive games hitting streak? Or the top single season average? Will we ever see .400 again? Or 60 HRs? Or a sub-2.00 ERA from a SP? Or 30 wins?

I think .400 in a season, 60 HR and sub-2.00 ERA in single seasons are all doable. We actually end up with players pretty close nearly every season. Just takes a hot season to accomplish it.

Hitting streaks are just fluky anyways. FOOL is actually due for a really long one. We haven't had any super long ones for a while now.

Sierra's record.. that one seems unlikely, but statistically we've had two pitchers (counting Sierra) come close in the last 10 years, and I think we have a group of really stud arms for several teams coming up. So we'll see there!


More on milestones, check out a neat new addition to FOOL's Statslab (For those who play in the other FOOL leagues, it has been added to them too)

Milestones - StatsLab for OOTP9

[Montreal_GM]

Another season where I just don't know what to expect. We could easily battle for 1st or finish as low as 5th.

I fully expect 22 year old Jeremy Aitken to greatly improve on his 16-10/3.70 campaign. Is 20+ wins and a 2.5 ERA asking too much?

Adrian Canales' recent ratings drops have me very worried about offensive production. Couple that with failing to replace Neil Rush adequately and this could be a sorry year for the lineup.

I need Mason Crosby to gather 7 fantasy points tonight to move to 3-1.

[EddieK]

I believe this is the last year for the Boston Settlers as we have some retooling to do in the minors but I want to win at least one championship with these guys!

[ekcut]

I am afraid to watch the season. The Edge's pitching is still dyn-omite, but the offense is just terrible.