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Jazzmosis · 06-12-2008, 01:40 PM

Chapter 77: A Steamroll Mentality

August began with the completion of a 7-game winning streak – one that unfortunately, only had us 2.5 games ahead of St. Louis by the end of it. Duncan, Delaney, and Jackson each were pitching up a storm, with Duncan leading the team with 12 wins in mid-August.

However, it wasn’t all peaches. After the 7 game win streak, we traded winning streaks with losing streaks of the same length, all while St. Louis was putting together their best month of the season. By the 12th, St. Louis had tied us up for the divisional lead, and two days later they had taken it from us. While we scuffled to keep pace, they continued to streak away to a 21-7 month. We had the wildcard (by 5 games), but I wanted that division lead back – we’d lead it the majority of the summer, and every player on the team knew that – but simply put, the team was labouring through the month, and the increased workload on young players were showing the cracks in our team. Chaffin had burst out of the gate to a 3-0 record in his first three starts, but then dropped his next three to even his record out by the end of the month.

Kass saw his ERA start August at 3.59, but finish at 4.02 with a 0-3 month. Delaney gave a 6.49 ERA in the month, but went 4-1, thanks in large part to the work of one man – a hitter that was basically carrying the offence throughout the year, but especially in August.

Mark Gouin was his name, and after being injured for the majority of last year, he was certainly setting himself up to be the league’s MVP in this one. By the end of the month, he’d walloped a major-league leading 45 HRs, had an MLB best 1.035 OPS, and had driven in 102 RBIs – and there was still another month to go. Hickman, who was hitting in front of him, had scored 103 times, due in large part to Gouin’s bat. Taylor, who had missed the first week of August with a pulled tricep, was forming a powerful combination with Gouin – and all three players were hitting above .300. Meanwhile, Deguzman, hitting in the cleanup slot, was also hitting above .300 with solid power. In May, he’d joined the ranks of the elite power hitters by mashing his 600th career homerun – and hadn’t slowed down since. His only problem was that he was also on his way to 157 strikeouts, by far his highest career total.

And of course, there was the still-invincible Aitken. He strolled effortlessly through the month, complete with 8 saves (35 total), a 0.62 WHIP, and an ERA of 0.00. That lowered his seasonal ERA to 0.39 – and coming into September, he had a cushion of 4 earned runs to give up and could still give up the least earned runs of any closer in the history of the game (that threw a whole season in the role). His complete dominance had garnered the attention of all baseball outlets across the country – everywhere he went, he was a household name. It was 2010, and the 24 year old closer had achieved a fame that most people can’t even comprehend.

However, the good news was overshadowed by two things. The first was the fact that by the end of the month, we were 3.5 games back from St. Louis after a 16-13 showing. We were 20 games above .500 at 77-57, but it simply wasn’t enough.

The second was a brutal injury to Dennis Talmadge, who’d been hitting .288 with 12 HRs and 70 RBIs on the season – one that occurred in a hopelessly pointless game which we were losing 15-3 at the time. The collision that occurred at home plate in the game against Houston went on the sports reels, it was so hard. Bill Parks, the Astros’ first baseman, was attempting to score from second on a shallow single to the gap that Hicky retrieved and fired to the plate on a hop. The throw had beat Parks by a few steps – Talmadge turned to block the plate, only to be greeted by Parks’ bodyslam-like slide – a slide that netted him a fine and a 5-game suspension. Talmadge’s body was literally slugged backwards, bouncing off its hip, and then getting the brunt of Parks’ weight on top of it. The slide was compared to a hockey hip check – and with Parks, at 225 pounds, rolling onto of Dennis, his hipbone cracked in three places. He’d miss the remainder of the year for sure, and an unknown amount of time in the next season.

The collision itself damn near caused a brawl, but seeing Talmadge in so much pain that he couldn’t even roll around in agony turned focus away from fighting. In the end, the injury promoted defensive stalwart Delgadillo to a starting role, and called up Paul McCree – another catcher known for his defensive abilities. And while Delgadillo would certainly step up as the starting catcher (complete with a 55% caught stealing rate) and hit .301 in September, he himself would admit that it was not the situation he hoped to gain the role from.

September was a big month for the team – with the playoffs so close, and the Chicago fans expecting yet another trip, we had to resolve to simply play better baseball. Apart from the usual September callups, there was nobody that was expected to contribute heavily. 9 days into the month, we were still in the exact position we were before, 3 back of St. Louis, and 5 ahead of Milwaukee for the wildcard. It seemed likely that we were going to hit the postseason anyway, but there was the status of being the divisional champion that we wanted.

After that day, everything changed – all because of a double.

It was predictably going to be Gouin, absolutely mashing to the tune of .467 with 6 HRs and 12 RBIs in the first week, which would start the change. Too bad it was for all the wrong reasons. While legging out a two-RBI double, he pulled up lame between the bags and soon hit the dirt, sitting on second base and signalling for the trainer. After a quick diagnosis, the news was nothing short of cataclysmic: a torn groin muscle. It was going to happen again – he’d miss the next two months, which meant: the rest of the season, and all of the playoffs. It was a blow that we were all too familiar with.

Instead of rolling over, the team responded. We won the next six games, giving us an 8-game winning streak, which pulled us back into a tie in the middle of it; by the end, it gave us a half game lead in the division. In the meantime, Paul Dekker strode out to a .352 average on the season, good for the tops in the NL. Two days later, Andrzejewski was activated from the disabled list, ending Chaffin’s time as starter. Stefan Takeo was called up and put in the relief corps, where he excelled in 9 games.

On the 21st, Duncan won his 16th game after a 6 inning performance – 15 of the outs being strikeouts. Not to be outdone in the K race, the next day Jackson hurled a complete game with 10 strikeouts of his own – it was also his 15th win on the season. That gave us a three game lead over St. Louis, whom had seemed to hit the wall. Meanwhile, we were opening up our steamroller mentality, and had only lost 4 games in the month as of the 22nd. On the 25th, Taylor broke a franchise record by recording 8-straight hits in 8 AB. On the 26th, Deguzman joined Gouin as the team’s 100 RBI men with his 25th HR. On the 28th, while in a 3 game win streak, Aitken rolled to his 100th career save with his 43rd on the season (also a career best). His ERA lowered to 0.34, as he still hadn’t gave up a run since July 29th. However, in an improbable turn of events, this was also the save that completed a three-game sweep of St. Louis, and toasted our team as the division champions. We were back in the playoffs as the NL Central leaders.

The next day, we won our 4th straight on Andrze’s seven shutout innings, while Dekker raised his average to a major-league highest of .358. He ended up with that average for the season, helped in large part by a .406 September. On the same day, Florida clinched the East, joining San Francisco in the NL playoff squad. Over in the AL, it was far murkier, with only Detroit clinched. Boston and Baltimore would end up having to play an extra game to decide (which Boston would win), while Seattle and Oakland both clinched playoffs as division and wildcard, after both lost their last 3 games in a row.
St. Louis, in the midst of their September tailspin, found themselves fighting to stay alive with only two games to play. While I put Chaffin and rookie Mulhern into pitch the last games for Chicago, Milwaukee made their push (against us), but ultimately Chaffin shut the door on their season on the 30th with six shutout innings in a 3-2 win, which also gave St. Louis it’s ticket to the postseason. It was ironic, since it was us that put St. Louis into that position, and then us who helped them out of it.

When it was all said and done, my Chicago Cubs finished off a dominating season, at 97-65 – the best record in baseball – and 7 games in front of St. Louis. We’d played to a 20-8 month, had the HR leader (Gouin, 51), the OPS leader (Gouin, 1.035), the average leader (Dekker, .358), the top two strikeout leaders (Duncan 281, Jackson 276), the saves leader (Aitken, 43), and the 2nd place runs scored (Hickman, 119). It was certainly no surprise we finished as well as we did, and for the first time, we’d played to our potential. In the meantime, we’d played in the toughest division, with 4 teams finishing above .500 (and Houston finished 80-82). The city of Chicago was jumping with excitement over our year and imminent playoff series. However, it was Cole Aitken that was really soaking in the praise, as he’d undoubtedly gone down in the record books with the most dominant season by a closer ever – 56 innings, 43 saves, 5-0 record, 2 earned runs, 71 strikeouts, a WHIP of 0.70, an opponent average of .128, and an ERA of 0.32.

We had a few days off before the playoffs; and while I spent that time with Lilley, my mind was just on baseball, and the coming week ahead.

06-12-2008, 01:40 PM	#369 (permalink)
Jazzmosis Major Leagues Join Date: May 2004 Location: The London you've never heard of Posts: 497	Chapter 77: A Steamroll Mentality August began with the completion of a 7-game winning streak – one that unfortunately, only had us 2.5 games ahead of St. Louis by the end of it. Duncan, Delaney, and Jackson each were pitching up a storm, with Duncan leading the team with 12 wins in mid-August. However, it wasn’t all peaches. After the 7 game win streak, we traded winning streaks with losing streaks of the same length, all while St. Louis was putting together their best month of the season. By the 12th, St. Louis had tied us up for the divisional lead, and two days later they had taken it from us. While we scuffled to keep pace, they continued to streak away to a 21-7 month. We had the wildcard (by 5 games), but I wanted that division lead back – we’d lead it the majority of the summer, and every player on the team knew that – but simply put, the team was labouring through the month, and the increased workload on young players were showing the cracks in our team. Chaffin had burst out of the gate to a 3-0 record in his first three starts, but then dropped his next three to even his record out by the end of the month. Kass saw his ERA start August at 3.59, but finish at 4.02 with a 0-3 month. Delaney gave a 6.49 ERA in the month, but went 4-1, thanks in large part to the work of one man – a hitter that was basically carrying the offence throughout the year, but especially in August. Mark Gouin was his name, and after being injured for the majority of last year, he was certainly setting himself up to be the league’s MVP in this one. By the end of the month, he’d walloped a major-league leading 45 HRs, had an MLB best 1.035 OPS, and had driven in 102 RBIs – and there was still another month to go. Hickman, who was hitting in front of him, had scored 103 times, due in large part to Gouin’s bat. Taylor, who had missed the first week of August with a pulled tricep, was forming a powerful combination with Gouin – and all three players were hitting above .300. Meanwhile, Deguzman, hitting in the cleanup slot, was also hitting above .300 with solid power. In May, he’d joined the ranks of the elite power hitters by mashing his 600th career homerun – and hadn’t slowed down since. His only problem was that he was also on his way to 157 strikeouts, by far his highest career total. And of course, there was the still-invincible Aitken. He strolled effortlessly through the month, complete with 8 saves (35 total), a 0.62 WHIP, and an ERA of 0.00. That lowered his seasonal ERA to 0.39 – and coming into September, he had a cushion of 4 earned runs to give up and could still give up the least earned runs of any closer in the history of the game (that threw a whole season in the role). His complete dominance had garnered the attention of all baseball outlets across the country – everywhere he went, he was a household name. It was 2010, and the 24 year old closer had achieved a fame that most people can’t even comprehend. However, the good news was overshadowed by two things. The first was the fact that by the end of the month, we were 3.5 games back from St. Louis after a 16-13 showing. We were 20 games above .500 at 77-57, but it simply wasn’t enough. The second was a brutal injury to Dennis Talmadge, who’d been hitting .288 with 12 HRs and 70 RBIs on the season – one that occurred in a hopelessly pointless game which we were losing 15-3 at the time. The collision that occurred at home plate in the game against Houston went on the sports reels, it was so hard. Bill Parks, the Astros’ first baseman, was attempting to score from second on a shallow single to the gap that Hicky retrieved and fired to the plate on a hop. The throw had beat Parks by a few steps – Talmadge turned to block the plate, only to be greeted by Parks’ bodyslam-like slide – a slide that netted him a fine and a 5-game suspension. Talmadge’s body was literally slugged backwards, bouncing off its hip, and then getting the brunt of Parks’ weight on top of it. The slide was compared to a hockey hip check – and with Parks, at 225 pounds, rolling onto of Dennis, his hipbone cracked in three places. He’d miss the remainder of the year for sure, and an unknown amount of time in the next season. The collision itself damn near caused a brawl, but seeing Talmadge in so much pain that he couldn’t even roll around in agony turned focus away from fighting. In the end, the injury promoted defensive stalwart Delgadillo to a starting role, and called up Paul McCree – another catcher known for his defensive abilities. And while Delgadillo would certainly step up as the starting catcher (complete with a 55% caught stealing rate) and hit .301 in September, he himself would admit that it was not the situation he hoped to gain the role from. September was a big month for the team – with the playoffs so close, and the Chicago fans expecting yet another trip, we had to resolve to simply play better baseball. Apart from the usual September callups, there was nobody that was expected to contribute heavily. 9 days into the month, we were still in the exact position we were before, 3 back of St. Louis, and 5 ahead of Milwaukee for the wildcard. It seemed likely that we were going to hit the postseason anyway, but there was the status of being the divisional champion that we wanted. After that day, everything changed – all because of a double. It was predictably going to be Gouin, absolutely mashing to the tune of .467 with 6 HRs and 12 RBIs in the first week, which would start the change. Too bad it was for all the wrong reasons. While legging out a two-RBI double, he pulled up lame between the bags and soon hit the dirt, sitting on second base and signalling for the trainer. After a quick diagnosis, the news was nothing short of cataclysmic: a torn groin muscle. It was going to happen again – he’d miss the next two months, which meant: the rest of the season, and all of the playoffs. It was a blow that we were all too familiar with. Instead of rolling over, the team responded. We won the next six games, giving us an 8-game winning streak, which pulled us back into a tie in the middle of it; by the end, it gave us a half game lead in the division. In the meantime, Paul Dekker strode out to a .352 average on the season, good for the tops in the NL. Two days later, Andrzejewski was activated from the disabled list, ending Chaffin’s time as starter. Stefan Takeo was called up and put in the relief corps, where he excelled in 9 games. On the 21st, Duncan won his 16th game after a 6 inning performance – 15 of the outs being strikeouts. Not to be outdone in the K race, the next day Jackson hurled a complete game with 10 strikeouts of his own – it was also his 15th win on the season. That gave us a three game lead over St. Louis, whom had seemed to hit the wall. Meanwhile, we were opening up our steamroller mentality, and had only lost 4 games in the month as of the 22nd. On the 25th, Taylor broke a franchise record by recording 8-straight hits in 8 AB. On the 26th, Deguzman joined Gouin as the team’s 100 RBI men with his 25th HR. On the 28th, while in a 3 game win streak, Aitken rolled to his 100th career save with his 43rd on the season (also a career best). His ERA lowered to 0.34, as he still hadn’t gave up a run since July 29th. However, in an improbable turn of events, this was also the save that completed a three-game sweep of St. Louis, and toasted our team as the division champions. We were back in the playoffs as the NL Central leaders. The next day, we won our 4th straight on Andrze’s seven shutout innings, while Dekker raised his average to a major-league highest of .358. He ended up with that average for the season, helped in large part by a .406 September. On the same day, Florida clinched the East, joining San Francisco in the NL playoff squad. Over in the AL, it was far murkier, with only Detroit clinched. Boston and Baltimore would end up having to play an extra game to decide (which Boston would win), while Seattle and Oakland both clinched playoffs as division and wildcard, after both lost their last 3 games in a row. St. Louis, in the midst of their September tailspin, found themselves fighting to stay alive with only two games to play. While I put Chaffin and rookie Mulhern into pitch the last games for Chicago, Milwaukee made their push (against us), but ultimately Chaffin shut the door on their season on the 30th with six shutout innings in a 3-2 win, which also gave St. Louis it’s ticket to the postseason. It was ironic, since it was us that put St. Louis into that position, and then us who helped them out of it. When it was all said and done, my Chicago Cubs finished off a dominating season, at 97-65 – the best record in baseball – and 7 games in front of St. Louis. We’d played to a 20-8 month, had the HR leader (Gouin, 51), the OPS leader (Gouin, 1.035), the average leader (Dekker, .358), the top two strikeout leaders (Duncan 281, Jackson 276), the saves leader (Aitken, 43), and the 2nd place runs scored (Hickman, 119). It was certainly no surprise we finished as well as we did, and for the first time, we’d played to our potential. In the meantime, we’d played in the toughest division, with 4 teams finishing above .500 (and Houston finished 80-82). The city of Chicago was jumping with excitement over our year and imminent playoff series. However, it was Cole Aitken that was really soaking in the praise, as he’d undoubtedly gone down in the record books with the most dominant season by a closer ever – 56 innings, 43 saves, 5-0 record, 2 earned runs, 71 strikeouts, a WHIP of 0.70, an opponent average of .128, and an ERA of 0.32. We had a few days off before the playoffs; and while I spent that time with Lilley, my mind was just on baseball, and the coming week ahead. __________________ Florida Marlins GM, Netsports League - 2004 NL Champs, 2008 + 2013 Champions, 2004, 2009-2015, 2017-2021, 2024-2028 NLE Division Crown Mark Jazzington's Managerial Career - worth a read Thanks to Tib for the inspiration to write it.