Rebels With a Cause: Postseason Redemption

A lot can happen in a 20-game month, as the Tatooine Rebels found out in June. The Westbound Division leaders paid a visit to mighty Margaritaville, and Tatooine manager Nick Calderon reported of the 1-4 outcome, “The series against the Volcanoes did not go well, to say the least. We were outhomered 13-5, outpitched (7.00 to 4.31 ERA), and basically left to wonder if this was the beginning of the end.”

But the Rebels managed to right the ship the rest of the month, posting a 12-8 record for July that was good enough for a 66-34 record after 100 games, overtaking New New York for the league’s best record by one game.

Tatooine spanked Savannah 5-0 and went 3-2 against both Bismarck and Southbound Division-leading South Grand Prairie to boost its division lead over Dyersville to eight games.

Nick said after the Margaritaville series he briefly “began to panic with memories of the 2021 postseason sweep,” but the Rebels bounced back behind Freddie Freeman, Shohei Ohtani and Adley Rutschman. Freeman, who leads the league in hitting at .324, hit .400 and .526 against Savannah and SGP respectively. Ohtani had seven homers and a 2.63 ERA, and Rutschman had his first month hitting over .300.

“Overall, we put it together and showed the resilience we’ll need to go far in the postseason,” said Nick.

To that end, the Rebels have already begun fine-tuning their roster, strengthening their pitching staff via deals with Bismarck and Savannah. The Bismarck deal netted study lefty Carlos Rodon and famed righty Noah Syndergaard, while the Savannah swap secured stud reliever Jordan Romano.

“After reviewing our stats this month, we did notice that (Gerrit) Cole was having major issues with the longball,” said Nick, referencing 26 homers allowed, second-most in the league. “We worried that he would cost us games in the playoffs. During our series with the Bombers, we were very impressed by Rodon’s performance. To keep it short, we believe Cole can help Bizek next year and Rodon can help us get to the Pittman Cup this year. The other players (Jon Gray and Harrison Bader) were there to help ease Steve’s iron grip on Mr. Rodon.”

The Rebels are still shopping for a righty-hitting shortstop, but otherwise are hopeful this postseason can erase the bad taste of the 2021 collapse, when they won the Westbound Division by 28 games with a league-best 113 wins but suffered a sweep at the hands of the Destin Beach Bums in the semifinals. Destin went on to win the World Series that year.

“As for the postseason, well, quite frankly everyone is a threat,” said Nick. “You don’t get there by accident in this league. Hopefully our pitching staff stays strong and Jedi Master Freeman will keep us strong in the force.”

One team that is becoming a stronger threat with each passing month is Margaritaville, which had July’s top performance at 14-6 to climb within five games of first-place New New York in the North. The Volcanoes clubbed 53 homers — yes, 53! — while scoring 140 runs. For those bad at math, that’s seven runs per game. Leading the way was newly acquired center fielder Byron Buxton, who bashed 10 homers in 62 at-bats and drove in 23.

Margaritaville won all four of its July series, taking three of five from the Hypnotoads on the road to help narrow the gap in that division and overtake Olympic Coast for second place. The Volanoes and Orcas rank No. 4 and No. 5 in the current wild-card standings.

All five teams in the nasty Northbound Division posted double-figure win totals in July, from Margaritaville (14) to never-say-die Bushwood (13) to gritty Olympic Coast (12) to both New New York and Carpe Diem (10 each).

In the Southbound Division, Boulder sliced one game off of South Grand Prairie’s lead, trimming the margin to four games while going 10-10 to the Warriors’ 9-11. Greendale remains six games back, unable to make up any ground with a nine-win month.

Dyersville went 11-9 and it currently holds the sixth spot in the wild-card standings at 58-42, six games ahead of Boulder and eight ahead of Greendale in the bid for postseason entry.

 

16-win June puts Warriors in a golden state

One minute the South Grand Prairie Warriors are treading water, bobbing along in third place just two games over .500 at 31-29. And the next minute they are on a 94-win pace and leading the Southbound Division by five games.

A 16-4 month will do that as the Warriors posted an eye-opening June mark to stake their legitimate claim as a postseason threat behind their dominant starting pitching staff.

SGP’s 3-2 series wins over Greendale and Applegate were commendable, its sweep of Bushwood improbable, but its sweep of previously invincible New New York can only be rated as incredible. As in, difficult to believe. But it’s true. “Amazing pitching,” said Warriors manager Garth Lewis of the conquest. “I believe we had a 1.40 team ERA in the series. We were getting enough timely hitting and they weren’t hitting a thing.”

The Warriors went from two games behind to five games in front in the South, shooting past Boulder and trading places with Greendale in the standings. Lefty Nestor Cortes leads the staff with an 11-1 mark and 3.14 ERA, well supported by Cristian Javier (8-3, 2.70), Tony Gonsolin (6-3, 2.82), Dylan Cease (7-6, 3.50) and Matt Manning (4-3, 3.38).

A huge factor has been SGP’s home-field advantage, playing in Fenway Park, which helps mitigate any power advantage visitors might have had. “Being 33-12 at home (best in the league) has been huge,” said Garth. “And the fact we’ve actually outhomered our opponents at Fenway is pretty telling considering we’ve been outhomered by 25 on the road.”

Garth added he expected his starting pitching to be strong going into the season, with four top-flight starting pitching cards. “But after starting the season 8-12, I wasn’t so sure this bunch had it in them to be worth anything. But the bullpen settled down and the bats were good enough.”

First baseman Paul Goldschmidt leads the league in hitting at .322 and in runs scored with 68. He is fourth in doubles and sixth in homers with 22 in each category, and is fifth in both RBIs (57) and walks (42).

And now we face the pivotal month of July, with a trade deadline coming up and interesting matchups on tap. Garth says the Warriors would like to beef up the bullpen but isn’t looking to make any sweeping changes. And on the heels of its knockoff of league-wins-leader New New York (55), SGP gets another chance to prove its mettle with a visit to Tatooine, which posted a 17-win June and is suddenly nipping at the heels of the Hypnotoads for best record (54).

The Rebels actually have pitching that can go toe-to-toe with the Warriors and then some, with a league-best ERA of 3.05 (to SGP’s third-best 3.70). Tatooine swept Greendale in June on the road, and went 4-1 against Boulder, Superior and Bushwood to pad its lead in the Westbound Division to a comfortable seven games over second-place Dyersville, which lost five games in the standings despite a 12-win month.

A game to watch in that SGP-Tatooine series: Game 2 pits Nestor Cortes against Shohei Ohtani. The Rebels are 12-6 against lefties, tied for the league’s best percentage in that category with New New York (10-5).

If the season ended today, 47-win Dyersville, 47-win Olympic Coast (13 of those in June, including a sweep of Superior) and 46-win Margaritaville would be the other postseason entrants, but Boulder (42) and Greendale (41 after its first losing month of the year) are just one jumbled month away from reinserting themselves into the top six.

Some other noteworthy occurrences in June:
If SGP’s sweep of New New York rates as incredible, then what do you call Carpe Diem’s sweep of the Volcanoes in Margaritaville? Unfathomable perhaps? The Cardinals went homer-crazy and used the sweep to post their first winning month at 12-8, while the Volcanoes were held to a 9-11 mark.

If SGP’s sweep of New New York rates as incredible, then what do you call Carpe Diem’s sweep of the Volcanoes in Margaritaville? Unfathomable perhaps? The Cardinals went homer-crazy and used the sweep to post their first winning month at 12-8, while the Volcanoes were held to a 9-11 mark.

Savannah got in on the sweeping fun with a 5-0 blitz of Bismarck en route to a 14-6 month that allowed the Scorpions to lift themselves out of the South cellar, one month after going 5-15.

New New York’s 16-15-14 trend blew up with just 10 wins, thanks largely to getting swept by the Warriors. The Hypnotoads are still on pace for 110 wins and 318 homers, even after mustering just four homers against Applegate (mashing 25 doubles instead).

Aaron Judge is on pace to exactly match his American League record 62 homers at the season’s halfway point with 31, but Boulder’s Mike Trout is on pace for 70 with 35 already. Trout only has 192 at-bats remaining though to Judge’s 305.

With so many legitimate contenders jockeying for position, July shapes up as an intriguing month for trade possibilities as well, with the deal deadline coming up prior to August play.