Power Pros Forum

Do I see another 15 win season

End of August stats: 2.88 ERA, 11-8 record, 181 strikeouts
Chicago Cubs record: 71-63, 7 games behind

Every month the Cubs seem to put together a good amount of wins to pull into a playoff position, then go on several losing streaks to blow it all to pieces. I'd rather the team not even get into playoff position, that way I don't get so much false hope for nothing. Thankfully, other teams managed bad streaks late in the month almost as bad as ours, so we're still somehow just 2 games away from the Wild Card, I'm still hoping for, but not expecting, a miracle.

There's nothing I hate more than games I start where the other team scores 1 run and I don't get a win, and this happened several times in August.

The Athletics already have the magic number of 4 games when September hasn't even started, a 90-44 record, 12 games ahead of the second place Yankees in the MLB standings, this is just unheard of. Any team making a run like this is astonishing, the Athletics is beyond that.

With this month ending and the season almost over, I've started work on a list of teams I might like to sign for next season:

1. Oakland Athletics

They're the team that drafted me, they have the 4th most runs scored in the MLB, and they are dominating everything this year. I don't expect such dominance to be a consistent thing, but if they can manage so much as being competitive for a playoff spot, I want to be a part of it. If I re-sign with them, I'll probably be in it for good, I don't want to abandon them again when things don't look good. I did that last time and I look like a complete moron for it now.

2. New York Yankees

I hate to include this team on the list, but they can't be ignored. They've won probably half the World Series titles since I joined the MLB, and they've led the MLB in runs scored for as long as I can remember. They've also won their division every year and it's never really been close.

3. Detroit Tigers

They aren't even leading their division, but they score a lot of runs, I like that.

4. New York Mets

They're not a winning team, they're currently in 3rd place in their division, but their offense is amazing, scoring the second most runs in the MLB, behind the other New York team. I've always thought I could compete for a Triple Crown on a team that had the offense to let me get wins, joining their offense may give me that chance.


Also, as I began to forget about my wife again (I don't know how I manage this), she approached me to inform me that she was pregnant. I really should start taking steps to prevent this in the future, ah well...

End of 2015 stats: 2.77 ERA, 15-9 record, 228 strikeouts
Chicago Cubs record: 87-75, 2 games behind, 1 game behind Wild Card Diamondbacks
MLB Career stats to this point: 3.61 ERA, 1578 innings pitched, 108-78 record, 252 games pitched in, 15 shutouts, 27 complete games, 1391 strikeouts, 402 walks, .251 average against, 660 runs allowed, 633 earned runs, 250 games started, 1558 hits allowed, 24606 pitches thrown, 132 quality starts

I won a Player of the Week Award for week 23, only 1 win and a 0.00 ERA with 9 strikeouts. Odd, but not as much as Utley winning it in the AL as a Pitcher...

I played another great year, I really did, we just weren't good enough to make it in the end though. So close. We were tied for the Wild Card a couple weeks before the end of the season, then we had a horrible week and a half. Teams competing for the Wild Card did almost as bad as us though, we were ahead of the Astros by a game and a game behind the Diamondbacks, with one game left, we won. The Diamondbacks, however, won their game as well, knocking out our playoff chances. So close... To think, if only we could have managed one more average week that month, we would be getting ready for the playoffs right now. Well, nothing we can do about it now except hope for a better next season. I of course probably won't care much if the Cubs do better next season, I'm only sticking around if nobody else sends me a better offer, I'll doubt that considering how I've performed in my 2 year contract here.

I lead the NL in ERA, but somehow wound up 2 wins behind the lead, as the Pirates Herrera, a terrible pitcher with a god-awful ERA compared to mine, wound up with an astonishing 17 wins. It wouldn't keep me from the triple-crown anyway though because my teammate, Liriano, absolutely piled up the strikeouts this year, finishing with 244. As far as strikeout leaders go, we were first and second not only in the NL, but in the MLB as well.

The Athletics won their division 8 days before anyone else did, and they finished with 106 wins, the only 100 win team this year. Absolutely incredible, I hope they can keep that team and just add me next year.

I won Pitcher of the Month for the NL in September, with 4 wins, a 2.27 ERA and 47 strikeouts. My teammate, F.Rodriguez, won Relief Pitcher of the Month.

Something I hadn't really noticed before, the Cubs pitching really has been dominant, having 2 of the top 3 in wins, ERA, and strikeouts in the NL, the saves leader in all the MLB, and they also had the lowest ERA as a team in all of the MLB. If only they had some offense besides Konerko, who had the most home runs in the MLB, again, he is performing great despite his aging.

Playoffs:

Round 1:
Athletics over Rays 3-1
White Sox over Yankees 3-1
Braves over Diamondbacks 3-2
Padres over Brewers 3-0
The Rays won their first game against the Athletics a ridiculous 23-10, but this only managed to serve as a wake-up call, as the Athletics won the next 3.

Round 2:
White Sox over Athletics 4-2
Braves over Padres 4-2

World Series Final:
White Sox over Braves 4-0
Seems they were so well motivated after being able to take down the Athletics, nobody could stop them. Congratulations to them.

I have to admit I was cheering for the Athletics in the playoffs this year, of course they didn't win, but I wasn't too disappointed. They actually managed to make it out of the first round and that's the best progress I've ever seen from them.

Hey, you had a pretty decent season. I predict you'll have a Justin-Verlander-2011-esque breakout next year.

If I move to a team like the Athletics or the Yankees, and they keep up the offense their teams have been having lately, then if nothing else, my win total is sure to improve.

Personal accomplishments mean little compared to the ultimate goal of winning the World Series though, I was just kind of hoping to win a Triple Crown around this point because it would be something to be happy about while the Cubs are busy not making the playoffs.

I'm surprised my ERA has been where it has the last couple years. I got annoyed at the win leader for having so many wins with a horrible ERA, but just a couple years ago in 2013, I had an ERA that was almost that bad, of course that was the worst year of my career, ERA-wise.

I won Pitcher of the Year again, my performance on this 2 year contract was brilliant.

I did a lot of offseason research before going through contract negotiations. I found out some interesting things. No teams that I wanted to be on were looking for a new Pitcher, not even a cheap Pitcher of the Year. No teams would give me fair offers if I were to declare Free Agency, not even the Cubs if they would give me a decent offer before. This information was really shocking, but my research confirmed this to be 100% accurate.

After sending Darryl back through contract negotiations for what felt like hundreds of times, I finally had to agree to a contract with the Cubs again. It was a $30,000,000 contract for 1 year. Ultimately I have to be happy about that, despite signing with a team that isn't any good these days. I may have to be a loser, but at least I'll wind up a rich loser. What more could I hope for? I paid Darryl 1.5 million for his work. I'm so good my agent is a millionaire too.


Abilities before 2016 Spring Training:
102 Top Speed
B 156 Control
A 153 Stamina
Level 2 Sinking Fastball
Level 5 Sinker
Level 2 Changeup
Level 1 Knuckle-Curve
W/RISP 4
VS LH Batter 4
Poise 2
Spin 4
Release 2
Safe Pitch
Dr.K
Battler

Oh, that sucks you have to re-sign with the Cubs again.

The manager said our aim this year was to have a strong pitching staff. Makes a lot more sense than last year when he said we should have a strong offense...

Spring Training 2016:

Game 1: 3 innings pitched, 3 hits, 1 run, 2 strikeouts

Game 2: 3 innings pitched, 2 hits, 0 runs, 7 strikeouts

Game 3: 3 innings pitched, 3 hits, 1 run, 2 strikeouts

Game 4: 3 innings pitched, 1 hit, 0 runs, 0 strikeouts

Apparently we picked up Manny Ramirez from Free Agency, he's still really dangerous despite his age. He's been in this league for 22 years now. I have no idea if management will be smart enough to use him as an everyday fielder or just put him as a backup to several no-names, or worse, worthless hitters like Juan Pierre and Mark Kotsay.

If the management is smart enough to start Manny Ramirez regularly, I predict he gives the team the extra push needed to make the playoffs.

End of April stats: 0.74 ERA, 5-0 record, 49 strikeouts
Chicago Cubs record: 12-16, 6 games behind

I had about the best start to my season as I could have hoped for. The first 3 games I pitched in were both complete game shutout wins for me. I expected to win player of the week with my first week with 2 shutout wins, but they gave it to a pitcher who had about the same stats with 4 fewer strikeouts...

This month was a completely dominant one for me through and through, it was absurd how good I pitched. I had 6 starts in the month, and 4 of them were complete game shutouts. When I heard the All-Star vote was being opened my first thought was "All-Star? Who cares? I'm pitching like a Legend right now". If I started the All-Star Game in previous years, then there's no doubt in my mind I should be the starter this year even if I slack off and do nothing from now until then.

The Cubs are playing like the opposite of how I am, completely sucking despite everything. Both my prediction of a playoff spot and the manager's prediction of strong pitching have seemingly already fallen apart. It doesn't even make sense that our team has the lowest ERA in the league right now, take me out of the equation and our pitching sucked the whole month. Our offense was surprisingly dominant, as a result, we found ourselves regularly winding up with losses like "11-8", "9-8", "18-15".

Manny Ramirez is performing about as well as you could expect him to since he was given the starting spot, he's hitting .310, it's not his fault. We just need to get some of our pitchers besides me going.

The way my pitching stats are now, I'm in position to win the Triple Crown for the whole MLB, not just the NL. I highly doubt I can keep this pace up for much longer though.

I was awarded the Pitcher of the Month award for April.

End of May stats: 1.24 ERA, 9-0 record, 98 strikeouts
Chicago Cubs record: 34-21, 2 games ahead of Cardinals

This month, my wife, Emma, gave birth to our third child, it was a girl that I named Telaendril, why doesn't my wife pick a name once in a while? I'm no good at this whole naming business, I'm running out of ideas.

The Cubs had an amazing bounceback month, going 22-5, including a 13 game winning streak, the team came away with wins in all of my starts and I got credited with the win in all but one of them. As expected, I didn't maintain the same level of dominance as in April, but I was still more than great.

I still lead the MLB in all Triple Crown categories, a couple of them aren't even really close, but second place for wins has 8, so that's something to worry about, at least it's my teammate, Francisco Liriano. At 5 shutouts, I have 3 more than those players that tie for second place there this year, so far.

Manny Ramirez picked up even more this month, he hit 9 home runs compared to the 1 last month, and his average is now up to .324.
The Athletics are leading their division again, but it's not like they dominate the majors like last year, they're actually only 1 game ahead of the Angels at this point.

I'm not expecting the Cubs to keep up having months like 22-5, but if we can just be good consistently and make the playoffs, I'll be happy.

I have a very good feeling about this season for ya.

Are Vicente and the Cubs finally going to the playoffs?

SSSSSSSHHHHHHH!!!! DON'T JINX IT!

End of June stats: 1.63 ERA, 13-0 record, 146 strikeouts
Chicago Cubs record: 47-35, 1 game ahead of Cardinals

Not the best month for the Cubs, they had a record of under .500 but still managed to hold onto a division lead, it's just the smallest division lead they could possibly have. Even after that month, we're still tied for third in the Major League Rankings overall. It's too bad we couldn't have been putting together a record like this when the division was weak enough that you could be the leader with a record under .500, then this would be a little more comfortable. We really need to start having winning months again if we hope to stay ahead.

As you may guess by my stats, I have had no problem at all with the run support I have been getting lately, my ERA had been steadily climbing since that first month, but the team has managed to keep me from getting a loss, putting me on a 13 game winning streak to start the year.

I lead every Triple Crown category in the MLB still, but I'm not that comfortable with my lead in ERA and wins, being around 0.4 and 2. If the team winds up going on a bad streak in my pitching performances, that win lead will easily disappear in no time, and if my ERA keeps climbing like it has been, I'll be in trouble there too.

The Athletics lead the MLB with a 50-32 record, but it's only 1 game ahead of the second place Phillies.