Texas Red Bulls: 2022 Review and 2023 Outlook

Last time out, we were in mid-August with a remarkably nice 69-46. We finished 27-20, ending atop the division, but as the third-best division winner. Let’s take a look back at the 2022 playoffs and how we are looking as we enter 2023 (which actually started at 9 AM Central this morning, so we’ll be mid-April by the end of this).

PLAYOFFS

The playoffs were a griiiind!

In the division series, we played the 97-65 New Tecumseth Hammers, who also won their division by 5 games. The two teams traded punches, but we came away with a 3-2 series victory (I didn’t get to screenshot all the individual game results, so I apologize for the lack of depth in describing the series. I’ll know better for the future). Onto the LCS, we were set to face the Morrisville Mallards who won the wildcard game after posting a 92-70 record and then also found themselves in a 5-game division series where they edged out the 99-63 West Saint Paul Predators.

Another back-and-forth series led to a game 7 where we pulled off the win and World Series berth! In the other conference (they call ‘em conferences instead of leagues in OOTP), the top two teams in our entire league had a 6-game battle as the 103-59 Taichung Chinatrust Brothers defeated the 104-58 Manchester Blue Devils for the distinct honor of taking on our Texas Red Bulls in the World Series.

We lost game 1, but then won games 2 and 3. A four-homer performance by Taichung gave them an easy Game 4 win leaving the teams tied at 2 apiece. Pivotal Game 5 went our way with a 4-3 win, powered by Carlos Correa and Max Kepler homers and set up a chance to win it all in Game 6. Emil Yde was outdueled by Zack Greinke in a 1-0 thriller leading to a Game 7 and the third straight series played to completion by the Red Bulls.

Ace Noah Syndergaard toed the rubber and pitched seven strong, but left the game tied at 1. A run in the bottom of the 8th left the Red Bulls up against and facing defeat in the top of the 9th a Candy Maldonado home run tied it up and sent us to extras! We scored three in the top of 10th to take a 5-2 lead and they started putting up the plastic in the visiting clubhouse, but a wobbly Scott Oberg yielded a pair of runs to make it 5-4 before striking out J.D. Martinez with a runner on first to secure Game 7 and give us the Rookie League title!! The homer was Maldonado’s second of the series and his .444/.500/.667 line earned the World Series MVP.

Maldonado clubbed 5 HR throughout the playoffs with 10 R and RBI and team-best 162 OPS+ (.343/.405/.557). He was just one of three guys to post an OPS+ north of 100 in the playoffs (Jerry Mumphrey 127 and Kepler 102). Murry Dickson was unreal on the mound with a 0.98 ERA and 0.65 WHIP in 18.3 IP. Thor was the ace he needed to be, posting a 2.48 ERA and 0.99 WHIP in 36.3 IP (10 more the next most on the team).

 

We were already guaranteed promotion to Stone League as 10 teams are promoted, but now we carry a league title into our new level!!!!

AWARDS

We won two awards on the year:

Noah Syndergaard was named Cy Young after putting up 248.7 IP of a 2.79 ERA and 1.07 WHIP. He only struck out 211 batters (7.6), but also walked just 53 (1.9) and allowed a mere 14 homers (0.5). He was 18-9. All told, it led to a 7.1 WAR season. The win gave us 600 Perfect Points.

Carlos Correa was named the SS Silver Slugger (which they call the Great Bat, lol). He hit .270/.358/.496 with 29 HR, 88 RBI, and 91 R in 662 PA. It was good enough for a 4.1 WAR campaign. That netted us 250 PP.

Making the playoffs, the World Series, and then winning the World Series gave us 1000 PP apiece and each year is scored based on performance and our 1224 score tacked on another 1000 PP, so that’s a cool 4850 between the postseason and award season.

2023 OUTLOOK

I’ve decided to essentially run it back despite jumping up a league level. I added Hugh Casey to the bullpen, who will be placed in a key middle relief role. Part of that is because I wanted to run some decision by y’all instead of just making them on my own.

I’m going to replace 5th starter Eric Show. He was an original pack player and did well enough in that role, putting up 160.7 innings of a 3.98 ERA and 1.33 WHIP – perfectly capable for a 5th starter. He fanned 8.1 per nine with a 3.7 BB/9 and 1.0 HR/9. I appreciate the service, but we have the budget to upgrade so we’re going to do it.

Because the market is always changing and I can’t guarantee that the three choices I give here will be available until tomorrow, I’m going to buy all three and then just sell back the other two. That’s not terribly efficient as there’s a 10% tax on transactions so we could lose money on the deal, but that’s just part of doing this as an exercise that I’m sharing with y’all. I’ll also point out that while we’re replacing our 5th starter, whoever we choose here will be in the middle of the rotation and push Murry Dickson and Steven Matz down to 4th and 5th. I’m putting a 3000-point cap on this.

Here are the choices:

(A quick refresher – Stuff correlates most to K/9, Movement to HR/9, and Control to BB/9)

Jack Flaherty | St. Louis Cardinals 2019

Bret Saberhagen | Kansas City Royals 1987

Ian Snell | Pittsburgh Pirates 2007

Please vote here for your choice: POLL