Texas Red Bulls: A Nice Win Total in Early-August

Earlier this week I introduced the Texas Red Bulls. I’m building and managing the team via OOTP’s Perfect Team mode. After an ugly 10-16 start in April, we’re 59-30!! I swear I didn’t just wait until I had 69 wins to write this update! It’s remarkably nice that it turned out that way, but it wasn’t intentional.

AN OVERVIEW

The team is 69-46 as of August 10th, in first place with a 3.5 game lead. We have a +114 run differential which is actually the 2nd-best in the league despite having the 3rd-best record. There’s a team at 76-38 with a +191 and another at 74-41 with a +109 mark (they are 6 games over their Pythag. record). The latest Power Rankings came out two game days earlier and we are third:

ISSUES

The team is doing really well so there aren’t a ton of issues standing out at this moment. The bullpen ERA (4.22) is 9th in our league. Only one guy had a sub-3.50 ERA as a reliever and it’s actually our starter Murry Dickson who I’ve put into a Follower role. Alex Reyes (4.50), Doug Bird (5.30), Robert Gsellman (5.76), and Joe Smith (8.18) are all toting ERAs of 4.50 or worse.

POSITION PLAYER CHECK-IN

The offense has been awesome! We’re tops in Runs (582), SLG (.452), OPS (.784), WAR (24.5), wOBA (.340), XBH (395), and HR (162). Every starter has a 100 or better wRC+. Carlos Correa is leading the team at 137 and he has a 3.5 WAR in 467 PA. His 22 HR are tied with Max Kepler (131 wRC+) for the team lead. Correa is actually 2nd in WAR behind Frank White.

White has a 107 wRC+, which is actually lowest among the starters, but his 4.3 WAR is the team’s best (well, among hitters). His defense at 2B has been off the charts. His Zone Rating is a league-best 17.5 and his 1.155 Defensive Efficiency is also tops.

Other notables:

• Candy Maldonado has 21 HR, 69 RBI, and a 12% BB
• Matt Williams has 72 RBI
• Max Kepler has a 15% K and 11% BB
• Frank Torre has a team-best .373 OBP, thanks to his .393 mark vR
• Jackie Robinson has 20 SB in 27 attempts
• Brian Harper has a .422/.424/.578 line vL in 66 PA

PITCHER CHECK-IN

I already updated the bullpen so this will mostly focus on the starters. Noah Syndergaard has lived up to his ace expectations with a 2.78 ERA and 1.06 WHIP in 178.3 innings. Thor has a 5.1 WAR which is the best on the entire team. Our boy Emil Yde is doing his thing, too. He has a 3.67 ERA and 1.16 WHIP in 166.7 innings of work.

Dickson and Steven Matz are both getting an opener in front of their starts. After putting up a 7.71 ERA in three starts, I made the switch and he’s posted a 3.24 mark in relief. Matz had a 6.29 in eight starts and now has a 3.70 out of the bullpen. Now maybe both guys would’ve figured it out as starters, but they’re succeeding with the opener so we’re keeping it that way.

PERSONNEL CHANGES

Maybe Eno was right, Tom Murphy is a fake player and thus he was only able to muster a 10 wRC+ in 73 PA and had to go. I added a gold Victor Martinez for 2500 points and he’s been getting the job done. He has been about average against righties, but he’s crushing lefties.

ALL STARS

We got five All-Stars which netted us 100 points per selection: Thor, Dickson, Correa, Torre, and Jerry Mumphrey. Here is the full team:

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So we’re looking like a good bet to make the playoffs on Sunday. I think the team is set as-is right now and we’ll just collect points the rest of the week and assess potential changes on Sunday night/Monday morning. Here’s an updated look at the squad: