Power Pros Forum

I'll drop Menchaca for Benoit.

Benoit can practice the H-SNK or SPLT, whichever you prefer.
Stults will practice TRJ

Smart move putting Pegasus as 3rd batter. Now he can spread his wings and fly. He will be practicing his defense this year.

Raymond Stanley will continue to practice stamina.

Yakim Roma will practice batting.

April 2nd:

Nashville Venom (0-0) at Boston Red Sox (0-0)

The couple worst teams in the AL East faced off against each other to open the 2009 season. The Venom got the better in a wild win today. Grindell got his first RBI to put his team up 1-0, but Stanley could not hold it as he gave up a couple runs in his 5 innings. The Venom tied it in the 7th but coughed up the one run lead again in the bottom half of the inning. In the 9th inning the Red Sox brought Papelbon to protect a 1 run lead, he couldn't do it as the Venom rallied together hit after hit to take a 1 run lead, then Papelbon was taken out, and his reliever gave up a 2 run home run to Shannon Stewart for his first hit of the season, putting them up 6-3. Benoit was put in for the 3 run save, Luis Rivas made a key error that allowed the tying run to get to second, but no further as the Venom barely managed to hold on for a 6-5 win.

Venom: 6
Red Sox: 5

Win: Tremie (1-0)
Save: Benoit (1)
Loss: Papelbon (0-1)
HR: D.Ortiz (1), S.Stewart (1)

Venom Box Score:

Stewart: 1-4, HR, 2 RBI, R, BB
Grindell: 2-4, RBI, K
Butron: 1-5
Roma: 0-4
Trammell: 2-4, R, K
Stults: 1-4, 2B, 2 R
Reynolds: 2-4, R
Rivas: 1-3, RBI
Ormond: 2-4, 2 RBI, R, K

Stanley: 5 innings pitched, 7 hits, 2 runs, 0 strikeouts
Tremie: 3 innings pitched, 5 hits, 1 run, 0 strikeouts, win
Benoit: 1 inning pitched, 2 hits, 2 runs, 0 earned runs, 0 strikeouts, save

Reynolds practices batting.

Yeah Grindell!

He can practice whatever you'd like him to.

April 13th

Toronto Blue Jays (4-7) at Nashville Venom (3-8)

The Venom got off to another horrible start and would look to turn it around in front of their fan(s) at their home opener. The team was as badly motivated as ever but still managed to scratch out a tough win. Starter Scoff Weibl allowed 3 runs in the 3rd inning, but the pitching picked up from there and the offense managed to claw back to a 5-3 win largely thanks to an 8th inning 3 run home run by Victor Trammell to come from behind and take a 2 run lead that Benoit had no trouble protecting for the save.

Blue Jays: 3
Venom: 5

Win: Tremie (2-0)
Save: Benoit (2)
Loss: Janssen (0-1)
HR: Trammell (2)

Venom Box Score:

Stewart: 1-4, K
Grindell: 1-4, K
Butron: 1-4, R
Roma: 1-4, R, 3 K
Trammell: 1-4, HR, 3 RBI, 2 R
Stults: 2-4, R
Reynolds: 2-3, 2B, 2 RBI
Rivas: 0-3, K
Ormond: 0-3

Weibl: 6 innings pitched, 11 hits, 3 runs, 0 strikeouts
Tremie: 2 innings pitched, 1 hit, 0 runs, 0 strikeouts, win
Benoit: 1 inning pitched, 0 hits, 0 runs, 0 strikeouts, save

Reynolds is happy about his good game.

End of April:

The Venom won no awards in April, as usual.

AL East:
1. Yankees, 21-7
2. Red Sox, 18-10, 3 games behind
3. Rays, 14-14, 7 games behind
4. Venom, 11-17, 10 games behind
5. Blue Jays, 10-18, 11 games behind
6. Orioles, 10-18, 11 games behind

The Venom had a worse April than they did last year, but if they can be consistent with a record like this it won't be anywhere near a playoff spot, but it'll be an improvement, and this franchise really does need to take things one year at a time right now, building their team up.

The Wings are 14-14, which is only 2 games behind in their division.

Player Stats:

Stanley: 4.71 ERA, 2-2 record, 28 strikeouts
Snead: 6.67 ERA, 1-3 record, 23 strikeouts, 1 save
Reid: 4.73 ERA, 2-1 record, 26 strikeouts
McNichol: 7.43 ERA, 1-4 record, 15 strikeouts
Hampson: 2.92 ERA, 1-1 record, 21 strikeouts
Weibl: 6.08 ERA, 1-1 record, 13 strikeouts

Clontz: 2.12 ERA, 0-1 record, 11 strikeouts
Ishizuka: 5.60 ERA, 0-1 record, 13 strikeouts
Asencio: 3.07 ERA, 1-1 record, 13 strikeouts
Tremie: 1.15 ERA, 2-0 record, 7 strikeouts
Reyes: 32.4 ERA, 0-0 record, 1 strikeout
Marte: 7.80 ERA, 0-1 record, 8 strikeouts

Benoit: 5.40 ERA, 0-1 record, 4 strikeouts, 5/5 saves


Stewart: .374 avg, 2 HR, 13 RBI, 4 SB
Grindell: .318 avg, 0 HR, 11 RBI, 4 SB
Butron: .226 avg, 3 HR, 13 RBI, 4 SB
Roma: .183 avg, 0 HR, 7 RBI, 1 SB
Trammell: .278 avg, 3 HR, 12 RBI, 1 SB
Stults: .268 avg, 3 HR, 18 RBI, 2 RBI
Reynolds: .234 avg, 1 HR, 13 RBI, 2 SB
Rivas: .262 avg, 1 HR, 8 RBI, 2 SB
Ormond: .286 avg, 0 HR, 10 RBI, 1 SB

McMillon: .316 avg, 0 HR, 1 RBI, 1 SB
Deardorff: .000 avg, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 1 SB
Rottino: .529 avg, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 SB

---

Keys to the team's poor performance are the inconsistency of the pitchers and the turnaround year Roma is having so far.

The pitching is horribly inconsistent, with starters ERAs in a range from under 3 to over 7. The pitchers that have struggled so far will need to turn things around and pitch better to give the offense better chances to win more games. Yakim Roma is struggling a lot so far this year, he earned the #4 spot in the lineup after a great 2008 year, but he is choking in this pressure situation, with the worst batting average on the team, under .200, and he also managed to find a way to have the lowest RBI total of anyone on the team.

The GM was reached for comment about Roma:

"Well, he earned the spot there, I don't think anyone can argue about that. He isn't performing where he should be so far this year though. Maybe it's just taking him time to adjust to this new role. I'm going to give him a chance of at least another month or two before I consider adjusting the batting order, maybe if we were a competing team I'd be quicker to change things because every RBI would matter, but we're looking to be one of the bottom teams again, so I'll give him a good chance."

Haha ouch for Roma. At least we aren't in last.

Roma needs time to settle in. He says he will not let the team down.

Stanley has taken the role of my favorite client as he has the pitching triple crown for the team.

Not much to brag about, but still.

Well, my old client Tremie is having a breakout season, and I would like to be the agent for him again and have him still practice the knuckler.

Benoit's doing nicely.

And Stults is as well.

Pegasus! You will learn to fly once again! Only batting .226? C'mon.

May 8th:

Nashville Venom (13-22) at Tampa Bay Rays (17-18)

The Venom are doing way worse than they expected to at this point in the 2009 season, but managed an extra-inning win on the road here. Down 3-4 in the 8th inning, Phil Stults got a hold of a mistake pitch that just cleared the center field wall to tie the game for the Venom, pitching was good from there and the game went into extra innings. In the 11th inning, with a couple runners on, Grindell finally got his first hit of the game, it was a double because of the miscommunication of the Rays outfielders, 2 runs scored giving the Venom a 6-4 lead. Benoit, feeling like it's his job to make the game a 1 run game when he's put in, for whatever reason, allowed B.J.Upton to hit his second home run, making it a 6-5 game before he closed out the save.

Venom: 6
Rays: 5

Win: Clontz (1-1)
Save: Benoit (7)
Loss: Dohmann (0-2)
HR: B.J. Upton (2, 3), Stults (5)

Venom Box Score:

Stewart: 6-6, 2B, 2 R
Grindell: 1-6, 2B, 2 RBI, K
Butron: 2-6, R
Roma: 1-5, RBI
Trammell: 2-5, 2B, RBI
Stults: 1-5, HR, RBI, R
Reynolds: 1-5
Rivas: 1-5, R
Ormond: 1-5, R

Weibl: 6 innings pitched, 6 hits, 3 runs, 1 strikeout
Tremie: 2 innings pitched, 3 hits, 1 run, 1 strikeout
Clontz: 2 innings pitched, 3 hits, 0 runs, 0 strikeouts, win
Benoit: 1 inning pitched, 1 hit, 1 run, 0 strikeouts, save