[JayW UK]

2044 Season Notes

Pre-Season – Atlanta and Dallas consummated a trade of young talented players, Dallas sent BNN #21 prospect, 22-year-old pitcher Derrick Schmitt and 24-year-old RF Danny Reese to Atlanta for 24-year-old pitcher Carlos Santos (25-16, 3.09 ERA in 75 career games).
April 3rd – Las Vegas catcher Dylan Martin welcomed the new season by blasting three homeruns in the Gamblers 12-6 win over Oklahoma City.
April 7th – Indianapolis starter Cristobal Chapa pitched six innings and struck out 10 New Orleans batters, finishing the day on 3503 career strikeouts and joining Larry de Meza as the second member of the 3500K club.
April 8th – Las Vegas held Omaha 3B Jose Aguilar hitless in three at-bats ending his hitting streak at 37-games, one shy of the NABL record held by Jared Cross.
April 14th – Austin RF Freddie Sherman hit for the CYCLE (4-for-4, 6-RBI) as the Kings scraped home 9-8 against San Jose.
April 17th – Charlotte pitcher Steve Gream reached the 2500 career strikeout plateau, with five K’s in a losing effort as the Express fell to Indianapolis.
April 19th – Charlotte 3B Luis Garza had his 27-game hitting streak ended by Indianapolis.
April 20th – Boston SS Pancho Sousa’s 2-RBI a walk-off single in the 14th inning lifted the Pilgrims to an 8-7 victory over Detroit and gave Sousa 1500 career RBI’s.
April 22nd – Sanfrancisco ace Bryan Marburg struck out fifteen opponents in Sanfrancisco’s comfortable 7-1 victory over LA.
May 1st – Detroit’s star CF Tom Perkins pulled up lame in the Giants loss to Cleveland, the following day he was placed on the DL for the next six weeks with a quad strain.
May 5th – Philadelphia ace Mariano Rojo suffered a torn Abdominal muscle ruling him out for up to six weeks.
May 9th – Tampa Bay 1B Jorge Otero blasted a pair of homeruns (one of them a Grand-Slam) and accounted for eight of the Hurricanes twelve runs as Tampa Bay blew Denver away.
May 14th- New York pitcher Heinrich Kronburger took 106-pitches to NO-HIT New Orleans, surrendering a single walk and striking out 12, as the Senators rolled over the Blues 11-0.
May 23rd – San Diego LF Yves Tessier helped San Diego down Houston, sending the ball into the seats three times and driving in five runs in the Mariners 8-6 victory.
May 26th – Omaha pitcher McKenzie Ransford took a trip to the DL with shoulder tendonitis, the ailment would force him to sit for the next three weeks.
June 1st – San Jose LF Mike Carson almost singlehandedly carried the Spartans to victory over Dallas, collecting five hits, two of them homeruns including a 3-run walk-off blast in the 11th inning to give the Spartans a 10-7 victory.
June 5th – OKC CF Herminio Azurara collected the 1000th RBI of his career as the Outlaws beat Dallas 8-3.
June 6th – Charlotte pulled the plug on any playoff ambitions they may have harbored by trading star catcher Tom Walsh, sending him to Denver for a trio of prospects (BNN #84 LF Gabriel Franklin, 1B Chris Justice and 3B Jimmy Pearce).
June 7th – Washington sent star pitcher David Elder to Las Vegas for a package of 5 prospects (RF Danny Mitchell, SS Roberto Castellon, SS Aaron Joseph and pitchers Norm Pace and Rick Johnston) signaling the start of yet another rebuild for the Generals.
June 11th – St. Louis closer Pablo Hernandez collected the 300th save of his career in the Reds 2-1 victory over division rival Detroit.
June 17th – SS Pancho Sousa managed to collect the only hit for Boston in defeat to Charlotte, but for Sousa that hit was the 3000th of his career, making him just the second player to reach the milestone.
June 18th – a sprained ankle forced New Orleans LF Liam Hawkins out of action, sidelining him for six weeks.
June 29th – OKC pitcher Rafer MacNeil took his career strikeout total to 3002 with four against Las Vegas, as OKC held off a late charge from the Gamblers.
July 1st – Denver CF Fernando Diaz punched the dugout wall in frustration after striking out four times in the Wildcats defeat against Minneapolis, unfortunately for Diaz he did more damage to himself than the wall as the next day a red-faced Diaz hit the DL with a broken hand.
July 3rd- LF Francisco Valencia hit for the CYCLE in a losing effort, as Miami fell in extras to Minneapolis.
July 4th – Phoenix strengthened their weak pitching by trading for Cleveland hurler Harry Donahue, sending 2B Mike Brown to Ohio for Donahue and CF Joe Holland. On the same day Charlotte’s Steve Gream reached a personal milestone, picking up his 200th career win, hurling six shutout innings in Charlotte’s 4-0 victory over New York.
July 7th – Las Vegas 3B Joseph Floores scored the 1000th run of his career as the Gamblers slipped to a 3-2 defeat at the hands of Seattle.
July 8th – Chicago CF Josh Deric reached 2000 career hits with a 3-for-4 performance in the Zephyr’s defeat at the hands of Cleveland.
July 10th – Omaha lost 1B Alfredo Bloom to a season ending broken elbow, the irony was that Bloom was injured playing in the All-Star game.
July 12th – Phoenix lost their only reliable pitcher to injury when John Gates (10-1, 4.26 ERA) suffered a ruptured disc ending his season.
July 14th – Tampa Bay LF Joe Scott suffered a torn back muscle putting an end to his season and denting the Hurricanes playoff ambitions.
July 15th – St. Louis ace Les Scott became the quickest player to reach 2500 career strikeouts with eight more in the Reds 8-4 victory over Indianapolis.
July 26th – in a move clearly designed to send a message to several of his disgruntled players, Austin GM Alberto Collazo Jr let them know who was in charge by trading 2043 first round pick LF Coy Benton to Kansas City for pitcher Jorge Cisneros.
July 27th – Phoenix’s star 1B Domingo Vargas struggled at the plate against Sanfrancisco going 0-for-4 and ending his 32-game hitting streak.
July 28th – Sanfrancisco packaged underperforming outfielder Dennis Brookes with relief pitcher Michael Hawkins and sent the pair to New York, receiving RF Jim Mailes and $2.2M in return.
July 29th – two more players fell victim to Alberto Collazo Jr’s point making exercise, LF Carlos Gonzalez and CF Paul Johnson, who found themselves traded to OKC for pitcher Peter Thomson.
August 6th – Indianapolis LF Allen Hood hit for the CYCLE, including the winning runs on a 3-RBI homerun, as the Racers edged past Charlotte 7-6.
August 12th – Philadelphia Catcher Sancho Guerra reached 1000 career RBI’s by collecting a pair in Philly’s 5-3 defeat to Washington.
August 20th – San Jose pitcher Javier Valencia was forced to the DL with shoulder tendonitis, with doctors recommending a four-week layoff it was likely the Spartans would shut him down for the year.
August 21st – Denver LF Daron Murphy blasted the 300th homerun of his career as the Wildcats dropped a close game against Dallas.
August 22nd – OKC RF Danny Wheeler carried the Outlaws to victory against New Orleans, he went 3-for-4 at the plate going deep three times and collecting 7-RBI’s as OKC edged the Blues 9-7.
August 24th – Baltimore RF Nick Brady’s season ended with an oblique strain serios enough to send him to the DL for the remainder of the campaign.
August 29th – Philadelphia 3B Ryan Pittman suffered a strained hamstring ruling him out for upto six weeks, making him a major doubt for the start of the playoffs.
September 1st – San Diego Catcher Nathan Hathaway blasted a 2-run walk-off homerun to lift the Mariners to a 3-1 victory over Sanfrancisco.
September 2nd – Hathaway was at it again, this time hitting a walk-off RBI single in the 13th to lift the Mariners over Sanfrancisco 2-1.
September 6th – Alexandre Cotovia hurled a PERFECT GAME striking out ten, as San Jose cruised past San Diego 8-0.
September 12th – Las Vegas 3B Joseph Floores suffered a hamstring injury forcing the Gamblers star to the DL and ending his frustrating campaign (his .238, 18 HR, 51 RBI’s were all career lows) and with Floores ticketed to be a free agent at the conclusion of the season, his return to Vegas was far from certain.
September 14th – Minneapolis RF Cisco Villegas (4-for-4, 2HR, 1 Grand-Slam, 8-RBI’s) carried the Bears to victory over Denver.
September 19th – Omaha pitcher McKenzie Ransford (10-11, 4.43 ERA) suffered a partially torn labrum bringing to an end the most disappointing season of his career.
September 22nd – Washington 3B Levi Bute scored the 1000th run of his career as the Generals held off Philadelphia 2-1.
September 23rd – San Jose Catcher Jorge Garcia blasted a trio of homeruns including a Grand-Slam as the Spartans won a shootout against Phoenix 13-10.
September 28th – Indianapolis star outfielder Allen Hood suffered a concussion when he collided with the outfield wall making a defensive play, despite claiming he was good-to-go Hood was placed on the DL whilst he cleared the league’s concussion protocol, if everything went to plan, he would return in time for the World Series (assuming the Racers could reach the fall classic).
September 29th – Indianapolis pitcher Cristobal Chapa earned the 200th win of his career, pitching just five innings as the Racers crushed Cleveland 16-3.