Gaceta de la LNP @lnpgaceta@allpro.social

Sometimes, you just have to crank up the speed.

Our streaming schedule for July aims to finish the remaining Rivalidades in one week.

Each day, we'll broadcast three games—in descending order of predictability—and Saturday night ends with the slightest Edge we've ever seen.

Following an team has never been easier.

Each of these hashtags can also be accessed from the team's entry on its relevant league page.

(list to follow)

If you want more ways in which the #PetrolerosPEÑ of this era are horrendously mismanaged, consider that they had two of the league’s most thunderous bats in the aforementioned SS Peña and LF Guillermo Gómez.

Peña is the only person to hit .400 since the 38-game season of 1871. He’s the only person to post an OPS above .900 between 1871 and 1883.

The team he’s on hasn’t sniffed the playoffs since 1876 because they refused to develop a single solitary pitcher.

That's right: on June 3rd, 1879, Fernando Rodríguez completed an 87-pitch no-hitter with zero walks or strikeouts.

Of the 27 batters he faced, 16 lasted three pitches or fewer. Four lasted one.

Fernando Rodríguez was not a good pitcher—but for one game, he was untouchable.

Of those 87 pitches, 53 were strikes, but Rodríguez didn't strike out a single batter.

He also didn't walk any Maratonistas, though he hit one.

The other thing he didn't allow any Maratonista to do was reach base safely. (His second baseman did allow a single base on error.)

Well, because on June 3rd, 1879—his fifth season—Fernando Rodríguez pitched the weirdest game of all time.

Against the #MaratonistasCOA, Rodríguez threw 87 pitches, which is already a weirdly efficient outing for 1879 baseball, in which pitch counts routinely sped past 120.

But back to Fernando Rodríguez, our original protagonist.

Why do we concern ourselves with a middling pitcher, even if he has to shoulder the burden of getting a team like the Petroleros through each season with no bullpen only two colleagues, both of whom are just as exhausted?

The Petroleros:
- haven't sniffed the postseason since 1874;
- haven't finished .500 since 1876;
- haven't signed a single pitcher in a decade;
- haven't carried more than three pitchers in a decade, either.

(Note: perhaps we've found the LNP's equivalent of the New York Mets.)

They also did not sign any pitchers in 1883. Or 1882, or 1881.

Or 1880, 1879, 1878, 1877, or 1876.

In fact, Fernando Rodríguez—who, again, signed with the team in 1875—is the Petroleros' most recent pitching acquisition.

They've gone ten years without a new pitcher.

Most teams would have responded by signing a few pitching prospects. Even in March of 1885, reliever Juan López was still listed as an available free agent in the Gaceta.

The Petroleros did not attempt to sign him, or anyone else.

They did not sign any pitchers in 1884, either.

In some ways, that already makes Rodríguez pretty special. Most teams would've cut him and tried their luck on the winter market, but the Petroleros have kept him around, even as he bottomed out.

In his most recent season, at age 31, Rodríguez went 7-34 with an ERA of 3.96.

Now, here's the thing: Fernando Rodríguez has pitched ten seasons for the #PetrolerosPEÑ.

He's had a winning record once (16-14 in 1877), he's never posted an ERA+ of 100, let alone above, and as of 1884, the man allows an average of 10.8 hits and 12.6 runs per 9 innings.

Los Petros have always been a little unconventional. With the ninth overall pick in the 1871 draft, they chose SS Jorge Peña—one of only four teams, out of 78, to sign a non-pitcher with their first pick.

They had done well at first, and sank since. So they signed Rodríguez.

Rodríguez waited for that call-up, but from what we have, El Brillo didn't feel he was needed at all during the 1874 season, and they unceremoniously cut him in January of 1875.

Which is where the #PetrolerosPEÑ, the only team you see listed on his slide, come in.

Three days later, Rodríguez signed with the #SolesLUQ in what was then called a "contrato simple," the early LNP's rough equivalent of a minor league contract.

Basically, players got a little cash from the club and, in exchange, promised only to play for that club if called up.

In fact, signing him (and cutting him three months later) was probably among Espinosa's moves while assistant to the general manager in Moca.

Just three days into 1874, Rodríguez signed for a little less money with the #MurciélagosCAM, and . . . got cut on May 13th.

As it turns out, Fernando is one of that small but resilient underclass of players who shuffle around until someone either lets them develop properly or is happy to let them stink up the joint.

Which is why it's no surprise he was first signed in 1873 by the #RebeldesMOC.

First off, if you're unfamiliar with 1880s baseball, these stats might make Fernando look about average, maybe a bit below.

An equivalent pitcher, in today's MLB environment, would have an ERA of 5.52, an FIP of 5.66, and a WAR of -1.1.

Better? Let's move on.

Well, we haven't shared any #LNPStories with you in a bit, and we tripped over one as we assembled the 1882 Season Report.

So let's talk about Fernando Rodríguez.

If you need more reasons:

"holy crap, this is still going"
- @mattamatic, 1:07:04

(we may have been slightly off about exactly how long the video is)

39:
It's the last game! Go watch it!

What, you need reasons? Fine, how about the fact that the #PróceresBRR and #CaciquesORO worked their asses off to celebrate the unique baseball of the 1880s , in all of its ridiculous glory?

We’ve got everything:

- pitch counts that would horrify Dusty Baker;
- routine double-digit-pitch at-bats;
- our perennial favorite: fucking bullpens, how do they work?

Best of all, it still only barely cracks the hour mark.

Go watch it!

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/670351404

Live in, well . . . actually, it's eight minutes now.

#LNPRivalidades

https://twitch.tv/lnpgaceta