Gaceta de la LNP @lnpgaceta@allpro.social

#GuardacostasCAT fans are just built different.

TOMORROW:
We're excited to announce that, the second week in a row, we're joined by #MulosAGB superfan Kristen!

This week, the Ñocos host the #GuardacostasCAT (hi, @paolo) who are . . . well . . . they're certainly a baseball team!

first pitch ~8:30 PM

https://www.twitch.tv/lnpgaceta

TOMORROW:
After suffering a 13-K game, the #IngenierosRIN are headed off the mainland to face the #TortugasCUL , who have:

- a 12-5 home record;
- the 4th-most runs scored in Hostos;
- one of the strongest OF trios in the entire

And as if that wasn't exciting enough, Rincón superfan @Louisa is joining us again in the booth!

first pitch 7:00 PM

https://www.twitch.tv/lnpgaceta

FRIDAY:
When we told @paolo—the only #GuardacostasCAT superfan of our acquaintance—that the #MulosAGB have a 71% edge, he replied: "'tis but a number."

That's the attitude we like from Cataño fans. Keeps it interesting.

first pitch ~8:30 PM

https://www.twitch.tv/lnpgaceta

FRIDAY:
After a closer loss than expected to La Nube at home, the #IngenierosRIN are back on the road.

Really, on the sea, as they make their way to the island of Culebra to face the #TortugasCUL —who are anything but slow or steady.

first pitch 7:00 PM

https://www.twitch.tv/lnpgaceta

During this game, reigning #IngenierosRIN superfan and guest commentator @Louisa gave one of her favorite Inges, right fielder Víctor Nieves (a #DeepDogshitDive favorite), the nickname "The Snowman."

This may or may not have led to some of the most passionate graphic design in history.

There's not much else to say: the man is only 24, but he's already showing signs of decline, and his floor wasn't all that high to begin with. That can't be good.

Mind you, just by playing *a* game in 1885 he's already outlasted the real Ed Merrill:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Merrill

With the fourth pick in Friday numbers, @mattamatic selects:

#65 Ed Merrill, backup second baseman for the 5-31 Baltimore Orioles.

(Geez, y'all are good at finding players. What kind of imperialist bullshit is this?)

Of course, a center fielder is also a very important defensive position, so you might imagine Philly and St Louis kept him on for his fielding skills.

Unfortunately you'd be wrong, because he was, at best, a warm body that happened to occupy center field.

That's probably because Henry Austin should've been in *right* field, but no one told the Athletics or Brown Stockings, so he was paid to play a position he didn't know well.

No lesson here, we think.

So, Henry Austin played 1283.1 total innings and all but 11.2 of them in center field.

Even at the time, and combined with his lanky frame, that usually meant a fast player who could take extra bases, steal bases, and maybe draw some walks to frustrate pitchers.

Austin was good at exactly zero of those things.

Those 14 walks in 1874-75?

Only ONE was unintentional. He was the beneficiary of batting behind actual ballplayers.

With the third pick in the Friday numbers, @Louisa selects:

#9 Henry Austin, retired former centerfielder for the Philadelphia Athletics and St. Louis Browns.

Yes, we know we're dismissing a 23-year-old pitcher, but with a career WHIP of 1.57, about a wild pitch a game for most of his career, and an incredible tendency to avoid finishing games, it is rather difficult to believe that Moreno's going to get much better.

The #IngenierosRIN are no longer the most garbage pitching staff in the , but Moreno is certainly a callback to those horrible late 1870s rotations they put together.

Now, Rincón has never been known for their incredible scouting or development efforts, but signing Moreno made sense at the time.

He was 18 with what looked like plenty of potential.

What we can't explain is how he was considered the #30 prospect in his class when his control was rated at 8/100.

I suppose that explains how he managed to shut out the #SamaritanosSLO , a team that should've had his guts for garters, *after* walking four of them.

I don't know why we thought this would take longer to happen, but:

With the second pick in the Friday numbers, @boisdevache selects:

#20 Ramón Moreno, current #3 starter for our beloved #IngenierosRIN !

Boy, do we have stories.

Let's just say there's a very good reason he's unhappy.

But what really set Rodo apart was his defense.

You see, the 1870s were a great time to be a hitting shortstop.

There were certainly guys in Betances who could bat as well or better than prime Rodo, but few of them could post defensive stats like these.

Conversely, the ones who could field better than him tended to get far fewer shots at the plate, because their hitting could be best described as . . . unsatisfactory.

Mind you, Rodríguez still posted OPS+ numbers of at least 112 every year between 1873 and 1878; in fact, he posted an OPS+ of *exactly* 112 three times in that time period.

In 1873, he posted a 137 OPS+, buoyed by two 20-game hitting streaks. He's one of the few to have managed that more than once.

His leaderboards fit a leadoff hitter profile: lots of PAs/ABs, decent amount of runs scored . . . except that in 1874, he was third in RsBI in Betances. Odd.

With the first pick in the Friday numbers, @derek selects:

#17 Fernando Rodríguez, starting shortstop for the #CañerosVGB as of 1885.

That's right: this man is 40 and he's starting between second and third for a major league team. For the fifteenth season in a row.

FRIDAY:
This may be the razorest-thin edge we've encountered.

The #MulosAGB have the pitching advantage, and even now half of their lineup is significantly above average.

But it's the #CorsosYAU who've got Reyes and Riojas.

first pitch circa 8:30 PM

https://www.twitch.tv/lnpgaceta

FRIDAY:
We open with your beloved #IngenierosRIN facing possibly the worst #ArtesanosLPI team that's ever taken the field.

Moreno's found it hard to win games—or even finish them—but he's unlikely to give up ten runs in 1.2 IP again.

first pitch 7:00 PM

https://www.twitch.tv/lnpgaceta

The Ingenieros, in the words of an interlocutor, had "turned the hot corner into the shit corner" by putting Valle at 3B.

Why not stick him in right? Well, Nieves was there, and they had no one to man third base otherw—hold on.

They had TWO of them?

#DeepDogshitDive