JOPLIN MINER MAGAZINE

Miner MVP Candidate  The Joplin Miners are 33-47 at the halfway point in the 2020 BDBL season. Joplin ranks 22nd in hitting and 16th in pitching.  The best performers at the halfway point:   Carlos Santana 289/408/562  22 HRs  59 Runs 60 RBIs Mookie Betts  296/ 395/ 492   10 SBs Neil Walker 296/ 346/ 468  Garrett Cooper 357/ 408/ 543 Walker and Cooper are the surprise names on the list.  Cooper scorches right handers and Walker is an OBP machine from both sides of the plate.  The problem is there are only a few players performing at high levels and the rest of the hitters range from average to pathetic so it has been a frustrating season.   Best Pitchers Jesse Chavez  2.0.0  (2.75)  34/9   36 IP Gio Gonzalez  6.4.1  ( 4.05) 40/27  53 IP    I am very surprised we rank 16th in pitching but other teams still have games to play before the chapter deadline.  Gio Gonzalez and his 10 million salary are a constant reminder of the price the Miners played to acquire Hyun Jin R

Sam Tuivailala Chapter 2 MVP Rebuilding a team after finishing 7 seasons in the playoffs is a painful process but few teams can avoid it at some point in a franchise's history.  The rebuild continued in Chapter 2 as Joplin went 12-16 in Chapter 2 and fell to 22-34 on the season, 16 games behind the first place Salem Cowtippers.  Here are the results of Chapter 2: Allentown 2-2 Akron 2-2 BCJ  2-2 South Loop 1-3 Salem 2-2 Darien 1-3 North Carolina 2-2 The pitching staff went 12-16 with a 4.36 ERA.  Sam Tuivailala led the way with 3 wins, 2 saves and a 2.02 ERA.   The Miners hit 242/326/343.  The top hitters were: Mookie Betts 374/484/545 Carlos Santana: 314/427/735 Garrett Cooper: 281/344/446 The front office needs to make some waiver moves to fill some holes and local news outlets are engaging in heavy speculation as the waiver deadline looms over the BDBL.

CH1:  GREAT LAKES LEADS POWER RANKINGS 1. Great Lakes Sphinx: 55 2. Salem Cowtippers: 53 3. Los Altos Undertakers: 49 4. Bear Country Jamboree: 37 5. Kansas Law Dogs: 37 6. Chicago Black Sox: 36 7. Southern California Slyme: 32 8. Niagara Locks: 27 9. Allentown Ridgebacks: 26 10. Buckingham Sovereigns: 22 11. Charlotte Mustangs: 16 12. Las Vegas Flamingos: 7 13. Akron Ryche: -1 14. Ravenwood Infidels: -6 15. Cleveland Rocks: -15 16. South Carolina Sea Cats: -19 17. Darien Blue Wave: -22 18. South Loop Furies: -25 19. Joplin Miners: -26 20. St. Louis Apostles: -30 21. Saskatoon Sasquatch: -34 22. Kansas City Boulevards: -35 23. NCISP: -57 24. Myrtle Beach Hitmen: -127

Eduardo Rodriguez Debut May 1:  Ridgebacks 6  Miners 0 Ridgebacks shutout the Miners and spoil debut for Eduardo Rodriguez.  Rodriguez gives up 2 earned runs in 5 innings. W:  Civale  (1-0) L:  Ed Rodriguez  (2-4)     May 2:  Ridgebacks 7  Miners 3 Ridgebacks use home run barrage to down the Miners. HRs:  Judge, Garcia, Phegley, N. Walker ( Joplin) W: Greene L:  Rich Rodriguez May 3:  Miners 6  Ridgebacks 3 Miners use their own home run barrage to down the Ridgebacks. HRs:  Betts, Santana, N. Walker W:  Sampson L:    T. Richards  May 4:  Miners 6  Ridgebacks 5  ( 12 innings) Wellington Castillo went deep in the top of the 12th as the Miners outlasted the Ridgebacks. HRs:  Zobrist, Santana, We. Castillo, C. Fraizer ( Ridgebacks) W:  J. Chavez L:   Greene

Neil Walker Chapter 1 MVP (351/393/544)  The Joplin Miners went 10-18 in Chapter 1.  Here are the series results:  Salem 0-4 Darien: 3-1 NCISP:3-1 Los Altos: 1-3 Ravenwood: 1-3 Kansas City: 2-2 Las Vegas: 0-4 Joplin fans were frustrated by the 1-5 record in 1 run games. There were a number of red flags in Chapter 1.  The pitching staff went 10-18 with a 5.35 ERA. Chris Sale, the ace of the staff, went 1-3 with a 6.14 ERA.  True, he did strike out 43 batters and only walked 7 in 19 innings but the ERA indicates opposing teams had no trouble scoring runs. Danny Duffy (2-2-4.85) and Tanner Roark ( 2-1-3.38) provided some respectable starts but the bullpen was simply nonexistent and the lack of cash to acquire additional pitching showed up in the bottom of the rotation. The team went 230/393/400 at the plate. The bright spots: Carlos Santana (282/403/485  22.4 RC) Charlie Blackmon (298/370/548  21.9 RC) Neil Walker   (351/393/544 11.4 RC)    Mookie Betts  ( 226/300/

Eduardo Rodriguez Joins Miners   The Miners won the only wildcard playoff game in BDBL history when Ryu and Sale outdueled Walker Buehler 1-0 in the 2019 playoffs.   Miner management acquired Ryu to give Sale some support in the 2019 playoffs but the transactions required the Miners to take on Gio Gonzalez's 10M contract for the 2020 season.  The deal gave the Miners another opportunity to win the 2019 OL championship and Joplin did manage to upset Los Altos before Salem beat Sale twice to capture the 2019 OL championship.  The Cowtippers went on to win the 2019 World Series. With Sale having an off year in the 2019 MLB season and Gio Gonzalez's 10M contract limiting acquisition possibilities, the Miners began to rebuild the franchise.  On November 17, 2019, Joplin sent Charlie Morton and Freddie Freeman to Chicago for Charlie Blackmon,  Royce Lewis and Ian Anderson. In Chapter  2, the Miners sent Blackmon, Chris Sale, Danny Duffy, Richard Gallardo, Sandy Gaston and Quinn

Enrique Hernandez:  The New Bill Mazeroski ?? Series song: https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=there+will+be+days+like+this The Joplin Miners' philosophy since taking over the franchise was to do whatever it takes to get to the World Series.  In the first two seasons, the end result was a trip to the 2018 World Series and another trip to the 2019 Ozzie League Championship.  The cost included trading away top prospects for a one year rental in Justin Verlander in 2018 and a half year in 2019 of Hyun-Jin Ryu and swallowing a 10M contract for injured Gio Gonzalez, a contract that could not be unloaded via trade or contract fine over the winter. As a result, the Miners retooled in the off season and jettisoned Charlie Morton and Freddie Freeman for one year of Charlie Blackmon and the addition of two top 100 prospects, i.e. Royce Lewis and Ian Anderson.   It also meant the Miners were forced to add a number of 100k pitchers which usually means providing can

CHARLIE BLACKMON LEADS MINERS The Joplin Miners won 3 out of 4 games in it's Chapter 1 series against the rebuilding Darien Blue Wave.  DBW has some great sluggers like Miguel Sano, Matt Olson and Yordan Alvarez.  The Miners took a step back in the off season given Chris Sale's disappointing 2019 MLB season. Still, the Miners have a great outfield of Peralta, Betts and Blackmon so maybe the Miners can get lucky and secure the wildcard.   Game 1:  Darien 8  Joplin 1 W:  Happ:  5-2-1-1-4-4 (1-1) L:  Sale: 5.1-6-7-7-2-9  (0-2) HRs:  Sano (2), E. Rosario (1) Chris Sale continues to disappoint early in the season.  Miguel Sano hit 2 homers and knocked in 5 runs.  Happ held the Miners to 1 run over 5 innings.  The DBW bullpen shutout the Miners over the last 4 innings. Game 2:  Joplin 10  Darien 7 W:  Roark:  5-10-4-4-1-3  (2-0) L:  Porcello:  4.1-11-7-7-0-2   ( 0-2) HRs:  Blackmon, Peralta, Forsythe, Olson (2), E. Rosario Games like this make it hard to argue the basebal

LOGAN FORSYTHE LEADS MINERS Miner Manager Kevin Cash will have an enormous task in front of him during the 2020 campaign.  Joplin's front office understood the risk it was taking when it took on Gio Gonzalez's 10M contract for a half year of Hyun-jin Ryu.  The move allowed the Miners to save Chris Sale for the first round of the playoffs and ultimately led to the upset series win over the Los Altos Undertakers.  Unfortunately, Sale failed to do well in the OL championship and Joplin had to go home for the winter. The Miners faced NCISP in the opening series of the 2020 season. Game 1:  NCISP 5  Joplin 1 W:  Merrill Kelly 9-3-1-1-2-4 L: Chris Sale:  5-8-5-5-3-4 Chris Sale won the 2019 Cy Young award.  He did not pitch like it in Game 1.  Joey Votto singled and doubled and knocked in 2 runs, Adam Jones and Matt Chapman each hit solo shots.  As a result, Sale was knocked out after 5 innings and the Miners dropped to 0-1.   Game 2:  Joplin 5 NCISP  2 W: Tanner Roark: 6

Kevin Cash 2020 Joplin Miners Manager  The Joplin Miners announced their 2020 coaching staff and respectfully ask the league office to update the Joplin team site. Manager:  Kevin Cash Bench Coach: Bruce Bochy 1B Coach:  Billy Hatcher 3B Coach:  Joey Cora Hitting  Coach: Chilli Davis Pitching Coach:  Mike Maddux