Slayers First Half Report

The Slayers have embarked on their best ever season. After 83 games of play, the Slayers are looking at a 54-29 record, a .651 winning percentage. The team is on pace for 105 wins, a franchise high should the total be reached.

Minas Morgul is getting balanced output so far. The team is 4th in runs scored and 4th in runs allowed. The Slayers don't lead a single category, but are top 10 in 9 of 10 and top 5 in 7 of 10. Fans have begun believing in the team last season and that support is carrying forward. The team is 7th in fan support with 89% of the local area favorable with the team. Blackfield Park has seen an average attendance with around 43,000 per night.

Leading the way for the team on offense has been a tandem of Minto Foxburr and Imrilron. Imrilron is no surprise, but Foxburr is a mild surprise. Foxburr has always been a quality player, frequently threatening or surpassing .900 OPS. However, this year, returning to the full-time lineup, Foxburr is putting up a career year, perhaps even an MVP type season. This infusion has helped the offense endure a poor first half by Tanta Chubb while also surviving the injury to spark plug Tina Legal.

There's also been some good supporting cast members in the offense. Minta Sandyman continues to shed her underachiever label with another solid first half. She's actually 2nd on the team in RBI. Kadish Ettinripper is batting .390 in part-time play as he shares time with Gwogast Gorund who is batting .345 himself. Perhaps the biggest surprise is Marquis Smith. Thrust into the role of starting CF, he's responded with a .354 average and a .932 OPS.

The pitching side has been lead by the rotation. Galealbo Elvawen will get the headlines and the all-star appearance, but Fabur Beardcutter has been just as good. Then new addition to the rotation, Kashi Darkleaf is not too far behind Beardcutter and combines with the wild stats of Seladriel and the solid play of Eartrembler.

There is one sizable weakness. The bullpen. It hasn't really hurt the team yet, given the team's record, but it is still worrying. Veteran Stonejuggler and oft underachieving Denema Earora have actually posted the best ERAs. The rest have been inconsistant at best. The only other decent performance is from Niara Smoothflower, who's had to battle injuries in each of the last two seasons.

The minor league teams are cruising along. Nurn (AAA) is doing the best, not much of a surprise given its the most populated system, but the success of Gogoroth (AA) is encouraging. The Slayers will have work to do if they want all their systems to win their respective minor league division. Nurn is in good shape, but Gogoroth has Entwash right on their heels and Lithlad (A) is in third place, 7 games out.

Posted at November 29, 2005 02:00 AM | more from Minas Morgul