Season 9 Preview- St. Louis Pathfinders

There are two questions buzzing throughout the Mordecai World relating to the St. Louis Pathfinders. The first is, "Will you trade Travis Brown?" and the second is "Will you trade Alex Johnson?" While about a dozen teams have asked those burning questions, there will actually be a Major League season played Season 9.

This season the St. Louis outfield will feature a platoon in left field, as veteran Cookie Moreno and Jerry Belitz split time, most likely keeping the spot warm for an early season call-up for Travis Brown. In the meantime Moreno and Belitz will be joined in center by Brandon Sandberg, who actually performed a adequate job Season 8, hitting .262 with 54 RBI and 16 steals while playing solid defense. Right field will be roamed by Pablo Castro, who tallied a franchise record 100 steals last season. While this lineup will not break many offensive records, the speedy group will cover much ground.

The infield echoes the defensive assets of the outfield, and also unfortunately has the same lack of Pathfinder offense. Defensive minded shortstop J.T. Barber anchors the infield that will include third baseman Vincenzo Hutton (18 homers, 66 RBI last year) and second baseman Jeff Clark (10 home runs, 64 RBI, 70 steals). Matty Molina will play first, hoping to improve on his 28 home run, 70 RBI rookie season. The 70 steals of Clark and Castro's 100 steals will move runners around the bases again for the Pathfinders this season, but unfortunately that'll be the only way to move around since the bats will be rather silent again this year in St. Louis.

Behind the dish veteran Mo Roundtree comes in to hopefully reign in the wild pitching staff, as well as hit a bit. Backup Ross Jodie, a former (sad as it is to say) bright spot in the franchise's offense, will get some needed rest and settle into the correct role as the #2.

The pitching staff will be an adventure again in St. Louis. B.C. Harris, Cookie Miranda, and Moises Lee will anchor the starters. Last year the trio won only 15 games, led by Lee's 8-7 mark. Todd Kroon and Wayne Lambert round out the starting staff and are simultaneously unspectacular and innings eaters, but hopefully will see some flashes of being average. Mike Cooper moves into the closer role, held the past few seasons by veteran Mark Miller. Cooper is a rising star in the Pathfinder universe and has set a personal goal of 20 saves this season.

The long and short of things in St. Louis this year is another long season of poor pitching and low run totals. Speculation is they'll improve over the 45 wins next season, but getting up to 60 wins would be a moral victory for this long rebuilding effort. The Pathfinder fans will hopefully see the world of double-digit loss seasons by Season 10.

Prediction: 56-106

Career Coaching

This is a little bit of fun stuff jimrome76 came up with. It isn't simply the coaching leaders in mordecai, but is an all-time record in all worlds of the current mordecai owners. Enjoy.

Career Coaching Leaders

Wins
mbooker - 5976
chazzzz - 2131
lansteen - 2058
plague - 1953
dwhit34- 1943
dupala - 1770
dbgmpd- 1735
bhbgew - 1667
nosferatu- 1601
jbrehm - 1600

Win%
jamesutd- 0.632
themehl - 0.603
jimrome76- 0.590
heater1121 - 0.588
thebenders - 0.569
dyuen - 0.562
mbooker- 0.551
jbrehm - 0.549
brian2470- 0.549
dupala - 0.546


Playoff Wins
mbooker- 162
dyuen - 88
plague - 60
themehl- 58
lansteen -51
thebenders- 50
dwhit34 - 49
jbrehm - 45
jimrome76- 44
chazzzz - 40

Playoff win %
dyuen - 0.620
themehl- 0.574
chazzzz - 0.563
lansteen - 0.548
jbrehm - 0.542
heater1121- 0.542
jimrome76 - 0.524
brian2470 - 0.517
plague - 0.513
mbooker- 0.511

Total Seasons
mbooker - 67
chazzzz - 28
lansteen - 24
plague - 23
dwhit34- 23
bhbgew - 21
nosferatu- 20
dbgmpd - 20
dupala - 20

Div. Title
mbooker- 22
plague - 13
dwhit34- 11
jbrehm - 9
dupala - 8
lansteen- 7
iceman67- 7
thebenders- 7
jimrome76 - 7
themehl - 7
jamesutd - 7

Playoffs
mbooker - 37
plague - 13
dwhit34- 12
thebenders- 12
dupala - 11
dyuen - 11
jbrehm - 10
lansteen - 10
dbgmpd - 10

League Title
dyuen - 6
mbooker- 6
themehl - 4
plague - 4
jimrome76- 4
lansteen - 3
thebenders- 3
jbrehm - 3
chazzzz - 3
jamesutd- 2
brian2470- 2

WS Title
dyuen - 5
themehl- 3
plague - 2
lansteen- 2
jimrome76- 2
mbooker - 1
thebenders- 1
dupala - 1
jbrehm - 1
iceman67- 1
jamesutd - 1
heater1121- 1

Team Records Through Season 8

Team	W	L	%	P	D	L	T
NL North
Detroit	698	598	.538	4	4	0	0
Chicago	677	619	.522	2	1	0	0
Toledo	676	620	.522	4	3	0	0
St. Louis	418	878	.323	0	0	0	0
NL East
Huntington	711	585	.549	6	5	2	0
San Juan	690	606	.532	2	2	0	0
Columbus	627	669	.484	2	1	0	0
Washington	444	852	.343	0	0	0	0
NL South
Texas	809	487	.624	8	7	4	2
Austin	697	599	.538	3	1	0	0
Richmond	545	751	.421	0	0	0	0
Monterrey	516	780	.398	1	0	0	0
NL West
Las Vegas	819	477	.632	8	7	2	1
Sacramento	691	605	.533	3	0	0	0
Vancouver	675	621	.521	3	0	0	0
Anaheim	608	688	.469	1	1	0	0
Team	W	L	%	P	D	L	T
AL North
New York	681	615	.525	3	3	0	0
Toronto	638	657	.493	3	2	0	0
Kansas City	636	660	.491	1	1	0	0
Fargo	623	673	.481	2	2	0	0
AL East
Charlotte	735	561	.567	7	5	1	1
Rochester	673	523	.519	1	1	0	0
Syracuse	651	645	.502	2	2	0	0
Boston	558	737	.431	0	0	0	0
AL South
Louisville	762	534	.588	7	4	1	1
Tampa Bay	697	599	.538	4	4	3	1
Florida	649	647	.501	3	0	0	0
Little Rock	569	727	.439	1	0	0	0
AL West
Colorado Springs	716	580	.552	7	4	3	2
Helena	708	588	.546	6	4	0	0
Tucson	602	694	.465	1	0	0	0
Salt Lake City	535	761	.413	0	0	0	0

Key: Franchises are listed by season 9 location; W is wins; L is losses; % is winning percentage; P is playoff appearances; D is division titles; L is league championships won; T is world series championships won.