March-April Hurlers Check

Hello everyone, today we will be checking out the some of the best starting pitchers of each team in the first 25% of the season. How they succeed, what tools are important to them and so on.


There's no alternative but to start this topic with April's Pitcher of the Month -- Chicago Storm's Ezekiel Bridges. The loudmouth likely shut up the most haters of all GRSL players this month and he has been nothing but dominant. The man did not start up great in the early part of March. He was pulled after 4 innings in his first two starts - one was an easy win though - and he lost a pitching duel against Beatrix Ajax in the April 2 Storm @ Centurions game. However, that marked the end of his mediocre performance. After that, every game he pitched has been fantastic.

The highlight would definitely be the April 15th match @ Pioneers. Pioneers were hot as hell at that time, winning 11 out of their first 15 games and they had arguably the scariest and most aggressive batting lineup of the inaugural season of SBLM. These pioneers really played like the historical pioneers, they showed no mercy when a bad pitch came to their sight and they have some of the most absolute units in terms of power batters. This was also a game in Three Rivers Stadium, a batter's stadium that was customized to fit the Pioneers' batting-heavy game plan. Everyone was expecting the Pioneers to smash the face off Bridges but no, the man backed up his talk, and Pioneers could not get much going on in this one.

Of all the scary batters above .300 in AVG by that night, only Flynn Fuego and Caleb Marko got at least a hit on Bridges. Bridges did not collect a lot of Ks - and that remained a thing for now - but his pinpoint pitches around the corner really gave the Pioneers batters trouble. All of those corner painters were hard hit and you sometimes want to gamble on a ball but then the umpire called a strike. This was Bridges' best weapon, his control was among the best in SBLM and it could put off the power batters at any time. In the end, Bridges only gave up 6 hits and a single homer to Caleb Marko and he got the win 3-2.

Ezekiel Bridges had 100% quality starts so far and he was 7 in a row with that. No team was able to earn more than 3 runs from him so far, and it'd be interesting to see if there's a team that can break this streak in May.


Pioneers were well-known for their batting prowess at this point, but you shouldn't ignore that they do have some solid pitchers in the squad, like Captain Hook. Hook has one of the most lethal sinker and fastball combination in the minor league. We shouldn't ignore his underrated slider either. With all three pitches able to get him outs on anyone, the opposing batters have a hard time predicting which one would he use and that's how he farmed his Ks.

Captain Hook was an all-around pitcher who can do all the things a good starting pitcher needs to do. His pitches have good movement to dodge the power hits, he has solid control to pin the corners and he has the stuff to put anyone down when the situation calls for it.

His games were kinda extreme at the moment. He either pitched well into the 8th or 9th inning or he got rocked hard early on and was pulled at the 4th or 5th inning. Despite the little inconsistency, the man still fared well against most batters.

His reputation was not all good though, as some analysts criticized him for his rather mediocre hits given up. As shown by his WHIP, the opponents did sometimes get on base. Hook's not a killer with insane WHIP at the moment, but his ability to stay calm and get out of tight situations without giving up too many runs was great.


It amazed me how low Ramirez's WAR was for all he did so far in his 8 starts. If we ignore WAR, this man has the best overall pitching stats of all the Centurions' starters by far. Some might call him lucky, but really, how could you be lucky if you had 0.81 WHIP? Some said he couldn't contain the power hitters, which was kinda true and could be the culprit of his low WAR as he had given up 13 HRs so far, but still, he was able to hoist down the others who didn't hit a homer off him. That's still pretty solid in my book.

Cid Ramirez was a great grinder, a pitcher you can trust to carry you until the late innings and save you from using too many of your bullpen arms. The man was the best PIT stopper for Vegas so far. Of three matches he started against Pittsburgh, he held them to 3 hits, 3 runs; 6 hits, 3 runs; and 5 hits, 2 runs. His fastball was dominant even against these power batters who absolutely loved smashing a fastball and that was one tough feat to do.

At the moment, Cid Ramirez was more of a "HR or out" pitcher. Unless you can hit a homer off him, you are going to have a hard time. He was especially great against LHB, which he faced like 66% of his time so far. The slashline opposing LHB hit against him was a very low .161/.221/.294.

His only slip up was the game he gave up 7 runs @ Mohawks in April 2020. It was a night where the Mohawks went off hard and hit 3 homers off him. If Ramirez could lower his HR/9, he could be a really scary pitcher for the Centurions. It's also worth noting that Flavian Forum was far from the longest park with the highest wall. It was a ballpark where HRs weren't too difficult to hit so cutting down on his HR rate would help Ramirez on both home and away.


Mohawks were not performing well at the moment and part of that was due to their rather lackluster starting pitcher lineup. Among them, the best one so far was Jermaine Cole. Let's be real here, Cole wouldn't be the best in other teams so I couldn't be as enthusiastic with him than other pitchers on this list. Cole was surprisingly efficient so far and I would say his ability to not give up too many HRs at the moment was his saving grace. The SBLM this year was full of power batters so cutting down on the HR rate is the top priority for any pitcher in my opinion. This is especially key to the starters who have to face the power hitters multiple times in a single game.

Cole was a rather simple pitcher as of now. He was raw, but serviceable. Fastball was the key of his arsenal and he slid in an occasional cutter to surprise batters or very rarely put up a changeup to cheat out a fastball prediction from the batter.

Cole was another pitcher who gave up some hits and balls, but could finish the inning under heavy pressure afterward. The downside of high WHIP was plenty, like it's more dangerous to a burst of runs given up and more critically, it means you have to waste a lot more pitches per inning to close the deal. Despite those disadvantages so far, and him giving up like .250+- of hits to the opponent, he had always pitched well in the clutch. When he needed the out the most, he could give those.

For someone who enjoyed a thriller, you would love to watch a Jermaine Cole game. The man lived on a dangerous line and somehow escaped most troubles so far. Whether he could get them done in the future was another question, but as a fan, you'd be nail-biting the whole time whenever he's pitching.