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April 12th
27 yr old SP Roy Oswalt is released and I eat 13.8 mil of his salary. He had nothing left in Spring Training and I could find no takers either on the trade block or the waiver wire. Luckily he was in the last year of his contract.
May 1st 13-12
My Pirates are 13-12 scoring the second-most runs in the National League. We are committing a lot more errors than anticipated at this point (11th in the league) and the pitching is not currently reflecting the pregame hype as Lefty Chambers carries a 5.17 ERA. I'm not too worried, however, as underlying stats tell me things are better than they look for all but Jeff Sellers. Sellers is giving up both a lot of walks and home runs while having only a .223 BABIP. He has the best ERA of the starters right now (3.13), but those stats are an indicator that his ERA could balloon quickly.
June 1st 29-23
Pirates trail the Atlanta Braves by 2 and a half games and are currently in 4th place. It is shaping up like a tight race between the Braves, Cubs, Expos, and ourselves. The Offense is still doing well and is 3rd in runs scored. Zaza Harvey, who I expected to bat leadoff has been hitting 3rd and currently leads the team in HRs with 5. The lineup is very different than I would like, with things like Carl Crawford batting 4th, but it is doing well and I am less than 3 games out so I'll leave it alone. Brian Lawrence continues to struggle in the top rotation spot with a 4.92 ERA and 1.51 WHIP. Jeff Sellers continues to outperform is underlying stats (4.63 FIP) going 5-1 with a 3.52 ERA. So far things look good and I resist the urge to tinker.
This is also a good point in the season to revisit any players who may be considering Free Agency. Dick Conger, a 29-year-old reliever is the only one I am considering. He is young, semi-reliable, and brings High Leadership. He also wants over 2 million for an extension for a guy who throws about 35 innings a season. I'll have to pass and look for clubhouse leadership a bit more cheaply elsewhere this offseason.
June 28th 44-33
Liam Hendriks is injured with an uncertain return date. Even at Very Low settings this can and will happen. My bullpen is solid, but he makes a huge difference there. He was projected to pitch 121 innings this season (probably part of the problem). I may have to look at how the manager is running his bulpen when he comes back.
All Star Break 50-37 1 1/2 GB 2nd
Zaza Harvey (RF) finsihed 2nd in All-Star Voting for RF behind Sherry Magee of the Houston Astros. Liam Hendriks (still out with a sore shoulder and no return date) was the top vote getter amongst relievers. Both men went on to represent the Pirates in the All Star game.
The team itself is still keeping it close trailing the bubs by a little more than a game. Starting pitchers Drew Pomeranz and Jeff Sellers continue to be solid in the #3 and # 5 slots of the rotation with a 2.61 and 3.68 ERA respectively. Defensively the team has given up the 2nd fewest runs in the league. Offensively, things are coming back down to earth and the team ranks 6th in runs scored. The Manager has started batting Zaza first which I am grateful for. Al Dark, despite his positional ranking, is hitting like the 36 year old he just became. Buck Ewing is batting .269 which is great because I'd have taken far less than that with his glove and game calling ability. None of the guys aI brought on are batting below 200 so I am doing much better than expected at this point.
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