[tacklesspoem8]

The Cru went all in for the 2017 season and there play on the field showed that
they were ready to compete in a tough American League the roster had a lot of new faces but the overall goal was the same make the playoffs and give the Cru faithful something to cheer about.

Line up

C. Bob Gregory: Solid hitter great defense and an overall rocket for an arm only 22

1B: Albert Pujols: Veteran leader and solid player who can still go deep occasionally

2B: Tom Evans: another veteran with good contact skills and good D

SS: Stephen Carrol: Great defender and solid bat highly regarded young player

3B: Carlos Revelez: part of the first trade St. Louis made youngster with solid skills at the plate but has yet to put it all together

LF: Fernando Vazquez recent addition to help replace Ken Byrne

CF: Ernie Berry: heart and soul of the team and great young player

RF: The black hole in our lineup lol Dan Dunn was gonna be the guy here


Rotation
it changed during the year but looked something like this early

1. Felix Hernandez
2. Larry Slaughter
3. Eric Braun
4. Ramon Acuna
5 Rapheal Bridges

and ended up like this

1 Felix Hernandez
2 Eric Braun
3 Pablo Cubi
4 Ramon Acuna
5 Rapheal Bridges


April 4-6 lost key series against the Kodiaks getting swept at there place not a good start

May: 15-13 much better month although Slaughter and Hernandez struggled still Braun was pitching like an ace and Ernie Berry looked to be on pace for a 40/40

June: 16-12 Berry is still very hot and the offense is doing it's job but Slaughter is still horrible and is moved down in the rotation to the 4th spot.

July:11-15 July is where we found out we didn't have the horses to win the division, Slaughter was waived to make room for big get Pablo Cubi who came over in a trade with Edmonton. Edmonton recieved 4 young prospects in return for the 28 year old pitcher but we hope this will solidify my rotation

August:16-13 Jon Brewer is called up and immediately makes an impact he puts together a 20 game hit streak and takes over 2nd base. Pujols is an expensive veteran at 1B and we decide we need the cash to sign Cubi long term he is waived and picked up by Atlanta. Berry is still hot but has dropped off some he will get to 30/30 but never make the 40 hr mark.

September: 14-9 Good finish to the year as we close the gap for a wild card getting within 1 game on the last day but Brooklyn wins there game and we miss out on the playoffs. 76-68 and ready for an offseason in which we need to find a RF to go with the rest of this young team. We hope we can gain just enough at the plate too push us into the playoffs next year but i guess will see

Bob Gregory: .289 14HR's 59 RBI's
Tom Evans: .288 8 HR's 48 rbi's
Stephen Carrol: 303 1 hr 49 rbi's but had 36 2b and 15 triples
Carlos Revelez: .288 25 Hr's 79 rbi's great year for the youngster
Fernando Vazquez: struggled in the last 2 months and ended up at .243 15 hr's and 77 RBI's
Ernie Berry: batted .287 with 31 HR's and 105 rbi's did not commit a single error in center

Pete White: DH .257 avg and 36 HR's with 92 RBI's solid sophmore season for the guy still strikes out too much

Eric Braun: robbed in the Young Gun voting as he had a great year went 14-7 with a 2.79 era

Felix Hernandez: not as good as we hoped but a solid season by the end going 14-14 with a 4.28 era

Cubi: struggled this year with a super high BaBip of .389 but still went 7-4 in 11 games in the lou with a 4.6 era