[ayaghmour2]

It was a 2-5 start for the Cougars in the Spring, but I don't really care too much about the results of these games. The biggest news of the week, however, was the first Independent Draft. The way this works is each team gets to select one player from an Independent team to "draft" off that team. There is compensation, as a player from the drafting organization replaces the newly selected player. If you submitted to the commissioner a player picked by another team, you don't get a single player. The player you submit has to be added to the 40-Man roster. The draft is done in the same order as the Amateur draft, so we got the first selection.

I selected LHP Jim Crawford from the AAA Sacramento Governors, and had to give up RHP Buck Putnam. Both players are 24. Crawford spent three seasons in AAA, going 23-21 with a 5.15 ERA (91 ERA+), 1.50 WHIP, and 108 strikeouts in 321.2 innings pitched. His best season, however, was this past season where he was 12-7 with a 4.54 ERA (104 ERA+), 1.39 WHIP, and 104 strikeouts in 150.2 innings pitched. I selected him because my scout is a big fan of his and thinks he can be a middle of the rotation starter. OSA seems to agree, as they rank him as the 36th best prospect in the FABL and the 2nd best in our organization. He'll join the club for Spring.

In regards to performance, all of our starters struggled until Dick Lyons' made his second start, 4 scoreless with 4 strikeouts. Both newcomers in John Kincaid and Russ Combs had great weeks. Kincaid hit .476 with 3 RBI's and Combs hit .381 with 3 RBI's. George Jordan, Fred Barrell, Vince York, and John Dibblee are all hitting over .300 as well. We lost Mike Muprhy to back soreness, and I'll send him down to AA to rehab.

The amateur seasons are kicking off as well, and I'll try to start Amateur reports next sim.