[ayaghmour2]

Weekly Record: 5-3
Seasonal Record: 25-27 (6th, 9.5 GB)
Stars of the Week
The email showed two weeks instead of one, so the stars assigned were for a two week period. But, let's just call the Stars of the Week the Cougar offense

Weekly Schedule
6-4: Win vs Toronto (3-20)
6-5: Loss vs Toronto (7-1)
6-6: Loss vs Cleveland (4-1)
6-7: Win vs Cleveland (6-17)
6-8: Win vs Cleveland (7-14)
6-9: Win at Toronto (6-1)
6-9: Win at Toronto (2-0)
6-10: Loss at Toronto (2-3)

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

YYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

THE OFFENSE IS ALLLLLIIIIIIIIVVVVVVEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ITS ABOUT TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!

After a week that saw us score 20, 17, and 14 runs, we added 66 runs in eight games this week good for over 8 per game. We did sprinkle in a pair of one run losses, but let's not focus on that. In just one week we went from 6th to 3rd in runs scored and I have exponentially gained way too much confidence. Especially considering we were 0-6 against the Foresters and probably scored less then 17 runs total. Unfortunately for the Cleveland faithful, the Foresters (33-17) fell out of first for the first time all season. Brooklyn (34-17) has a half game lead while us and the Sailors, Saints, and Stars all sit between 8 and 9.5 games behind. After finishing our series with the Wolves, we get a much needed off day before a long New York trip. We get four with the Stars (27-26) and four with the first place Kings. We are the only team who Brooklyn does not have a winning record against, but that doesn't give me much hope for the road series.

Enough about that, we want to see the offense!

Sure, the 20 and 17 point game both saw our opponents make six errors, but what a week for these guys:

Mike Taylor: .370/.414/.779 (194 OPS+), 3 HR, 6 RBI, 10 R
Tom Taylor: .333/.405/.600 (151 OPS+), 1 HR, 8 RBI, 7 R
Doc Love: .303/.343/.636 (142 OPS+), 2 HR, 11 RBI, 7 R
Clyde Hinzman: .333/.355/.567 (129 OPS+), 2 HR, 10 RBI, 6 R

Mike Taylor is having such an awful season that his season line is still just .274/.336/.437 (94 OPS+) and he had 4 homers and 16 RBI's before the week started. And Clyde Hinzman had 5 career homers before this week! Now he has 7! Tom got right back on track with a really strong week and him and Moxie Pidgeon share the CA home run lead. Doc Love's two homers brought his season total to 6, with four of them at home.

I'm actually going to take a closer look at Love:

He hasn't had a great season, hitting just .304/.351/.485 (109 OPS+) with those 6 homers and 24 RBI's. What's really impressive his is ability to put the ball in play. In 211 trips to the plate, only 19 of those did not end with the ball being put in play. He doesn't walk all that much, but just 4 of those 19 were strikeouts. His 1.9 strikeout percentage is fourth in all of baseball, right behind Pittsburgh's Frank Lightbody (1.8). Neither of these guys are on the level of Harry Barrell (0.4) and Freddy Jones (0.5), the first two picks of the 1931 draft. Regardless, Love does an excellent job of hitting. And for a lefty, his spray chart is beautiful. His hits and outs are all over the diamond. Being color blind makes it impossible to distinguish between homers and triples as well as flyouts and doubles, but there's no obvious trend for where his good hits go. This guy is an outstanding hitter, and I think he spent too much time early trying to hit homers. He's got a ton of power, but that's not his strength. That is hitting whatever pitch comes at him, and occasionally depositing it into the seats. It seems like he's straightened things out from his May slump and all our hitters are starting to put things together.

And as good as the hitting was, the starting pitching was actually pretty solid too. Let's start with Dick Leudtke, who I spent a good portion of last post complaining about. I think he took exception to it. He made two starts this week, tossing a pair of complete games with 17 hits, 4 runs, 3 walks, and 7 strikeouts. We won both, the first 20-3 and the second 6-1 and Leudtke improved his record to 6-5, with the 6 wins best on the team (if you needed another reason why wins are irrelevant) despite his subpar performance. Even better, Tommy Wilcox was dominant on the 9th. He tossed a 4-hit shutout with 7 strikeouts to improve to 4-8 with a 3.48 ERA (130 ERA+), 1.29 WHIP, 22 walks, and 43 strikeouts. These numbers are far better then Leudtke, but Wilcox (shout out to Steve) is averaging just over 4 runs of support per game which makes it really hard to win games. I'm actually really impressed with how well Wilcox did, as his .249 BABIP last season was absurd. Our defense was elite, and after spending all season at 8th, we're up to 7th in the CA for zone rating (still 8th in efficiency) now after pacing the entire FABL last year.

I also want to petition to the FABL that instead of making the standings by wins and losses, we instead use cumulative WAR. Our hitters rank 3rd and somehow our pitchers 1st. I wonder if WAR has a way to ignore fielding (kind of like FIP) because that's the only way I could understand how our pitching staff is worth the most. As mentioned earlier, we're 3rd in runs scored now, but also top 4 in every hitting category except baserunning.

We have a decent amount of minor league news too:

Can't remember if I mentioned it last time, but Billy Hunter hit the DL with a sore elbow. He'll be back in 3 or 4 sims, but this is the second time a sore elbow has given him issues. In 20 games with San Jose, Hunter was hitting .307/.329/.493 (107 OPS+) with 2 homers and 15 RBI's. His teammate and 1931 19th Round Pick Bill Deaton started the week off right. The 24-year-old allowed just 3 hits with a walk and strikeout in a complete game shutout over the Fresno Falcons. Deaton has struggled a bit this year, but the win improved him to 2-4 with a 4.95 ERA (100 ERA+), 1,53 WHIP, 15 walks, and 10 strikeouts. On the 9th, Gene Evans was 5-for-7 as La Crosse beat Burlington 21-0! He scored three times, but all his hits were singles. Dave Haight was 4-for-7 with 3 runs and 3 RBI's plus a double and triple. Freddie Bennett was 4-for-5 with 2 runs, 5 RBI's, a walk, 2 doubles, and a triple. Last note is on Johnny Walker. In his last 5 starts, he's allowed one or less earned run in all, but one start. The most recent was a 3-hit shutout of Columbus where he walked 2 and struck out 8. The 24-year-old continues to produce, going 3-3 with a 3.22 ERA (131 ERA+), 1.26 WHIP, 20 walks, and 26 strikeouts in 64.1 innings pitched.

The amateur pool was revealed today, so we got all the stats for the future draftees. It may be a bit harder to amateur reports, but I'll try to cover a few potential 1934 top picks. We don't get fielding stats, but I'll list both their 1934 statline and a few notes:

C Woody Stone: .541/.586/.806, 2 HR, 25 RBI
HS Senior: Dunlap (Tennessee)
Commit School: College of San Diego
Stone is an excellent lefty hitter from River Grove, Illinois. He's got an outstanding contact tool and he struck out just one (a la Joe Mauer) in his senior season. He won't hit many homers or draw many walks, but it's really hard to find a draft eligible catcher with a better bat then his. He's going to be hard for most teams to sign, so I can see Stone as a future top pick in 1937 instead of 1934. If he hangs around I'll take him since he's a hometown kid.

CF Alf Pestilli: .294/.377/.554, 13 HR, 44 RBI, 36 SB
College Junior: Narragansett
For the other figment GM's, we are aware of the storylines that come with the game. Pestilli was born in Italy, but came to the states as a kid. He has two younger brothers including teammate Sal who lit the college circuit up as a freshman and a high school freshman Tony. Alf looks like the worst of the three, but that's not to say he's not a good prospect. He has above average power and speed with a strong eye. He can handle all three outfield positions as well.

SP Ed Nagel: 7-2, 1.21 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, 17 BB, 105 K
HS Senior: Ross (Hamilton, OH)
Commit School: Charleston Tech
One of my favorite things about high school pitchers is how underdeveloped they are. The 17-year-old Nagel is a 6'2'' lefty who throws in the low to mid 80s. He keeps the ball on the ground and has a nice five pitch miss. He throws a fastball, sinker, curve, change, and splitter His stuff has a ton of potential, but he has to develop a strikeout pitch as he wastes a lot of pitches. Obviously he was dominant in high school, but the competition is just average for him. I think if he can add a little more velocity, Nagel can be a top arm.

CF Bennie Griffith: .323/.416/.617, 11 HR, 48 RBI, 32 SB
College Junior: All Hallows
One of the better college outfielders available, Bennie Griffith has elite speed and was an impressive 32-for-33 on stolen base attempts. He showed a little power as well, and showed excellent plate discipline. All this is secondary as his athleticism is the key to his success. He's annoying on the bases and he'll track down pretty much anything out in the outfield.

CF Herb Loflin: .298/.367/.444, 3 HR, 31 RBI, 37 SB
College Junior: Lane State
Honestly, Loflin isn't really good. But, he's a stats only players dream! Loflin played a game at every position except pitcher and catcher in his junior season at Lane State. He's got good speed and a good eye, but the bat probably won't do much in the majors. His versatility, however, is unmatched and his value is really hard to measure.