[ayaghmour2]

Weekly Record: 2-4
Seasonal Record: 47-58 (6th, 19.5 GB)
Stars of the Week
Rich Langton : 24 AB, 10 H, 0 HR, 5 RBI, .417 AVG, 1.045 OPS
Mike Taylor : 22 AB, 9 H, 1 HR, 3 RBI, .409 AVG, 1.025 OPS
Hank Spencer : 1 Win, 9.0 IP, 1 BB, 2 K, 0.00 ERA

Weekly Schedule
7-30: Loss at Sailors (2-10)
7-31: Win at Sailors (4-0)
8-1: Loss at Sailors (5-6)
8-2: Loss at Foresters (1-6)
8-3: Win at Foresters (3-2)
8-4: Loss at Foresters (5-7)

Summary
Welcome back Hank Spencer! In his first start back, he tossed a nice 9-hit, 1 walk, 2 strikeout shutout of the Sailors in a nice 4-0 win. The rest of the week was rough, as since we were on the road, there was little to no offense to speak of and our pitchers still pitched like they were in the tiny North Side Grounds. I planned on giving him weekly starts anyways, so this doesn't change anything that way, but it was super nice seeing how well he pitched after such rough appearances earlier in the season. Still, we loss two of three to the second and third place teams as we continue our drop in the standings.

The game that really stun though: the finale of the Foresters series. Up 5-1, George Johnson imploded in the ninth, allowing 7 runs, capped off by a Max Morris grand slam. Yeah, one of the worst ways to lose...

Looking Ahead
Off to start the week again before a pair of three game series. This time, however, we get to stay home, hosting both the Sailors and the Wolves. That means John Kincaid will return home very quickly. Philly is 54-50 and Kincaid is a huge upgrade over former Cougar Mack Deal. It's funny, despite a much lower line (it is really hard to hit in Philly compared to Chicago), he has identical 93 OPS+ in 268 games with us and 547 with them. This year, however, the former 1st Rounder hit just .252/.299/.339 (71 OPS+) with 3 homers, 46 RBI's, and 8 steals. He's up to 99 for his career, one away from 100. Interesting enough, they also added stopper Merritt Thomas to their rotation, a player I considered adding (to do the same thing) in the Kincaid trade. In 244.1 FABL innings after being taken from Baltimore in the Rule-5 Draft, he's got a nice 3.83 ERA (111 ERA+), 1.33 WHIP, 115 walks, and 145 strikeouts. Not sure if we'll see him, but I am excited to see what he can do in the rotation. Philly did get a huge hit to their lineup though, with Jack Cleaves' torn ankle ligaments costing him about a month. He was hitting a nice .318/.388/.464 (128 OPS+) with 17 triples, 3 homers, and 53 RBI's. He is aptly nicknamed "Three-Bagger" and has led the CA in triples three times already.

After that, the Wolves come to town, and they were a team I reached out to if they wanted Doc Love. Toronto sits in fourth at 49-55, but they're far closer to last (6.5) then first (17). They have the 8th ranked offense in the league, but a lot of that has to do with the crazy park they play in. As of now, just two of their hitters are boasting above average OPS+, former Cougar Vince York (111) and catcher Dick McGregor (108). Of course, the pitching is a real advantage, and they have Chuck Cole atop the rotation who sits 3rd in the league in ERA. Cole has hit his stride at 25, going 13-5 with a 3.13 ERA (141 ERA+), 1.37 WHIP, 73 walks, and 71 strikeouts. I'd like to see his walks drop and the strikeouts rise, especially because of his upper 90s fastball.

Batters
Week 1 of Rich Langton was awful, we won't talk about that, but week 2? That's what we like to see! Langton slashed .417/.462/.583 with 2 doubles, a triple, and 5 RBI's. Still no homer and he was caught stealing twice, but Langton's quickly got back on track. I'm hoping the same goes for Leo Mitchell, who started his career 7-for-29 with a double. He did score four times, but we can thank Langton for that.

Best thing that happened this week? Joe Masters! Just for the fun of it, I let him leadoff the last game of the week. It worked out well, as he launched a homer on the third pitch of the game. It was his only hit of the week (all but one PA came in that game), but who cares? He hit a homer! He didn't hit .150 for the week!

In actual news, Bill Ashbaugh turned things back around, going 6-for-18 with 2 doubles and 2 triples. Mike Taylor fixed things a bit too, 9-for-22 with a homer and 3 RBI's. Even Jake Moore got in on the fun, 5-for-13 with an RBI. We did have Ollie Page graduate off the top prospect lists, so now were 2nd in the farm rankings for the first time in a while. He's doing fine this season, hitting .279/.360/.384 with a homer and 18 RBI's, but what I like has been the defense. He's got a +3.3 zone rating and 1.040 efficiency, and it's been a while since we've had a decent shortstop defensively.

Pitchers
I already mentioned Spencer's impressive start, but I almost did it again because of how bad we tend to pitch. We did get to see Dick Lyons pitch like the Lyons of old, just 7 hits, 2 runs, and 3 walks with a strikeout in an 8 inning win. Ace McSherry picked up the save in that game, but tossed three innings for the week. He allowed 3 hits and a walk, but no run to score. Take out the ninth inning of the second start (left the first early), George Johnson looked really good. But, he likes getting hurt more then Wilcox does, so who knows if anything happens here.