[ayaghmour2]

Weekly Record: 5-1
Seasonal Record: 49-46 (4th, 7.5 GB)
Stars of the Week
John Lawson : 21 AB, 8 H, 2 HR, 4 RBI, .381 AVG, 1.167 OPS
Dave Rankin : 1 Win, 9.0 IP, 2 BB, 1 K, 0.00 ERA
Ray Ford : 21 AB, 6 H, 1 HR, 8 RBI, .286 AVG, .824 OPS

Schedule
7-27: Win vs Kings (4-9)
7-28: Win vs Kings (8-13)
7-29: Win vs Kings (3-4)
7-30: Win vs Saints (0-2)
7-31: Win vs Saints (1-3)
8-1: Loss vs Saints (7-4)

Recap
What a week! We swept through the partial strength Kings, who have now lost replacement ace Joe Shaffner for the next three weeks with a herniated disc. It didn't happen during out series, but we managed to put up a ton of runs against a still strong staff at home. Montreal managed to salvage the finale, but we've won 8 of our last 10 and finished July an impressive 16-11, good for our second best month of the season. And while there is still a lot of baseball left to be played, don't mistake this for a shot at contention. I do think we should be able to stay above .500 the rest of the way and our 52-43 Pythagorean would be just 4.5 games out of first, but we're not quite playoff material. Yet...

The biggest news of the week was yet another shutout by a Cougar pitcher, this time courtesy of the complete game machine Dave Rankin. He scattered 8 hits and 2 walks with just one strikeout in the 2-0 shutout victory over the Saints. Rankin usually strikes out a lot more hitters, 71 on the season and on track for his fourth straight season with triple digit strikeouts. He's evened his record to 11-12, yet he's still tied for second in the entire FABL for losses. Luckily Rusty Petrick is up to 15 and the Cannons have a four man staff, so Rankin should be spared of another loss title. Of course, his overall numbers are really impressive as usual, a 3.53 ERA (118 ERA+) and 1.29 WHIP in just fewer then 200 frames. It'll take a lot to get him to 300, but if we keep winning games, you can expect more and more Rankin starts down the stretch. We'll also start to see more Pug, whos sublime July should have been good enough for Pitcher of the Month, but instead had to settle for just Rookie of the Month. The only issue was the 3-2 record, but his 1.91 ERA and 1.19 WHIP were outstanding. He walked 16 and struck out 21 and now ranks third on the team for strikeouts with 47. Pug has really straightened out his season numbers, 5-7 with a 3.78 ERA (110 ERA+) and 1.39 WHIP in exactly 100 innings pitched. He's starting to get more scouting love too as Pug continues to make his way up the pitching ladder. Bryan was short of a shutout due to an eared run in his outing, but allowed 4 hits and struck out 5 in a win over the Saints.

The rest of the rotation looked good, with the only two start starter, Milt Fritz, having a little trouble. He got a win and a no decision, but went just 8 innings in both starts. The first was a win over the Kings where he improved to 9-10, allowing 7 hits, 5 runs (4 earned), and 4 walks with 4 strikeouts. The second came in the one loss, to another of his former teams Montreal, and he fared a bit worse. Both surprisingly went 121 innings, but he allowed 8 hits, 4 runs, and 5 walks without a strikeout. Dick Lyons made a start and relief outing, nine frames with 4 hits, 3 earned, and 5 walks to go with 3 strikeouts. Oscar Morse made the last start, 8 innings with 8 hits, 4 runs, 6 walks, and 2 strikeouts to improve to 11-5. It was another good all around week for the rotation and we barely had to dip into the pen. A few more weeks like this, and it could get much better for us.

At the plate, we had a lot of clutch pinch hits, with the bench trio of Paul McLain, Johnny Watters, and Russ Griffin going 5-for-9 with a double, triple, a run, and 2 RBI's. Star John Lawson had another torrid week, 8-for-21 with 2 homers, 4 RBI's, 4 walks, and 6 runs scored. No Player of the Week Award, but Lawson is hitting .338/.384/.506 (135 OPS+) on the season with 17 doubles, 17 homers, and 65 RBI's. A triple crown is highly unlikely, but he's the only CA hitter in the top three for all three categories. He doesn't lead any, but he's just a homer behind Al Wheeler for a share of the CA lead. Rich Langton decided to switch things up a bit, hitting a productive 7-for-22 with a triple, homer, walk, 2 RBI's, and three runs scored. It's very rare he has a productive week, and he finally pushed his OPS+ up to 90. The extra base hits are far down this year, just 9-4-8 compared to 27-13-14 last season. Langton has at least started to get comfortable in right, but his career .303/.347/.479 line is almost identical to last year's .303/.345/.480 line. It wasn't all good, however, as Mike Taylor and Doc Love's bats disappeared. They managed just 3 hits in 41 trips to the plate with a double, 2 RBI's, 6 runs, and 4 walks.

Looking Ahead
Off to start the week again, which will allow us to reset the rotation back up. We should get to take advantage of a few weaker teams, starting with the last place Stars. We'll welcome them into town as they sit 40-58. New York's staff has had it's struggles, but no team has struck out more hitters then the Stars. In the top four on their staff, George Phillips' 4.0 K/9 is the lowest, but just slightly lower then the CA's strikeout leaders Gus Goulding's 4.2. Harry Carter has the best rate, a 5.3 corresponding to 70 strikeouts in 119.1 innings pitched. The 26-year-old has a slightly below average 4.37 ERA (97 ERA+), in large part to the large number of walks (56, 4.2) which is a huge jump from last season where he walked 59 in the full season. Him and Les Zoller could make an effective 1-2, but they may need help from a better defensive catcher. My guess is once Johnny Hopper is up, the staff will start to see some marked improvements.

After New York, the homestand continues with three with the Cannons and another off day. I mentioned the strikeout leader Goulding prior, who is 10-12 with a 4.00 ERA (105 ERA+) and 1.30 WHIP, as well as the loss leader Petrick, who's 91 strikeouts are second in the CA. Unfortunately for Petrick, his control tends to desert him, as he's walked 105 batters already. His 4.45 ERA (94 ERA+) is identical to John Edwards' and once they figure things out, it will be scary to face Baltimore's pitching staff. The offense is still missing a lot of pieces, but they've got a handful of excellent positional prospects like Fred Galloway who project to be impact starters in the big league. This looks like year six in a row with a sub .500 record, but this trend is likely coming to an end. They recently brought up a former Cougar first rounder, John Barnard, who's excellent in his first two weeks as a big leaguer. The 24-year-old (25 in September) is 8-for-23 with 3 doubles, a triple, homer, 6 walks, and 4 RBI's. Barnard has never ranked that high on the prospect lists, but my scout has always liked him and he's got all the tools to be an effective FABL starter.

Minor League Report
3B Dick Voss (AA Mobile Commodores): Fresh off a return to Mobile, Dick Voss hit an impressive 10-for-16 with 4 RBI's and 2 runs scored. It's not the most exciting week by any means, but Voss is hitting an impressive .287/.338/.448 (139 OPS+) batting line with 13 doubles, 5 triples, 2 homers, and 24 RBI's. He has a nice 14-to-3 walk-to-strikeout ratio as well, and despite not having much of a glove, he more then makes up for it with the bat. An 18th Rounder in 1934, he was one of those lucky AI picks that shouldn't have ever fallen, Voss was formerly a common inclusion in our top 30 prospect lists. He's fallen off now, but his bat hasn't given a reason for the fall. Playing time may be hard to come for Voss, but he's got a few more seasons to go before being considered a big league quality starter. Right now he looks like a bench bat, but sometimes having extremely reliable hitters off the bench for late game situations can be extremely helpful.

LHP John Johnson (C La Crosse Lions): It took just five starts, but the southpaw from Chicago picked up his first career shutout. There were no strikeouts, but he walked two and allowed two hits in a 4-0 win over the Dubuque Dukes. Our 9th Rounder in the July draft, Johnson is 2-3 with a 3.25 ERA (105 ERA+), 1.25 WHIP, 9 walks, and 4 strikeouts in 36 innings pitched. More of a finesse pitcher then a dominating hurler, the skinny Johnson has a reliable change that could use a little more help with his fastball and curve. He doesn't throw too hard, 84-86 consistently, but he mixes his pitches well and hasn't really had an issue with control yet that most young pitchers tend to see. He's got a tough road ahead of him, especially with all the arms clogged in La Crosse, but Johnson has done a great job so far showing that he deserves innings.

1B Jocko Pollard (C La Crosse Lions): It sort of snuck up on me, but I guess Jocko Pollard had an excellent July! Named batter of the month, he hit .351/.419/.568 with 3 homers, 10 walks, and 18 RBI's in 86 trips to the plate. He also won the weekly award, 9-for-16 with a homer and five driven in. This has vastly improved his season line, up to a strong .292/.360/.424 (130 OPS+) line with 14 doubles, 5 homers, and 37 RBI's. Pollard is a natural third basemen, but he's been seeing a lot of time at first because he's not the best defender. Our 6th Rounder in 1935, he's got a strong hit tool with excellent bat speed and barrel control. My scout thinks his defense is major league ready, but my guess is that's as a first basemen, not a third basemen. Jocko ranks outside our top 30 at 34, but checks in at 392 in the league. The 6'2'' Pollard just turned 20, so he's got a lot of development time to go, but his tools are exciting and he can separate himself from the pack as we don't have many natural corner players.