[ayaghmour2]

Weekly Record: 4-2
Seasonal Record: 63-56 (4th, 8 GB)
Stars of the Week
Mike Taylor : 26 AB, 10 H, 2 HR, 5 RBI, .385 AVG, 1.100 OPS
Carlos Montes : 25 AB, 10 H, 0 HR, 1 RBI, .400 AVG, 1.083 OPS
Leo Mitchell : 24 AB, 8 H, 1 HR, 2 RBI, .333 AVG, 1.115 OPS

Schedule
8-24: Win at Saints (10-5)
8-25: Win at Saints (11-4)
8-26: Loss at Cannons (3-7)
8-27: Loss at Cannons (2-3)
8-25: Win at Cannons (9-3)
8-26: Win at Stars (5-2)

Recap
Record wise, it's an excellent week, but in actuality, this week sucked. It's fun having a top-5 shortstop in Billy Hunter, but it's not fun when he's always hurt... This time it's a sprained elbow, and an injury that likely spells the end of the season for the elite young talent. Hunter got into 51 games as a rookie, batting .319/.393/.545 (146 OPS+) with 13 doubles, 6 triples, 6 homers, 25 walks, and 29 strikeouts with just 6 strikeouts. Everything about this kid, except his durability, spells future star, and we just have to hope he can stay on the field all of next year. This throws off my plans a little, Rich Langton will come back this week, and to keep Leo Mitchell in the lineup, I'll run a bunch of different lineups based on pitcher's hand. The most common alignment, however, will have Langton in right, Mitchell at first, and Ford at second. This may not last too long with rosters expanding next sim, but as long as we don't start throwing games with this alignment, I imagine I'll keep it most of the season. Ollie Page will return to short, and at least this week, Joe Foy should get a game or two at second.

Mitchell had himself an excellent week, 8-for-24 with 3 doubles, a triple, homer, 2 RBI's, 4 walks, and 5 runs scored. He wasn't the only youngster with a great week, as Carlos Montes was 10-for-25 with a triple, RBI, three doubles, four walks, six runs, and a steal. One of the vets got into the fun (we actually didn't hit well this week), with Mike Taylor showing some of his vintage form. He was 10-for-26 with a triple, walk, two homers, and five runs scored and driven in. That was almost half his season home run total, but Taylor is hitting an almost average .280/.338/.393 (94 OPS+) with 5 homers and 56 RBI's after enduring a pair of truly awful seasons. Ollie Page managed to drive in five, but that was more then his combined walk and hit total (1 and 2) for the season. Hopefully moving to short will help his bat better, but in his 46 games at the keystone he had a respectable +2.8 zone rating and 1.029 efficiency. Page has really been the one weakness in our lineup, the only hitter with an OPS+ below 90, and his is barely over 75. Johnny Waters hit his first big league homer, a pinch hit three run shot in the 9-3 win over the Cannons. The switch hitting pinch hitter has a robust .344/.364/.594 (150 OPS+) batting line in a 34 PA sample.

This weeks two start pitcher was Oscar Morse, but he actually left the second start running the bases in the fourth. It was going well, 2 hits a run, and a walk in three innings, and was actually better then the original start he won. Morse went all nine, but allowed 5 runs, 3 walks, and 9 hits with a pair of strikeouts. Luckily, Morse is fine and won't miss time, but Allen Purvis won that game for us. It was his third relief outing of the week (a hit, run, and three strikeouts in two innings prior) and the 34-year-old treated it like a start. He went 5 strong innings with 5 hits, a run, a walk, and a strikeout. One of the leaders of the staff, Purvis is 3-1 with 3 saves, a 3.33 ERA (126 ERA+) and a 1.44 WHIP. Luis Sandoval did pick up his third save after a perfect ninth, but his overall season hasn't been all too perfect. The best start of the week was Pug's, 4 hits, 4 walks, 3 runs (1 earned), and 3 strikeouts in 8 strong innings.

Looking Ahead
We'll look to finish off the sweep of the Stars, as Dave Rankin will take on Harry Carter as we look to drop New York to 48-75. The hard throwing Carter is 7-9 with a 4.54 ERA (94 ERA+), 1.56 WHIP, 67 walks, and 86 strikeouts in 140.2 innings on the year. We stay in New York for three more, this time with the Brooklyn Kings, who have started to turn things back around. Tom Barrell is back in the fold, and the 68-53 Kings are four behind the now first place Philadelphia Sailors. We're likely to face our former #1 overall pick, who is 8-3 with a 2.74 ERA (157 ERA+), 1.10 WHIP, 18 walks, and 62 strikeouts in his 108.1 innings pitched. He seems unlikely to repeat as an Allen Award winner, but it would be hard not to consider him if he remained healthy all season. Joe Shaffer is back as well, now 13-3 with a 2.95 ERA (146 ERA+), 1.27 WHIP, 46 walks, and 53 strikeouts in 165 innings pitched. The return of these two is much more impactful then any offseason acquisition they could have made, and you can never count the Kings out of the playoff race. The back half of the rotation has had it's struggles, but Mike Murphy is still a reliable #3. In a down year by his standards, he's 9-12 with a 3.95 ERA (109 ERA+), 1.41 WHIP, 50 walks, and 46 strikeouts in 159.2 innings. Al Wheeler has reclaimed a share of the homerun lead, now with 21 and a league best 92 RBI's to go with his .306/.404/.523 (137 OPS+) batting line. Veteran Frank Lightbody took advantage of the Elmer Nolde trade, stepping into the two spot in the order. He's hitting .356/.414/.467 (127 OPS+) with 9 doubles, 4 triples, a homer, two steals, and 13 RBI's in exactly 200 plate appearances. Thankfully, this will end our excruciating road trip, and while we do rest on Friday, it won't get any easier.

We start our homestand with a two game set against the previously mentioned first place Sailors. Now 72-49, they have one win more then the Foresters who just got swept by Brooklyn. Ace William Jones has lowered his ERA below 3, now 2.91 (149 ERA+) to go with his 17-6 record, 1.31 WHIP, and 79 strikeouts in year ten. They'll get Jack Cleaves back this week who missed a little time with a sprained wrist. Bob Smith has been getting reps in his place, and the 26-year-old and former top 50 prospect is hitting .292/.381/.427 (107 OPS+) with 15 doubles, 2 homers, 4 steals, and 27 RBI's in just over 200 trips to the plate. The most impressive part, however, is his 26-to-1 walk to strikeout ratio. Yes, this kid has struck out just once this year and excusing a 10 game cup of coffee last year (with no strikeouts, I might add), this is his first taste of big league pitching. It seems like Philly is filled with these smart hitters, and they are still able to score runs by taking advantage of their opportunities. Their lineup isn't all that scary, and with all the power we boast at home, If we can keep them off the board we should be able to make this series interesting. It's just two games, but the start of 30 straight games to end the season. This isn't a bad thing at all, we'll have expanded rosters the whole time, and a little more then half the games will be in Chicago where we tend to play really well.

Minor League Report
RHP Del Burnes (AA Mobile Commodores): Mobile has been a dreadful location for the former 3rd Overall Pick, but perhaps things are starting to turn around. He was stupendous in an 8-0 win over Memphis, tossing a 2-hit, 2 walks shutout of the Excelsiors with 8 strikeouts to even his record at 5-5. His ten starts haven't gone all that well, with an ERA of 4.13 (75 ERA+) and a WHIP of 1.36, but his 5.0 K/9 ratio is outstanding despite a 3.2 BB/9 ratio. This is a good sign for the 21-year-old, but the most exciting part is the velocity jump. He's gone from 90-92 to 93-95, a huge jump for a third year pro. Burns does an excellent job keeping the ball on the ground, and he has a polished five pitch arsenal. The cutter and fastball are overpowering, and he can really change eye level well with his changeup. The slider is devastating for fellow righties, but the true gem of the arsenal is his excellent forkball. A forkball isn't the most common pitch, especially for one's best pitch, but this jump in velocity is going to be great for him. For a forkball think splitter meets 12-6 curveball, and it functions as almost a perfect middle between the hard and soft stuff. My scout thinks spot starter, but with this jump in velocity, Burnes may just well prove the doubters wrong. Give him maybe two more years, and Burnes could be ready to disarm FABL hitters.

RHP Pete Papenfus (AA Mobile Commodores): He may be Del's teammate, but no one would dare call good ol' Peter the Heater anyone's teammate. He's just the second coming of Double A and savior of the Chicago Cougars! All jokes aside, the fireballing Papenfus got a promotion to Mobile not too long ago, and the 19-year-old definitely got off to a slow start. In his first five starts, four of them saw the opponent score four or more runs and he won just one of them. Fortunately, he quickly ended this trend, tossing a 5-hit shutout as we topped Nashville 7-0 to improve the #3 prospects record to 2-4. His 3.51 ERA (88 ERA+) and 1.42 WHIP may look good, but in a very pitcher friendly league these numbers are below average. The biggest gripe for Pete so far, however, has been the huge increase in walks. He has now walked 30 with 26 strikeouts, a jump in BB/9 from 4.7 to 5.3 after the promotion. I knew walks would be an issue for Pete, but this is truly the only issue for him at the moment. Once he can limit the free passes, it'll just be a race to the top of strikeout leaderboards for him. Only four Cougar pitchers have struck out more then 1,000 batters, but assuming Pete can give us 5.0 K/9 (pretty conservatives) and 225 innings a year (again, pretty conservative), that should give Pete eight seasons to hit the mark. OSA thinks he can debut at 20 next season and my scout thinks he's the six most developed prospect in our system. I could go on and on about his natural talent, but that's just half the story. He's got excellent baseball knowledge, consistently increases his already extreme velocity, and he's easily the most advanced 19-year-old pitcher I've ever seen. I can already see it; Cougars deep in a 1938 pennant race, Peter the Heater gets the call from Milwaukee, and leads the Cougars to a championship!

LF Izzy Sevilla (A Lincoln Legislators): Recently promoted to Lincoln, the 23-year-old Izzy Sevilla has been red hot. It's just 16 games, but the former 7th Rounder is hitting .328/.354/.508 (121 OPS+) with eight doubles, a homer, six steals, and six RBI's. It's better then his 318 at bat sample down in San Jose where he hit .255/.355/.415 (115 OPS+) and added 13 doubles, 4 triples, 10 homers, 28 steals, and 60 RBI's. At both levels he has one more steal then strikeout and he tends to walk more frequently then he is set down on strikes. Always viewed as more of a fourth outfielder, Sevilla has proved capable in left and center and is likely fine out in right as well. He's got great speed, both on the basepaths and in the field, and he tends to hit the ball hard and up the middle when he makes clean contact. Sevilla is absent from the top prospect list, but with a lot of quality outfielders graduating/ed, he's got a chance to separate himself from the rest of the pack if he can keep up this performance.