[Sundance]

Recap

Monthly Record: 19-10
Overall Record: 60-46
Position: 1st
Games Back: +0

The Draft

Our top pick this year was 23 year old SP Jacob Maton out of Coastal Carolina University. Maton is a pretty well developed prospect, but there’s still a bit of growing to do. He has plus stuff with above average control. His repertoire features a power fastball in the high 90s, a knee-buckling slider, and a changeup that should develop into a plus out pitch.

Trading Deadline

To New York Yankees - 1B Jose Abreu
To San Diego Padres - RHP Shohei Ohtani

What do you do when you have four middle infielders - one won the MVP last season, one was an All-Star last season, one was an All-Star this season, and one is going to be in talks for Rookie of the Year? You make room for them all.

That’s exactly what we’re trying to do with this deal. Abreu has had a down year, there’s no doubt about that. However, he started to get into a little bit of a grove this month - his average was creeping up and the power numbers were starting to return to normal. We rode that momentum and shopped him around. The Yankees came calling.

Ohtani is a player who hasn’t lived up to the hype. He was supposed to change the game, be the new evolution of player, a legit two-way star. Unfortunately, he’s kind of fizzled out. He’s been very average on both sides of the ball. We’ll be adding him to our bullpen with the hopes that he might rediscover that spark that once captivated the baseball world.

Tucupita Marcano will assume duties at first.

To Kansas City Royal - RHP Will Vest, minor league 2B Nick Tanielu, minor league RHP Jason Blanchard
To San Diego Padres - Minor league 2B Kevin Merrell, minor league MJ Melendez

With the arrival of Ohtani, a spot needed to be opened in the pen. Vest has been an incredibly consistent option for us coming out of the pen, but he’s seemed to lose some of his touch this season. He’s not pitching poorly, but he doesn’t look like the dominant reliever of the last couple of seasons. Moving from Vest to Ohtani is probably a downgrade if I’m being honest, but I think we can handle it.

Merrell will be organization depth. He’s putting together a solid career in the minor leagues, and probably has enough about his game to make a big league roster at some point. Given our log jam in middle infield, it probably won’t be with us. But since injuries seem to love finding us, he’s a player I feel like we can trust if we need to call him up. Melendez is also very much organizational depth. He’s a fantastic defensive catcher and a natural born leader, but he doesn’t offer much at the plate.

The Good

Well, the Dodgers tried to make their move to take hold of the division, but we caught them. Our teams currently sit atop the division with equal records, with the tie breaker falling to us. Machado definitely carried our offense this month. .373/.419/.764 with 5 doubles, 12 home runs, and 29 RBI. He won back-to-back Player of the Week honors and homered in four straight games. He’s on fire right now.

Paddack looked unhittable in July - 2-0, 1.33 ERA, 0.89 WHIP, 10. K/9 over 27.00 innings of work. Archie Bradley, Seth Elldge, and Chad Green all continued their dominant runs coming out of our bullpen.

Black Snell finally rejoins the team. He’s back from injury and rehab in the minors. We’re not sure what to expect out of him, but he’ll be rejoining our starting rotation.

The Bad

There actually isn’t too much to complain about this month from a performance standpoint. Most everyone has had a solid month. If I really want to nitpick I can say that Paxton finally looked human. But even then, it wasn’t like he pitched poorly. So overall, a nice month for us on the field.

The Ugly

You might notice that I mentioned that I didn’t have anything to complain about performance-wise up above. That’s because there is definitely one thing worth venting about. In the very first game of the month, Tatis Jr. got on first with a walk. He proceeded to steal second. While sliding into the base, his head crashed into the fielder’s knee. It was a scary moment as he initially laid motionless on the ground. Thankfully, there’s no serious muscle or bone injury. Unfortunately, he did suffer a major concussion and is expected to miss a minimum of 4 months as he recovers from it.