[ayaghmour2]

It's almost draft time! If everything goes as planned, the lottery will be run tomorrow with the draft starting up on the weekend, and despite finishing in 2nd place this is very exciting for Cougar fans. The only plus to last year's awful season and not winning the title this year is three lottery balls for the first two rounds, as our 14-win increase was best in the association. This class is really good, especially at the top, so as much as I want to win the first round lottery, winning the second round iteration may be better. There are a lot more then twenty guys I'd love to add to the system, but being able to potentially add two guys from our top ten will be huge. Otherwise, we'll be picking 13th in each round, as my favorite draft pick trades are no longer allowed. I can't remember the last time we only had all 25 of our picks, as you have to go back all the way to 1937 just to find a draft where we had only our four picks in the first four rounds, although without further exploration it does look like we only had our 25 selections.

RHP Zane Kelley (#224 Overall)
Acquired: Via Trade with Kings (1947)
AAA: 13-8, 188.2 IP, 4.15 ERA (109 ERA+), 1.49 WHIP, 61 BB, 61 K
CWL: 4-0, SV, 43.2 IP, 1.03 ERA (454 ERA+), 0.94 WHIP, 17 BB, 20 K

"I really don't want to cover every Zane Kelley start, but if he keeps pitching like this, how can I stop?"

Generally something like that is bound to come with a curse us Cougar fans have endured season after season. This would result in a ten-run blowout or a poorly timed ruptured UCL.

But there's a different air in the Windy City now, as the Chicago Wildcats got revenge on the New York Stars for an embarrassing finals shutout, throttling the Stars at Cougars Park (man I wish we did that!) in a gross, windy, and snowy gridiron match. Then the Chicago Packers, who have went from first to worst, finally won two games in a row, something they've only done one other time in their miserable cellar dwelling season.

And now Zane Kelley has a no-hitter!

Crazy enough, it wasn't even his sharpest start, but the 23-year-old righty scattered seven walks and struck out four in a 3-0 victory. This expanded the Stallions lead over the Crocs to three games, now 13-6 as we inch closer to the New Year. No pitcher has thrown more innings then Kelley, who also threw an inning and two thirds of scoreless ball earlier in the week. He now has the lowest ERA, a sparkly 1.03 (454 ERA+) that is now two points lower then the World Champion Ralphie Spiers (4-1, 1.05, 27), and Kelley's 0.94 WHIP trails just Samuel Harris (3-0, 2.52, 14), a Keystone farmhand with an impressive 0.84 WHIP and 5.3 K/BB. Walks seem to be the only thing Kelley doesn't excel at, as he has 17 in 43.2 innings, while surrendering just 24 hits. He's still striking out (20) more hitters, but there's a reason his 3.51 FIP (75 FIP-) is so high. At least relatively.

I want to promise this is the last Kelley shoutout, at least until next week, but it's clear. This man can't be stopped! The only question now, is how does he fit into our staff? Do we run with a six-man rotation? There's no way I can even briefly consider him supplanting George Oddo, who went 10-9 with a 3.09 ERA (127 ERA+), 1.17 WHIP, and 116 strikeouts in his first 200 inning season, but how do I ignore Kelley's dominance? Even Duke Bybee (3-6, 3.58, 46) wasn't this dominant in Cuba, and he's coming off a 21-win season with a 2.75 ERA (143 ERA+), 1.12 WHIP, and 108 strikeouts. Kelley can't be better then Duke, can he? Something's got to give soon, right?

Oh well, for now I'm just going to sit back, relax, and enjoy the surprise emergence of Santa Clara legend Zane Kelley!

Thanks Hank Barnett!