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June 1908
We were doing so well! On May 21, we were 23-10 and had first place all to ourself! The Preseason Predictions had us in 3rd with a record of 81-73 and that seemed doable. Mickey Mantle had obviously heard the rumblings about him and turned his game around. And we had made a trade to move both Arndt and Velez and clear up room in the lineup for the players I wanted.
And then we hit a slump. We went 1-8 in the last 9 games and are now 24-18. That is still great and we're in the thick of the run with the Cubs, Reds, and Phillies all within 2 games of each other. But it would have been so nice to end the month on top.
We approached the Senators since they had no 2B to speak of and had some interesting CF options. Offering 2B Arndt for CF Jake Stenzel was close and when I added OF Otto Velez it was a done deal. But I felt I was giving up too much, so I inquired as to whether I could pry one of their starters away since I really only had four and wanted some injury backup. Adding SP Ray Keating made it close and when I threw in Ken Aspromonte, the deal was sealed.
That gives me five viable starters with three star pitchers - a huge turnaround from when we took over and had one average starter! Moving Arndt didn't accomplish exactly what I had hoped as our manager is still effectively platooning Escobar and now Blake DeWitt, but since DeWitt is hitting much better than Arndt was, I'm sorta okay with that. And Mantle is now platooning with newcomer Stenzel and that obviously worked out since Mantle's numbers rose.
I still think I'm one or two pieces away, but we have depth and we have a couple of pieces on the reserve roster that might help in future years, so I'm thinking better of this team than before.
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