[Smokeydubbs]

I had a lot of success till the end of May with this lineup:

Gordon
Escobar
Butler
Perez
Hosmer
Frenchy
Moose
Cain
Getz

It's necessary to note that for this stretch Billy was 1st in the MLB in batting average and OBP. Gordon was top 5 in BAVG and OBP. Escobar was torching the ball. Perez and Moose were cranking homers. Frenchy played well but was hurt for a couple weeks. My pitching was doing well. I had Chen at the 5 spot lighting it up. Wade Davis was my best pitcher with an ERA less than 1. Shields was Shields. Santana was a total wild card every start.

Things turned sour though. I was 8 games over .500 when Escobar got hurt and half my team slumped. Guthrie tore is labrum. Shields was out for a couple weeks. Herrera slumped and seemed to get thrown in the game every time the lead was close enough to lose. Brought Mendoza into the rotation and he really stunk it up. Hosmer and Moose were hitting in the .230 and under range. Just so much fail at once.

I was able to fix the sinking well enough with bringing Falu up, starting Dyson in center more often, and having Lough play for an injured Frenchy. All three of them played REALLY well. I also got a 1 for 1 trade with Chen for Andrew Cashner. TOTAL STEAL. Cashner is totally dominate as a starter and was a good #1 when Shields was hurt. I also DFA'd Hochevar and Gutierrez. Brought up Donnie Joseph. Also was offered a trade with Washington; Danny Espinoza for Kottaras and Starling. Starling doesn't wow me in real life and he was doing poorly in game, so it was a pretty easy choice. Ditch Getz for a guy with similar D but better bat.

So after all that and falling under .500 by a pretty big margin. I'm now 4 games away from the ASB sitting at 45-45. Duffy came back and had a 30 day rehab. He started off terribly but seems to do a lot better now. I have Paulino rehabbing, he's doing poorly though. Santana is still iffy every start. But our pitching is strong overall. After a stint of Billy and Alex coming back to earth, they are back to their solid hitting. Hosmer is crushing everything he sees, was the AL's top hitter in June (.351, 8 HRs, 31 RBIs .425 OBS in the month, .290/.350/.524 16HR on the season). Escobar is hitting well after coming off the DL. Just in time too, because Falu started to slump and I sent him back down. Too bad Johnson is out of options or I would have Falu as my main utility. But I gotta say, having Hayes as my backup catcher sucks. Kottaras was such a good bat...

I am mainly just the GM but I set the lineups. Yost handles everything in games. He does pretty well but I have a high CS%. I blame people like Frenchy trying to steal. Also Perez is sucking at throwing people out. Oh well.