1st July 2014
June was a happier month. A 16-12 record leaves us a couple of games above .500 and 6.5 games behind the Rays but more importantly in touching distance of a wild card spot.
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Cano was again the spark for our great form, on June 15th he went 5 for 5 in an 8-1 win over Toronto. He won Player of the week that week, hitting .462 with 5 homers for the 7 day period. He's still at .332 for the year, leading the league, he also leads the league in RBI's (75) and homers (23).
The below stats illustrate why things aren't better than they are:
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We're really strong offensively but just can't get our pitching together. This is why we're struggling so much in close and extended innings games, our poor record in one run games is a particular bug bear of mine.
In other news I finally hit the trade band wagon. We sent Ubaldo Jimenez to the Dodgers, getting reliever Brandon League in return. Jimenez was happy being sent back to AAA when his ERA hit 6.84 so I decided to ditch him. League adds another useful arm to our bullpen.
Ichiro wants out. He's barely featured this year and when he has he's done little or nothing. He's demanded a trade. I barely had the heart to tell him I'd been shopping him around all year but there was no interest.
Jeter meanwhile wants to stay. He's asked for an extension at around $8m for 2 more years. He's hitting .220 and his fielding abilities are dropping rapidly. If he gets a new deal it'll only be because he's Jeter, not for what his bat offers. I've asked him to wait a while longer before we talk.