[ayaghmour2]

April 5th, 2018: The diagnosis was back on Brett Anderson and he has an ulnar nerve entrapment, which will cause him to miss 4-5 months. Good thing I put him on the DL ahead of time. I transfered him to the 60-Day DL, dropping the 40-man count to 31/40.

With our first away game of the season Jose Urena (0-1, 4.50 ERA) took on new Philly Jake Arrieta (0-1, 5.79). Hernan Perez and Rafael Ortega made their first starts of the season for us at 3B and CF respectively.

The now 3-4 Phillies took this game 7-1 as Arrieta was next to unhittable, going all 9 innings while only allowing 4 hits and he struck out 8. A homer by his former teammate Starlin Castro took him deep in the 4th for his first homer of the season.

Urena wasn't nearly as sharp, allowing 5 runs off 5 walks and 4 hits in 2.2 innings. He didn't record a single strike out. A base clearing double by SS J.P. Crawford in the 3rd was a big blow to his night. Kevin Chapman was tasked with mop up, but he allowed 2 runs in his 2.1 innings of work. It included a pair of hits and walks, but he struck out 4 Phillies hitters. Nick Wittgren (2 innings) and Junichi Tazawa (1 inning) finished off the game, each allowing no runs.

Miguel Rojas went hitless for the first time all season, going 0-for-4 with a strike out. Cameron Maybin picked up his 2nd steal of the year after coming into the game in the 6th as a pinch hitter for Chapman.

One interesting note to the game, Odubel Herrera left the game in the 4th, so the Phillies turned to veteran Jose Bautista, and stuck him in center field. He's definitley not center field material, but we didn't really make them hurt for the lack of defense in the middle of the outfield. And he did go 2-for-3 with a solo homer off Chapman in the 4th with one out.

April 6th, 2018: The troops were able to recover after the loss with an off day. My claim of the speedy Lane Adams went through, and I added him to the active roster. I ended up optioning the struggling Lewis Brinson down to AAA. He's by far are most valuable player, but he was hitting a mere .182/.217/.318 and he could use a little more seasoning in New Orleans to finish developing. Adams slotted into RF and took the 7th spot in the lineup.

The Tigers Francisco Liriano tore his UCL and will miss the rest of the season. He started one game, getting the loss. He lasted only 3 innings, allowing 7 hits, 2 walks, and 4 earned runs. He struck out 3 batters. In an online league I'm in, Frnacisco Lirinao is the best pitcher ever with a career ERA below 2 in almost 3 full seasons. He has over 1,000 career strikeouts and broke a ton of single season records for his amazing 2007 season. This Liriano, not nearly as good.

Doug Fister of the Rangers tossed a nice 3-hit shutout of the visiting Blue Jays in a 5-0 victory.

April 7th, 2018: Dan Straily hasn't pitched all year so I let him get the call against the young righty Vince Velasquez (0-1, 1.29 ERA). Lane Adams was set to make his Marlins debut, and the Phillies smartly started Aaron Altherr in CF to replace the incapacitated Herrera (Bautista moved to RF).

I was hoping the off day would help the struggling J.T. Realmuto. He was 1-for-4 with a double (he was caught stealing as well), but his average is a whopping .111. Great production from our star catcher.

And the rest of the Marlins weren't much better; the host Phillies put up 2 in the 1st. The Marlins answered back with 1 in the 6th, but Maikel Franco matched us with a solo shot off Junichi Tazawa, his third of the season. We scored another in the 7th, but fell apar in the 8th where the Phillies rallied for 5 insurance runs, pushing the lead to 8-2. Franco doubled in two off Brad Ziegler, finishing his day 3-for-4 with 2 runs and 4 RBI's to go along with the homer and double. He's now .433 on the season with 3 homers and 11 RBI's.

Vince Velasquez went 7 strong, allowing 4 hits and 2 runs with 6 punchouts and a walk. Hector Neris and Fernando Abad picked up holds, but no one needed to earn the save.

Straily wasn't bad in his season debut, going 5 and allowing only the 2 hits in the 1st and 2 runs. He did walk 6, a thing a lot of Marlins pitchers loved to do, but he did strike out 6. Tazawa struck out the side in the 6th, but allowed the homer. Ziegler and Nick Wittgren were torched in the 8th, Ziegler couldn't record an out and was charged with 3 runs (2 hits and a walk) while Wittgren got the 3 outs, two via the strikeout, but allowed a pair of runs and hits.

Justin Bour did have a 7th inning homer off Velasquez, but no Marlin recorded more then 1 hit. Garrett Gooper got another pinch hit and he's hitting .556 on the year. I might have to force him into the lineup to replace Derek Dietrich and his .107 average. I don't want to interfere too much with my manager, but eventually something might need to change.

New Marlin Lane Adams went 1-for-3 with a run scored, a walk, and a steal. His speed is a real weapon, rated 95 with 94 stealing.

April 8th, 2018: The Los Angeles Angels offered me a trade proposal, 19-year-old SS Nonie Williams for CL Drew Steckenrider. My assistant GM Michael hill said it didn't make much sense, and he was right. Williams was a nice 0.5* with 20 contact. OSA is a bit more fond of him then scout Stan Meek, but even they have him only as a 1.5. It was an easy rejection.

Lefty Brian Johnson (1-0, 1.29 ERA) was up against righty Nick Pivetta (0-0, 3.60 ERA) as the 1-7 Marlins looked to avoid a second sweep in this young campaign. We scored one in the 4th on a Justin Bour solo homer, his 2nd on the season and in 2 days. Rhys Hoskins quickly answered back with one of his own off Johnson in the 4th, but Derek Dietrich tripled in the 5th to give the Marlins a 2-1 lead. Bour wasn't done as he hit a 2-run homer in a 3 run 7th off Fernando Abad, although 1 of those runs and 2 in the inning were charged to Tommy Hunter. We added 1 more in the 8th of Luis A. Garcia and Nick Wittgren coughed up 1 in the bottom half. With a 6-2 lead in the 9th, Kyle Barraclough walked a runner and got an out, and with the runner in scoring positiong, Steckenrider finished off the game with a pair of outs (1 strike out) and earned his first save of the year.

Johnson turned in another strong outing, improving to 2-0 with a 1.38 ERA with 6 solid frames. He allowed only 1 run, 3 hits, and wlaked 2 while adding a trio of strikeouts. Pivetta on the other hand only lasted 4.2 innings and the Canadian allowed 6 hits and 3 walks, but only 2 runs, while striking out 7 Marlins.

Bour only had 2 hits, but the Phillies did walk him twice. He scored 3 times and produced 3 runs (two were himself). Stalin Castro, Hernan Perez, and Martin Prado all picked up 3 hits. Castro's were in 4 at bats, paired with a walk, a pair of RBI's, and a run scored. He also doubled twice. Prado and Perez had them in 5 at bats, and the former doubled, while the latter had all singles. Miguel Rojas hit his 3rd double of the year and Cameron Maybin hit his 1st. Both were 1-for-5 with a single run scored. Every Marlins position player who started the game had a hit. While only 4 Phillies had hits, and two of them were Cesar Hernandez (a double and single).

The offense actually woke up today and it was a nice win before heading home. Justin Bour gave me my first achievement, Double Dinger, which is pretty self explanatory.

April 9th, 2018: We were back home and Dillon Peters was ready to come off the DL. With my rotation pretty set as of now, I sent our young opening day starter to AAA to help him fill out. I released 26 year old Jeff Brigham who was in Greensboro and would've been sent down to A- Batavia. The former Dodger 4th Round pick was as basic as you could get, and didn't really have the 3rd pitch to become a AAA starter.

Not that power rankins matter, but we are dead last right now. The Royals are in 29th with 53, we have 36. Not too close. The Cubs, our friends that swept us, our #1 at 153. A lot more then 36. Not quite sure what the numbers means exactly, but it doesn't paint a pretty picture for us.

Enough of that though, it's time to defend home turf against our next division opponent, the New York Mets. Alex Cobb (0-0, 1.50 ERA) hosted Jason Vargas (0-0, 13.50). It's been just 1 start a piece, but Cobb looks like the better pitcher. The Mets thought other wise, scoring 1 in the 2nd on an Ahmed Rosario RBI single (he's on my fantasy team, hopefully he does this frequently in real life) and then 2 in the 3rd off a Jay Bruce homer. That wasn't enough as another was needed in the 4th, and then Rosario drove in 2 more in the 5th on a single off Kevin Chapman. Sadly, there is more scoring. Another run in the 6th to make it 7-0. J.T. Realmuto battled back with a 2-run double off Vargas to bring us to 7-2, but the Mets added 2 more runs in the 9th, and then former Marlin A.J. Ramos silenced the Marlins for good in the 9th.

Well, it wasn't pretty. Cobb allowed 6 (4 earned) in 4.2 innings off 9 hits, 2 walks, and he only recorded a single strikeout. Starlin Castro was the culprit of the error, his surprisingly first on the year. Brad Ziegler sucked again, allowing 2 runs off 4 hits in the 9th, boosting his brilliant ERA to 12.46. Don't really know what I'm going to do with him.

Offensively there wasn't much. Garrett Cooper, of course, picked up another hit coming off the bench. Justin Bour joined Realmuto with a double, as him and Castro scored off Realmuto's double, but no Marlin had more then a single hit.

The mets on the other hand were gerat. Rosario was 4-for-5 with 4 RBI's, giving him 13 on the season to go with his .543 average. I'd love to see that production in real life. Veteran Adrian Gonzalez somehow went 3-for-3 while walking twice and scoring three times. Brandon Nimmo, Todd Frazier, and Kevin Plawecki had a pair of hits. Nimmo and Frazier joined Bruce in the home run club with solo shots. Rosario probably won't be hitting 4th for too much longer the way he's played, as he lead the Mets to outhit us 16-6.

Relief pitcher Kevin Chapman picked up a hit for us, as the nine spot went 2-for-3 with Cobb the lone out.

Mariners SP Marco Gonzalez threw an impressive 4-hitter in a 10-0 destruction of the Royals, who are just slightly better then us at 3-7 compared to 2-8.

April 10th, 2018: Minor league pitcher Brett Graves hit the DL with a torn back muscle. I only mention Graves because he was the only player on the Marlins origional 40 man roster that wasn't active. With lots of space, I kept him on the minor league DL so he didn't acquire unnecessary service time while hurt. His season is probably over, as he'll finish 2018 with a 1-0 record over 1.2 innings of relief work where he allowed a hit, a walk, but no runs, and struck out 2. He's got a little potential, 1.5 stars, but losing him isn't too big of a deal.

The Dodgers took a bigger blow, losing veteran Rich Hill for the rest of the season while he will undergo elbow ligament reconstruction surgery. The 38-year-old may not pitch again, although he was pitching well, going 6.1 innings in a pair of starts with a 1-0 record and a 0.00 ERA. He struck out 6, but did allow 3 walks and 7 hits.

Game 2 between the 5-5 Mets and 2-8 Marlins saw Noah Syndergaard (0-2, 15.75 ERA, 2.88 WHIP) square off against Adam Conley (0-0, 0.00 ERA, 1.14 WHIP). It looked like there statlines should be switched, although it was still early. I forgot to give Cooper the start over the ice cold Derek Dietrich. He ended up going 1-for-2 with 2 walks so it didn't matter too much. Cooper got his pinch hit appearence and walked and eventually scored, so it was a win-win.

Anyways, The Mets started off strong, scoring 2 quick runs in the 1st on a Wilmer Flores homer off Conley. They added another in the 2nd and 3rd, while we had one in the bottom of the 2nd. Headed to the 9th down 4-1, it looked like the Marlins were going to lose another game. Justin Bour had other ideas, as he cleared the bases with a double off Paul Sewald, who I guess is the Mets closer. That was his second blow save already. He allowed another hit, and then J.T. Realmuto sent the fans home happy with a walk off single. All 12,837 of them, which is much more then I would have expected. Although who knows how many of those were Mets fans...

I feel bad for Syndergaard who finally pitched a good game, allowing just 1 run off 5 hits and 3 walks in 7.1 solid frames. He did strike out 5 as well. Sewald grabbed the loss, now 0-2 for the season, after Jacob Rhame, Jerry Blevins, and Ramos picked up holds. Paul Sewald does have the distinction of being the first major leaguer I've come across that I've never heard of, so maybe he can find consolence in that. Now I know him.

Conley wasn't great, but I can't complain too much since we won. He allowed 4 runs off 7 hits and a walk in 5 innings while punching out 3. Junichi Tazawa (2) and Brad Ziegler (1) tossed scorless frames while Kyle Barraclough picked up his first win of the season with a scorless 9th. Now someone other then Brian Johnson has one of those nice, useless things called wins.

I guess the Mets heard me and batted Rosario leadoff, he rewarded them with a 2-for-4 showing with a run and an RBI. Yoenis Cespedes picked up 2 hits and scored in his 4 trips to the plate, raising his average to a nice .341.

Realmuto was great for us, going 3-for-4 with the dramatic walk off RBI single. He also walked, and his now hitting at the mendoza line. Castro and Cameron Maybin each had a pair of hits and Justin Bour drove in 3 and scored the winning run. Maybin (2) and Miguel Rojas (4) both doubled while Maybin stole base number 3.

Down in the farm, Isaac Galloway strained his oblique, and I place him on the DL. It's a day-to-day injury that'll cost him a week, but it's not worth risking reaggrevation while playing in the minors. Top prospect Magneuris Sierra was also added to the DL with a sprained elbow. This DTD injury will last him 3-4 weeks.

With the outfield injuries I offered a minor league deal to 24-year-old Austin Cousino. The former 3rd round pick of Seattle was a 2* potential in my scouts eye. He had nice speed and was a good defender in center.

April 11th, 2018: For the rubber match of the series we sent out Jose Urena (0-2, 9.45 ERA, 2.25 WHIP) against ace quality righty Jacob deGrom (1-0, 2.40 ERA, 0.47 WHIP). I replaced the struggling Lane Adams with Garrett Cooper. Cooper will hit 7th and man right.

The trouble started in the 2nd, went Ahmed Rosario hit a 2-run double off Urena in a 3 run inning. We managed to grab one back in the bottom of the 2nd, and then Garrett Cooper doubled home a run in a 2 run 4th where we evened up the score at 3. Cooper is my favorite player by far on this team. Well, maybe after Realmuto, but he isn't playing well enough to get affection, yet. We took the lead in the 6th, deGrom's last inning. Adrian Gonzalez drove home a run off Nick Wittgren in the 7th to tie the game back up. In the bottom of the 8th off Anthony Swarzak, guess who had an RBI single? Yes, Garrett Cooper. He finished the game 3-for-4 with 3 RBI's. And I guess I spoke too soon on Realmuto, he was 3-for-3 with a run scored and 2 driven in. Him and Cooper both had doubles in the game, their 3rd and 2nd respectively. Drew Steckenrider came in for the 9th and finished off his 2nd save of the year, although he did allow a hit, in a scorless 9th. The Marlins won their first series of the year! And it was against a divisional rival! And in front of our loving, supportive, hometown fans who mustered up 13,636 pairs of eyes to the ballpark on a beautfiul, 67 degree day (if you forget about 10 mph winds).

Urena was fine, going 5 innings allowing 3 runs off 6 hits, 3 walks, and earned a pair of strikeouts. Wittgren allowed only 1 in 2 innings of work while Kyle Barraclough picked up another win, now 2-1 on the season. Him and Brian Johnson both have 2 wins.

Miguel Rojas, Justin Bour, and Derek Dietrich all recorded 2 hits, while the latter two scored twice.

For some reason Adrian Gonzalez is hitting, he went 3-for-5 and after facing Marlin pitching is now hitting .308 on the year. It was .194 before the 2 games he enjoyed in Miami. Plawecki and Nimmo both had a pair of hits, although both of Nimmo's were doubles. I also learned Sewald isn't the closer, Jeruys Familia is, but he has a 9.00 ERA (but 4 saves). Don't know why Sewald took the 9th in the previous game, but I can't complain.

The bats were working around the league as Jean Segura and Josh Donaldson both recorded 5 hits. Segura had 4 singles and a homer in a 12-5 victory over the Royals. He's hitting .413/.438/.609 with 1 homer and 7 RBI's for the year. Donaldson singled 4 times, doubled, and struck out in a 9-1 victory against the O's in Camden Yards. Donaldson is hitting .311/.400/.600 with 3 homers and 11 RBI's in his final contract year in Toronto.

April 12th: On the off day Austin Cousino inked his minor league deal. He's played in AAA, but I sent him to A Greensboro since he struggled pretty much at every level when he last played in 2016 (for some reason they skipped AA after .167/.220/.274 in A+ and .156/.229/.219 in A was enough to warrant a AAA promotion where he hit .172/.200/.241. Eventually I'll have to deal with the 82 bodies on my GCL roster, but for now it's fun seeing 82/40.

We host Pittsburgh for 3 games starting tommorow as we both are 4-8. The projected starters are Joe Musgrove (0-0, 3.38 ERA), Nick Kingham (0-1, 16.62 ERA), and Jameson Taillon (2-0, 0.50 ERA). After we travel to New York to face the Yankees for just two before another off day. Can't wait to see Giancarlo Stanton. Maybe we did win that deal, he's hitting .173 and Starlin Castro is hitting .273. And they both have 7 RBI's. Although 100 power looks really nice.