[ayaghmour2]

April 19th, 2018: Diagnosis to Jose Urena; sore shoulder, day-to-day for 2 days. Nice, my 7.00 ERA pitcher won't miss a start.

Game 1 in Milwaukee saw Dan Straily (1-1, 2.25 ERA, 1.33 WHIP) take on Yovani Gallardo (1-1, 2.50 ERA, 1.11 WHIP). Christian Yelich wasn't in the lineup, Keon Broxton took his spot in LF. Yelich did end up pinch hitting in the 6th.

The Brewers took a quick 1-0 lead in the bottom of the 1st before Straily could settle in. We answered back in the 3rd with a 2 run inning aided by a solo shot from none other than Justin Bour, his 8th of the season. The Brew Crew answered back in the bottom of the 4th with a Jonathan Villar 2 run homer off Straily and then 1B Ryan Braun doubled a run in the 5th, Straily's last inning of work. The Brewers added another run in the 7th off Junichi Tazawa to take a 5-2 lead that they held the rest of the way.

Gallardo picked up the win (2-1) with 6 solid frames, allowing 6 hits, 2 runs, 3 walks, while striking out 6. Jacob Barnes picked up hold number 5 and Jeremy Jefress went 2 innings to pick up his first save of the year.

Straily had a rough outing, allowing 4 runs off 6 hits in 5 innings. He walked 2 and struck out 5. Brad Ziegler left the game with an injury.

We only mustered up 6 hits, single hits to Cameron Maybin, Starlin Castro, Bour, J.T. Realmuto, Martin Prado, and Miguel Rojas. Prado (4) and Realmuto (6) doubled while Bour also added his first steal of the year.

Danny Santana and Villar drove in two a piece while Santana went 2-for-3 with a double, Villar 3-for-4 with a homer.

Colin McHugh tossed a 3 hit shut out against the Mariners, as the Astros dominated 15-0.

April 20th, 2018: Brad Ziegler's diagnosis was back, he'd miss 3 weeks with a strained forearm. It's a day-to-day injury but a DL trip was needed. Brian Ellington recieved the callup from AAA New Orleans. Ellington was 0-1 with 2 saves and a 2.45 ERA in AAA, and had 1.2 innings pitched in the majors with a 10.80 ERA. He's got no control, no expect the walks to be high, but his stuff is beyond nasty.

We looked to even up the four game series with lefty Brian Johnson (3-0, 0.90 ERA, 0.80 WHIP), our lovely ace against Zach Davies (0-2, 5.75 ERA, 1.52 WHIP). Game 2 started the same way as game 1, the Brewers scoring a run in the opening frame. We tied it up in the 2nd, but Ryan Braun hit a 2 run homer off Johnson in the 3rd, giving the Brewers a 3-1 lead. But those are the leads that love being blown, as the Marlins tied up the game, aided by a Derek Dietrich double in an inning where the Brewers scored two off Davies. But Milwuakee answered back in the bottom of the frame with a Jhonny Peralta solo homer and Lorenzo Cain 2 run homer. Johnson didn't have his best stuff, but Lane Adams did make an error that cost 2 runs. Both pens were spotless after that, and Milwaukee won 6-3.

Davies picked up the win, going 5.2 but we rocked him for 10 hits, but only managed 3 runs. He did strike out 7. Boone Logan earned a save with 1.1 scorless while Matt Albers pitched 2 scorless, picking up the save, his first, but the teams second two inning save in a row. Where is Corey Knebel?

Johnson recieved the loss, allowing 6 (4 earned) in 4.2 innings, sinking his perfect record. He gave up 7 hits and a walk, but struck out 2. He had more home runs allowed then strike outs, I was warned his flyball tendency would give up a lot of homers. Kevin Chapman (0.1), Nick Wittgren (2), and Junichi Tazawa (1) pitched hitless innings, but each had a walk.

Christian Yelich went 1-for-4 in his first start against his former club. Worst thing was we outhit them 11-7, but they doubled our run total.

Bour lead the charge with three singles. The ice cold Lane Adams was 2-for-4 with a solo homer. Don't know if it makes up for the error. Miguel Rojas and Derek Dietrich had 2 hits, a single and double a piece. Dietrich drove in a run, Rojas scored one.

I considered claiming speedy defensive outfielder Gorkys Hernandez, but his .083/.154/.083 stat line scared me away. It was only 12 at bats, but he had 5 strikeouts. Not worth dumping Rafael Ortega or Adams for that.

April 21st, 2018: I gave Odrisamer 'Mili-Pino' Despaigne the start so he could make his season debut and it wasn't worth throwing Adam Conley and his 7+ ERA to skip the Cuban Veteran. We tried to salvage a series split, but had to win the last two of the four game series. Chase Anderson (0-0, 5.71 ERA, 1.62 WHIP) was our opponent. I gave Cameron Maybin a day off and moved Lane Adams to CF to give Garrett Cooper the start in RF. Cooper, hitting .500/.520/.682, slotted behind Realmuto in the 6 spot.

Jonathan Villar had an RBI double in a 2 run 4th off Despaigne to open the scoring. The Marlins quickly tied it up in the otp of the 5th with a Derek Dietrich 2 run double. With the game tied 2-2, the Brewers answered back in the 6th and the 8th with single runs. Josh Hader had a nice 8th and went to the 9th to try and convert a 2 inning save, Craig Counsell's favorite. He allowed a run before Matt Albers came in to get Martin Prado to hit into a double play. Perfect. We lose 4-3 off a double play. We are now a pathetic 6-14. I think that's 5 losses in a row too.

Despaigne, now 0-1, did good enough to keep his roster spot, going 6 allowing 3 runs and a walk off 7 hits. He struck out only 2, but he could barley stirke me out if we went head-to-head. Kyle Barraclough was the only reliever to give up a run. His 6.43 ERA is a bit worrying. So is his 10.3 BB/9. And his 3.9 K/9. And his 1.86 WHIP. And why not, his 64 ERA+. A trip to the minors might do him well.

J.T. Realmuto went 3-for-4, but Garret Cooper went 0-for-4. Despaigne actually scored one of the runs on the Dietrich double. Justin Bour hit his NL leading 9th home run. Guess who he's tied with in the entire MLB? Giancarlo Stanton! $3.5 million is a lot more affordable then $25 million. He was also leading the NL in OPS at 1.146. So Bour looks like an really nice trade piece for the summer.

Joe Panik hit for the cycle in a 10-3 Giants win over the host Angels. He scored 3 times and drove in 1 run (himself on a solo homer) in a 4-for-5 showing.

With the Angels in the headline I checked on Shoei Ohtani to see how he was doing. It looks like OOTP did a good job integrating 2-way players. He's 4-1 with a 1.05 ERA In 5 starts and is hitting .244/.320/.600 with 5 RBI's in 13 games. He's listed as a Pitcher (Starter)/RF which is pretty cool. He shows up in their line up and rotation. Don't know how to deal with a two-way player yet, but I don't have one to try it with.

I went to claim lefty Jorge de la Rosa. Hopefully he can replace Barraclaugh in the pen. He's tossed 10 innings for the D'backs, working to a 3.60 ERA that was 1.80 before allowing 2 runs without getting an out. The 37-year-old is also making the minimum.

April 22nd, 2018: In a battle of stud pitchers, the Marlins faced Brandon Woodruff (1-2, 7.64 ERA, 1.64 WHIP) and matched with the equally impressive Adam Conley (0-1, 7.04 ERA, 1.76). We looked to avoid the sweep, but I didn't have too much faith. Rafael Ortega and Bryan Holaday were both in the line up, playing CF and C, and hitting 7th and 8th. Neither guy had more then 10 at bats, which is why I noticed it.

Not even going to try to make it interesting, we were swept. We lost 5-4. We were down 3-0, then went up 4-3, and then slowly gave up the lead.

Conley went 6, allowing 4 runs (3 earned), on 5 hits and a walk. He also struck out 2. Guess who made the error? Miguel Rojas, his 4th, a team high.

But Conley didn't get the loss, that went to Kyle Barraclough. Maybe he heard he was going to be replaced, as he walked 2 and allowed the winning run in 0.1 innings. He did have a strike out, but it didn't matter, we lost.

Ortega made his time count, going 2-for-3 with a steal, and drove in 3 runs with a base clearing double in the 6th off Oliver Drake. Rojas was 1-for-4 with a double, and scored on Ortega's hit, but the error really hurt. Starlin Castro also had 3 hits, but his were in 5 trips (Ortega was replaced by Martin Prado in the 8th). Lane Adams was brutal, going 0-for-5 with 4 strikeouts. He earned himself an off day if I can remember.

We outhit the Brewers 8-6, and no Brewer had more then one hit. We were swept, and it was sad. The Brew Crew are now a respectable, yet underachieving 10-13. We are an awful, yet overachieving 6-15.

But hey, achievement time! We earned "Batting Around" since we batted around in the 6th. Add one more to the collection. Although this isn't what I was thinking on the plane ride to Los Angeles to take on the first place Dodgers. We were looking at Hyun-jin Ryu (1-2, 587 ERA), Ross Stripling (2-0, 2.82 ERA), and the man, the myth, the legend, Clyaton Kershaw (2-1, 3.31 ERA). Please no perfect game...

April 23rd, 2018: The Chicago White Sox were interested in Odrisamer Despaigne. Don't know why, but they wanted him. They offered 23-year-old Tito Polo. He was useless. As Michael Hill suggested, I rejected the trade. Facetiously I asked for Eloy Jimenez too.

"You must be joking with this offer" -Rick Hahn.

You got me.

Ahh, the power rankings came out. Back down to 29th with 40.4, comftorably ahead of the 30th place Royals sitting at 25.9.

We arrived at the Chavez Ravine and sent Jose Urena (0-2, 7.00 ERA, 1.72 WHIP) to face the Korean lefty Ryu (1-2, 5.87 ERA, 1.50 WHIP). I was going to start Coop in RF, but he was filling in for Justin Bour who needed a day off at first. Hernan Perez got the call for RF, and will hit 8th. The game was 1-1 from the bottom of the 2nd until the 6th. In the top of the 6th Cameron Maybin hit a solo shot off Ryu. Then Miguel Rojas hit one. And then J.T. Realmuto one upped them with a 2-run shot. We ended up scoring 6th in the 6th. Comftorable lead right? In the bottom hald, Brian Ellington, recently called up from AAA, decided to give the Dodgers 2 runs without recording an out. Then in the 7th, in his second inning of work, Nick Wittgren donated 2 more. Luckily we added 1 in the top half of the 7th so we were up 8-5, but still, can we hold a lead? The answer may surprise you. Junichi Tazawa earned his first hold with a perfect 8th and then Drew Steckenrider struck out the side for save number 4 on the year. He was stuck at 3 for a while. We snapped the 7 game losing streak, and LA was now 14-8. I wish I could trade them my 7-15 record, but honestly it's almsot better off being bad right now.

We outhit them 13-9. Corey Seager went 3-for-5 and Joc Pederson went 2-for-4. Seager drove in an scored a run, Pederson two for each, and added a homer and a walk.

For the visitors, all 8 position players who started got hits. Castro lead the charge with 3 in 5 trips and scored once. Cooper and Perez doubled, while Maybin, Dietrich, Realmuto, and Rojas (twice) hit home runs. We had a lot of home runs this game, it must be something in LA. Maybin and Castro also swiped bags from Yasmani Grandal, but I doubt he cared too much since he hit his 5th homer of the season.

I totally forgot about Urena, who actually pitched well. He only lasted 5, but he struck out 6 and allowed only a single run, the Grandal homer, off 3 hits, and 2 walks. Solid performance from someone who needed a break.

Also got the achievement "Team Effort" for scoring 6 runs in an inning.

The White Sox Leury Garcia tagged the Mariners for 5 hits in a perfect 5-for-5 day. Even better, the host Sox won 18-7, lot's of offense in that one. Leury is hitting .341 on the year with 2 homers and 10 RBI's.

April 24th, 2018: Some good news and bad news. First, the bad. Alex Cobb's recover is now unclear, so who knows when he'll be ready to go on rehab. The good? De La Rosa was now mine, and Kyle Barraclaugh could be sent to AAA. I now had three lefties in the pen, but I would get rid of Joe Thatcher (9.00 ERA, 1.5 K/9) the first chance I could find someone better. Maybe I could find a taker for him if someone was desperate for a lefty. Who knows, OOTP can be crazy sometimes.

Looking to turn one win into two, we sent Dan Straily (1-2, 3.71 ERA, 1.41) into the fray against Ross Stripling (2-0, 2.82 ERA, 1.03). You may remember him from the time he was pulled from a no-hitter. Or almost pulled. I think he was pulled by Dave Roberts, but not positive, and not worth looking it up. Maybe I should of since the game would have had a different outcome. The superior Dodgers won 6-4.

Straily was tagged for 4 runs in 5 innings off 6 hits and 3 walks, but recieved a no decision. He struck out one and allowed 2 homers. Perfect ratio right there.

Tazawa took the loss, allowing 2 runs off 2 hits in 0.2 innings. Jorge De La Rosa made his Marlin debut, throwing a perfect 6th with 2 strike outs. Joe Thatcher got a strike out of the only batter faced, so his K/9 is now a still awful 2.8.

Jordan Schafer got the win, going 1.2 innings, allowing a hit, a walk, and picking up a strike out. He's now 2-1 this year. And for those familiar with former Brave top prospects or who love historical leagues, this is the same Jordan Schafer who played in the outfield. It's cool seeing a guy I use to think would be a great big league centerfielder instead have a 1.20 ERA in OOTP.

Corey Seager was a beast again, 2-for-3 with a walk, 2 runs scored, and 4 driven in. He hit homers of Straily and Tazawa. Chris Taylor, a personal favorite of mine, went 2-for-4 and score twice. I definitely called his breakout season last year. I don't have any proof per say, but I knew it would happen. I love Jerry Dipoto so I pay attention to Mariners players, especially the ones he trades. Not his finest one getting Zach Lee in return.

We had 8 hits, and all starters, but Derek Dietrich had one (even Dan Straily who is hitting .400). Realmuto tripled, Maybin and Prado doubled, but that's all that's worth mentioning. Prado did drive in two runs though.

Miguel Rojas left the game with calf sorness, and is listed day-to-day for 6 days (counting today). It only influences running minimally, so I'll keep an eye on it. Not worth sending him to the disabled list.

I wanted to claim Enny Romero from the Nationals, but he's a lefty. So I shopped Thatcher around, seeing if it would be worth moving him to grab Romero, but the offers with Jon Singleton, Erisbel Arruebarrena, or J.J. Hardy. Nothing spoke to me and as interesting as Romero is, I didn't want to pay the 1.5 million to cut Thatch.

April 25th, 2018: The rubber game was an ace off, and this time I'm being serious. The battle of the lefties saw Brian Johnson (3-1, 2.19 ERA, 0.97), who has almost half my wins, and hopefully half after today against the great Clayton Kershaw (2-1, 3.31 ERA, 0.89). Barely 3 years older, Kershaw has tossed almost 1,800 more innings and is making 32.5 million dollars more then Johnson this year. But you can't find Clayton Kershaw's on waivers, so advantage Johnson. I kept Rojas in for the rubber match because we had tommorow off for him to rest.

Well, maybe I was wrong. The former Dodger manager wathced his former ace pick apart his current lineup. And the Dodgers scored 5 runs in the first 3 innings including a 3 run second. All told Johnson gave up 5 runs in 4 innings off 6 hits, 5 walks, but he struck out 3. Every other reliever gave up runs in the game: De La Rosa (1 in 2), Chapman (2 in 0.1), Thatcher (3 in 0.2), and Tazawa (2 unearned in 1). Tazawa was charged with the error, so are they really not his fault? The Baseball Gods say they not. Enny Romero please still be on waivers. Thatcher will be released if needed.

Starting Rojas may not have worked, he went 0-for-3, but the Marlins only managed 5 hits. Starlin Castro's 2 run homer in the 4th was the most the offense could do, although Dietrich and Bour both doubled.

On the Dodger side, they combined for 16 hits and all 9 Dodger starters recorded hits. Kershaw was 1-for-1 with an RBI and a run scored. I was afriad he hit a home run, but he did not. Relief pitcher WIlmer Font was the only player with an at bat who did not recieve a hit (pinch hitter Travis Taijeron walked in his only plate appearence). Joc Pederson homered and went 3-for-4 with 3 RBI's. Yasiel Puig was 2-for-5 with a pair of homers that lead to 5 RBI's. He also scored 3 times and walked once, but we managed to get him to swing and miss on the third strike twice. Yikes, one was actually a foul tip, but you get the point. Justin Turner, Enrique Hernandez, Chris Taylor, and Austin Barnes all has 2 hits. Poor Justin Turner. In real life he's hurt but this Turner is hitting .347 with 4 homers and 13 RBI's. I think Dodger Fans would prefer that. Anyways, the Dodgers won 13-2, not too much to be happy about.

So Enny Romero is no longer on waivers, guess I missed out. But there is Johnny Hellweg and Jorge Soler (only 1/1.5! Man Wade Davis is worth more...), but the righty Hellweg has a 7.36 ERA and doesn't look promising.

I did scout Soler to see if maybe my scout was wrong. I doubt it since OSA has him as a 1.5.

I offered Joe Thatcher for Enny Romero, and Nationals GM Mike Rizzo said he'd think about it. Sounds promising to me.

Found another player I never heard of, the well liked A's outfielder Herschel Powell who supposedly has had numerous "extracurricular indiscretions" and Bob Melvin wasn't too happy about the so called 'fake news' to boost newspaper ratings. Just found out that Herschel is actually Boog Powell, and I do know him. So I guess I outplayed myself, although I've never seen him listed as Herschel, most sites have him as Boog Powell, not the good old player who played for the Orioles, he retired in 1977 and is 76 and in no shape to play in 2018. But was he really ever in shape? Yes, I know he wass a million times better then I could ever be, but jokes are fun every so often. He'd get a kick out of it too.

Anyways, we were headed home and had an off day to recover from the 13-2 beating.

April 26th, 2018: Soler does suck, he's still a 1/1.5. And Mike Rizzo said 'NO WAY!'

I offered to retian 40% of the salary, he wanted me to submit it again so he could think about it. They are in "Win Now" mode so maybe the deal makes sense. They do need some help, at 13-12 and 1 game behind Philly. I was only 6.5 out myself, and we had a .292 winning percentage.

We would be home for 6, starting with 3 against Colorado and then we would see the currently first place Phillies for 3 more before the homestand ends with an off day.

It looks like the Rockies are going with Chad Bettis (3-1, 3.03 ERA), Tyler Anderson (1-2, 2.08 ERA), and Kyle Freeland (2-0, 3.48). Whoever started game 1 for us would probably pitch twice this homestand.

A bunch of righties were waived, Jesse Chavez, Heath Hembree, and Craig Stammen, along with a backup catcher Curt Casali. All these guys interested me some. I wanted to replace Holaday, but Casali is hitting .125/.276/.250. It's better then .091/.231/.091, but was it worth it? I didn't really think so. Besides, Holaday has a 2 rating at third base, does Casali? Didn't think so.

On to the ptichers, Chavez could start, but had a 5.29 ERA in 3 starts. That number was a bit decieving, he may have been 0-2, but he allowed only 16 hits and 2 walks, while striking out 12. Could the flyballer be a bit unlucky? Who knows but a long man could be helpful.

Hembree, however, looked much better and he has 20 stamina which isn't terrible. The Red Sox righty was 2-1 witha 2.70 ERA in 9 appearences where he went 13.1 innings. He struck out 11 compared to 3 walks and had a nice 1.05 WHIP. Brian Johnson came from the Red Sox. Both pitched from a 3/4 arm slot, and both were flyball pitchers. He earned the claim.

Sidenote: the new arm slot feature is really cool, props to the OOTP team.

Stammen was pretty useless, the 34-year-old nicknamed "Trig" had a 9.64 ERA and allowed 8 homers in 14 innings. Yikes. He also walked 8 batters. Double yikes. Although he had an insanely low BABIP of .189. That's what happens when 8 of your 15 hits allowed are homers.

With the claim of Hembree, I decided against Chavez. But if the Royals decide to piss me off and claim Hembree, I could grab Chavez, hopefully in time.

I haven't posted any pictures yet, but here are a few useful screen captures of our results so far. Some of the hitting stats are cut off, but they're all pitchers that don't have at bats.