[ayaghmour2]

June 29th, 2018: Cameron Maybin was ready to start rehab, so I sent him to A Greensboro. He was having a decent year, slashing .245/.310/.418 with 7 HR's, 17 RBI's, and 13 steals. He'd play LF and bat 3rd for the Grasshoppers.

Got the midseason review of goals and expiring personnel info, and he's dissapointed in our record, but is ecstatic with me, so I'll take what I can get.

I had a bunch of minor league coaches to extend. I kept everyone that was willing to stick with their club. A bunch of former players were staffing the rosters.

On to the opener against the Mets, we looked to stop this 6 game skid and sent Dan Straily (3-8, 5.45 ERA, 1.42 WHIP) against rookie Marcos Molina (2-3, 6.10 ERA, 1.41 WHIP). The game went 11 innings, but we were topped 4-3. Drew Steckenrider picked up the loss, allowing a run in his 2nd inning of work.

Straily had a solid game, going 6.1 innings, walking 2, allowing 7 hits and 3 runs, and striking out a pair of Mets. We hit a bunch of doubles, courtesy of Justin Bour (12), Miguel Rojas (15), Heran Perez (9), and two from Rafael Ortega (7 and 8). Starlin Castro hit his first triple and Perez hit his 3rd homer. Brandon Guyer picked up his first steal of the season.

Perez lead the way with 3 hits, Ortega got the silver medal with 2, and 5 others picked up a single hit. Ortega, Bour and Perez were credited with RBI's.

June 30th, 2018: On the last day of June, the Rockies started the day by offering me CF Omar Carrizales for Steceksaurus. Assistant GM Michael Hill thought it was worth accepting, but I didn't see the value in Carrizales. He's like the worse version of Braxton Lee, and I really liked Steceksaurus. I declined politely.

David Price and Tyler Naquin's seasons both ended today. Price has a damage elbow ligament and the now Mariner Naquin ruptured his achilles tendon. Acquired in the Nelson Cruz deal, he was hitting .270 with 2 hoemrs and 19 RBI's in Seattle.

It's been 7 losses in a row and now we had to deal with the Dark Knight Matt Harvey (5-6, 3.44 ERA, 1.30 WHIP). He faced southpaw and hitting superstar Brian Johnson (6-7, 4.25 ERA, 1.41 WHIP, .321 AVG, .978 OPS, 1 HR, 5 RBI's).

Neither starter got the decision, as the game was 5-5 when the 9th ended. Johnson went 6, allowed 7 hits, 3 runs (1 earned), and struck out 4. He finally finished the 6th. Harvey didn't, allowing 3 in 5 off 8 hits and a walk. He struck out 4 Fish hitters. The bottom of the 9th ended with J.T. Realmuto hitting into a double play. It would've been nice to walkoff Paul Swald.

Brian Ellington was out for the 10th after a nice 9th, but he allowed 2 Mets to score before finishing the 10th. Down 7-5, Jerry Blevins came in for the save. He allowed a run, but got pinch hitter Johnny Giovatella to ground into a double play to end the game. Wow. 2 straight innings when we could've won.

The losing streak reached 8. Castro had 3 hits, and Prado, Ortega, and Adams had 2, but it wasn't enough. We had 14 hits split between the starting 8 and Brandon Guyer. Guyer hit a pinch hit homer, and Justin Bour hit a 1 out solo shot, giving him 23 on the year. Adams and Castro doubled, while Miguel Rojas stole his 1st base of the year. Our problem though, was errors. Bour, Adams, and Ortega all errored, and we had 2 unearned runs early. Too bad we couldn't make the plays, or we would've won 5-3. Oh well, we had to look to avoid another sweep.

July 1st, 2018: July began, signaling the beginning of trade season. David Dahl of the rockies tore his posterior cruciate ligament, and will miss the rest of the year. The 24-year-old missed all of last year except a few minor league rehab appearences, and now will finish 2018. He was hitting .287/.351/.488 with 12 homers and 28 RBI's.

Odrisamer Despaigne (2-7, 4.07 ERA, 1.34 WHIP) was hoping to prevent a sweep, but had to face the Greek God Thor (5-7, 3.83 ERA, 1.20 WHIP). Noah Syndergaard is an amazing pitcher that already pitched a gem against us earlier in the year.

A lot of hits were allowed, but Despaigne went 5 strong enough, allowing no runs, but 7 hits. He walked and struck out a pair. He picked up the win in a nice 5-1 victory. But don't think we hit Syndergaard at all. Thor left the game in the 1st with an injury, and the Mets curse took another, former Marlin A.J. Ramos from the game with an injury. Turns out both were just DTD, and will only cost them 1 more game.

Jorge De La Rosa (3) and Nick Wittgren (11) picked up holds, but Heath Hembree finished off the game since it was now 5-0. He allowed a solo shot to Jose Reyes, but that was the lone blemish. Miguel Rojas and Starlin Castro both reorded 3 hits. Rojas scored 3 times and drove in 2 with a walk and a double. Castro doubled as well, driving in just 1. Rafael Ortega was the only other hitter with more then 1, but we had 11 as a team.

The Dodgers ended Charlie Blackmon's hit streak in a 7-2 victory at 27 games. The pitcher to do it? You guessed it, Clayton Kershaw.

Remember J.P. Gates? I drafted him 70th overall in the 2nd round this year, and in start #3 he no-hit the Tigers GCL team in a 9-0 victory. Gates walked 3, struck out 7, got 10 groundball outs, and 10 fly ball outs. Pretty good way to start his minor league career. I'm starting to use him as a two-way player, as he has 2* potential at 1B too. He will start there on off days now too.

Martin Prado cleared waivers, but for some reason the Mariners grabbed Chase Utley instead.

July 2nd, 2018: International pool was published, and there were a few solid guys split $5,000,000 for. 16-year-old Carlos Aguilar (4*) got a $2,200,000 offer, $490,000 went to RF Saverio Viccio (3), who is Venezuelan and Italian. Mexican Juan Valenzuela (3) got $1,000,000, and the rest would be saved for now.

OSA thinks 16-year-old Venezuelan Luis Alvarado (3) was the best of the bench. He had a cannon, could play all 3 outfield spots, and had insane power (93). He even had solid speed. His faults? 45 power potential and 12 avoid K's potential. He'd strike out a ton. He wants an even $3 million.

The White Sox lost young lefty Carlos Rodon for the year with a rotator cuff tear. Another big injury for the fragile Carlos Rodon, he's never been able to show his true potential.

We moved up to 29th, passing the White Sox in the power rankings. We were actually tied with the Rays at 28th, who we are playing today.

The Dodgers sent C Austin Barnes and minor league LF Starling Heredia to the Indians for RHP Danny Salazar. Salazar, the headliner, is a nice 3* pitcher who can fill in with the Rich Hill injury suffered earlier this year. Barnes is a 3* catcher, and Heredia (1.5), a Dominican throw in makes this a seemingly good deal for both teams.

Anyways, our best pitcher Shelby Miller (1-1, 2.45 ERA, 1.82 WHIP) faced the Rays best pitcher Chris Archer (3-6, 3.28 ERA, 1.13 WHIP) to start this interleague Florida rivalry game. Miller didn't have a great game, allowing 8 in 3.2 innings, and the Rays took the opener 9-2. Archer took it the distance, but we managed 9 hits off him. A Justin Bour error gave Enny Romero the final run of the game, although it was unearned.

Our 1-2-3 hitters Ortega-Rojas-Castro went 7-for-15, with 2 runs scored, 2 RBI's, and a triple (Miguel Rojas). The rest of the team was only 2-22 with 2 walks (Realmuto and Guyer). The angry Prado and Hernan Perez recieved the hits.

July 3rd, 2018: The middle of the game feature two struggling lefties, Blake Snell (1-7, 5.29 ERA, 1.51 WHIP) and Adam Conley (2-7, 5.04 ERA, 1.56 WHIP). I tried something different, playing J.J. Hardy at 2B. He only has a 3 rating there, but he's a great SS so I wanted to try to develop him some versatility. He went 0-for-3, so maybe not the best move, but Starlin Castro was tired. He did pinch hit, going 1-for-1.

Both starters were great, allwing only a run a piece. Snell went 6, Conley went 7. Neither got a decision as the game became tied in the 7th on a Brad Miller RBI single. Drew Steckenrider pitched a scorless, yet scary top of the 9th, almost ensuring extra innings. He did strike out the side, but allowed 2 hits. Daniel Hudson had the 9th for the Rays, and he faced some trouble with 2 base hits. With 2 outs, he had Rafael Ortega with a runner in scoring position. Ortega was 2-for-3 with a double in the game, so he wasn't an easy out. Ortega singled home Derek Dietrich, who came off the bench for Prado, and the Marlins walked off 2-1! Only 6,733 people got to see it...

Ortega, now hitting .355 drove in his 16th run of the season. Lane Adams, who was also on base, went 2-for-5 with a solo home run to start the bottom of the 1st. It was a nice, much needed, win.

July 4th, 2018: Today was the draft pick signing deadline. Today would be the last day Ethan Hankins was a part of the Marlins. I had to give Aguilar and Valenzuela wage boosts to keep the from signing elsewhere.

The Yankees offered me Estevan Florial, so I offered Martin Prado back. Maybe they'd want him back? They didn't...

On to the rubber match, we sent Dan Straily to the mound (3-8, 5.36 ERA, 1.42 WHIP) to face off against Jacob Faria (5-6, 4.26 ERA, 1.42 WHIP). Castro is still tired because he keeps coming in as a pinch hitter. I benched him to make sure. After 7 scorless innings, it looked like the game would never end.

Straily left after 6.1, allowing 6 hits, walking 3, and striking out 6. Faria was on for the 8th, but left after putting a runner on to lead off the inning. He left with only 2 hits allowed. The walk to pinch hitter and ex-Ray Brandon Guyer scored on a 2 run single by Hernan Perez off Chaz Roe. Each pitcher got a run charged. Roe left the game, and Colome allowed no more base runners, which took us to the top of the 9th.

Stecekesaurus was tired, so Kevin Chapman would attempt the save in a 2-0 game. He allowed a walk, but didn't allow the runner to score, earning his 2nd save of the season. We won 2-0 with just 3 hits.

It was a nice series win, and we were now off to Washington for 4, then back home for 3 with the Brewers, and then an off day.

I brought Maybin back to the roster and designated Johnny Giovatella for assignment. Maybin went back to CF, moving the red hot Ortega to the bench.

Giavotella only hit .163/.234/.256, and J.J. Hardy was a much better defender. I shopped Giovatella to see if I could get anything for him before possibly losing him, and got a few offers. I wanted RP Brandon Maurer, but I didn't want to take his salary. So I took the Padres offer. They were letting me have LF Alex Dickerson, who was optionable. Dickerson was added to the 40, and sent down to AAA New Orleans. He was hitting .213/.245/.436 in 49 games in the majors. In real life, he got hurt and will start the season on the DL.

Below are a few useful images to show the progress of the rebuild.