[BigRed75]

As the calendar flips to August, the Secret Harbour Pirates find themselves in first place, although their six-game lead has shrunk to 2 1/2 games in the past week. We made some hard decisions and cut our ties with a couple of players, including Turk Farrell who was a key member of our pitching staff in the first two seasons, but struggled making the step up to Iron and was sent down.

The Pirates are making good enough progress on collections, we have completed 11 so far (and our target was 12 by the end of the season). I'm sure we would have closer to 20 if I wasn't so stingy with my PP, but then again, I wouldn't have 35K in reserve if that was the case. The big collection reward pickups this season have been 95 OVR Randy Johnson, 91 OVR Jason Kendall and 93 OVR Chuck Klein. I've shifted gears from focusing on particular divisions to picking up reward cards that fill specific positions of need.

The Arequipa Alpacas have been opening packs two at a time without waiting until the end of the season to open a bunch. It seems to be working, as there always seems to be a gold card in one of those two packs. This has been the case the last three days - one pack had a double gold.

The Bibra Lake Quendas continue to accumulate Future Legend cards now that the prices are coming down. We are up to seven cards on the roster, all Gold. Ian Anderson, who was the staff ace last season, is absolutely sticking it up this year. Hopefully he can turn things around. Just as hopefully, we won't get relegate. But if it is to be, it is to be. Last year, when I made the switch to a Future Legends team, there were relegations and growing pains. But it was all worth it in the end as the team ended up going to Perfect with 100 Junior Griffey leading the way.

And the San Antonio Missions have acquired all the non-gold cards for the Year of the Pitcher mission. So now the real fun begins. Prices do seem to be trending downwards, thankfully.