[luckymann]

Time for some analysis. Numerical, not Freudian, although some time on the couch probably wouldn’t go astray. This infernal heat would make a murderer of the Mahatma.

As predicted, we lead the league in HR with 38. Our team BA, however, is presently .231, last in the HAL. Our OBP and OPS are both somewhat better, with us sitting 3rd in each. So in the whole hand-eye coordination equation it is definitely the former factor letting us down. I address the group and tell them to take more pitches. But not pitches they think they can hit, especially for homeruns. The words are still making their way from my mouth to their ears when I realise precisely how ridiculous a statement I’ve just made. No wonder they are, to a man, looking at me like I’m Einstein explaining quantum mechanics to them in his native German. I can literally feel the points dropping off our performance in oncoming weeks of every offensive category known to Chadwick. A planned follow-up session with the pitching corps is quickly cancelled. Telling a group of guys with an ERA of over 5 to start spotting their pitches better would be about as useful as telling a bunch of hockey players to floss regularly. Instead, I retreat to the safety of my apartment, pull out a cold beer – resisting the urge to start living inside the refrigerator as I do – and start poring over the players up for grabs in the upcoming Rookie Draft.

Even with it being sourced from all over the country and overseas as well, the sheer number of clubs vying for players means the talent is going to get chewed through pretty quickly in the Draft. There are only five rounds, which means we have overall picks 46, 374, 702, 1030, and 1358. 46 is sure to be a promising type, if we play our cards right. Even 374 should have some skills. The rest will be more hit-and-miss. The point being I must get the first two picks absolutely right for what we need. Plus, let’s face it, with the crapshoot of who picks whom, there’s little point in planning for Rounds 3 thru 5—you just need to be quick on your feet and sharp with your eyes when we get there.

No doubt those key picks should be a high contact utility infielder who plays SS well and a quality starting pitcher, preferably a lefty. In my experience, these drafts see the position players snapped up well in advance of all but the most phenomenal hurlers, so my plan is to use 46 for the infielder and 374 for the pitcher. In the interests of both sanity and collaboration, I have entrusted our Scouting Director and Assistant GM to work on some candidates for our other three.
I spend the rest of that night and well into the next morning lost among the potential ghosts of crisp hits future, drinking more beer than I really should but not enough to replace the fluids I am losing via the act of perspiration. My MO is to start with the lowest acceptable player and work up. The Draft, by simple virtue of its top-down nature, will meet you coming from the opposite direction, like trucks in a tunnel. Realism is the key—most of all, understanding which players on your radar will all but certainly be gone before your turn comes around and striking a line through them. It is armed with this philosophy that I apply myself to the task. Easier said than done with some 2000 players to consider. Nevertheless, by the time I waddle off to bed sloshing like a weak-swimming duck, I have somehow managed come up with 5 potential candidates for each of our first two picks. I go back to this list numerous times and hone it just a little, but in essence it remains unchanged thru Draft Night. (If you thought I was going to share my hops-fuelled findings with you, think again. How do I know you’re not a spy?)

The very next day, things look as if they’ll go from worse to worst.

Corey Wierenga – our equal leader in HR with 7 – goes down with a twanged hammy. Then, just two innings later in the same game (which, somewhat ironically, we won 6-0 with Chavez the winning pitcher of record and Wierenga the PoG), our “ace” Edwin Chavez goes down with a tweaked back, although thankfully it’s not too serious and he should only miss a start or two. I promote Joe Alexander to the rotation – which I’d been thinking of doing anyway, putting the 1-4 / 8.87 ERA Andy Estey into the pen to give us another southpaw reliever – and call up Nick Gekas. The soon-to-be-roughriding Roy Archer gets the starting nod at 1B, while Chris Gagliardi comes up from the Reserve Roster.

But then the strangest thing happens – we start playing some semi-decent baseball.

Dave Boyd gets us on the right track with a double-dinger game we win 6-4 over the Juice. Gekas nets the W in his first appearance as we squeak by the same side 7-3 in 13. We come back late to beat the Volcanoes 7-5 and then do the same again the following game in a 3-2 win, with Estey giving us his best showing of the season so far.

But then the news that Chavez – not just our best pitcher but also a club talisman, of sorts – would miss a couple more weeks than initially thought seems to throw us completely. Matters compound further when Wierenga’s 35-year-old body doesn’t behave as desired, with the doc uncertain when he’ll be back. Despite it kicking off with Justin Parks winning Player of the Week, the seven-day period before the Draft totally blew, with us dropping five of six, consigning us to the cellar once more at 18-24, 10 back from Lanai City.