[majormet]

The news of the day showed a few interesting trades but a stellar game pitched by Johnny Vandermeer.

Vandermeer fanned 16 batters today as the Louisville Bats beat the Grand Rapids Crawdads 7-2 at home. Vandermeer was locked in and improves to 11-5 on the season with a 1.88 ERA. Bill White had 2 hits and 2 RBI's to carry the offense as Louisville remained in a 4th place tie with the Pittsburgh Pirates in the NL Central. Vandermeer fanned 16 in 7 1/3 innings making it even more impressive. Joe Grace of Grand Rapids had nothing but good things to say "He has it, this guy is going to be one of the best ever, I fanned 4 times today and 3 of them were looking"

In trade news the Ottawa Argonauts trade Doug Drabek to the every active Buffalo Bisons for Chris Bootcheck and Aaron Clapp. The Bisons are in a three way tie for first place in the AL East with the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees and have major long term injury losses to starters Craig Swan and Derek Holland. They added Bruce Kison a few days ago but really feel they have a shot this year and get Drabek. Drabek was an all star this year for Ottawa with a 7-9 record but a stellar 1.06 WHIP. Drabek won 10 games for Atlanta last year and was solid in the past for Utah. Bootcheck was a long reliever for Buffalo this year and should have an increased role in Ottawa.

The Arizona Diamondbacks were busy with a multi player deal with the Duluth Champions adding relief depth in the form of Terry Mulholland and speed with Donell Nixon. Duluth gets back Eddie Pellagrini in this trade. Seems Arizona gave up little to improve their standing as they are 5 games back in the 2nd place tie with Las Vegas Snake Eyes in the AL West behind the Colorado Rockies. Mulholland was a workhorse in his rookie year for Duluth and Nixon was 2nd in the NL in Stolen bases. Arizona GM Tom Anderson told the press "We need depth we can catch Colorado and make noise but we have holes and feel we addressed them today"