[Bub13]

Two more games against Oakland and then the All-Star break. After that, 23 games for the rest of the month, 11 at home. We'll also end the month playing the A's. The trade deadline will be coming soon, and as it looks right now we'll be standing pat. There's little on the trade block that I would even consider, and most of those guys anyway are way overpriced. What that decision will come down to, in the end, will be most likely contigent upon health: will any injuries this month compromise our depth? Time will tell.

In some team news, OF Erik Bennetsen is named AL Rookie of the Month for June: .327/8/26 in 110 AB, and a .976 OPS.

July 1-2 vs OAKLAND
Last two games of this series, and the last games before the break. We hit the road for a bit after this.

HAW pitchers: LH Daniel Croft (7-3, 4.28) / LH Matt Waugh (9-1, 2.47)
OAK pitchers: LH Sean Guerrero (3-5, 5.26) / LH Chris Larimer (3-5, 3.68)

#80: WIN 2-1 ... Medici cranks out his 20th, but Royer's shot in the 9th is the winner...Croft goes 7 IP, only 5 H but 4 BB, and 8 K
#81: WIN 8-2 ... Waugh gets his 10th win, fanning 9 in 7.2 IP...Lynn collects three hits, while Hed gets two including a HR

Very nice. Seven game win streak puts us four games ahead of the Rangers at the break, and the halfway point of the season.... Like I said in my last post, I'm not unhappy with the way anyone is performing, really, even if I could wish for some improvement in spots. And while I complain some about our 3B production, the guys have combined for 13 HR, only slightly below Royer's usual 30 HR pace of the past two seasons.... Waugh and Irvin have reached 10 wins on the season, and Waugh has 131 K in as many innings.... International Amateurs are out, and I make bids on two guys. If I get them my budget will be busted, but whatever. I'm avoiding the $20M guys: seems like too much of a crapshoot to put that much money into someone who likely won't be as good as he's currently advertised. Better, imo, to spend less on mid-ceiling players with good/great intangibles.... ELSEWHERE: Arizona's season may have turned to dust, but third-year RF Kevin Reynolds is having a breakout year: batting .349 with 5.2 WAR, and his 24 HR already matches his previous career high.... KC's Steve Scibek was named pitcher of the month for June, and kept that momentum going in July with a 4-hit shutout of the Chisox. He's given up just 4 runs in his last five starts, all wins, with two shutouts.... Teams really do take their time signing those draft picks. At the end of June, 18 of the 34 first round picks from a month ago were still unsigned. Two days later, it's down to 14, but there are only four days left to get 'em done.


It's All-Star time! Maybe your favorite Islander made the squad! Maybe not... This year, we're sending three guys, all pitchers: SP Matt Waugh and Josh Irvin, and CL Nate Kearns. Waugh is voted as the AL starter, but sometimes the game goes against that choice. And I find it a little odd that the league's best offense sent zero batters. Oh well, enjoy some time off guys. For the Prospects Game, we send eight players: P Juan Sais (A), Steve Shinnick (AAA), and Ken Taylor (AAA); 1B Eric Mele (A); 3B Jose Villalpando (AA); SS Jake Moore (AAA) and Joey Ulrich (R); and OF Rocky DeMars (A) and Brian Hassell (AA).

The games come and go, with the usual fanfare. The AL wins the Prospects Game 5-2, with Isles players going a combined 3-for-10, and two pitchers tossing two shutout innings. The AL also won the big boy's game, 9-5, scoring 5 runs in the 9th to claim a tight game. Irvin and Kearns both pitched scoreless innings, but Waugh--the top pitching vote getter--didn't pitch at all. ??? Weird, but at least he won't have to rest before his next start.

Back to business.

July 7-9 @ CLEVELAND
A thirteen game winless streak has put the kibosh on an otherwise promising .500 start, and dropped them to last in the Central. They've been outscored 38-76 over that stretch as well, with the offense plummeting to 14th in runs despite having the 7th-ranked AVG and OBP. RF Matt Hill (.323/18/59) and 1B Manny Ayala (.329/9/41) have been solid, as have former Isles Cam Daley (.304/16/40) and Julian Cardenas (.277/9/36). Pitching is 5th in runs allowed, but the rotation has slipped to 10th in ERA. But there's still some good young talent here, and despite the recent downturn this franchise seems to be heading in the right direction otherwise. Another solid SP, some RP free agents, and letting the young guys develop some power (they're 15th in HR), and they'll become competitive in a really tough division.

HAW pitchers: LH Matt Waugh (10-1, 2.47) / RH Mike Bader (6-6, 4.37) / LH John Loeb (3-0, 3.60)
CLE pitchers: RH Dudley Mele (7-7, 3.78) / RH Sam Tedder (6-5, 5.13) / RH Jose Rubio (4-5, 4.48)

#82: WIN 1-0 ... 3 hits for Tipping, and Covington gets the winning RBI in the 2nd...Waugh goes 8 solid innings...but Simmons and Sanchez get hurt, both out for a bit
#83: WIN 7-3 ... Collins doubles home 2 in the 10th, and we add two more to finally grab this one...HR for Matson...Bader gets to go all 10 IP, just crazy
#84: LOSS 4-5 ... well dang...we allow the winner in the 9th, handing the Indians a win they didn't really deserve

So we suffer the indignity of ending their 15-game losing streak, but otherwise no big deal.... Bigger deal is losing Simmons to injury for five weeks, with a strained lat. We'll miss his .351 average and .406 OBP. Jake Moore comes back from AAA, where he was hitting .288 and has gotten hot over the last few weeks. He hit .167 in a brief call-up earlier. Sanchez suffers a sore foot and is dtd for five days. Hopefully we won't need him.... Loeb has given up 17 runs over his last four starts, so he could be going back down in a bit for some more seasoning. Travis Harris has been unimpressive since going down, so if I send Loeb back we might see someone else get a shot in the rotation for a stretch.... ELSEWHERE: The Dodgers have dropped five straight, bringing their lead in the West to "only" ten games. Likewise, Boston leads Baltimore (!) and NY by ten in the AL East.... Philly's Byron Wilmoth stole 50 bases last year, but has 43 already this year. He's on pace for 83. Defending AL champ Emilio Mares (TEX) has 38, pretty much on pace to match the 71 he had last season.... It took a while, but all of this year's first round picks have been signed. Two guys--pitchers David Lee (SF) and George Sandberg (RIC) are with their parent clubs for some reason. Ruin them early, huh guys?


July 10-12 @ CALIFORNIA
Eight games under .500 since June 1, but they're still .500 overall and not out of it for wild card contention. Hitting ranks 13th, and is holding them back, with no stats in the top ten anywhere. William Swanson and Mauricio Marquez are the stars, still going great, but they're not getting much help. Pitching sits 6th, but will be tested with one SP and three RP on the injured list. SP Aaron Moore has been decent if not impressive in the rotation, but has also made 35 starts in the field, across the middle infield. He's hitting .258/7/23 in 132 AB, slightly better than last year when he managed 11 HR in 79 starts. Honestly, I'm not sure where I would play him if he were in Hawaii. He rates well on the mound and in the field (solid defense at 3B and the OF, fwiw); after seeing him toss a couple of MLB seasons as a pitcher, however, I might stick him in the field full-time by now, especially after last season's 7.78 ERA in 21 pitching starts.

HAW pitchers: RH Josh Irvin (10-3, 2.94) / LH Daniel Croft (7-3, 4.08) / LH Matt Waugh (11-1, 2.33)
CAL pitchers: LH Shaun Ostrander (3-2, 3.74) / RH John Weston (1-0, 3.63) / RH George Millard (7-5, 4.19)

#85: WIN 14-7 ... it was 13-6 after 4 1/2 innings...Medici and Tipping hit 3-run HR, and Bennetsen goes 3-for-4 with 3 RBI...Irvin gets beat up early tho
#86: WIN 8-3 ... Croft goes the distance, his ERA helped by a couple unearned runs...Pederson smacks his 20th, Medici homers again...Tipping hurt, pending diagnosis
#87: WIN 4-3 ... another night, another HR for Medici...he and Collins homer in the 8th to give us the sweep...2 hits each for Sanchez and Pederson

Three solid wins, always a great thing, and a five-game lead over Texas...Tipping's diagnosis is still pending. We've got some depth, but it won't be good to have our entire middle infield on the DL.... Jake Moore has looked good since his recall, getting a hit in all five starts and going 6-for-19 overall.... Prospect Villalpando--he of the mile-high power ceiling--finally hits his first AA home run in his 160th at bat.... We're the first team to 60 wins on the season.... ELSEWHERE: Seven losses for LA, and now an 8-game lead over Portland. Getting tighter.... Also an eight-game lead for Boston, with NY having won five straight.... Minnesota, in the middle of a bad stretch, sent catcher Devin Swan to Cincy for a trio of prospects. Swan, 27, has been hitting out of his socks the past two seasons--over .330--after being a subpar hitter for the first four years of his career. Solid defensively and a fan favorite, Swan will take over from 35-year-old Carlos Morales, batting just .196. The Reds are two games behing St Louis, so this looks like an actual beneficial trade for a playoff contender. Imagine that!


July 13-15 vs TAMPA BAY
Coming off four straight 90-win seasons, and predicted to compete again for the East crown, it's been tough sledding so far for the Rays: 39-48 and 16 games out of first. Offense ranks 12th in runs, pitching 14th, with a -40 differential. They're hitting for power--139 HR, 6th in the AL--but not for much else. Perennial MVP candidate Jose Tavares has been fine, at .302/19/66, and leadoff guy Orlando Navarro is hitting .303 with a .410 OBP. But stud Vance Wise is 140 points below last year's pace (just .243, but with 18 HR), and Jorge Arriola and Marcus van der Knaap are 90 and 120 points below last year's numbers. On the mound, Jon Jemison has been solid, but the over-30 set of Carlos Munoz, Jasper Haugen, and Bobby Reder have started to show their age. One odd roster fact is the bullpen features two regulars--DH Wise and OF Jeff Ward--who rarely pitch and don't fare well when they do. Manager Julian Morillo is in his fourth year and starting to hear rumblings of having "lost the room."

HAW pitchers: RH Mike Bader (7-6, 4.23) / LH John Loeb (3-0, 3.89) / RH Josh Irvin (10-3, 3.28)
TBR pitchers: LH Jon Jemison (8-8, 3.81) / RH Jasper Haugen (1-10, 8.17) / LH Bobby Reder (6-8, 5.71)

#88: LOSS 3-6 ... flat, and only two runs in the 9th make this one look close at all...Bader hit early, but settles down, gets no support
#89: LOSS 5-7 ... Loeb gets hammered, and while the pen offers 7 shutout innings, it's too late...offense flat again, with HR from Medici and Sanchez the only threats
#90: WIN 10-6 ... offense, finally! 14 hits, led by Bennetsen with 4 including a HR...everyone gets a hit tonight, congrats!

I guess we were overdue for a flat series, so here it is. Texas gains two on us as well.... Tipping missed just two games with a muscle strain and will be back for our next series. Ulkini gets hurt again, however, but only dtd for a week. Dude needs to be heavily taped at all times apparently.... Loeb's awful outing means he's out, and will get a chance to revitalize himself in AAA. Next up is Steve Shinnick, acquired from Detroit in '52 and our #8 prospect overall.... ELSEWHERE: As expected, the AL Central race is going to be a fun one. Detroit leads Chicago by two, and just three games behind the Sox are the surprising Royals. Likewise, the NL races in the East and Central are close, but LA has reopened an 11-game bulge over Portland.... Cincy keeps working to upgrade their pitching staff, getting useful swingman Ricky Elmore from the Expos. In exchange, they send interesting utility IF Aaron Atchley, promising closr Sergio Gomez, and two non-entities to Montreal.... Several other trades happen, none really worth repeating here. In short, several teams acquire established-yet-uninteresting pitchers for multiple decent-to-no-hoper prospects.... So you think we in Hawaii have been good forever? Well, don't sleep on the Phillies. A nine-game winning streak has them back on top in the NL East, over Washington. The Phillies have missed the post-season just once in the past eleven years, winning two titles and posting three 100-win seasons. Once again they have the NL's best offense, but finally have a pitching staff that's nearly as good, meaning they don't need to score 12 runs every night to win.

......

TL;DR Version: An 8-3 run here is only marred by dropping two games against the struggling Rays. Simmons' injury has hurt the offense some, but he'll be back in a few weeks, and the experience is necessary for Jake Moore, who is our SS or 3B of the future, tbh. Of more immediate importance is the fact that our starting pitching has taken some dings of late, resulting in the demotion of John Loeb. He had replaced the ineffective Travis Harris, who hasn't been that solid in AAA since, so Shinnick gets the call over TH. If he shows unreadiness over the next two weeks, watch for something to happen at the deadline. While our pitching has been really good, I don't want to be just one injury away from disaster going down the stretch. There are some interesting guys available on the block, but I won't want to give up too much for someone likely to be only a rental. Stay tuned.