[jksander]

June 23, 2026: Angel Vargas’ contract was just sold to the Miami Marlins, who are sending him to play in AA Pensacola. He had been struggling as a starter for us and was about to get some time in the bullpen, having gone 1-4 with a 10.08 ERA through seven starts and 27.2 innings. He’s probably ready for a chance against some tougher competition, but it’s another moment for us to keep thinking on our feet to try and stay one step ahead of the scouts. This will give Collin Baumgartner a chance to come back into the bullpen after his early season injury sent him to our reserve squad.

July 14, 2026: Well hell, we’ve gone and fallen off the cliff -- this season’s headed down the drain as we head into the All Star break with a 24-33 record, riding a streak of 14 losses in our last 15 games. That we’re playing this poorly is unacceptable considering we have SIX all-star players on our roster. No matter how much off-the-field chaos we’ve had, it’s my job to have our team putting up wins out there and I’m honestly not sure how to put a finger on any one thing that’s leading us down this path. Bottom line is that we’ve gone from tied for first three weeks ago to dead last in the division and tied for dead last in the league, nine games back of the 34-23 Washington Wild Things. Here are our all-star selections this year:

SP - Bear Bellomy (1-3, 2.97 ERA, 33.1 IP, 1.41 WHIP, 7.3 K/9, 0.5 WAR)
SP - Jaydenn Estanista (3-3, 3.99 ERA, 58.2 IP, 1.28 WHIP, 9.5 K/9, 0.9 WAR)
C - Jhoneiker Betancourt (.221/.385/.441, 145 AB, 4 HR, 4 SB, 93 wRC+, 0.5 WAR)
1B - Michael Guldberg (.350/.440/.505, 200 AB, 1 HR, 1 SB, 126 wRC+, 1.0 WAR)
SS - Johan Lopez (.379..529/.649, 174 AB, 2 HR, 7 SB, 166 wRC+, 2.2 WAR)
LF - Andrew Moritz (.377/.447/.507, 215 AB, 1 HR, 9 SB, 128 wRC+, 1.6 WAR)

Brennan Orf has been diagnosed with a torn calf muscle and will miss the remainder of the season.

July 16, 2026: Johan Lopez was named All Star MVP as the West Division All Stars put on an 8-1 clinic to win the showcase. He had two hits in four attempts during the game, which at least gives him nice bragging rights, though we’re still hoping to find a way to earn wins instead when we come back from the four-day layoff.

July 17, 2026: We’ve signed a minor league pitching deal to get us Nathan Wiles, a 28-year-old veteran right handed starter who has a decent four pitch arsenal and above-average control. He’ll step into our top position, and we’re hoping he can help bring us some stability as our bats come out of their extended slump.

July 18, 2026: Bryan Arias strained his forearm and will miss at least three weeks, though he’s officially listed as Day to Day ... we’ve put him on the seven day IL just to be safe, and brought Pierce Bennett off of the reserve roster as a backup, with Mike Jarvis taking over as our starting third baseman.

August 1, 2026: Since the All Star break we’ve gone 8-5, so at least the downward plummet has been arrested somewhat. We head into the motnh of August with a 32-38 record, good for sixth place in the FL West, and we’re ten games out of first and 5.5 games out of the wildcard race. So there’s still a chance to fight our way into the playoffs, but it’s a much tougher path -- we have 14 home games and 12 road games left on our schedule, and we’ll need to be damned near perfect to pull it off. Nathan Wiles has been a big help out of the rotation, having gone 2-1 with a 4.91 ERA in three starts ... he’s got a strikeout per inning of work, a 1.20 WHIP and half a game in WAR already ... but he can only pitch one in five games. I’d like to see us find our way to a .500 or better finish, but unless we start suddenly performing at a significantly better team level in this final month, I think the playoffs will be out of reach.

Andrew Moritz now has 100 hits on the season and a .382 average, by far the best on our team this year. Johan Lopez has hit .341 with a team high 37 doubles, and Yoneiry Acevedo has 30 doubles and a team high 53 RBIs, to go with a .271 average and five homers.