Last 3 Before the All-Star Break
Could we find a way to get back in this thing?
At least our Tingley Park AA club is showing some fight, quite literally.
Toby Harris of the Ajax Lumberjacks and Logan Smith of the Tinley Park Thoroughbreds will be on the sidelines for a few days. They have been suspended for 5 and 3 games respectively by the league office for causing the bench-emptying free-for-all at the recent Lumberjacks-Thoroughbreds game at Pickering Park. Neither player had any comment about the suspensions. Both clubs told BNN Harris and Smith will begin serving them soon. Harris is batting .312 with 16 home runs and 41 RBIs this season. Currently Smith has a record of 1-0 with 20 strikeouts and 5 walks in 21.1 innings and a 3.38 ERA.
I’d like to see a little fire from the big leaguer’s like that. Maybe we are on the right track now finally after sweeping Milwaukee? What am I saying, it was Milwaukee. But like I said at the beginning of the season we need to really capitalize on our games with the "perceived" lower division clubs. So far this season the Architects are 9-3 versus Detroit, 8-4 against Milwaukee, and 6-3 against Traverse City. I said we needed to win 50 against these clubs out of 72 games and right now the club is 23-10. So far the mission is mostly accomplished against this group, but with our struggles against Toledo 2-10 and Canada 4-8 we might have to win 55 games (55-17). That is a tall ask against any group of teams, even ones that are "perceived" lower division clubs (and Detroit is not following that script.)
Chicago Architects 35-34 4th place in US vs Traverse City 33-36 5th place in US
June 23rd-25th 2056
Traverse City's The Den
Today we begin a 3-game series with the Traverse City Bears on the road.
A slight pitchers park, The Den has room for 40000 fans.
With their record standing at 33 wins and 36 losses, the Bears have a winning percentage of .478. They are in 5th place in the South of the Border, 9.0 games behind the leader. The Bears are playing well at the moment, having a 4-game winning streak going. Their number of runs scored of 348 rank 4th in the USA, their .278 batting average ranks 3rd. On the other side of the diamond, they have given up 356 runs (3rd) with their starters compiling an ERA of 4.40 which ranks 3rd. Their bullpen sports an ERA of 5.53, ranking 5th. When playing against our Architects this season, they have a record of 3 wins and 6 losses.
Time to make some hey against the Bad News Bears!
Here are the projected pitching matchups, our pitchers listed first:
RHP Motoyuki Inoue (7-6, 3.52 ERA) vs RHP Walt Bader (1-6, 3.86 ERA)
RHP Jose Cedeno (8-2 3.53 ERA) vs RHP John Hall (4-4, 4.11 ERA)
RHP Val Imbert (4-4, 4.59 ERA) vs RHP Jeremy Laybolt (1-3, 7.33 ERA)
The top 5 players on their team are:
1. RF Earl Foote (Age: 27, Overall : 4.5, Potential: 4.5)
2. CF Cal Braud (28, 4.0, 4.5)
3. CF Ben Marshall (32, 3.0, 3.0)
4. SP John Hall (29, 3.0, 3.0)
5. LF Barney Tomiak (29, 3.0, 3.0)
Game #1 - Friday June 23rd 2056
Chicago 35-34 @ Traverse City 33-36
RHP M. Inoue (7-6, 3.52 ERA) vs RHP W. Bader (1-6, 3.86 ERA)
A - 39,786
The Architects scored six in the fifth. Reagan Osborn and Joe Hunt hit two-run singles. José Aranda hits a two-run home run. The Tects add five more in the seventh. They score those five on just two hits. An infield single and a double started the inning. Four walks, an error, and two wild pitches plate the five.
Chicago 12, Traverse City 5.
SP M Inoue 6IP 4H R 10K W 4-2, 1B R Osborn 2-4 2R 2RBI BB, DH J Aranda 2-4 HR 2R 3RBI BB
HR - CH DH J Aranda (9) TC - RF E Foote (9), 2B P Cruz (3)
POTG - Chicago SP Motoyuki Inoue
Game #2 - Saturday June 24th 2056
Chicago 36-34 @ Traverse City 33-37
RHP Jose Cedeno (8-2 3.53 ERA) vs RHP John Hall (4-4, 4.11 ERA)
A - 39,730
Traverse City’s Earl Foote hits a two-run homer and a two-run double. Pedro Cruz goes 4-for-4 with a double, two runs scored, and an RBI. TC SP John Hall scatters just 5 hits in 5.2IP allowing just 1 run.
Traverse City 8, Chicago 4.
LF R LeRoy 3-5 2DB 2R, 1B R Osborn 2-3 R 2BB, SS K Mulford 2-3 DB HBP
HR - CH C J Hunt (11) TC - RF E Foote (10)
POTG - Traverse City RF Earl Foote
Game #3 - Sunday June 25th 2056
Chicago 36-35 @ Traverse City 34-37
RHP Val Imbert (4-4, 4.59 ERA) vs RHP Jeremy Laybolt (1-3, 7.33 ERA)
A - 34,746
The Architects take an 8-5 lead into the eighth. There, the Bears rally for six. Roger Geddes hit a two-run double, Cal Braud a two-run single, and Ben Marshall a two-run single.
Traverse City 11, Chicago 8.
RF T Stone 2-3 RBI, PH L Davis 1-1 2RBI, CF C Luna 3-4 DB 3R
HR - CH 3B K Noseworthy (4), TC - DH B Marshall (7)
POTG - Traverse City DH Ben Marshall
Summary - This series feels like a microcosm or the entire first half. Architects club the opponent in the first game scoring 12 runs. In the second game the offense and pitching fall asleep at the wheel and then in the third game the offense wakes up and the pitching just gets smashed.
At 36-36 there was no way we felt before the season that we would be in this position. That feeling even went further away when we picked up (at a high cost) SS Kennelly Mulford and SP Mutoyuki Inoue. But here we are and we are left scratching our heads why this club can’t seem to put it all together.
Chicago has the best hitter in the GLBL during the first half of the season LF Robert “Rodeo” LeRoy who also won the MVP in Canada last season. While 1B Reagan Osborn has been slumping at the plate he is still on pace to hit 28 home runs and drive in 84 RBI’s, but we need more coming from somewhere. Maybe when 3B Travis Arnaud, who has spent more time on the DL than on the field this year comes back we can get back to winning games. We also could use a return to first 2 months form of RF Tom Stone and 2B John Lambert who both struggled in June. Stone cooled off in June but still hit a respectable 270 for the month. Lambert hit just 211. Also not exactly tearing the cover off the ball is DH Jose Aranda who is hitting just 211 on the season albeit with 9 home runs while playing just 40 games.
On the pitching side we need more from our top 3 in Motoyuki Inoue, Jorge Cedeno and Yale Hulburt. Now with Inoue he being Japanese hasn’t spent a lot of time in the US, and he has been said to be slow to adapt. He came out strong in his first 4 games but has really not been himself after that shoulder flare up a couple of weeks ago. We need him to be our #1 like he has been throughout his career. Cedeno came out of the blocks on fire this year and has noticeably slumped in June with an ERA over 6.50 for the month. The bullpen has also not been great this season outside of RHP John Moore who is moving to the rotation for the 2nd half of the season after 2 fine outings late in June.
On paper this club looks really good, with good starting pitching, excellent up the middle defense and 2 guys who are always around the MVP conversation in LeRoy and 2 time runner up Osborn.
USA Player of the Week
Chicago fans have something to crow about today as Chicago catcher Joe Hunt nabbed the USA Player of the Week Award for his performance over the last seven days. "I know there are times when it's hard to lay off pitches. Everyone goes through stretches when he's too eager to put the ball in play. You know, though, I feel like this past week I was able to get in the right frame of mind and just let things come naturally," said Hunt. He posted a .417 average (10-for-24) this past week with 5 home runs, 15 RBIs, and 10 runs scored.
At the moment, Hunt is batting .310 with 11 home runs and 39 RBIs. He has played in 37 games and scored 26 times.
Summary - Hunt is really having a great season in a complete job sharing role. I have to admit that I was looking for Hunt to catch 40-50 games this season, but the way he is hitting, and the way Duran is not hitting, they have both played about 50%. I wish I could try and extend him but two things are in the way. 1.) He's wanting to test free agency after the end of the season probably because we are at 500 and in 4th place. I can't blame him for that. 2.) We just have no budget space (especially if we don't make it to the playoffs to sign him anyway.
He has been put on the trade block because maybe one of the teams fighting it out would like to have a power heavy lefty catcher. I can see several fits for him and he's inexpensive. We will see if any team will step up and take him on.