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Old 07-23-2018, 08:27 AM   #9
battists
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Join Date: Jul 2004
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April 16 - April 25, 2026

From the bus, Paul watched the evening desert landscape through a dirt- and fingerprint-smeared window, saguaro and mesquite rolling by in flashes of green scattered across the vast, undending browns. They were on their way to Monterrey now, after a three-game set in Juarez. It was brutal; the game at Juarez had ended around four, and they had hopped straight onto the bus for a 12-hour ride. They'd roll into Monterrey around four in the morning, with a 6:05 start that evening. Well, that was life in the minor leagues, certainly. As much money as the club made, they weren't going to fly around a bunch of rookies who would probably never even reach the show. He was probably the only one who was used to something better.

Funk hated hitting the road after a loss. After taking the first two against Juarez, they'd lost a tight one to finish off the series that afternoon. But as losses go, this one wasn't awful. The day before they had gone 13 innings, and Bill Winters had given him nothing at all today on the mound, and he'd yanked him after three innings and five runs allowed. He'd lost a starter earlier in the week when Bob Dingess went down, and Stanley Schneider, the GM, hadn't gotten him a replacement. And after heavy usage all week, his bullpen was just gassed. Ended up losing that last game 6-5, but it was hard to complain after they'd won six straight following the Opening Day debacle with Darwin Allen. In the "learn something new every day" category, after Winters came out, he'd gotten five solid innings out of Scotty Smith, who up until this game had been playing first base. They had known Smith could pitch, but the club really wanted to work him as a hitter. Paul had just had no choice, and Smith really saved his butt. At least a few pitchers would be ready to go against Monterrey.

At the end of the day, they were in first place at 6-2, with Monterrey right behind them at 6-3. Today would be game four in a ten-day stretch with ten games. The next four versus Monterrey, then three straight versus Leon, who led the southern division with a 6-4 record. You learned quite a bit from stretches like this.

The sun was setting, fierce oranges and pinks lighting up the clouds near the horizon. Paul had never lived out here, and was partial to the midwest, but he had to admit it: the sunsets in the desert were second to none. He leaned back as far as his seat would allow, soaking up the muted conversations of the team behind him, and thinking about what he'd learned about the team so far...

He certainly had a good infield. Despite playing both Carlos Trujillo and Mike Davis out of position to get them more experience, they were hitting the cover off the ball. Trujillo was hitting close to .400 and had already stolen 16 bases. David was hitting 20 points less, but was almost on base half the time, and with a litle more pop. At third, they hadn't been kidding about Stefanelli, who was hitting close to .500. It was going to be hard to keep those guys out of the lineup, but he needed to get some other guys some at-bats. He'd been playing one of his catchers, Sanchez, at first, and he was doing OK there. Scotty Smith was too, but he might need to keep pitching through this tough stretch. Maybe he could get a start out of him later in the week. At catcher, Bowen was a tough call. Just not seeing the ball well (.150/.190/.400), and certainly he had enough catchers to sit him down for a bit, but he was clearly the most heralded talent at that position. And after hitting .323 last year, Rich Ferris was in a season-long slump so far (.150/.320/.250). Dennis Bergeron had looked much better in 11 PAs (.300/.364/.600), so he might start Bergeron for a bit.

As for the pitching, Paul sighed... He'd lost his top two pitching prospects for a long time. He'd only gotten one pitcher back from the GM, and they had a long stretch without a break coming up. Either someone was going to need to come up big, or he was going to have to win with hitting this week. Right now, no one was exacting lighting things up on the mound. Bill Ulrich had pitched a strong seven innings against Chihuaha, only giving up one run. Out of the pen, Joe Carver had pitched six scoreless innings, and the lefty Ruiz had pitched three without giving up a hit or a run. But that was about it. On the plus side, no one had been outright awful, although Carlos Souza was close (3 runs allowed in 3 innings pitched). Anyway, it always took pitchers a while to get going. He would see what this week would bring.

Team Status
Season Record: 6-2
Record for this Stretch: 6-2
Position: 1st

Standout Performers
3B Cyril Stefanelli (.484/.514/.677, 0 HR 4 RBI)
SS Carlos Trujillo (.395/.410/.500, 0 HR 3 RBI)
2B Mike Davis (.375/.459/.719, 1 HR 11 RBI)

SP Bill Ulrich (7 IP, 1.00 WHIP, ERA+ 366)
RP Joe Carver (6 IP, 1.00 WHIP)
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