Terra Baseball League: Bryant Warriors

[jaa36]

The Bryant Warriors have managed to win their first championship in their 102-year history!!! We did it in convincing fashion, sweeping the Marsh Heroes in four games, and stifling their league-best offense to only seven runs. True to form for the team, the Warriors didn't hit a home run in the whole series. Loran Hamrick won the series MVP with seven hits in 19 at-bats, including the game-winning RBI in game four, though reliever Levi Baker received serious consideration as well, pitching in all four games and allowing one run in eight innings.

Game one: Warriors 3, Heroes 2 (11 innings). The Warriors took a 2-0 lead behind singles by Nicky Willey and Cecil Fraser. The Heroes clawed back and tied the score in the eighth inning with a sac fly. Michael Schneider threw six solid innings, and the bullpen was strong as well, with Levi Baker (the only lefty reliever against a lefty-stacked lineup) throwing two scoreless innings to take the game into extras. Joe Cazares stranded the go-ahead run in the eleventh, and in the bottom of the inning, the Warriors loaded the bases before Willey drove in the game-winner through a drawn-in infield to send the crowd in Norwood Stadium into delirium.

Game two: Warriors 4, Heroes 3. Chuck Starks hit a two-run homer to put the Heroes ahead early. Two infield errors by Marsh allowed the Warriors to cut the deficit in half, but Livio Rosner homered in the fifth to return the lead to two runs. In the bottom of the inning, Lou Harte hit a sac fly, and Nicky Willey followed him with a nine-pitch at-bat that culminated in an opposite-field single to tie the score. Cecil Fraser's RBI double gave the Warriors the lead in the next inning, and spectacular bullpen work by Tatu Niemela, Levi Baker and Alfonzo Trevino closed out the one-run game as the series moved to Marsh.

Game three: Warriors 5, Heroes 1. Lucio Montoya threw five perfect innings before eventually giving up a pair of hits in the sixth. The Warriors plated four runs in the third inning, which must have felt like four hundred the way Montoya was pitching. Randy Rojo drove in two of those runs with a double. An RBI single by Lou Harte in the fifth chased started Vern Villegas, and the Bryant bullpen held strong yet again.

Game four: Warriors 3, Heroes 1. Nate Bambrick gave the Warriors the lead with an RBI double in the first, though Leon Dyrdahl tied the score with a double of his own two innings later. Starters Rocky Long and Eddie Greenblatt both looked solid, but in the seventh, Loran Hamrick gave the Warriors the lead with a two-run double. By that time, reliable Levi Baker had been called upon yet again, and retired ten consecutive batters by the time he was done. Joe Cazares (stronger against lefties than usual closer Alfonzo Trevino) was called upon to get the final two outs, and got a strikeout and a groundout to Nicky Willey to end the series in triumphant fashion for Bryant.

79-year-old owner Keith Little was understandably pleased and rewarded me with a four-year extension. Our season score was 882.

[jaa36]

Toby Younger of the Freeton Crusaders won the Player of the Year, hitting .377 with 61 doubles, 30 home runs, and 139 RBI. Max Covert of the Wonderwood Monarchs was the Pitcher of the Year with a 17-10 record and 3.02 ERA. The Wal Titans' To****ake Tokagi was the Reliever of the Year, with Alfonzo Trevino finishing second in the voting, and Lee Meade (20-9, 3.45 ERA) won Rookie of the Year, with Nate Bambrick finishing second.

Sancho Villanueva won a Gold Glove at catcher, and Nicky Willey won the Platinum Stick at second base.

The extra income from winning the TBL Championship will allow us to run it back with Willey (who I can now offer a three-year extension worth $36M) and Lucio Montoya (who will get three years and $30M). Eirik Soderholm, Burt Enke, Joe Cazares and hero Levi Baker will be allowed to depart as free agents.

Our system is currently ranked #2 overall. 22-year-old Luis Del Rosario is now the #1 prospect in baseball- he hit .297 with 44 doubles and 4.8 WAR this season and we could plug him in at third base next year. Outfielder Miguel Bello, who we picked up as an international amateur free agent last year, has somehow become the #3 overall prospect (though I suppose that makes up for our overall #1 draft pick Alexander Moore falling off the map altogether). I have clearly disregarded our lower level minors as the Tavistock Highlanders finished 41-121 this season.. oops.

[jaa36]

The 2003 inductee to the Hall of Fame is Nathan Simpson- widely known as the best pitcher in TBL history. Simpson accumulated a record 136 WAR over his 19-year career, with 16 of these seasons spent with the Freeton Crusaders. He started his career by signing an $18.4M bonus as an international amateur free agent out of Rowenia and was immediately regarded as the top prospect in baseball at the age of 18. The left-hander made his debut with Freeton three years later. By 1981, he had his first great season (15-7, 2.90 ERA), and in 1983, he began a stretch of eight consecutive Pitcher of the Year awards, eventually winning a ninth two years later. Simpson's greatest season was nothing short of the greatest pitching season of all time- in 1987, he went 25-3 with a 1.38 ERA and 12.0 WAR, all of which were league records. He helped the Crusaders to seven TBL championships during his time there, and won the championship MVP in 1989. In 1991, he began to suffer from arm injuries, including three separate partial tears of his labrum, though he remained an effective pitcher to the end of his career. He was a 13-time All-Star and finished with 287 wins (just five off the league record), a 2.60 ERA (best all-time among starters), 49 shutouts (a record), and 4227 career strikeouts (70 off the record). He also finished with a 2.49 postseason ERA and a record 6.2 WAR in championship play.

[jaa36]

Valoria defeated Kilwinning 2-0 to win the 2003 ABC. Valoria was 10-2 during round robin play, beating Sorenheim to advance, and Kilwinning was 8-3 to move on. Lucio Montoya had a 2-0 record with a 1.82 ERA for Valoria, and Sancho Villanueva hit .342. Nathan Carter had an 0.87 ERA for Kilwinning but took the loss in game one of the championship.

Among other Warriors, Nicky Willey and Nate Bambrick hit four homers apiece. Michael Schneider went 2-1 with a 1.93 ERA and

[jaa36]

There wasn't much movement for the championship-winning Bryant Warriors this offseason. Both Lucio Montoya and Nicky Willey signed their extensions, so they'll both be here for two seasons with a player option for a third. The other moves were just smaller ones around the margins, like bringing in swingman Josiah Willis on a $1.1M deal and trading for lefty reliever Ken Macy and righty Marc Green. They'll provide us with some pitching depth, but not much more. There weren't really too many big free agents this year- I would have been interested in a top-tier player if one had been available, but we've got some budget room that we could make a midseason trade if necessary.

Eirik Soderholm and Joe Cazares both signed with the Freeton Crusaders- Soderholm for $13.5M/year for four years, and Cazares for $14.7M. Soderholm was since claimed on waiver by the Wal Titans- that appears to be an issue with this league, that players are often bounced around on waiver claims. Levi Baker signed with the Patrick Legends for $2.2M. I somehow missed that Baker had one of the worst seasons I've ever seen in Wal in 2001- he went 4-20 with a 7.54 ERA (and still managed 28 saves) out of their bullpen!

We are projected to win the TBL East again and to win 96 games. Owner Keith Little expects us to win it all again.

We suffered a fair number of minor injuries during spring training, and Alfonzo Trevino, Nathan Carter and Salomon Acevedo will all start on the IL.

Our farm system is now considered the best in baseball. Miguel Bello moved up the rankings to #1 overall and will start in Tavistock. Wyatt Cox will finally move up to the bigs though for now will come off the bench.

[jaa36]

As in any fictional universe there are any number of entertaining names that are generated. I present without commentary the best I have found in the league's 100+ year history.

Ethan Allen
Jamarcus Baba
Bob Barker
Liam Bean
Lothario Bernal
Humphrey Blow
Prior Bunch
Junior Butler
Master Butler
Admiral Cale
Titan Church
Hobert Cronk
P.J. Cupit
Artist Dasher
Sammy Davis
Manley Day
2 currently active players named Camille Deschamps
Manning DuFort
Dopey Durham
Birger Eek
Spaceman Epperson
Baldur Fashingbauer
Gabriel Faure
Christoph Fenstermacher
Dante Alighieri Frare
2 Christian Freemans both born in 1904
Brax Glass
Bandit Glover
Rolf Goldfarber
Stumpy Hammond
Torbjorn Harkestad
Pink Hills
Skippy Hole
Huston Houston
Riku-Matti Huuskonen
Rex Irons
Chu-Chu Jon
Abe Sunday Kaya
Storm King
Kannon Kino****a
Bubba LaFond
Jinx Leach
Keyair Liberty
Veikko Liukko
Brooke Longbottom
Crew Lyne
Rocco Machiavelli
Than Mann
Fee Marvel
Major McCracken
Bones McCrudden
Woody McCubbins
Boomer McHenry
Mooney McWilliams
Wild Bill Mendez
Magmo Morales
Smokey Morquecho
Halldor Muggerud
Eeli Nenonen
Tord Nordskag
Ole Olsen
Maximillian Payne
Beetle Peters
Murtagh Pettijohn
Mondarius Pratt
Schuyler Punentac
Dong-Soo Rang
Shooter Raya
Demon Reynolds
Rusty Roadarmel
Mac Roe
Ramon Roman
Somerset Rosebush
Wizard Salazar
Jackson Scallions
Felix “The Cat” Sharpe
Tippy Sharpe
Slate Silvestri
Roar Skaar
Charalampos Skondras
Zaur Skripchenko
Sampson Slaughter
Athos Sleppy
Ghost Sloat
Marmaduke Spurlock
Matt St. Matthew
Launcelot Stone
B.J. Stoner
Shermichael Swan
Robbie the Ripper
Nik Tuna
Joey van der Slot
Mordecai van Landingham
Fury Walkowski
Stein Olav Wergeland
Rascal West
Willy Mays Williams

[jaa36]

It hasn't been quite the same magical year thus far... the Warriors are just 12-14 to start the season. We're four games behind the Sidney City Scorpions, but that should easily be made up. The offense has improved, but the pitching has fallen off to 14th-best in the league.

Michael Schneider and Felix Rodriguez have both done their part, with sub-3.00 ERAs, but the rest of the staff has been pretty bad. Lou Harte has been on fire to start the year, with a .451 OBP and 5 home runs.

[jaa36]

The Warriors righted the ship in May, going 17-10 in the month, and are now 30-24 overall. We still are six games out of first place, behind the Adamond Bruins, the only team in the TBL who has not won a championship (now that we have). The Bruins made a big splash last season prior to last season, signing Pitcher of the Year Aiden Montpetit, but they lost 101 games anyway. Montpetit is 9-0 with a 1.94 ERA this year, and their offense looks pretty good all of a sudden.

Lou Harte continued his strong start and is now hitting .329 with eight homers. Randy Rojo leads the team with 12 home runs. The back end of the rotation turned things around and the starting five have a 3.89 ERA overall, not too bad.

We sustained two major injuries in the month... Michael Schneider needed surgery to remove a bone spur in his elbow, and will miss 4-5 months. It's possible he'll be back for October, time will tell. And Nate Bambrick tore his PCL and will miss the rest of the year. This gave me the opportunity to plug Wyatt Cox into the lineup at long last, and also to call up Luis Del Rosario.

I selected high schooler Rick Pugh with the #16 overall pick in the draft; Pugh projects as a very good hitter, though probably will ultimately be limited to first base.

[jaa36]

The highlight of the month was an easy one: a no-hitter by journeyman Josiah Willey, who shut out the Wonderwood Monarchs 4-0 on June 22 to move the Warriors to 41-31 and just four games behind the Bruins. But then calamity- Bryant dropped six in a row, and lost starters Felix Rodriguez and Mark Green to injuries for the next several months. We're now eight games out of first place- this would be a big gap to make up, though I think the Warriors are a better team than the Bruins when at full strength.

Lou Harte remains a bright spot in the lineup, with a .329 average, 13 homers and 45 RBI. The starting pitching has held up OK despite the loss of 3/5 of the starting rotation, with Lucio Montoya and Rocky Long still providing good innings.

I'm hoping to sign Iweke Kinyanjui, a 16-year-old out of Nyambe. Kinyanjui could be a top-of-the-order threat and appears able to play anywhere in the infield.

[jaa36]

The Warriors ran their losing streak to an unfortunate 11 games, dropping below .500 before finally collecting a win. We found all kinds of ways to lose, starting with terrible offense (scoring 11 runs in the first 8 games) to horrendous pitching (giving up 23 runs in the last two). Finally we came back from a five-run deficit to snap the streak, with Wyatt Cox putting us in the lead with a bases-clearing double. But the misery wasn't over, as we dropped seven of ten soon after that. Things have turned around, though, as we're now on a six-game winning streak.. the team was all over the map this month.

Cox was selected as the Rookie of the Month, hitting .306 with seven homers and 19 RBI. Salomon Acevedo, not usually much of a power hitter, slammed eight home runs in the month. Lucio Montoya helped to hold the rotation together with a 3.20 ERA, though veteran Payton Baxendale (added in the wake of our various injuries) slogged through a miserable 8.19-ERA month. Montoya, the injured Michael Schneider, Nicky Willey, Randy Rojo and Lou Harte were all selected to the All-Star game.

We are now 13 games behind the Adamond Bruins- so likely to be sellers at the deadline unless things change dramatically. We did get Nyambean infielder Iweka Kinyanjui, who became our #84 prospect. Around the league, the Bruins saw 43-year-old third baseman Naum Mills move into second place all-time on the home run leaderboard with 582. He's still 41 behind Odie Johnson for the top spot, but Adamond signed Mills to a three-year deal despite his advanced age, though it's possible he makes it. Also, Hayden Hailey of the Patrick Legends collected his 4000th career hit and is within spitting distance of the all-time record of 4132 by Doug French. Hailey is 38 and still going strong, with a .361 average this year, raising his career average to a remarkable .354.

[jaa36]

The Warriors suffered through another six-game losing streak and went just 11-16 overall in August, en route to a 63-66 record overall. We're obviously cooked for this year and the Adamond Bruins have the division well in hand, with a 15-game lead.

Lou Harte had another strong month, with a .411 OBP and 5 home runs, though no one else really did much of anything on offense. Rocky Long had four wins and a 3.10 ERA, though the rest of the pitching staff struggled.

I shopped Alfonzo Trevino, Morlock Besic and Payton Baxendale, but not much was offered in return. I also considered dealing infielders Lawrence Munoz or Cecil Fraser- both serviceable role players- and to my surprise, the latter brought back last year's Player of the Year Toby Younger as an option in return. Younger was spectacular last year for the Freeton Crusaders, hitting .377 with 61 doubles, 30 home runs, 139 RBI and 8.7 WAR. He's fallen back to earth this season (as have the Crusaders), hitting just .280 with 13 homers, but his raw ratings remain excellent. He'll make around $19M next year in his final season before free agency- and 2004 will give us a chance to sign him to a long-term deal, or trade him away at the deadline if we fall out of contention again. His personality leaves a bit to be desired- "He is disruptive among teammates and cares only for himself"- but talent trumps alone on the Warriors. Younger pushes Wyatt Cox out of the starting lineup for now (though he may be trade bait in the offseason), and dealing Fraser allows longtime top prospect Luis Del Rosario to start at third base.

The Marsh Heroes have opened up a five-game lead in the TBL West. Tim Adams of the Silverley Mustangs is hitting .396 and has a chance to become the second player in the TBL to hit .400.

[jaa36]

The Warriors put together a winning month during garbage time, going 14-11 in September. Nicky Willey won the Player of the Month, hitting .350 with an outstanding 14 home runs and 31 RBI, including a stretch of eight homers in eight games. Willey is now tied for second in the TBL with 6.5 WAR. Lou Harte had a solid month as well, with a .441 OBP and 22 RBI. Toby Younger hit .330 in his first month with the first month. Meanwhile, Lucio Montoya pitched reasonable well but was saddled with four losses anyway.

The Bruins have 14-game lead and have wrapped up the Eastern Conference- this will be only their second playoff appearance in franchise history, and the first since 1951- and will complete their worst-to-first effort after losing 101 games last season. In the West, the Marsh Heroes have frittered away their lead and are tied with the Stephens Rattlers at 84 wins.

Humphrey Blow of the Silverley Mustangs is up to 54 home runs, which is just three off the all-time single-season record with eight games to go. And the Mustangs' Tim Adams remains at a .396 average.

[jaa36]

The Warriors went just 3-5 in October to finish the season below .500, at 80-82. This was good for a tie for fourth in the TBL East- a whopping 17 games out of first place. Tough fall from grace for Bryant. Nicky Willey remained hot through the rest of the season to end up atop the WAR leaderboard at 7.0.

In the West, the race between the Marsh Heroes and the Stephens Rattlers was won by... the Patrick Legends. Patrick came back from four games down with seven to play, winning the last seven in a row to finish a game in from of both Marsh and Stephens.

Both of the Mustangs' hitters fell short in their quests for individual glory. Humphrey Blow was held homerless in the last five games of the season to end at 56, second-best all-time, and the most since Niculao Olivares hit 57 in 1937. Tim Adams finished at .396, also second-best in history, and the highest since Joshua Boffin hit .404 in 1960. The Bruins' Naum Mills finished the season with 26 home runs and 590 in his career. Freeton's Hayden Hailey finished with a .357 average and 248 hits to finish the year with 4091- he should easily break the record of 4132 next season.

[jaa36]

The Adamond Bruins won the championship in six games over the Patrick Legends, becoming the second consecutive team to win their first TBL championship. The Bruins got ten hits from second baseman Yves Ouimette, who won the MVP.

Adamond had both the Player of the Year in outfielder T.J. Deel, though Deel missed the entirety of the postseason with a fractured cheekbone, and the Pitcher of the Year in Aiden Montpetit. Deel finished with a .332 average, 48 home runs, 146 RBI, and 7.0 WAR. Montpetit won his second award by going 20-7 with a 2.22 ERA and 7.5 WAR. Syd Duke of the Wal Titans won the Rookie of the Year (.301/33/112) and Blaine Young of the Wonderwood Monarchs was Reliever of the Year (10-5, 33 saves, 1.47).

Lou Harte won the Platinum Stick at DH for the Warriors.

[jaa36]

We finished with a positive run differential, but still lost more than we won. And obviously finishing 17 games out is nothing to be too proud of... season score was just 220.

Bench coach Del Miller and trainer Kellen Holland both retired after the season. I brought AAA manager Justin Charles up as the new bench coach and brought in trainer Ari Helton (who spent the last eight years in Terra City).

Successes:
1. Nicky Willey. The veteran was on fire for the last few months of the season and paid off on our extension, scoring 124 runs, with a .397 OBP, 33 home runs, 97 RBI and 7.0 WAR.
2. Lou Harte. Having left the shackles of the outfield behind him, Harte had easily his best season with the bat, reaching base 44% of the time, including 60 extra-base hits. His OPS of 1.016 was the second-best mark of all time for the Warriors.
3. Wyatt Cox. The rookie's power clearly translated to the big leagues, as he hit 22 home runs in half a season's work, even though he lost his starting job to Toby Younger.
4. Lucio Montoya and Rocky Long. Provided solid innings as the rest of the rotation went up in flames.
5. Josiah Willis. Well, there was that no-hitter...

Failures:
1. Morlock Besic. Made me besic to my stomach whenever he was on the mound this season.
2. Payton Baxendale. I have no idea how we gave him 18 starts... it just kind of happened.
3. Loran Hamrick. The breakout star of the last few seasons and TBL Championship Series MVP fell back to earth and find himself out of a starting job soon.
4. Luis Del Rosario. Not a very impressive debut for the former #1 overall prospect. Del Rosario played great in AAA, hitting .330, so there's room for optimism here.

Top prospect Miguel Bello struggled in both Tavistock and Belltown, but he's only 20, so much more is expected in the upcoming years. And B.J. Pallister was a similar story to Del Rosario, mashed in AAA but struggled in the bigs. Zach Traa looks poised to join the club as a super-sub next season.

We have an incredible 17 players eligible for arbitration this season. Many of them will not be with us next season...

[jaa36]

This year's selection to the Hall of Fame is shortstop Chuck Phillips. The native of Braemar, Dundee was signed by the Marsh Heroes as an amateur free agent in 1974, and advanced through the minors, making his debut with the Heroes five years later at the age of 21. Phillips soon became recognized as one of the top shortstops in baseball with the glove, winning three Gold Glove awards and remaining a plus defender at a the position all the way until the age of 40. While he wasn't much of a hitter for average, he had decent power, and really shined on the basepaths, with his 502 stolen bases and 135 triples both ranking second all-time in the TBL. In 1984, he led the Heroes into the postseason, and the following season he won the Player of the Year, hitting .285 with 115 runs scored, 56 extra-base hits, and 48 stolen bases. In 1987, Phillips helped Marsh win its first championship in 63 years. He spent twelve seasons total with the club before departing for the Crestmont Bobcats. While he only made two all-star appearances, his 74 WAR rank third all-time among shortstops.

[jaa36]

Valoria defeated Palesway two games to one to win the 2004 ABC. This was Valoria's 29th championship, the most of any nation. Valoria was 10-1 in round robin play, while Palesway was 9-2. Lucio Montoya and Sancho Villanueva both competed for Valoria, with Montoya tossing a one-run complete game to win game two. Felix Rodriguez took the loss in the deciding game for Palesway. Montoya was 3-0 with a 2.45 ERA overall in the tournament.

Among other Warriors, Lou Harte hit .333 with 3 home runs, while Nate Bambrick had a .422 OBP and also homered three times.

[jaa36]

The acquisition of Toby Younger put us into budgetary crisis- so there were no big free agent pickups this year. Our only major-league free agent deal was $1M for lefty reliever Ben Roland, a 33-year-old with a 3.45 career ERA. We were forced to cut our spending on scouting and player development- which I'm OK with as I think our window to win again may be relatively narrow. We have Younger, Michael Schneider, Lou Harte, Nicky Willey, Lucio Montoya and Rocky Long all in the final years of their guaranteed contracts.

Alfonzo Trevino chose to leave rather than play a fourth season for us at $7M- he was rewarded with a two-year deal worth just $6M total, so the joke was on him. Trevino finished his Warriors career with a 2.57 ERA and 93 saves, so he earned his $21M for us. He's got 375 career saves, and at age 33, has a decent chance to break the all-time record of 459.

With a glut of good players at 1B/DH (Younger, Nate Bambrick, Lou Harte) I shopped the frequently-slighted Wyatt Cox and got a few good pitchers offered in return. I ended up picking 26-year-old Nadif Aduah, a Nyambean native who posted a 14-8 record and 3.71 ERA last season with the Sidney City Scorpions. Aduah should help to stabilize the rotation a bit. I rounded out the pitching staff with a rule 5 pick, Munemitsu Hiraki, from the Marsh Heroes. The 22-year-old Hiraki is the #90 overall prospect.

Montoya traveled to India to visit the famous guru Vishnu Hitmehard. Fortunately, he reported feeling "amazing" upon his return.

We'll start the season with everyone healthy. B.J. Pallister will take over in the outfield for Salomon Acevedo. And Luis Del Rosario will finally start at third base- with Zach Traa victim of the numbers game and going back down to Clayton for a bit.

With the graduation of Del Rosario, Traa, Pallister and Cox, we fell to sixth overall in the farm system rankings. Miguel Bello retains his spot as the #1 prospect overall and will start at AA Belltown. Tyler Hollis, our 2002 international signing, is #27 overall.

Amusingly, the pundits have the Adamond Bruins falling back to last place this season in the preseason predictions. We are projected to win 93 games and regain our place at the top of the standings. Keith Little expects us to win it all again.

[jaa36]

The Warriors are off to a blistering start in 2004, with a 17-5 record. That puts us a full five games in front of the TBL East, which is a nice cushion to have in the early going. The pitching has been absolutely dominant, as we've allowed just 61 runs in 22 games, led by Lucio Montoya, who's got a league-leading 0.98 ERA. Felix Rodriguez has given us a nice comeback from a lackluster 2023, with 1.4 WAR already. The offense has been pretty good too, with the top four hitters in the lineup all hitting .300 or better, led by B.J. Pallister's .341 mark. Luis Del Rosario has been a disappointment thus far, hitting just .169.

[jaa36]

Things got even better in May as the Warriors went on a spectacular 12-game winning streak that included three extra-inning victories, two of which came on walk-off homers by Lou Harte and Nicky Willey. We ran our record all the way up to 35-7 before dropping five games in a row near the end of the month. We're now eight games in front of the Sidney City Scorpions for the conference lead.

This time it was the offense's turn to shine. Toby Younger hit a torrid .366 with 16 extra-base hits and 17 RBI. Lou Harte pounded eight home runs and drove in 18. B.J. Pallister had a .440 on-base percentage at the top of the lineup. And on the mound, Nasif Aduah was dominant, with a 5-1 record and 2.66 ERA.

Adding a moment of levity to the month, catcher Hideaki Ando (a 3-time former All-Star picked up as a minor league free agent in the offseason) went on the IL for two weeks after injuring himself trying to tear a phone book in half.

We selected college pitcher Kevin Johnson with the #8 overall pick in the draft. The left-handed Johnson could end up as part of the rotation in the future, though I'm not sure we have enough money in the budget to sign him...

Around the league, Hayden Hailey of the Legends blew past Doug French for the career hits lead and now has 4146, and he looks like he's got plenty more in the tank. Unfortunately, Naum Mills of the Bruins is hitting just .179 with 5 homers and looks cooked- he's at 595 home runs.