The Around the Horn League (AtHoL)

[luckymann]

... loads more fun when you're on the right side of them.

[luckymann]

Our pitching - and I am being incredibly generous here - has been in the toilet all season, especially our bullpen which simply cannot hold small leads and has an ERA of over 5, second worst in the league.

With no improvement seemingly in sight, I take matters into my own hands with this trade:



We had to give up a promising young pitcher in McHenry and losing Aybar exposes us at the infield corners, but Scherzer is a gun who I am looking to not just for his on-field exploits but off-field as well, with his presence and professionalism hopefully rubbing off on the others. The other two relievers will also come in handy, with Seelbach deployed immediately and Tuivailala for down the track.

We've played well enough this month - by which, I mean our offence has - to get back in touch with the leaders and WC group. Hopefully this solidifies our group and keeps us headed in the right direction. With the Draft not far off we'll be looking to plug some more holes in the group.

[luckymann]

... a rare (in fact, the AtHoL's first) 6-hit game by the big 1B.

[luckymann]

... with some what I think are pretty good moves for our club.





What the acquisitions of Penny and Billingham most importantly do is give me more confidence to use our first two or three picks in the upcoming Draft on position players by shoring up our pitching ranks. Storke was problematic off-field and underperforming on, Hibbard just a mess on the hill and the other two nothing but filler.



This final one started out as me looking for a LH reliever to replace Hibbard and then became a bit bigger. I'm not quite sure how Castilla - who looks a great prospect and will help us immediately backing up 3B - was so readily available, but I'm certainly glad he was. Tillman is a better pitcher than Prim, but that's what it took to get the deal over the line and I'm OK with that. He has been horrible this year (0-4, 12.54).

[luckymann]

[luckymann]

First no-no for the year.

[luckymann]

... in a season that has already seen its fair share of them.

[luckymann]

... almost went to waste.

[luckymann]

... details of the realignment foregrounded a few weeks back.

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[luckymann]

The lads have made a herculean effort this past month to drag us atop the Flood Band standings after putting together a 17-8 June.

Our hitting stayed strong (albeit with still next to no power, our 17 HR ranking next-to-last in the LA) but it was a marked improvement in our pitching that was most to do with the turnaround. The addition of Scherzer has been huge.





We went some way toward redressing our power void by taking Johnny Mize with our first pick in the Draft. He'll play CF v RHP and 1B v LHP, and hit cleanup with Chapman slotting down to 5. Paul Lo Duca was another handy pick-up and these are the only two who'll see much active duty this season unless injuries or poor form strike. Still, we managed to fill a few gaps for today and tomorrow and the Third Base squad should be a fairly competitive one.

Our 12 Draft picks were, in order:

1. 1B Johnny Mize
2. C Paul Lo Duca
3. IF Bill Hall
4. P Mike Leake
5. C Bill Merritt
6. SS Dick Cole
7. P Fred Beene
8. IF Cris Colon
9. OF Trevor Crowe
10. OF Fernando Perez
11. P Wayne Edwards
12. P Al Maul

While we're still a bit plodding on the paths for my liking, I think these additions round off our active squad for now quite nicely. From here it is a matter of figuring out the best composition of our broader playing group, who are the keepers and who are not. Another couple seasons before FA kicks in fully and budgetary concerns become more pressing, so we need to use that time productively to set up the franchise moving forward.

[luckymann]

... wasted.

[luckymann]

... actually, I lie - it took him 97 pitches.

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... with the Band races looking primed to be real close and with a couple players' performances just not panning out as we'd hoped when we acquired them earlier this year, I do some more tweaking. I think (hope? pray?) these two moves make us a better club now without costing us much longer-term. Greinke for Trout is a virtual career wash but with a short-term improvement, while the upgrade from Ford to Moon costs us a couple decent prospects.

[luckymann]

... a nice day out for Bourjos with a couple solo shots to boot in a 14-inning game.

[luckymann]

[luckymann]

The 1948 Chicago American Giants are, to coin the vernacular of the modern day, a hot mess.

Here are some high- and lowlights.

• 318 BA and 617 runs scored - both 2nd in the LA
• 26 HR - last in the LA (Homestead's Jim Baxes, the league's individual leader in this category, has 24...)
• 4.19 ERA 5th in the LA
• 21 SB - next-to-last in the LA (the two individual leaders each have 67...)
• -15.6 ZR - 14th in the LA
• 154 errors - next-to-last in the LA
• 39-18 at home / 19-35 on the road

Our penultimate game of the month pretty much tells you all you need to know about this group's rather manic collective personality and erratic on-field performance.





Despite all of which, we are just 2 games out of first in our division and currently ensconced in the WC2 spot. Go figure.

But, reliant as we are on high numbers of slappy hits - you couldn't even call it smallball, given our lack of speed - and vulnerable as we are by dint of our lethal combination of contact pitchers and porous infielders, I'm not sure our game plan as it stands is built to survive the rigours of the end-part of a season.

We, obviously, shall see if I am correct in this assessment.

I do, however, think we have the makings of a good squad in a year or two. If we can tighten up our defence and get our pitching staff to be more reliable and consistent, I reckon we'll go OK.

Here's the full tale of the tape to this point.






Here are the current standings, leaders and individual awards for July.







Full league update at the All-Star Break in a couple weeks or so.

[luckymann]

... a couple of the league's marquee players have a day in the sun.