Fixing the Marlins!

[ayaghmour2]

Hello everyone! I've been playing OOTP for years now, and have been in a few online leagues, but I've never done a dynasty report and thought it'd be fun since I've enjoyed reading others, so maybe someone will enjoy mine.

First, a little bit about myself. My name is Anthony, and I am a huge Blue Jays fan. Living in Florida, however, I've seen the total destruction of the Marlins, and I thought it would be a fun challenge to try and win the Marlins their 3rd World Series using the brand new OOTP 19 and the current rosters. I generally have good success in my solo leagues, but who knows how this one will play out.

Next, the rules of the game. So obviously, I'm taking over the Marlins, but the universe I'm using is the current 2018 rosters, with full minors, but not international or independent leagues to keep the file size down a bit. All the affiliations are the same, so I have AAA New Orleans, AA Jacksonville, A+ Jupiter, A Greensboro, A- Batavia, R Miami GCL, and R Miami DSL. The roster limits are as followed; AAA, AA, A+, A: 25; A-: 30, R: 40 (DSL is 35 with only Dominican's allowed).

Next come the player settings. I have injuries set on High (current day settings) with the occasional delayed diagnosis. Suspensions are on low and if drug suspensions occur, I will add an injury "Suspension" for 100 days so teams can remove them from their active roster like in real life, since I don't think OOTP has a restricted list. Other then that, most of the settings are the same as the default.

Ratings are on a 1-100 scale, with stars as the overall rating. Scouts are turned on and so are coaches. Owner goals are enabled as well, but I can't be fired as the goal here is to help rebuild the Marlins.

The Amateur Pool will be 40 rounds like in real life, with 60 rounds worth of players developed. The pool is 93.97% American, 3.52% Puerto Rican, and 2.51% Canadian (0% Random). I turned off Independent League Free Agents, but International Established Free Agents are set to default (10 per year), International Amateur Free Agents are set to more (60 per year), International Scouting Discoveries are set to default (11 per team, per year), and the International Amateur system uses a hard cap of $5,000,000. All the international player settings are kept on default.

Financials are kept the same, but inflation is set from 2%-4% each year and automatic evolution of league is turned off. Everything else is kept at default, but can change at some point. Later on today I'll try to make my first post, and then I plan on posting daily, running about a week or two per day.

Today marks a big day, the beginning of the fixing of the Marlins!

The Process So Far:
2018: 58-104, .358, 5th, 37 GB
2019: 79-83, .488, 4th, 19 GB
2020: 80-82, .494, 4th, 17 GB
2021: 93-69, .574, 2nd, 13 GB: Lost WC Game to Chicago
2022: 92-71, .564, 3rd, 2.5 GB: Lost WC Game to New York
2023: 96-66, .593, 1st, 5 GA: Lost NLCS to San Diego
2024: 92-70, .568, 2nd, 2 GB: WON WS AGAINST BALTIMORE 4-1!
2025: 94-68, .580, 2nd, 6 GB: Lost NLDS to Atlanta
2026: 97-65, .599, 1st, 6 GA: Lost NLDS to Arizona
2027: 97-65, .599, 2nd, 5 GB: Lost WC Game to Washington
2028: 100-62, .617, 1st, 7 GA: Lost NLDS to St. Louis...
2029: 96-66, .593, 1st, 7 GA: Lost NLCS to Chicago
2030: 99-63, .611, 1st, 7 GA: WON WS AGAINST BALTIMORE 4-0!!!

[ayaghmour2]

So the quickstart begins on March 27th, two days before opening day, so I have very little time to get the team ready for opening day.

As one would expect, there really isn't much talent on the major league roster. A trio of 3 star relievers headline the bullpen and the rotation is as abre as can be. The vastly underrated J.T. Realmuto sits as a 3* according to my scout with Justin Bour (3) and Starlin Castro (2.5) the only other viable sources of offense. Lewis Brinson has decent potential (3.5), but I find him to be underrated as well.

With a little over $10,000,000 to spend, I browsed the free agent pool for any hidden gems I could pick up. I decided to make offers on a pair of lefty relievers, Kevin Chapman (2.5) and Joe Thatcher (2.5). Chapman demanded a minor league contract with major league option of $1,500,000, Thatcher the same. I looked to Alex Cobb (1.5) and Brett Anderson (2) for the rotation. Cobb demanded a minor league contract with a major league option of $1,200,000, can't even imagine him settling for that little in real life, and he was without the compensation tag. Anderson wanted what Chapman and Thatcher demanded.

There were a few interesting minor league free agents. 19-year-old Venezuelan Tulio Garcia (0.5/3) who wanted a minor league deal with a $440,000 bonus, 24-year-old Jairo Labourt (1.5/3), a former Tigers pitcher with 6 innings of big league experience. Next was 24-year-old Lucas Benenati (0.5/2.5), a relief pitcher who was a 10th round selection of the Reds back in 2016. Tracy Hadley (0.5/2.5) was a former White Sox farmhand who can play 2B, 3B, SS, LF, CF, and RF (can easily be taught 1B) and is only 22. The last free agent to recieve an offer was 29-year-old Reid Redman. He's a former Marlins farmhand who was offered a conract to resign. Labourt, Benenati, Hadley, and Redman all demanded no bonus with their minor league contract.

With all the free agent deals offered, I shifted gears to the trade front. I went to the team needs section and added a few needs that hopefully make it easier to trade with the AI. The first, any 23 year old or younger with at least good potential. Next, an average starting pitcher making $2 million or less who is 28 or younger. I needed to make additions to the rotation no matter what, and I'd much rather add controllable assets then rental veterans who won't help when the Marlins should be good. Next was a minor league speedster. And finally, a minor league groundballer. I set both age maxes to 25, hoping that I can find a gem that my scout likes and the opponents team has no interest in. Although I know I'm going to get a bunch of garbage trade offers that I will gladly decline, and I am more then okay with that.

Now that I was acquainted with my staff, including my scout who's pretty solid, I was ready to begin the season. Although I'm not too sure the small, pathetic, 35 fan interest fan base is as ready and excited as I am.

March 28th: The Rangers GM asked me if I was interested in Julio Pablo Martinez, who I was, he was a solid 3 star potential center fielder, but I wasn't quite ready to make deals unless they were necessary.

The Angels and Tigers, however, didn't care, as the Angels sent 1B Jefry Marte to the Tigers for C Derek Norris. At first I thought the Norris was Daniel Norris, and thought the Tigers were crazy.

Sidenote: OOTP expanded the top prospects from 20 to 30 for the 19 edition. This made me very happy.

March 29th: Opening Day!!! I wasn't going to start games at this moment, but I reached the day we all know and love.

For some reason owner Bruce Sherman expects us to play .500 ball. I don't think that's a reasonable expectation, but oh well.

Reid Redman liked other minor league offers better, so I threw him $100. Beat that Cubs. Speaking of the Cubs, that's who we were forced against to start the year.

With the beginning of the MLB season, the list of top 100 prospects was published. The Marlins, with their nice 21st ranked system had three entries on the list. RF Lewis Brinson (#36, 2.5/4), CF Monte Harrison (#91, 0.5/3), and SP Trevor Rogers (#97 0.5/2). Ronald Acuna was #1 overall, and boy did he look amazing. Not excited to face him in Atlanta for years to come. The only other notable Marlin prospect was SP Braxton Garrett (#126, 0.5/2), but he will miss 4 months recovering from Tommy John surgery. 2B Isan Diaz, are 5th ranked prospect also looks pretty nice (0.5/3.5), but there really isn't much of anything to look foward to in the minors. Other then Diaz, OSA or my scout doesn't have anyone in the farm with a potential above 3 stars. Excellent.

The waiver wire was surprisingly empty, but I did offer 18 year old Luis Noguera a minor league contract with a $440,000 bonus. The Venezuelan starter was recently released by Coloardo, but looked nice in my scouts eyes (0.5/2.5).

The sorry opening day roster was as followed:
Position Name (Age, Overall/Potential)
SP Adam Conley (27, 2/2)
SP Odrisamer Despaigne (30, 0.5/0.5)
SP Dillon Peters (25, 2/2)
SP Dan Straily (29, 1.5/1.5)
SP Jose Urena (26, 2/2)
RP Kyle Barraclough (27, 3/3)
RP Brian Ellington (27, 2/2)
RP Jalrin Garcia (25, 1/1.5)
RP Junichi Tazawa (31, 2/2)
RP Nick Wittgren (26, 2/2.5)
RP Brad Ziegler (38, 3/3)
CL Drew Steckenridge (27, 3/3.5)
C Bryan Holaday (30, 0.5/0.5)
C J.T. Realmuto (27, 3/3)
1B Justin Bour (29, 3/3)
1B Garrett Cooper (27, 1.5/1.5)
2B Starlin Castro (28, 2.5/2.5)
2B Johnny Giavotella (30, 0.5/0.5)
3B Martin Prado (34, 1.5/1.5)
SS Miguel Rojas (29, 1.5/1.5)
LF Derek Dietrich (28, 2.5/2.5)
LF Rafael Ortega (26, 0.5/0.5)
CF Issac Galloway (28, 0.5/1)
CF Cameron Maybin (30, 1.5/1.5)
RF Lewis Brinson (23, 2.5/4)

[ayaghmour2]

March 29th, 2018: Here we go! Opening day as the Miami Marlins and rookie Dillon Peters (Are sorry excuse for an ace) faces off against the 2016 World Series Champion Chicago Cubs and surprise Opening Day starter Jose Qunitana (not Darvish? Or Lester? Or even Hendricks!?!?).

As expected, the Cubs pulled ahead and one an easy game, 4-1. They added a run in each of the first two innings, before the Marlins added one in the 4th. Then in the 5th, Anthony Rizzo hit a 2 run homer off Brian Ellington. to end the scoring there. The Cubs outhit the Marlins 12-4.

Peters only went 3.1 innings before picking up an injury, shoulder inflmmation that would cost him 6 days. It's day to day, but I may have to place him on the DL and call up a AAA scrub to pick up his next start. He allowed 6 hits and 2 runs, while striking out four and picking up the loss. Ellington allowed 2 on 2 hits in the next 1.2 innings, but he struck out 2. Then Nick Wittgren went 2 without allowing a run, followed by Brad Ziegler and schokingly closer Drew Stecknrider (don't know what Mattingly was thinking) each adding a scorless frame. All three got a strikeout, while Ziegler allowed 2 hits compared to 1 each from the others.

Offensively not too much happened. J.T. Realmuto tripled and drove in a run, going 1-for-4. Starlin Castro scored on the Realmuto fielder choice after him and Justin Bour singled. Miguel Rojas picked up the final hit. Realmuto added a stolen base in the 5th. Nothing else to write home about.

Qunitana pitched a solid 6.2 innings for the cubs, allowing all 4 hits, the run, four walks, and adding 3 strikeouts. The Marlins pitchers didn't walk a single Cub. Carl Edwards Jr. and Justin Wilson picked up holds while Brandon Morrow earned the first save of his season. Addison Russell went 3-for-5 with a run scored and Kris Bryant and Ben Zobrist had 2 hit efforts.

I'm expecting a lot of games like this.

March 30th, 2018: A lot of guys decided to sign, RP Joe Thatcher, RP Lucas Benenati, SP Brett Anderson, SP Alex Cobb, RP Kevin Chapman, RP Jairo Labourt, RF Tulio Garcia (who's potential already dropped), and RF Tracy Hadley. I had a ton of room on my 40 man roster, so Anderson, Cobb, Chapman, and Thatcher were called up, raising the 40 man total to 30.

To make room for these guys, Dillon Peters was placed on the 10-Day-DL, Odrisamer Despaigne, Jarlin Garcia, and Brian Ellington were optioned to AAA New Orleas to make room.

I had to rearrange my minors a bit to make up for it, and i was sitting on 80 players in GCL. For some reason the Marlins had a lot of extra guys to start with. RP Tyler Cloyd was realeased. He wasn't ready for AA and was 30. RP Esmerling De La Rosa was released as well. I didn't want a 26 year old in A- and he didn't really show any promise.

Jose Urena was set to take the mound against Yu Darvish for game two of the opening series in Miami. Miami did a bit better today, losing 4-2. Ben Zobrist scored in the 1st off a hit by pitch, and then in the 3rd Kyle Schwarber went deep for his first homer of the year. Wilson Contreras singled off Kyle Barraclough in the 7th, and then Albert Almora drove in the final Cub run in the 8th. In the bottom of the 8th, Garrett Cooper hit a two run triple, scoring Martin Prado and Miguel Rojas. But that was all the Marlins could muster as Carl Edwards Jr. finished the 8th for Justin Wilson and Brandon Morrow picked up his second save with a 1-2-3 ninth.

Urena couldn't get out of the 4th, allowing 2 runs on 3 hits. He walked 3 and struck out six cubs. His conuterpart Darvish went 7, allowing only 2 hits and a walk while striking out 9 in his much anticipated Cubs debut. Junichi Tazawa and Brad Ziegler were also charged with runs for the Marlins. Castro and Rojas are the only Marlins with hits in both games.

The waiver wire had some interesting players, including 44-year-old Bartolo Colon. I laid claim on Boston lefty Brian Johnson who could be a solid starter. In 6 MLB starts he's 2-1 with a 4.88 ERA, but he's 27 and a decent 2 star pitcher who throws from a 3/4 arm slot. I also placed a claim on speedy utility guy Hernan Perez from the Brewers. I personally really like him and he's a great guy off the bench, but he does come with a $1,975,000 salary that is a lot for the Marlins pocketbooks to handle. But again, he can play every position except catcher and of course, pitcher.

March 31st, 2018: A pair of arms signed, lefty Luis Noguera and righty Reid Redman. I released 29-year-old Drew Rucinski. He's had a few brief MLB trips, but a 7.23 ERA in 18.2 innings and his ratings aren't that good either.

Game 3 took place between lefty Jon Lester and new acquisition right hander Alex Cobb. Again, the Marlins got closer, this time losing 3-2, dropping to a nice 0-3 start with one more against the Cubs tommorow. Rizzo hit a solo homer in the 1st to welcome Cobb to Miami. Ex-Cub Starlin Castro hit a 2-run single off Lester in the 6th, driving in pinch hitter Garrett Cooper (he's 2-for-2 with a single and triple) and CF Issac Galloway. The lead wouldn't last, as Kyle Barraclough allowed a 2 run double to Albert Almora. Him and Rizzo both have 3 RBI's on the season. The Marlins tried to answer back in the 7th, but pinch hitter Johnny Giavotella lined out to end the inning, and Lester's day. Pedro Strop and Brian Duensing picked up holds and Brandon Morrow earned save number 3.

Cobb had a nice debut, going 6 and allowing just the 1 run off 3 while striking out 3. Tazawa had 2 solid innings of relief to end the game, although he walked 2 but didn't allow a run or a hit. Galloway went 2-for-4 in his major league debut with a 6th inning double. Castro and Rojas both picked up hits again, Rojas with a 7th inning 2 out double with Martin Prado ahead of him. Kevin Chapman made his Marlin debut, getting the final out of the 7th on 10 pitches for Barraclough.

Around the league, Michael Brantley went 5-for-5 against the Mariners, who still topped the Indians 6-5. He was a triple away from the cycle, with a pair of doubles and singles to go with the homer. Reclamation project Tim Lincecum flamed out after just 0.2 innings, tearing his flexor tendon and will now miss the rest of the season. He allowed a run and struck out a batter for Texas.

April 1st, 2018: After this, we'd finally be done with the Cubs, for now. Kyle Hendricks took the mound against former Cub starter and new Marlin Brett Anderson. I told manager Don Mattingly to replace the 0-for-11 Lewis Brinson with 2-for-2 Garrett Cooper. He'd hit 6th and play rightfield. We lost 5-3, with the Cubs completing the road sweep, but Cooper went 2-for-4 and scored twice, so that's a win in my book.

We started the scoring with a run in the 3rd, but the Cubs tied it in the top of the 5th. Miguel Rojas doubled off Hendricks, scoring one and giving the Marlins a 2-1 lead. The Cubs quickly tied it with a Kyle Scwarber single off new Marlin Joe Thatcher. For some reason Thatcher wanted to come back for a 3rd, and then eventual 4th inning, as he allowed a Wilson Contreras 2 run homer in the top of the 7th. We scored one more in the bottom to make it 4-3, but Thatcher allowed a run scoring single to Addison Russell, ending the scoring at 5-3. Morrow was too tired I guess, and Justin Wilson earned the save today.

So why did Joe Thatcher pitch 4 innings of relief? Brett Anderson only went 1.2 innings before leaving with an injury. Nick Wittgren grabbed 2.1 innings of mop up, striking out 3 and allowing not a single hit or walk. The pen was gassed, so Thatcher, the lefty specialist, needed the 4 innings before turning it over to Kevin Chapman in the 9th. We need a day off, but we have a 2-game series against Boston at home starting tommorow. Then we'll have the needed off day. We did manage 7 hits, but 5 of them were Cooper and Miguel Rojas. Rojas went 3-for-4 with his second double and a pair of RBI's. We still don't have a homer, so Brett Anderson (alphabetical) is listed as my teams' home run leader.

A sweep is never nice, but it's not like the Marlins are supposed to win, especially against a playoff team like the Cubs. We did play them hard though.

April 2nd, 2018: Brian Johnson and Hernan Perez were both officially claimed, and I added each to the 25-man roster. I placed Anderson on the DL, depsite not knowing the official diagnosis, and then optioned Issac Galloway to AAA. He was 2-for-4, but he didn't have any other MLB experience as a 28-year-old and I didn't have any other outfielder I could option. Johnson instantly became the staff ace and will start today against his former team. I wish the AI knew that Dan Straily, our 5th starter, could be used as a relief pitcher and since we had an off day on the 4th, but there's no way to tell my AI manager.

Johnson took on Jake Peavy and the 3-1 2017 American League East Champion Boston Red Sox. Johnson is now on the right side of the matchup, as the Marlins pulled off the 6-2 upset to pick up their first win of the season. I got to say, our pitching has been pretty great so far.

We started this game off strong, as Derek Dietrich hit the first Marlin homer of the year, and it couldn't have come at a much better time, with the bases loaded. The Red Sox got a run in the 3rd, but that was all untill the 7th when Starlin Castro gave the Marlins a 6-1 lead with a 2-run double off Carson Smith. The Red Sox managed one more in the 8th off Nick Wittgren, but that was all the scoring for today.

Johnson was great, even ace-like, going 7 strong, allowing just 1 run off 5 hits, no walks, and adding 7 strikeouts. Cameron Maybin was a monster, as the former Astro went 3-for-4 and scored twice, before leaving the game in the 8th for a better defensive center fielder. Castro and Dietrich, the run producer, both had a pair of hits while soring once. Rojas and Realmuto had the last of the 9 hits, as Rojas raised his average to .412, the best on the team.

After the game, I made a $440,000 minor league offer to 17-year-old Ronier Lascarro. My scout is fond of the young outfielder, rating him at 3.5 potential stars, although OSA isn't as kind. The former Ranger was released on the 29th of March. Dominican righty Jose Betances was also offered a minor league deal. The former Astro looked like he could become a decent big league starter, but he's still far off.

April 3rd, 2018: The Nationals were dealt a blow with star Daniel Murphey missing the rest of the year with a torn ACL. The Phillies lost young reliever Edubray Ramos to a torn flexor tendon, ending his season early. Boston added injured righty Trevor Rosenthal. The former Cardinal is recovering from Tommy John, but will sign a $3,280,000 contract to rehab with the Red Sox.

Our last game before a day off saw Adam Conley facing the scary lefty Chris Sale. The game looked good, as the Marlins were able to put up 3 runs on him in 6 innings, but everything fell apart in the 9th. Closer Drew Steckenrider allowed 4 runs, but only one was earned as the Red Sox won 4-3. A Miguel Rojas error cost the game, but I can't get too mad at the guy who went 1-for-2 with a walk and was hitting .421. Lewis Brinson woke up, and he went 3-for-4 with a homer and 2 RBI's. He had half our hits, were Brinson, and Bour and Prado picked up the final two. The Red Sox Mookie Betts was 3-for-3 after being awful coming in.

Adam Conley went 7 strong, allowing 3 of the only 4 Red Sox hits. They scored 4 runs off only 1 hit in the 9th... There were four walks, but still. Conley did allow 5 walks and struck out only 2, but he pitched as well as I could expect. Brad Ziegler also delivevered a 1-2-3 8th.

After the game I claimed "LA Swiftness" from the Braves. For those not familiar, as I was, that's OF Lane Adams. The speedy 28-year-old has elite RF defense and is passable in left and center. He's a career .265/.328/.451 hitter with 5 homers and 20 RBI's. His only meaningful playing time was last year, but he was pretty solid. He could replace Rafael Ortega as the 4th outfielder.

April 4th: Our first off day of the season was headlined by a pair of minor league signings, RHP Jose Betances and RF Ronier Lascarro. Betances looks like a middle of the rotation starter and Lascarro has 77 gap potential and 92 eye potential.

We traveled to Philadelphia today, set to play a series there before returning home to face the Mets. This was weird, we had one game against the Phillies, then an off day, and then two more. I've never seen a series structured like this that wasn't an opening series. I checked the real life Marlins schedule, and sure enough, that's exactly how it'll play out this year.

[ayaghmour2]

April 5th, 2018: The diagnosis was back on Brett Anderson and he has an ulnar nerve entrapment, which will cause him to miss 4-5 months. Good thing I put him on the DL ahead of time. I transfered him to the 60-Day DL, dropping the 40-man count to 31/40.

With our first away game of the season Jose Urena (0-1, 4.50 ERA) took on new Philly Jake Arrieta (0-1, 5.79). Hernan Perez and Rafael Ortega made their first starts of the season for us at 3B and CF respectively.

The now 3-4 Phillies took this game 7-1 as Arrieta was next to unhittable, going all 9 innings while only allowing 4 hits and he struck out 8. A homer by his former teammate Starlin Castro took him deep in the 4th for his first homer of the season.

Urena wasn't nearly as sharp, allowing 5 runs off 5 walks and 4 hits in 2.2 innings. He didn't record a single strike out. A base clearing double by SS J.P. Crawford in the 3rd was a big blow to his night. Kevin Chapman was tasked with mop up, but he allowed 2 runs in his 2.1 innings of work. It included a pair of hits and walks, but he struck out 4 Phillies hitters. Nick Wittgren (2 innings) and Junichi Tazawa (1 inning) finished off the game, each allowing no runs.

Miguel Rojas went hitless for the first time all season, going 0-for-4 with a strike out. Cameron Maybin picked up his 2nd steal of the year after coming into the game in the 6th as a pinch hitter for Chapman.

One interesting note to the game, Odubel Herrera left the game in the 4th, so the Phillies turned to veteran Jose Bautista, and stuck him in center field. He's definitley not center field material, but we didn't really make them hurt for the lack of defense in the middle of the outfield. And he did go 2-for-3 with a solo homer off Chapman in the 4th with one out.

April 6th, 2018: The troops were able to recover after the loss with an off day. My claim of the speedy Lane Adams went through, and I added him to the active roster. I ended up optioning the struggling Lewis Brinson down to AAA. He's by far are most valuable player, but he was hitting a mere .182/.217/.318 and he could use a little more seasoning in New Orleans to finish developing. Adams slotted into RF and took the 7th spot in the lineup.

The Tigers Francisco Liriano tore his UCL and will miss the rest of the season. He started one game, getting the loss. He lasted only 3 innings, allowing 7 hits, 2 walks, and 4 earned runs. He struck out 3 batters. In an online league I'm in, Frnacisco Lirinao is the best pitcher ever with a career ERA below 2 in almost 3 full seasons. He has over 1,000 career strikeouts and broke a ton of single season records for his amazing 2007 season. This Liriano, not nearly as good.

Doug Fister of the Rangers tossed a nice 3-hit shutout of the visiting Blue Jays in a 5-0 victory.

April 7th, 2018: Dan Straily hasn't pitched all year so I let him get the call against the young righty Vince Velasquez (0-1, 1.29 ERA). Lane Adams was set to make his Marlins debut, and the Phillies smartly started Aaron Altherr in CF to replace the incapacitated Herrera (Bautista moved to RF).

I was hoping the off day would help the struggling J.T. Realmuto. He was 1-for-4 with a double (he was caught stealing as well), but his average is a whopping .111. Great production from our star catcher.

And the rest of the Marlins weren't much better; the host Phillies put up 2 in the 1st. The Marlins answered back with 1 in the 6th, but Maikel Franco matched us with a solo shot off Junichi Tazawa, his third of the season. We scored another in the 7th, but fell apar in the 8th where the Phillies rallied for 5 insurance runs, pushing the lead to 8-2. Franco doubled in two off Brad Ziegler, finishing his day 3-for-4 with 2 runs and 4 RBI's to go along with the homer and double. He's now .433 on the season with 3 homers and 11 RBI's.

Vince Velasquez went 7 strong, allowing 4 hits and 2 runs with 6 punchouts and a walk. Hector Neris and Fernando Abad picked up holds, but no one needed to earn the save.

Straily wasn't bad in his season debut, going 5 and allowing only the 2 hits in the 1st and 2 runs. He did walk 6, a thing a lot of Marlins pitchers loved to do, but he did strike out 6. Tazawa struck out the side in the 6th, but allowed the homer. Ziegler and Nick Wittgren were torched in the 8th, Ziegler couldn't record an out and was charged with 3 runs (2 hits and a walk) while Wittgren got the 3 outs, two via the strikeout, but allowed a pair of runs and hits.

Justin Bour did have a 7th inning homer off Velasquez, but no Marlin recorded more then 1 hit. Garrett Gooper got another pinch hit and he's hitting .556 on the year. I might have to force him into the lineup to replace Derek Dietrich and his .107 average. I don't want to interfere too much with my manager, but eventually something might need to change.

New Marlin Lane Adams went 1-for-3 with a run scored, a walk, and a steal. His speed is a real weapon, rated 95 with 94 stealing.

April 8th, 2018: The Los Angeles Angels offered me a trade proposal, 19-year-old SS Nonie Williams for CL Drew Steckenrider. My assistant GM Michael hill said it didn't make much sense, and he was right. Williams was a nice 0.5* with 20 contact. OSA is a bit more fond of him then scout Stan Meek, but even they have him only as a 1.5. It was an easy rejection.

Lefty Brian Johnson (1-0, 1.29 ERA) was up against righty Nick Pivetta (0-0, 3.60 ERA) as the 1-7 Marlins looked to avoid a second sweep in this young campaign. We scored one in the 4th on a Justin Bour solo homer, his 2nd on the season and in 2 days. Rhys Hoskins quickly answered back with one of his own off Johnson in the 4th, but Derek Dietrich tripled in the 5th to give the Marlins a 2-1 lead. Bour wasn't done as he hit a 2-run homer in a 3 run 7th off Fernando Abad, although 1 of those runs and 2 in the inning were charged to Tommy Hunter. We added 1 more in the 8th of Luis A. Garcia and Nick Wittgren coughed up 1 in the bottom half. With a 6-2 lead in the 9th, Kyle Barraclough walked a runner and got an out, and with the runner in scoring positiong, Steckenrider finished off the game with a pair of outs (1 strike out) and earned his first save of the year.

Johnson turned in another strong outing, improving to 2-0 with a 1.38 ERA with 6 solid frames. He allowed only 1 run, 3 hits, and wlaked 2 while adding a trio of strikeouts. Pivetta on the other hand only lasted 4.2 innings and the Canadian allowed 6 hits and 3 walks, but only 2 runs, while striking out 7 Marlins.

Bour only had 2 hits, but the Phillies did walk him twice. He scored 3 times and produced 3 runs (two were himself). Stalin Castro, Hernan Perez, and Martin Prado all picked up 3 hits. Castro's were in 4 at bats, paired with a walk, a pair of RBI's, and a run scored. He also doubled twice. Prado and Perez had them in 5 at bats, and the former doubled, while the latter had all singles. Miguel Rojas hit his 3rd double of the year and Cameron Maybin hit his 1st. Both were 1-for-5 with a single run scored. Every Marlins position player who started the game had a hit. While only 4 Phillies had hits, and two of them were Cesar Hernandez (a double and single).

The offense actually woke up today and it was a nice win before heading home. Justin Bour gave me my first achievement, Double Dinger, which is pretty self explanatory.

April 9th, 2018: We were back home and Dillon Peters was ready to come off the DL. With my rotation pretty set as of now, I sent our young opening day starter to AAA to help him fill out. I released 26 year old Jeff Brigham who was in Greensboro and would've been sent down to A- Batavia. The former Dodger 4th Round pick was as basic as you could get, and didn't really have the 3rd pitch to become a AAA starter.

Not that power rankins matter, but we are dead last right now. The Royals are in 29th with 53, we have 36. Not too close. The Cubs, our friends that swept us, our #1 at 153. A lot more then 36. Not quite sure what the numbers means exactly, but it doesn't paint a pretty picture for us.

Enough of that though, it's time to defend home turf against our next division opponent, the New York Mets. Alex Cobb (0-0, 1.50 ERA) hosted Jason Vargas (0-0, 13.50). It's been just 1 start a piece, but Cobb looks like the better pitcher. The Mets thought other wise, scoring 1 in the 2nd on an Ahmed Rosario RBI single (he's on my fantasy team, hopefully he does this frequently in real life) and then 2 in the 3rd off a Jay Bruce homer. That wasn't enough as another was needed in the 4th, and then Rosario drove in 2 more in the 5th on a single off Kevin Chapman. Sadly, there is more scoring. Another run in the 6th to make it 7-0. J.T. Realmuto battled back with a 2-run double off Vargas to bring us to 7-2, but the Mets added 2 more runs in the 9th, and then former Marlin A.J. Ramos silenced the Marlins for good in the 9th.

Well, it wasn't pretty. Cobb allowed 6 (4 earned) in 4.2 innings off 9 hits, 2 walks, and he only recorded a single strikeout. Starlin Castro was the culprit of the error, his surprisingly first on the year. Brad Ziegler sucked again, allowing 2 runs off 4 hits in the 9th, boosting his brilliant ERA to 12.46. Don't really know what I'm going to do with him.

Offensively there wasn't much. Garrett Cooper, of course, picked up another hit coming off the bench. Justin Bour joined Realmuto with a double, as him and Castro scored off Realmuto's double, but no Marlin had more then a single hit.

The mets on the other hand were gerat. Rosario was 4-for-5 with 4 RBI's, giving him 13 on the season to go with his .543 average. I'd love to see that production in real life. Veteran Adrian Gonzalez somehow went 3-for-3 while walking twice and scoring three times. Brandon Nimmo, Todd Frazier, and Kevin Plawecki had a pair of hits. Nimmo and Frazier joined Bruce in the home run club with solo shots. Rosario probably won't be hitting 4th for too much longer the way he's played, as he lead the Mets to outhit us 16-6.

Relief pitcher Kevin Chapman picked up a hit for us, as the nine spot went 2-for-3 with Cobb the lone out.

Mariners SP Marco Gonzalez threw an impressive 4-hitter in a 10-0 destruction of the Royals, who are just slightly better then us at 3-7 compared to 2-8.

April 10th, 2018: Minor league pitcher Brett Graves hit the DL with a torn back muscle. I only mention Graves because he was the only player on the Marlins origional 40 man roster that wasn't active. With lots of space, I kept him on the minor league DL so he didn't acquire unnecessary service time while hurt. His season is probably over, as he'll finish 2018 with a 1-0 record over 1.2 innings of relief work where he allowed a hit, a walk, but no runs, and struck out 2. He's got a little potential, 1.5 stars, but losing him isn't too big of a deal.

The Dodgers took a bigger blow, losing veteran Rich Hill for the rest of the season while he will undergo elbow ligament reconstruction surgery. The 38-year-old may not pitch again, although he was pitching well, going 6.1 innings in a pair of starts with a 1-0 record and a 0.00 ERA. He struck out 6, but did allow 3 walks and 7 hits.

Game 2 between the 5-5 Mets and 2-8 Marlins saw Noah Syndergaard (0-2, 15.75 ERA, 2.88 WHIP) square off against Adam Conley (0-0, 0.00 ERA, 1.14 WHIP). It looked like there statlines should be switched, although it was still early. I forgot to give Cooper the start over the ice cold Derek Dietrich. He ended up going 1-for-2 with 2 walks so it didn't matter too much. Cooper got his pinch hit appearence and walked and eventually scored, so it was a win-win.

Anyways, The Mets started off strong, scoring 2 quick runs in the 1st on a Wilmer Flores homer off Conley. They added another in the 2nd and 3rd, while we had one in the bottom of the 2nd. Headed to the 9th down 4-1, it looked like the Marlins were going to lose another game. Justin Bour had other ideas, as he cleared the bases with a double off Paul Sewald, who I guess is the Mets closer. That was his second blow save already. He allowed another hit, and then J.T. Realmuto sent the fans home happy with a walk off single. All 12,837 of them, which is much more then I would have expected. Although who knows how many of those were Mets fans...

I feel bad for Syndergaard who finally pitched a good game, allowing just 1 run off 5 hits and 3 walks in 7.1 solid frames. He did strike out 5 as well. Sewald grabbed the loss, now 0-2 for the season, after Jacob Rhame, Jerry Blevins, and Ramos picked up holds. Paul Sewald does have the distinction of being the first major leaguer I've come across that I've never heard of, so maybe he can find consolence in that. Now I know him.

Conley wasn't great, but I can't complain too much since we won. He allowed 4 runs off 7 hits and a walk in 5 innings while punching out 3. Junichi Tazawa (2) and Brad Ziegler (1) tossed scorless frames while Kyle Barraclough picked up his first win of the season with a scorless 9th. Now someone other then Brian Johnson has one of those nice, useless things called wins.

I guess the Mets heard me and batted Rosario leadoff, he rewarded them with a 2-for-4 showing with a run and an RBI. Yoenis Cespedes picked up 2 hits and scored in his 4 trips to the plate, raising his average to a nice .341.

Realmuto was great for us, going 3-for-4 with the dramatic walk off RBI single. He also walked, and his now hitting at the mendoza line. Castro and Cameron Maybin each had a pair of hits and Justin Bour drove in 3 and scored the winning run. Maybin (2) and Miguel Rojas (4) both doubled while Maybin stole base number 3.

Down in the farm, Isaac Galloway strained his oblique, and I place him on the DL. It's a day-to-day injury that'll cost him a week, but it's not worth risking reaggrevation while playing in the minors. Top prospect Magneuris Sierra was also added to the DL with a sprained elbow. This DTD injury will last him 3-4 weeks.

With the outfield injuries I offered a minor league deal to 24-year-old Austin Cousino. The former 3rd round pick of Seattle was a 2* potential in my scouts eye. He had nice speed and was a good defender in center.

April 11th, 2018: For the rubber match of the series we sent out Jose Urena (0-2, 9.45 ERA, 2.25 WHIP) against ace quality righty Jacob deGrom (1-0, 2.40 ERA, 0.47 WHIP). I replaced the struggling Lane Adams with Garrett Cooper. Cooper will hit 7th and man right.

The trouble started in the 2nd, went Ahmed Rosario hit a 2-run double off Urena in a 3 run inning. We managed to grab one back in the bottom of the 2nd, and then Garrett Cooper doubled home a run in a 2 run 4th where we evened up the score at 3. Cooper is my favorite player by far on this team. Well, maybe after Realmuto, but he isn't playing well enough to get affection, yet. We took the lead in the 6th, deGrom's last inning. Adrian Gonzalez drove home a run off Nick Wittgren in the 7th to tie the game back up. In the bottom of the 8th off Anthony Swarzak, guess who had an RBI single? Yes, Garrett Cooper. He finished the game 3-for-4 with 3 RBI's. And I guess I spoke too soon on Realmuto, he was 3-for-3 with a run scored and 2 driven in. Him and Cooper both had doubles in the game, their 3rd and 2nd respectively. Drew Steckenrider came in for the 9th and finished off his 2nd save of the year, although he did allow a hit, in a scorless 9th. The Marlins won their first series of the year! And it was against a divisional rival! And in front of our loving, supportive, hometown fans who mustered up 13,636 pairs of eyes to the ballpark on a beautfiul, 67 degree day (if you forget about 10 mph winds).

Urena was fine, going 5 innings allowing 3 runs off 6 hits, 3 walks, and earned a pair of strikeouts. Wittgren allowed only 1 in 2 innings of work while Kyle Barraclough picked up another win, now 2-1 on the season. Him and Brian Johnson both have 2 wins.

Miguel Rojas, Justin Bour, and Derek Dietrich all recorded 2 hits, while the latter two scored twice.

For some reason Adrian Gonzalez is hitting, he went 3-for-5 and after facing Marlin pitching is now hitting .308 on the year. It was .194 before the 2 games he enjoyed in Miami. Plawecki and Nimmo both had a pair of hits, although both of Nimmo's were doubles. I also learned Sewald isn't the closer, Jeruys Familia is, but he has a 9.00 ERA (but 4 saves). Don't know why Sewald took the 9th in the previous game, but I can't complain.

The bats were working around the league as Jean Segura and Josh Donaldson both recorded 5 hits. Segura had 4 singles and a homer in a 12-5 victory over the Royals. He's hitting .413/.438/.609 with 1 homer and 7 RBI's for the year. Donaldson singled 4 times, doubled, and struck out in a 9-1 victory against the O's in Camden Yards. Donaldson is hitting .311/.400/.600 with 3 homers and 11 RBI's in his final contract year in Toronto.

April 12th: On the off day Austin Cousino inked his minor league deal. He's played in AAA, but I sent him to A Greensboro since he struggled pretty much at every level when he last played in 2016 (for some reason they skipped AA after .167/.220/.274 in A+ and .156/.229/.219 in A was enough to warrant a AAA promotion where he hit .172/.200/.241. Eventually I'll have to deal with the 82 bodies on my GCL roster, but for now it's fun seeing 82/40.

We host Pittsburgh for 3 games starting tommorow as we both are 4-8. The projected starters are Joe Musgrove (0-0, 3.38 ERA), Nick Kingham (0-1, 16.62 ERA), and Jameson Taillon (2-0, 0.50 ERA). After we travel to New York to face the Yankees for just two before another off day. Can't wait to see Giancarlo Stanton. Maybe we did win that deal, he's hitting .173 and Starlin Castro is hitting .273. And they both have 7 RBI's. Although 100 power looks really nice.

[ayaghmour2]

April 13th, 2018: The Twins lost 41-year-old Fernando Rodney for the season with a torn labrum. The righty picked up 2 saves in 6 games. He was 1-0 with a 3.60 ERA and 1.20 WHIP in 5 innings of work that included 4 hits, 2 walks, and 6 strikeouts.

More importantly, the Marlins were ready to turn one series win into two as they hosted the also 4-8 Pittsburgh Pirates. Former Astro Joe Musgrove (0-0, 3.38 ERA, 1.31 WHIP) took the mound against Dan Straily (0-1, 3.60 ERA, 1.60 WHIP).

The Marlins started off quick, adding a run in the 1st and 3rd before Justin Bour hit another homer, a solo shot off Musgrove in the 4th, his 4th on the year. Straily cruised through 7 innings, allowing only 1 run of 6 hits and 2 walks. He added 3 strikeouts to his total and moved his record to an even 1-1. Brad Ziegler shockinly picked up a hold with a perfect 8th and Drew Steckenrider finished off the game with two strikeouts in a scorless 9th, giving him his 3rd save and the Marlins a 3-1 victory in the season opener.

We were out hit 7 to 4, as Bour, Starlin Castro, and Miguel Rojas (the usual) picked up hits as well as the starter Straily. Cameron Maybin did walk twice and score a run, but he was 0-for-2. He swiped two bags bringing his season total to 5 while Castro stole his first of the season. Corey Dickerson drove in Gregory Polanco with a sac-fly in the 9th, the only notable offense for the Pirates.

The Astros waived catcher Max Stassi and I went to claim him to be Realmuto's backup. He was better offensively and defensively then Bryan Holaday and was a good leader in the clubhouse.

April 14th, 2018: Our ace lefty Brian Johnson (2-0, 1.38 ERA, 0.77 WHIP) took on the strugglingn Nick Kingham (0-1, 16.62 ERA, 3.00 WHIP) in game 2 of he series. I gave Garrett Cooper the call in RF, and batted him 6th.

And guess what, in his first at bat Cooper hit an RBI single off Nick Kingham in the 2nd to start the scoring. We added 2 more in the 4th when Bour took Kingham deep, and another 2 in the 6th when J.T. Realmuto doubled home a pair, knocking Kingham out of the game. Justin Bour added another 2-rin shot in the 7th off Michael Feliz and then Cooper drove in another off a single. To finish the 8th, Johnny Giavotella came off the bench and hit a solo homer, picnch hitting for Brian Johnson.

Johnson went 8 and picked up the win, now a perfect 3-0. He allowed 4 hits and 2 walks while striking out 3 to lower his ERA to 0.90. Kevin Chapman finished off the game with 2 scorless frames, even recording an at bat, shutting out the Pirates 9-0.

The Marlins were now a respectable 6-8 and the offense produced 16 hits. Cooper, my favorite, was 2-for-2 with a pair of RBI's, but manager Don Mattingly decided to replace him with Bryan Holaday, the backup catcher, and moved him to 3B, pushing Hernan Perez to RF. It didn't make sense, but Holaday now has a rating of 2 (out of 100) at 3B. Castro, Realmuto, and Bour all recorded 3 hits in 4 at bats. They drove in 1, 1, and 4 runs respectively while scoring 2, 1, and 3 times. Bour also doubled, while Realmuto doubled twice. Perez and Rojas had similar lines, going 2-for-4 with a run scored each, but Perez struck out and Rojas made an error. They were both also caught stealing for the first time all year.

Ex-Marlin Giancarlo Stanton is getting ready to host the Marlins, as he hit 3 homers out of Comerica Park as the Yankees beat the Tigers 8-6. He drove in 7 runs as well.

Twins legend Joe Mauer recorded his 2,000th hit against the White Sox in a 4-2 victory. He's hitting a respectable .278 with 3 RBI's in the young campaign.

April 15th, 2018: Looking to complete the sweep, the 6-8 Marlins sent out Alex Cobb (0-1, 4.22 ERA, 1.31 WHIP) to duel with Jameson Taillon (2-0, 0.50 ERA, 0.56 WHIP) and the 4-10 Pirates. Taillon has been pretty great all season, but I have a feeling that could change today. Coop got the call in LF for the struggling Derek Dietrich and will bat 2nd behind Cameron Maybin. His 7 RBI's and 1.532 OPS look pretty nice in the lineup and the .647 average is not too shabby. Realmuto got the day off with Holaday filling in.

The game was scorless untill catcher Jacob Stallings (another new name) made me remember him with a 2 run double off Kevin Chapman. Cobb left the game after 2.1 innings with an injury. The game was quiet again until the Pirates added another run in the top of the 7th, but the Marlins were ready to rally back. Cameron Maybin reached on an error with Dovydas Neverauskas on the mound by 3B David Freese. This is run two after the Marlins already got 1 off Taillon earlier in the inning. Next, Derek Dietrich pinch hit for Cooper (who was 0-for-3) and reached on a Adam Frazzier error, this time scoring 2. The Marins were able to tie the game up at 4. But the fun stopped there; Gregory Polanco droce in a run off a 1 out double on closer Drew Steckenrider. The Marlins were shut down by flamethrowing lefty Felipe Rivero who picked up his 4th save on the year.

Fun fact: Only 1 run all game was earned. All 3 of Chapman's runs in the 4th were unearned, Junichi Tazawa gave up an unearned run, Steckenrider's run was unearned, Neverauskas' pair of runs were unearned and one of the runs charged to Taillon was unearned. The 18 mph winds must've had something to do with it. Holaday, Justin Bour, and Miguel Rojas all made errors. Rojas is now up to 3 on the season.

So I can't really blame the pitching when all the runs are unearned. Brad Ziegler even threw 1.1 scorless innings with 2 strike outs. Maybe he got things together, but I doubt it. I was more worried about Cobb leaving with an injury. I had replacements in AAA, but he was doing well.

Starlin Castro was the only hitter with multiple hits, but we did get 8 as a team. Johnny Giovatella got another pinch hit, he may have earned himself a spot if I can rotate the lineup around a bit. Maybin and Rojas got credited with RBI's. They both scored along with Holaday and Lane Adams. Maybin and Adams also picked up a steal a piece, 6th and 2nd on the year respectively.

Cobb had a hamstring strain, and will miss about 2 weeks before starting a rehab assignment. I called up Odrisamer Despaigne, who I optioned at the beginning of the year, possibly for Cobb. He was 1-0 in AAA New Orleans with a 1.29 ERA and 1.00 WHIP in 2 starts. He had only 6 strike outs in 14 innings, but he limited walks to 3 and hits to 11. The 31-year-old from Cuba will slot into 5th in the rotation, and may not have to make too may starts. But, next, off to the Big Apple to take down my least favorite team (tied with the Red Sox), the Yankees!

Adrian Beltre didn't show his age today, recording 5 hits in 6 trips, but his Rangers lost to the Astros 9-8. He homered of Justin Verlander, singled 4 times, walked once, and grounded out in a 15 inning heartbreaker where the Rangers scored 3 in the top of the 14th, but the Astros matched him. Carlos Correa homered in the 14th, and then hit a walkoff single off Matt Bush the next inning. Beltre pushed his average up over .400 to .406.

April 16th, 2018: It looks like I'm stuck with Bryan Holaday, as my Max Stassi claim was invalid. It looks like the Pirates were mad, even though they took game 3, and claimed him.

AA Prospect Monte Harrison won player of the weak in the Southern League. The Jumbo Shrimp CF went 12-for-24 with 2 homers and 11 RBI's.

We arrived in New York and got to see Giancarlo Stanton in pinstripes in person. He was set to bat 2nd and DH. We sent Adam Conley (0-0, 3.00 ERA, 1.33 WHIP) to take on Mashiaro Tanaka (2-1, 1.64 ERA, 0.77 WHIP) to start the 2 game series. With a DH I was able to play Giavotella at 2B and move the former Yank Castro to the DH spot. Giavotella hit 7th behind Miguel Rojas and before Martin Prado.

We scored 2 quick on a Starlin Castro revenge homer off Mashiaro Tanaka. He yelled "How dare you send me to this rebiulding team" as he rounded the bases. Did I mention I saw minority owner Derek Jeter rocking a Yankees jersey behind me in the executive box? I guess we know who he's rooting for... Anyways, the Yankees didn't let us enjoy the league, scoring 3 in the bottom of the 1st including a 2 run homer by Aaron Hicks. The third was nice, as we put up 3, with help from a Justin Bour 2 run homer, his 7th, but the Yankees answered back with 2 in the bottom frame. The fourth came and the Yanks were tired of waiting. Greg Bird hit a 2-run homer, 4 of those this game, and the Yankees added another run to make it 8-5. Conley allowed all 8 of those runs in a tough 3.1 innings. He walked 1 and struck out 3, but gave up 10 hits. Not a winning strategy. We got one back in the 5th, but it didn't matter since that's all the scoring we could muster and the Yankees added 1 more in the 8th. We lost 9-6 and were out hit 12-8. At least there were no errors.

We did hit Tanaka, he gave up 6 in 5+ off 8 hits. He only struck out 1 Marlin. Too bad Tommy Kahnle struck out the side in the 8th. And we couldn't hit their pen, 4 no-hit innings.

Nick Wittgren had solid mop up, even though he walked 2 in 2.2 innings. But he allowed no hits and struck out 3. Joe Thatcher faced one batter, and gave up a homer to Didi Gregorious. Kyle Barraclough and Junichi Tazwa both thre scorless frames, flanking the outlier Thatcher.

The Yankees hit 5 homers, and Giancarlo Stnaton went 2-for-5 with a double against his former team for the first time. Every Yankee, but the surprising addition of Yunel Escobar had a hit, and four of them had 2.

On our side Derek Dietrich went 3-for-4 with 2 runs scored, an RBI, and his 2nd homer of the year. He is now hitting a pitiful .192. Cameron Maybin, Castro, Bour, Giavotella, and Adams all had hits. Bour and Castro the previously mentioned homers, the rest singles. J.T. Realmuto stole his 2nd base of the year. We'd look tommorow to split the quick pitstop in New York.

Sidenote: We're 20th in power rankings now, a big jump from 30th.

April 17th, 2018: A match up of struggling starters as Jose Urena (0-2, 7.71 ERA, 2.06 WHIP) faced Sonny Gray (0-1, 5.28, 1.37 WHIP) in the duel of struggling righties. The now 12-6 Yankees scored 2 runs in the 3rd of the now 6-11 Marlins. Ronald Torreyes took Urena deep for a 2 run homer. Then in the 7th we added a run, to bring the gap to 2-1, but the Yankees doubled their score in the bottom half, raising the lead to 4-1. The Marlins went to score 3 in the 8th. Martin Prado had an RBI double off Tommy Kahnle and then Castro doubled off David Robertson, scoring 2. Castro loved playing his old team. But guess what happened in the bottom of the 8th? Mattingly thought, hmm, let me help the team I played for and throw in Brad Ziegler. Didi Gregorious hit a 2 run single. To be fair to Brad, they were Kyle Barraclough's runners, but still, why bring in Ziegler? Barraclough took the loss as his ERA inflated to 5.68 and his record evened to 2-2. David Robertson earned the win, now 3-0 despite the blown save, and Aroldis Chapman politeltey closed the door, allowing 2 hits, but no runs in route to his 4th save.

Urena wasn't nearly good as Sonny Gray (7 innings, 1 run, 5 hits, 1 walk, 9 strikeouts), but he wasn't awful. He allowed 4 runs in 6.1 innings while givin up 7 hits. He didn't walk anyone and struck out 4. It wasn't great, but could've been worse.

Offensively we did fine, every starter but Dietrich, fresh off a 3 hit game, recorded a hit, with Prado and Castro with a pair. Castro doubled twice, Prado singled and double. J.T. Realmuto hit his first homer of the year, and Miguel Rojas picked up his 5th double.

Jose Urena was injured now, with the diagnosis pending. We already had three injured SP (Brett Anderson, Wei-Yin Chen, and Alex Cobb), so I guess we were trying to make a rotaiton of injured arms.

April 18th, 2018: We had a day off today for the big league club, and Isaac Galloway was activated from the AAA DL.

Two teams lost arms for the year, the Blue Jays lost ace Marcus Stroman and the Pirates lost Chad Kuhl. Partially torn UCL for the firey stroman and a torn labrum for Kuhl. Lot's of those labrum tears thusfar.

We would continue the road trip with 4 in Milwuakee and 3 in LA. Yovani Gallardo (1-1, 2.50 ERA), Zach Davies (0-2, 5.75 ERA), Chase Anderson (0-0, 5.71 ERA), and Brandon Woodruff (1-2, 7.64 ERA), were lined up for the 6-13 Brew Crew. They would host the 6-11 Marlins in a series that could be winnable for us. We'd get to say hi to former Marlin Christian Yelich. He likes it in Milwaukee, hitting .304/.392/.522 with 2 HR's, 10 RBI's and 4 steals. He's severely underrated in CF, only a 22 rating with 74 in LF. These are relative ratings, but for a guy who's played a lot of solid CF, it seemed a bit low to me.

[ayaghmour2]

April 19th, 2018: Diagnosis to Jose Urena; sore shoulder, day-to-day for 2 days. Nice, my 7.00 ERA pitcher won't miss a start.

Game 1 in Milwaukee saw Dan Straily (1-1, 2.25 ERA, 1.33 WHIP) take on Yovani Gallardo (1-1, 2.50 ERA, 1.11 WHIP). Christian Yelich wasn't in the lineup, Keon Broxton took his spot in LF. Yelich did end up pinch hitting in the 6th.

The Brewers took a quick 1-0 lead in the bottom of the 1st before Straily could settle in. We answered back in the 3rd with a 2 run inning aided by a solo shot from none other than Justin Bour, his 8th of the season. The Brew Crew answered back in the bottom of the 4th with a Jonathan Villar 2 run homer off Straily and then 1B Ryan Braun doubled a run in the 5th, Straily's last inning of work. The Brewers added another run in the 7th off Junichi Tazawa to take a 5-2 lead that they held the rest of the way.

Gallardo picked up the win (2-1) with 6 solid frames, allowing 6 hits, 2 runs, 3 walks, while striking out 6. Jacob Barnes picked up hold number 5 and Jeremy Jefress went 2 innings to pick up his first save of the year.

Straily had a rough outing, allowing 4 runs off 6 hits in 5 innings. He walked 2 and struck out 5. Brad Ziegler left the game with an injury.

We only mustered up 6 hits, single hits to Cameron Maybin, Starlin Castro, Bour, J.T. Realmuto, Martin Prado, and Miguel Rojas. Prado (4) and Realmuto (6) doubled while Bour also added his first steal of the year.

Danny Santana and Villar drove in two a piece while Santana went 2-for-3 with a double, Villar 3-for-4 with a homer.

Colin McHugh tossed a 3 hit shut out against the Mariners, as the Astros dominated 15-0.

April 20th, 2018: Brad Ziegler's diagnosis was back, he'd miss 3 weeks with a strained forearm. It's a day-to-day injury but a DL trip was needed. Brian Ellington recieved the callup from AAA New Orleans. Ellington was 0-1 with 2 saves and a 2.45 ERA in AAA, and had 1.2 innings pitched in the majors with a 10.80 ERA. He's got no control, no expect the walks to be high, but his stuff is beyond nasty.

We looked to even up the four game series with lefty Brian Johnson (3-0, 0.90 ERA, 0.80 WHIP), our lovely ace against Zach Davies (0-2, 5.75 ERA, 1.52 WHIP). Game 2 started the same way as game 1, the Brewers scoring a run in the opening frame. We tied it up in the 2nd, but Ryan Braun hit a 2 run homer off Johnson in the 3rd, giving the Brewers a 3-1 lead. But those are the leads that love being blown, as the Marlins tied up the game, aided by a Derek Dietrich double in an inning where the Brewers scored two off Davies. But Milwuakee answered back in the bottom of the frame with a Jhonny Peralta solo homer and Lorenzo Cain 2 run homer. Johnson didn't have his best stuff, but Lane Adams did make an error that cost 2 runs. Both pens were spotless after that, and Milwaukee won 6-3.

Davies picked up the win, going 5.2 but we rocked him for 10 hits, but only managed 3 runs. He did strike out 7. Boone Logan earned a save with 1.1 scorless while Matt Albers pitched 2 scorless, picking up the save, his first, but the teams second two inning save in a row. Where is Corey Knebel?

Johnson recieved the loss, allowing 6 (4 earned) in 4.2 innings, sinking his perfect record. He gave up 7 hits and a walk, but struck out 2. He had more home runs allowed then strike outs, I was warned his flyball tendency would give up a lot of homers. Kevin Chapman (0.1), Nick Wittgren (2), and Junichi Tazawa (1) pitched hitless innings, but each had a walk.

Christian Yelich went 1-for-4 in his first start against his former club. Worst thing was we outhit them 11-7, but they doubled our run total.

Bour lead the charge with three singles. The ice cold Lane Adams was 2-for-4 with a solo homer. Don't know if it makes up for the error. Miguel Rojas and Derek Dietrich had 2 hits, a single and double a piece. Dietrich drove in a run, Rojas scored one.

I considered claiming speedy defensive outfielder Gorkys Hernandez, but his .083/.154/.083 stat line scared me away. It was only 12 at bats, but he had 5 strikeouts. Not worth dumping Rafael Ortega or Adams for that.

April 21st, 2018: I gave Odrisamer 'Mili-Pino' Despaigne the start so he could make his season debut and it wasn't worth throwing Adam Conley and his 7+ ERA to skip the Cuban Veteran. We tried to salvage a series split, but had to win the last two of the four game series. Chase Anderson (0-0, 5.71 ERA, 1.62 WHIP) was our opponent. I gave Cameron Maybin a day off and moved Lane Adams to CF to give Garrett Cooper the start in RF. Cooper, hitting .500/.520/.682, slotted behind Realmuto in the 6 spot.

Jonathan Villar had an RBI double in a 2 run 4th off Despaigne to open the scoring. The Marlins quickly tied it up in the otp of the 5th with a Derek Dietrich 2 run double. With the game tied 2-2, the Brewers answered back in the 6th and the 8th with single runs. Josh Hader had a nice 8th and went to the 9th to try and convert a 2 inning save, Craig Counsell's favorite. He allowed a run before Matt Albers came in to get Martin Prado to hit into a double play. Perfect. We lose 4-3 off a double play. We are now a pathetic 6-14. I think that's 5 losses in a row too.

Despaigne, now 0-1, did good enough to keep his roster spot, going 6 allowing 3 runs and a walk off 7 hits. He struck out only 2, but he could barley stirke me out if we went head-to-head. Kyle Barraclough was the only reliever to give up a run. His 6.43 ERA is a bit worrying. So is his 10.3 BB/9. And his 3.9 K/9. And his 1.86 WHIP. And why not, his 64 ERA+. A trip to the minors might do him well.

J.T. Realmuto went 3-for-4, but Garret Cooper went 0-for-4. Despaigne actually scored one of the runs on the Dietrich double. Justin Bour hit his NL leading 9th home run. Guess who he's tied with in the entire MLB? Giancarlo Stanton! $3.5 million is a lot more affordable then $25 million. He was also leading the NL in OPS at 1.146. So Bour looks like an really nice trade piece for the summer.

Joe Panik hit for the cycle in a 10-3 Giants win over the host Angels. He scored 3 times and drove in 1 run (himself on a solo homer) in a 4-for-5 showing.

With the Angels in the headline I checked on Shoei Ohtani to see how he was doing. It looks like OOTP did a good job integrating 2-way players. He's 4-1 with a 1.05 ERA In 5 starts and is hitting .244/.320/.600 with 5 RBI's in 13 games. He's listed as a Pitcher (Starter)/RF which is pretty cool. He shows up in their line up and rotation. Don't know how to deal with a two-way player yet, but I don't have one to try it with.

I went to claim lefty Jorge de la Rosa. Hopefully he can replace Barraclaugh in the pen. He's tossed 10 innings for the D'backs, working to a 3.60 ERA that was 1.80 before allowing 2 runs without getting an out. The 37-year-old is also making the minimum.

April 22nd, 2018: In a battle of stud pitchers, the Marlins faced Brandon Woodruff (1-2, 7.64 ERA, 1.64 WHIP) and matched with the equally impressive Adam Conley (0-1, 7.04 ERA, 1.76). We looked to avoid the sweep, but I didn't have too much faith. Rafael Ortega and Bryan Holaday were both in the line up, playing CF and C, and hitting 7th and 8th. Neither guy had more then 10 at bats, which is why I noticed it.

Not even going to try to make it interesting, we were swept. We lost 5-4. We were down 3-0, then went up 4-3, and then slowly gave up the lead.

Conley went 6, allowing 4 runs (3 earned), on 5 hits and a walk. He also struck out 2. Guess who made the error? Miguel Rojas, his 4th, a team high.

But Conley didn't get the loss, that went to Kyle Barraclough. Maybe he heard he was going to be replaced, as he walked 2 and allowed the winning run in 0.1 innings. He did have a strike out, but it didn't matter, we lost.

Ortega made his time count, going 2-for-3 with a steal, and drove in 3 runs with a base clearing double in the 6th off Oliver Drake. Rojas was 1-for-4 with a double, and scored on Ortega's hit, but the error really hurt. Starlin Castro also had 3 hits, but his were in 5 trips (Ortega was replaced by Martin Prado in the 8th). Lane Adams was brutal, going 0-for-5 with 4 strikeouts. He earned himself an off day if I can remember.

We outhit the Brewers 8-6, and no Brewer had more then one hit. We were swept, and it was sad. The Brew Crew are now a respectable, yet underachieving 10-13. We are an awful, yet overachieving 6-15.

But hey, achievement time! We earned "Batting Around" since we batted around in the 6th. Add one more to the collection. Although this isn't what I was thinking on the plane ride to Los Angeles to take on the first place Dodgers. We were looking at Hyun-jin Ryu (1-2, 587 ERA), Ross Stripling (2-0, 2.82 ERA), and the man, the myth, the legend, Clyaton Kershaw (2-1, 3.31 ERA). Please no perfect game...

April 23rd, 2018: The Chicago White Sox were interested in Odrisamer Despaigne. Don't know why, but they wanted him. They offered 23-year-old Tito Polo. He was useless. As Michael Hill suggested, I rejected the trade. Facetiously I asked for Eloy Jimenez too.

"You must be joking with this offer" -Rick Hahn.

You got me.

Ahh, the power rankings came out. Back down to 29th with 40.4, comftorably ahead of the 30th place Royals sitting at 25.9.

We arrived at the Chavez Ravine and sent Jose Urena (0-2, 7.00 ERA, 1.72 WHIP) to face the Korean lefty Ryu (1-2, 5.87 ERA, 1.50 WHIP). I was going to start Coop in RF, but he was filling in for Justin Bour who needed a day off at first. Hernan Perez got the call for RF, and will hit 8th. The game was 1-1 from the bottom of the 2nd until the 6th. In the top of the 6th Cameron Maybin hit a solo shot off Ryu. Then Miguel Rojas hit one. And then J.T. Realmuto one upped them with a 2-run shot. We ended up scoring 6th in the 6th. Comftorable lead right? In the bottom hald, Brian Ellington, recently called up from AAA, decided to give the Dodgers 2 runs without recording an out. Then in the 7th, in his second inning of work, Nick Wittgren donated 2 more. Luckily we added 1 in the top half of the 7th so we were up 8-5, but still, can we hold a lead? The answer may surprise you. Junichi Tazawa earned his first hold with a perfect 8th and then Drew Steckenrider struck out the side for save number 4 on the year. He was stuck at 3 for a while. We snapped the 7 game losing streak, and LA was now 14-8. I wish I could trade them my 7-15 record, but honestly it's almsot better off being bad right now.

We outhit them 13-9. Corey Seager went 3-for-5 and Joc Pederson went 2-for-4. Seager drove in an scored a run, Pederson two for each, and added a homer and a walk.

For the visitors, all 8 position players who started got hits. Castro lead the charge with 3 in 5 trips and scored once. Cooper and Perez doubled, while Maybin, Dietrich, Realmuto, and Rojas (twice) hit home runs. We had a lot of home runs this game, it must be something in LA. Maybin and Castro also swiped bags from Yasmani Grandal, but I doubt he cared too much since he hit his 5th homer of the season.

I totally forgot about Urena, who actually pitched well. He only lasted 5, but he struck out 6 and allowed only a single run, the Grandal homer, off 3 hits, and 2 walks. Solid performance from someone who needed a break.

Also got the achievement "Team Effort" for scoring 6 runs in an inning.

The White Sox Leury Garcia tagged the Mariners for 5 hits in a perfect 5-for-5 day. Even better, the host Sox won 18-7, lot's of offense in that one. Leury is hitting .341 on the year with 2 homers and 10 RBI's.

April 24th, 2018: Some good news and bad news. First, the bad. Alex Cobb's recover is now unclear, so who knows when he'll be ready to go on rehab. The good? De La Rosa was now mine, and Kyle Barraclaugh could be sent to AAA. I now had three lefties in the pen, but I would get rid of Joe Thatcher (9.00 ERA, 1.5 K/9) the first chance I could find someone better. Maybe I could find a taker for him if someone was desperate for a lefty. Who knows, OOTP can be crazy sometimes.

Looking to turn one win into two, we sent Dan Straily (1-2, 3.71 ERA, 1.41) into the fray against Ross Stripling (2-0, 2.82 ERA, 1.03). You may remember him from the time he was pulled from a no-hitter. Or almost pulled. I think he was pulled by Dave Roberts, but not positive, and not worth looking it up. Maybe I should of since the game would have had a different outcome. The superior Dodgers won 6-4.

Straily was tagged for 4 runs in 5 innings off 6 hits and 3 walks, but recieved a no decision. He struck out one and allowed 2 homers. Perfect ratio right there.

Tazawa took the loss, allowing 2 runs off 2 hits in 0.2 innings. Jorge De La Rosa made his Marlin debut, throwing a perfect 6th with 2 strike outs. Joe Thatcher got a strike out of the only batter faced, so his K/9 is now a still awful 2.8.

Jordan Schafer got the win, going 1.2 innings, allowing a hit, a walk, and picking up a strike out. He's now 2-1 this year. And for those familiar with former Brave top prospects or who love historical leagues, this is the same Jordan Schafer who played in the outfield. It's cool seeing a guy I use to think would be a great big league centerfielder instead have a 1.20 ERA in OOTP.

Corey Seager was a beast again, 2-for-3 with a walk, 2 runs scored, and 4 driven in. He hit homers of Straily and Tazawa. Chris Taylor, a personal favorite of mine, went 2-for-4 and score twice. I definitely called his breakout season last year. I don't have any proof per say, but I knew it would happen. I love Jerry Dipoto so I pay attention to Mariners players, especially the ones he trades. Not his finest one getting Zach Lee in return.

We had 8 hits, and all starters, but Derek Dietrich had one (even Dan Straily who is hitting .400). Realmuto tripled, Maybin and Prado doubled, but that's all that's worth mentioning. Prado did drive in two runs though.

Miguel Rojas left the game with calf sorness, and is listed day-to-day for 6 days (counting today). It only influences running minimally, so I'll keep an eye on it. Not worth sending him to the disabled list.

I wanted to claim Enny Romero from the Nationals, but he's a lefty. So I shopped Thatcher around, seeing if it would be worth moving him to grab Romero, but the offers with Jon Singleton, Erisbel Arruebarrena, or J.J. Hardy. Nothing spoke to me and as interesting as Romero is, I didn't want to pay the 1.5 million to cut Thatch.

April 25th, 2018: The rubber game was an ace off, and this time I'm being serious. The battle of the lefties saw Brian Johnson (3-1, 2.19 ERA, 0.97), who has almost half my wins, and hopefully half after today against the great Clayton Kershaw (2-1, 3.31 ERA, 0.89). Barely 3 years older, Kershaw has tossed almost 1,800 more innings and is making 32.5 million dollars more then Johnson this year. But you can't find Clayton Kershaw's on waivers, so advantage Johnson. I kept Rojas in for the rubber match because we had tommorow off for him to rest.

Well, maybe I was wrong. The former Dodger manager wathced his former ace pick apart his current lineup. And the Dodgers scored 5 runs in the first 3 innings including a 3 run second. All told Johnson gave up 5 runs in 4 innings off 6 hits, 5 walks, but he struck out 3. Every other reliever gave up runs in the game: De La Rosa (1 in 2), Chapman (2 in 0.1), Thatcher (3 in 0.2), and Tazawa (2 unearned in 1). Tazawa was charged with the error, so are they really not his fault? The Baseball Gods say they not. Enny Romero please still be on waivers. Thatcher will be released if needed.

Starting Rojas may not have worked, he went 0-for-3, but the Marlins only managed 5 hits. Starlin Castro's 2 run homer in the 4th was the most the offense could do, although Dietrich and Bour both doubled.

On the Dodger side, they combined for 16 hits and all 9 Dodger starters recorded hits. Kershaw was 1-for-1 with an RBI and a run scored. I was afriad he hit a home run, but he did not. Relief pitcher WIlmer Font was the only player with an at bat who did not recieve a hit (pinch hitter Travis Taijeron walked in his only plate appearence). Joc Pederson homered and went 3-for-4 with 3 RBI's. Yasiel Puig was 2-for-5 with a pair of homers that lead to 5 RBI's. He also scored 3 times and walked once, but we managed to get him to swing and miss on the third strike twice. Yikes, one was actually a foul tip, but you get the point. Justin Turner, Enrique Hernandez, Chris Taylor, and Austin Barnes all has 2 hits. Poor Justin Turner. In real life he's hurt but this Turner is hitting .347 with 4 homers and 13 RBI's. I think Dodger Fans would prefer that. Anyways, the Dodgers won 13-2, not too much to be happy about.

So Enny Romero is no longer on waivers, guess I missed out. But there is Johnny Hellweg and Jorge Soler (only 1/1.5! Man Wade Davis is worth more...), but the righty Hellweg has a 7.36 ERA and doesn't look promising.

I did scout Soler to see if maybe my scout was wrong. I doubt it since OSA has him as a 1.5.

I offered Joe Thatcher for Enny Romero, and Nationals GM Mike Rizzo said he'd think about it. Sounds promising to me.

Found another player I never heard of, the well liked A's outfielder Herschel Powell who supposedly has had numerous "extracurricular indiscretions" and Bob Melvin wasn't too happy about the so called 'fake news' to boost newspaper ratings. Just found out that Herschel is actually Boog Powell, and I do know him. So I guess I outplayed myself, although I've never seen him listed as Herschel, most sites have him as Boog Powell, not the good old player who played for the Orioles, he retired in 1977 and is 76 and in no shape to play in 2018. But was he really ever in shape? Yes, I know he wass a million times better then I could ever be, but jokes are fun every so often. He'd get a kick out of it too.

Anyways, we were headed home and had an off day to recover from the 13-2 beating.

April 26th, 2018: Soler does suck, he's still a 1/1.5. And Mike Rizzo said 'NO WAY!'

I offered to retian 40% of the salary, he wanted me to submit it again so he could think about it. They are in "Win Now" mode so maybe the deal makes sense. They do need some help, at 13-12 and 1 game behind Philly. I was only 6.5 out myself, and we had a .292 winning percentage.

We would be home for 6, starting with 3 against Colorado and then we would see the currently first place Phillies for 3 more before the homestand ends with an off day.

It looks like the Rockies are going with Chad Bettis (3-1, 3.03 ERA), Tyler Anderson (1-2, 2.08 ERA), and Kyle Freeland (2-0, 3.48). Whoever started game 1 for us would probably pitch twice this homestand.

A bunch of righties were waived, Jesse Chavez, Heath Hembree, and Craig Stammen, along with a backup catcher Curt Casali. All these guys interested me some. I wanted to replace Holaday, but Casali is hitting .125/.276/.250. It's better then .091/.231/.091, but was it worth it? I didn't really think so. Besides, Holaday has a 2 rating at third base, does Casali? Didn't think so.

On to the ptichers, Chavez could start, but had a 5.29 ERA in 3 starts. That number was a bit decieving, he may have been 0-2, but he allowed only 16 hits and 2 walks, while striking out 12. Could the flyballer be a bit unlucky? Who knows but a long man could be helpful.

Hembree, however, looked much better and he has 20 stamina which isn't terrible. The Red Sox righty was 2-1 witha 2.70 ERA in 9 appearences where he went 13.1 innings. He struck out 11 compared to 3 walks and had a nice 1.05 WHIP. Brian Johnson came from the Red Sox. Both pitched from a 3/4 arm slot, and both were flyball pitchers. He earned the claim.

Sidenote: the new arm slot feature is really cool, props to the OOTP team.

Stammen was pretty useless, the 34-year-old nicknamed "Trig" had a 9.64 ERA and allowed 8 homers in 14 innings. Yikes. He also walked 8 batters. Double yikes. Although he had an insanely low BABIP of .189. That's what happens when 8 of your 15 hits allowed are homers.

With the claim of Hembree, I decided against Chavez. But if the Royals decide to piss me off and claim Hembree, I could grab Chavez, hopefully in time.

I haven't posted any pictures yet, but here are a few useful screen captures of our results so far. Some of the hitting stats are cut off, but they're all pitchers that don't have at bats.

[ayaghmour2]

A little late, but wanted to mention Alex Cobb. He did do much better in real life, signing a 4YR/57MM contract with Baltimore, a lot more then the less then 2 million dollar contract.

April 27th, 2018: So Rizzo still isn't too fond of the deal. All I had to do was add 1* potential RP Dakota Bennett, and then lowered the retnetion to 25% and he was fine with the deal. So I was able to add Enny Romero and dump Joe Thatcher.

There used to be an achievement for first trade, but I guess not anymore. I quickly added Romero to the active roster and was ready for Colorado. He had to fly from Syracuse to Miami, so who knows if he'll get to the game on time.

We were hosting the Rockies and Odrisamer Despaigne (0-1, 4.50 ERA, 1.33) and the visitor Rockies trotted out Chad Bettis (3-1, 3.03 ERA, 1.10 WHIP). I kept the injured Miguel Rojas in since we had an off day yesterday. Hopefully he doesn't try to steal, or stretch a single into a double.

Gerardo Parra started the scoring for the Rockeis with a run scoring single in the top of the first. The Injured Rojas singled a run home in the bottom half, and didn't try stretching the single into a double, or try stealing. We then scored single runs in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th to grab a 4-1 lead. In the 7th the Rox got one more, and we headed to the 9th up 4-2. Drew Steckenrider came into the game for the save and allowed 2 hits, including an RBI double to a personal favorite of mine (and another fantasy team guy) D.J. LeMahieu. Up only 4-3, Steckenrider settled back down, and finished off the game for save number 5, giving the Marlins their 8th victory on the year.

Despaigned pitched really well, allowing only 1 run in 6 innings (it was in the first so he settled in), and a single walk, while striking out 3. He grabbed the win, and Nick Wittgren, who allowed an unearned run in 2 innings, grabbed his first hold of the year. Derek Dietrich was charged with the error, his first in LF (he did go 2-for-4 and scored).

Along with Dietrich, Miguel Rojas also went 2-for-4 and scored, but drove in a run. Martin Prado hit a homer in a 3-for-4 night along with a run scored and a pair of RBI's. Lane Adams and Starlin Castro also had two hit games. Adams, Cameron Maybin, and Dietrich doubled, while Castro stole successfully (3) and Adams was not (2).

We got 12 hits off Bettis in 4, who took the loss, but only manged 2 more hits off the Rockies pen in 4 shutout frames. Parra was the only Rockie with more then 1 hit. He doubled and singled.

The Red Sox David Price will be out 6 weeks with a hamstring strain. He's 1-2 with a 4.13 ERA and 24 strikeouts in the same amount of innings.

April 28th, 2018: In a battle of lefties, the Rockies sent out Tyler Anderson (1-2, 2.08 ERA, 1.23 WHIP) to face the brilliant Adam Conley (0-1, 6.33 ERA, 1.55 WHIP) in game 2 of 3 in Miami. I game Miguel Rojas a day off and played Johnny Giavotella at 2B, moving the error friendly Castro to SS. The veteran Giavotella hit 7th behind Prado and in front of Adams.

Well, can't say I expected this result. Neither team could score untill the 7th when the Marlins woke up. Justin Bour and Martin Prado took Anderson deep for 2 run homers, giving the Marlins a nice 4-0 lead. We then picked up 1 on Zach Rosscup in the 8th, and cruised to a 5-0 finish.

Sadly, Adam Conley didn't pick up the win, but he went 6.1 innings and struck out 9. He only allowed a single hit to star Nolan Arrenado and 2 walks. Wittgren picked up the win, his 1st, finishing the 7th while allowing a two out double to Ian Desmond. We only gave up 2 hits all game.

No Marlin picked up more then 1 hit, but they didn't need to. Castro played a good game at short, and Giavotella went 1-for-3 filing in for Rojas. Conley even got a hit.

April 29th, 2018: We looked to finish off the sweep, and the Heath Hembree claim went through. He'd be ready for today's matchup, and Brian Ellington returned to New Orleans. I moved the struggling Dillon Peters down to AA.

Jose Urena (1-2, 5.87 ERA, 1.57 WHIP) looked to finish off Kyle Freeland (2-0, 3.48 ERA, 1.39) and the Rockies. We've had the worst pitcher in each match up, but it didn't matter too much. Rojas was back and this should be his last day partilaly disabled.

Urena was anything less the great, allowing 2 in the first, and a 3 run homer to Parra in the 3rd. He was done after 3 innings, allowing 5 on 5 hits, while walking and striking out 2. Former Coors Field legend Jorge De La Rosa came in to eat 3 innings, allowing just a single run in the 5th. Heath Hembree made his debut for us, going 2, allowing just 1 hit while striking out to Rockie hitters. Junichi Tazawa allowed 1 run in the 9th in the 7-2 defeat, dropping us to 9-18 and ending the mini win streak.

Kyle Freeland was great, now 3-0, tossing 8 great innings, allowing only 2 runs (1 earned), off 5 hits, 2 walks, and he added 3 strike outs. Parra was amazing all series, and went 3-for-4 with 3 runs scored and 4 RBI's. LeMahieu was 2-for-4 and drove in a run. Ian Desmond took Tazawa deep in the 9th for his first homer of the year.

Our offense wasn't much, although Cameron Maybin went 2-for-3 with his 5th double of the year, a run scored and an RBI, along with a walk. Castro had 2/3rds of the teams total strikeouts in a rare 0-for-4 day. Now Philly comes here to battle the Marlins for 3.

Tigers catcher James McCann went 5-for-5 in a 14-5 victory over Baltimore. Not going to lie, when I saw '5-for-5 Day for McCann' I thought 'how did Brian McCann go 5-for-5?' Well, James is much better, hitting .352/.435/.500 with 2 homers and 10 RBI's for the 15-12 Tigers! They have the same record as Cleveland and are half a game behind the 15-11 Twins. Miggy is hitting .310 for them, MVP form perhaps?

April 30th, 2018: The Mets had a 'shocking' injury to a starter, as Steven Matz tore his flexor tendon and will miss the rest of the year. He'll finish 2018 with a misleading 2-1 record. His ERA was 8.14 and his WHIP 1.89. Not the numbers the 26-year-old wanted.

Justin Bour is leading the MLB in isolated power (.372), with Giancarlo Stanton in 3rd (.357). Bour>Stanton.

And then come the power rankings. We're 28th this week! At 55 ahead of Kansas City (49.4) and San Diego (48.9).

On to the game, as Vince Velasquez (2-1, 5.22 ERA, 1.36 WHIP) faced off against Dan Straily (1-2, 4.50 ERA, 1.50 WHIP). Miguel Rojas was fully healed, and Cameron Maybin and J.T. Realmuto were given days off. Martin Prado as well.

We put up 2 in the 4th with a Starlin Castro homer and Rafael Ortega run scoring triple. We added 1 more in the 5th in a very boring, but productive, 3-0 series opener.

Straily was great, going 7.1 innins, allowing only 2 hits and 0 walks, while sending 9 Phillies back to the bench dissapointed. Kevin Chapman finshed off the game with 1.2 perfect innings, earning save 1 on the year.

The only Phillies to record hits? Carlos Santana and Cameron Rupp. Santana doubled in the 7th.

Castro and Ortefa were both option, 3-for-4 each while combining for the cycle (Castro doubled, Ortega tripled, Castro homered, and the both singled). Straily picked up another hit and is now hitting .429. Castro also grounded into a double play, but he was still great. Justin Bour had the last RBI, but didn't record a hit, dropping his average to .299.

The Rangers made a very shocking move, waiving Doug Fister, who was 3-2 with a 2.45 ERA and 1.15 WHIP in 5 starts. He only struck out 18 in 33 innings, but had a nice 2/1 K/BB ratio. I'd claim him if he wasn't too expensive.

May 1st, 2018: Guess who won AL player of the month? Giancarlo Stanton! Don't know how, he hit only .238, but average is overrated anyways. 12 homers and 23 RBI's are pretty good numbers. Shoei Ohtani and Ronald Acuna won rookie of the month, as I'd expect them to earn that each month.

After one month, we were 10-18, 5 1/2 back on last years champion Washington Nationals who were 16-13. Philly was only 1/2 a game back at 15-13 along with New York. Atlanta was 11-18, just 1/2 a game better then us.

Brian Johnson (3-2, 3.45 ERA, 1.22) looked to defend home turf against Aaron Nola (2-3, 4.26 ERA, 1.18). I decided to make an executive decision and start Rafael Ortega in right. Lane Adams is hitting .161/.262/.232 and the red hot Ortega was great last game, and is a lefty. Ortega hit 6 behind Relamuto and infront of Rojas.

We scored quick runs in the 1st and 2nd, and then Rhys Hoskins doubled off Johnson, scoring a run to bring the Phillies closer. With a 2-1 lead, Johnson finished the 7th, let Chapman take the 8th, and Drew Steckenrider the 9th, to finish off the Phils 2-1, our second win in the series. Johnson is now 4-2, Chapman has 2 holds, and Steckenrider 6 saves. Johnson was back to ace like, going 7 innings and alowing only 1 run and 1 walk. Yes he gave up 7 hits and yeas he only struck out 2, but he was still great. Chapman walked 1 and Steckenrider 2, but they didn't allow hits.

Nola pitched well on the flip sided, allowing 5 hits and a walk which turned into 2 runs. He struck out 5 Marlins. Hoskins wasn't having a sophomore slump by any means, and went 3-for-4. He did only have 5 homers, but that should pick up, hopefully after he leaves Miami. Aaron Altherr has 9 homers, leading the team.

Maybin went 2-for-3 with a walk and scored once. We only had 6 hits, all singles, but it was enough today. Justin Bour and Johnson (yes, the pitcher) drove in the runs. Ortega went 1-for-3, much better then Adams would've.

Could we complete the sweep? I hope...

May 2nd, 2018: Looking to complete the sweep, Odrisamer Despaigne (1-1, 3.00 ERA, 1.00 WHIP) was back for another start in the homestand and faced former Blue Jay Drew Hutchison (2-0, 2.86 ERA, 1.16 WHIP) who was looking like the ace we thought he could be.

And Hutch pitched like it. 8 shut out innings where he scattered 5 hits and 2 walks in a 4-0 Philly victory. Despaigned allowed 3 in 5, off 8 hits and 2 walks. He didn't strike anyone out. New Marlin Enny Romero made his debut, but allowed a run off 3 hits and a walk in 2 frames. He did strike out 2.

Lane Adams got a hit, so maybe the benching helped. It was a 2nd inning double. Derek Dietrich doubled in the 1st, and J.T. Realmuto tallied a pair of hits, but we really couldn't do anything all game.

Well, it was a nice homestand, 4-2 against 2nd place teams. Next was a NL Central road trip, 3 in in Cincinnati and 3 in Chicago. I did not want to face the Cubs again, at 22-9 they were scary.

May 3rd, 2018: The off day gave us a little time to relax as we flew to the wonderful state of Ohio. The Dodgers offered me C Keibert Ruiz, but he was nothing special.

The Sox were making moves, as Chicago sent Joakim Soria to Boston for RF Tyler Esplin, RHP Jake J. Thompson, LHP Rayniel Adames, and 3B Jake Sweaney. Seems like a nice haul right? The 4* Soria notched 3* potential Esplin, 2* potential Thompson, 2* potential Adames, and 1.5* potential Sweaney. None of them stand out,but they can all make the majors and the White Sox hedged their bets. Soria wasn't having the best year, but he's a nice addition behind Craig Kimbrel and Matt Barnes in an avergae pen.

In two days the draft pool would come out, and our scouts would furiously scout it. I had to find the next franchise stud.

But first came the Reds. We would most likely see righty Tyler Mahle (2-3, 4.41 ERA), and lefties Brandon Finnegan and Scott Diamond (2-2, 5.40 ERA). Finnegan just came off the DL, but made 5 rehab starts in Louisville, going 2-0 with a 1.69 ERA, 1.54 WHIP, and 32 strikeouts to go with 10 walks. He's the only pitcher in history to pitched in the CWS and the WS in the same season (TCU and the Royals in 2014).

In MLB news, Mets Jacob deGrom tossed a no-hitter against the Braves! The Mets edged the game 2-0 as deGrom was dominate, striking out 11, but he did walk 4 for a total of 118 pitches.

[ayaghmour2]

May 4th, 2018: The reigning World Series champion Astros offered me 18-year-old Carlos Diaz for Odrisamer Despaigne. Don't know why everyone wants him, but Diaz is pretty uselss so it was an easy no. I could get value from him eventually though, an interesting topic to think about.

I also found out the catcher the Dodgers offered me Keibert Ruiz is ranked #40 in Baseball America's top prospect list in real life. Stan Meek, my head scout, would disagree, but I kept him in mind.

On to the Reds game, Jose Urena (1-3, 6.92 ERA, 1.65 WHIP) took the mound for the Marlins and the Reds countered with Tyler Mahle (2-3, 4.41 ERA, 1.47 WHIP). The Reds were a shocking 19-13. They were in third place though, even though they'd lead the NL East.

The Red scored 2 quick runs in the bottom of the 1st, but the Marlins answered back with 4 in the 2nd, including a three run homer by Cameron Maybin, his 2nd on the year. Up 4-2, we pushed it to 5-2 with another run in the 3rd, but the Reds added one in the bottom. Then came the 4th. The Reds rallied for 4, taking a 7-5 lead. Jose Peraza had a 2 run single, and Urena left mid-inning. They added another run in the 6th, making it 8-5. But the Marlins weren't ready to give up. Justin Bour took Wandy Peralta deep in the 7th for his 11th homer run. It tied up the game as three runners including Bour scored. Tied 8-8, Drew Steckenrider came in for the 9th and Tucker Barnhart (another fantasy player of mine) was ready to end the game. Already 2-for-4, the catcher plated a home a run with a single, as the Reds walked off. For those asking why I have him, I forgot to draft a backup catcher for Gary Sanchez, and he was an interesting free agent available. OOTP has him hitting .322 with 2 homers and 7 RBI's, so hopefully he replicates that in real life.

Obviously, the pitching was bad today in the 9-8 loss. Urena sucked, allowing 7 runs (only 4 earned) off 7 hits, a walk, and added only 2 strike outs. And guess who made the error? Him... So I don't have too much sympothy for him. The 26-year-old is out of options so I'm sort of force to keep him. He has talent, so I don't want to risk losing him, but a few more bad outings and I shouldn't have to worry. The only other reliever to give up a run was Junichi Tazawa who allowed 1 in 0.1 innings. Jorge De La Rosa, Heath Hembree (near perfect since the claim), and Kevin Chapman did what Urena, Tazawa, and Steckenrider couldn't do, kept the Reds from scoring.

J.T. Realumto was the only starting position player who failed to record a hit, but he was only 0-for-2 with a walk and a sac fly, so he played well. He scored and drove in a run. Martin Prado was awesome, 3-for-4 with a run scored and driven in. Maybin added a double to his homer and drove in 3 while scoring twice. Derek Dietrich had 2 hits and a walk in 5 plate appearences.

Other then Barnhart, Billy Hamilton and personal favorite Joey Votto had 3 hits a piece, Hamilton scoring 3 times and Votto driving in 2. Scott Schebler drove in 3 in a 2-for-4 game where he scored on his 14th homer of the year. He's got the MLB lead by two, especially since Bour had a homer break before today.

May 5th, 2018: The draft pool was revealed, so I'll give a brief look at who OSA has as the top 10 to look at. Players will be listed in the following fashion: Position Name (OSA Stars,My Scout Stars).

1. RHP Christopher A. Reynolds (0.5/4, 0.5/2.5) (Not sure why he's number 1)
2. RHP Ethan Hankins (0.5/4, 0.5/4.5) (He's who I want, but won't get)
3. 1B Damani Cephus (0.5/4, 0.5/3.5)
4. RHP Casey Mize (0.5/4, 0.5/2) (Maybe OSA has no 5* prospects...)
5. 3B Kennan Pulsifer (0.5/4, 0.5/2)
6. RF Jeff Swanson (0.5/3.5, 0.5/3)
7. SS Brice Turang (0.5. 3.5, 0.5/5) (Okay, maybe Turang is who I want)
8. CF Jeremy Green (0.5/4.5, 0.5/0.5) (I wonder who's right)
9. CF Brad Duffield (0.5/3.5, 0.5/0.5) (Same here)
10. SS Nolan Gorman (0.5/3.5, 0.5/2.5)

Fun Fact: I've seen Ethan Hankins, Brice Turang, and Nolan Gorman play in realy life at the Under Armor All-American game at Wrigley over the summer. This pool has a mix of real and fake players, I'm rooting for the real ones.

So OSA doesn't like this pool too much, 1 4.5*, and only 7 4* prospects (RHP Igone Perfect and RHP Juan Romero weren't in top 10. Don't know why Perfect wasn't, but Romero is a relief pitcher).

Stan Meek isn't too fond of the pool, just the 1 5*, impossible Ethan Hankins and SS Osiris Johnson are at 4.5. Then a pair of 4* and not much else. A decent amount of depth though, but I will scout the pool heavily.

Side note: I heard that star ratings formula have been updated, less high star, more middle stars. Something to keep in mind.

Now on to the game, Adam Conley (0-1, 4.88 ERA, 1.30 WHIP) faced off against lefty counterpart Brandon Finnegan in his season debut. The game sucked, as the Reds shut us out 6-0.

Conley wasn't bad, but he allowed 10 hits in 7 innings which turned into 4 runs (3 earned). He walked 2 and struck out 1. Lane Adams made the error. Enny Romero pitched the 8th and gave up 4 hits including a 2 run shot. He's looking like Joe Thatcher. But he struck out 3, the same as Thatcher did in a Marlin uniform, so I guess there is some difference.

The Reds had a trio of three hit performances; Eugenio Suarez, Adam Duval, and Scooter Gennett. Billy Hamilton boosted his steal total to 23 with two swipes and Duvall hit 2 homers, giving him 5 on the year.

We were outhit 14-5. Adams and Justin Bour struck out 4. Adams has been awful since coming from Atlanta, hitting a meek .162 with a homer and 2 RBI's. His speed is nice, but I'll be looking to replace him.

Best option to replace him in the minors? Bring back Lewis Brinson. He was hitting .245/.297/.445 with 2 steals, 3 homers, and 13 RBI's. Obviously better, but not enough to warrant a promotion. He looked overmattched earlier in the year as well. Top prospect Braxton Lee looked decent, and was hitting .321/.317/.411 (1 walk in 56 at bats, but he had 4 sacrafices). He stole 5 bases and drove in 12 runs, but he had no experience in RF. His arm is just average, but I'm going to see how he can do in right.

May 6th, 2018: Alex Cobb was finally healthy, and I sent him to AAA to rehab. I was hoping to get him at leaset 2 starts, but performance could make a difference. He's also listed as 'Fragile' now, which is a concern.

A pair of pitchers are out for the year. Nationals Ace Stephen Strasburg and A's relief pitcher Liam Hendricks. Maybe the Nationals would be interested in Despaigne...

We finally had the pitching advantage, with Dan Straily (2-2, 3.38 ERA, 1.19 WHIP) going against Scott Diamond (2-2, 5.40 ERA, 1.43) who shouldn't really be a big league pitcher anymore. My scout likes him more then Straily for some reason though.

We looked to avoid the sweep, but were unsuccessful as the Reds won a close one 5-7. We had a nice 5 run 4th, but they answered back with 3 and tied the game next inning (they had 1 in the 3rd).

Straily gave up 5 off 5 hits and 2 walks in 4.2 innings. He did struck out 5. Tazawa and Kevin Chapman allowed a run a piece later in the game, as Tazawa picked up the loss. Rasiel Igelsias gently closed the door earning his 11th save. He walked 3, but no one scored or hit his flaming pitched.

Billy Hamilton stole 2 more bases and him, Jose Peraza, and Jesse Winker had 2 hit games. The Reds only had 8 hits compared to our 9.

Lane Adams bounced back, going 2-for-4 with an RBI and 3 steals. I think he heard he could be replaced. Miguel Rojas had a 2 run triple and ended up scoring. J.T. Realmuto picked up 2 hits in 5 trips while scoring once. Cameron Maybin was 2-for-4 with a walk and his 9th steal of the season.

The plane ride to Chicago wasn't fun, as we were swept earlier in the year. The Cubs are now in 2nd though, but a remarkable 22-12. St. Louis is leading the pack at 23-10.

May 7th, 2018: Power rankings published, and back all the way to the bottom. Kansas City has 61.7 in 29th, we have 54. St. Louis is leading the pack with 133.5, followed by the red hot Reds at 126.1.

The opener should be a good one, Brian Johnson (4-2, 3.03 ERA, 1.21) took on opening day starter Jose Quintana (5-1, 2.44 ERA, 1.10 WHIP) for the opener at beautiful Wrigley Field. This should be our last series with the Cubs. The Cubs have former Marlin Ichiro starting in LF.

The hometown Cubs flew the W in this 4-2 victory. Johnson was roughed up for 4 in 5.1 innings. He struck out 5, but walked 2 and allowed 7 hits. He was the only Marlin to allow runs. Quintana went 7, allowing 2 runs off 8 hits while walking 3 and striking out 7. Brandon Morrow left the 9th adter allowing a hit, leading way to Carl Edwards Jr. picking up save number 2.

Speaking of Ichiro, he went 3-for-4 with an RBI and is hitting .667 in what I can only assume is a limited sample. It's only 6 at bats for the 44 year old.

Offensively, Johnson lead the charge with 2 hits in 3 trips and an RBI. Every other starter had a hit except Lane Adams, who earned himself a day off if a righty would pitch tommorow. Johnson and Bour both doubled.

May 8th, 2018: Odrisamer Despaigne (1-2, 3.71 ERA, 1.29 WHIP) was back on the mound to face the struggling Drew Smyly (1-1, 6.35 ERA, 1.41 WHIP). Smyly is a lefty so Adams lucked out...

Only 1 run was scored all game, and Miami has now lost 6 in a row. Chicago improved their record to 24-12 with the shutout. Smyly stopped struggling, going almost all the way, 8.1 innings. He struck out 9 and walked 2 and allowed 2 hits. Justin Wilson finished the game with 2 outs, earning his 2nd save in what looks like a closer by committe.

Despaigne was brilliant, allowing only 1 run off 3 hits while striking out 3. His only mistake was Kris Bryant's solo shot in the 4th, the 8th homer of the season.

So since we only got 2 hits, guess who got one of them? Yep, Lane Adams. He was 1-for-3 with a walk. Maybe I should threaten him every day. The other was the solid 3B Martin Prado. Realmuto worked a walk but was instantly caught stealing. Why would he run on Wilson Contreras?

Heath Hembree strained his hamstring, and will miss 5 weeks. Brad Ziegler would be back in 2 days, but I called up Brian Ellington from AAA in the meantime so Ziegler could still rehab.

The Giants were sick of the Panda, and waived Pablo Sandoval.

May 9th, 2018: So I guess everyone loves Odrisamer (oh wait, it's Chris? Not in this world). The Angels offered me 24-year-old centerfielder Kyle Survance for him. He was alright, 1.5 star potential, but it really wasn't worth it. A tough no.

Two trades were completed, however, as the White Sox kept busy. This time they moved RP Luis Avilan to Arizona for top prospect Jon Duplainter. What were the D'Backs thinking. My scout had him as a 1.5/3*, still pretty solid as a SP, and Avilan as a 3* RP. Duplainter is the #61 prospect in all of baseball as well.

The next trade was the Indians sending LF Tyler Nawuin and LHP Yeffersson Yannuzzi to the Mariners for LF Nelson Cruz and $780,000. Naquin is a 0.5/1.5, Yannuzzi 0.5, and Cruz a 2. 1.5+0.5=2, so maybe a good deal? Not quite how it works. The M's did unload most of Cruz's $14,000,000 contract which is nice. And calling Cruz a LF is generous, he's basically a DH only. Way to go Jerry!

Now time to get swept by the almost first place Cubs (1/2 game out now). Star Yu Darvish (2-2, 2.16 ERA, 0.72 WHIP) was taking on better star Jose Urena (1-3, 7.28 ERA, 1.72 WHIP). The game looked good for about 3.5 innings, where we actually were up 1. Then Urena gave up 3 in the 4th and 2 more in the 5th, and we took our 7th straight defeat in another sweep from an NL Central team. We are 0-7 against the Cubs, please end the misery. We did score 3, but gave up 9.

Urena allowed 5 in 5 while Jorge De La Rosa was lit up for 4 in 0.2 innings. He was solid untill this game, and his ERA balooned to 6.00. Brian Ellington pitched today, allowing a walk and a hit in an inning, but he did record 2 punch outs.

Cameron Maybin and Justin Bour went 2-for-4. Maybin scored twice, drove in two, and hit two solo shots, bringing his total to 4 for the year. Bour hit his 7th double. We only had 5 hits and the last one was courtesy of Derek Dietrich. Realmuto did have a sac fly where he drove in Starlin Castro who was hit by a Darvish pitch. Castro loved facing the Yankees, but only went 1-for-11 in his old home stadium Wrigley Field.

Good thing the road trip was over, as we finished 0-6. Next we got 4 at home against Atlanta followed by an off day, and the we would host LA for 3.

Quick check on Braxton Lee who is supposedly not ready for AAA. He's got 13 rating in RF now, and is hitting .380/.412/.451 with 13 RBI's. If that's not ready, I can't imagine what is. I guess his ratings aren't too great (48/34/6/54/36) and there a little away from his potentials (54/50/10/64/48). I just know he'll probably never hit a homer (3 total, all in 2017).

Back to the upcoming series, it looks like we'd see righty Brandon McCarthy (0-2, 6.12 ERA), and lefties Sean Newcomb (1-2, 4.96 ERA, remember that name, he's got solid upside), and Luiz Gohara (2-1, 5.14 ERA). We were home so maybe we could steal this series and break the little rut we were in. The Braves were only 15-22, but we are 11-25. We've got a 2 game lead on the first pl--wait, first pick...

I kid, but I am having fun so far. I know there's going to be a lot of losing, but I've got hope for the future at the helm of this crippled organization.

[ayaghmour2]

May 10th, 2018: As we arrived home in Miami, I sent Brad Ziegler on rehab assignment to AAA Jacksonville.

We gave Adam Conley (0-2, 4.67 ERA, 1.68 WHIP) the ball to face the Braves Brandon McCarthy (0-2, 6.12 ERA, 1.55 WHIP). We needed to win this game.

Atlanta had different ideas. They put up 2 runs in the 1st on a Dansby Swanson 2 run single. Shocked he hit the ball... He did go 3-for-5 and his hitting .354 so I guess OOTP fell for the hype. They didn't look back and finished us off 5-2, and out hit us 13-2. What a great game all around.

Cameron Maybin did double in the 1st, and then stole 3rd, I think, he did walk later in the game so it could have been then. Martin Prado had the only other hit, but Lane Adams and Miguel Rojas drove in Justin Bour and Prado with sac flies.

Adam Conley wasn't too great, allowing 8 hits and 4 runs while walking and striking out a pair. The struggling Jorge De La Rosa allowed the last run. He tossed 2/3rds of an inning and allowed 3 hits. Closer Drew Steckenrider got an inning, since we haven't won in forever, he needed to pitch.

Remember Braxton Lee? He went 5-for-5 against the Round Rock Express in an 11-3 victory for the Baby Cakes. But I thought he isn't ready for AAA? He's now hitting a ripe .421/.453/.487. I really want to call him up, but his ratings aren't major league ready.

May 11th, 2018: Sean Newcomb (1-2, 4.96 ERA, 1.71 WHIP) took the mound for the Braves and faced off against Dan Straily (2-2, 4.24 ERA, 1.24 WHIP).

We'd have to wait another day to get a win, but we did get to see super spec Ronald Acuna laucnh a 2 run homer off Straily.

We had 4 hits, 2 for Lane Adams, I know, I'm shocked too, but I did mention Braxton Lee yesterday, and the productive Cameron Maybin. Adams went 2-for-3 with a run scored and a pair of walks. He also stole 3 bases, giving him 8 steals on the year. When he gets on, he does get steals. Maybin was 2-for-4 with a run scored, and the 2 RBI's. Him and Adams were literally the only offense in the game. Bour and Derek Dietrich struck out 3 times. Well, I guess Realmuto and Miguel Rojas walked, but still.

Straily wasn't sharp either, allowing 5 hits and 3 walks which lead to 4 runs. He did strike out 6 in his 4 innings of worth. Enny Romero looks like Joe Thatcher again, allowing 2 runs off 2 hits and 3 walks in an inning. He did strike a batter out.

3 star reliever Adam Warren was on waivers and that was an instant claim. But it was rejected since I had no money and he cost $3,315,000. So I decided to sling a trade. Let's see Brain Cashman, interested in this stud named Enny Romero? He wasn't interested. But please, you stole Stanton from us. Again, not interested.

I threw Brad Ziegler his way instead and he actually thought about it. We'll see how he responds.

May 12th, 2018: 'NO WAY!' -Brian Cashman. Well thanks, why didn't you say that yesterday? Ironically he would have taken the deal for Jose Devers, the "prospect" we got for Stanton. Wasn't about to do that. Eventually we agreed on RF Brian C. Miller to head their way too.

Final deal, Adam Warren (45% salary retained) for Brad Ziegler and RF Brian C. Miller. This deal saved me over $5 million. Pretty nice deal. Miller is a 0.5* in my scouts eyes, but OSA thinks he's decent.

I optioned Brian Ellington back to AAA, and Adam Warren was added to the roster. Say hello to your new 8th inning guy!

Next came game three of four (it thre me off that Scott Kazmir was projected to start tommorow and with the Dodgers next I forgot they traded him in the Kemp deal, so I thought we only had 3 against the Braves). Our only pitcher Brian Johnson (4-3, 3.51 ERA, 1.27 WHIP) took on Luiz Gohara (2-1, 5.14 ERA, 1.54) who has started only 1 game, but came out of the pen for 14. We had three cold players (Derek Dietrich, Martin Prado, Miguel Rojas) and 1 hot player (Cameron Maybin).

We came to play, as Starlin Castro hit a solo shot in the 1st. Fast foward to the 5th and we put up 3 more runs, pushing the lead to 4-0. Miguel Rojas had a run scoring triple. But we know the Marlins don't like leads, so we allowed the Braves to cut the deficit in half. And then my nemesis Dansby Swasnson hit the newley acquired Adam Warren's pitch for a run scoring single. The very rested Drew Steckenrider came in for the 9th, and pitched a perfect 1-2-3 inning with 2 K's and a ground out, earning save #7.

Johnson wasn't perfect, but was good enough and was now 5-3. Again, almost half of our 12 wins. He went 5.1 innings, allowing 6 hits and 2 runs, while walking 2 and striking out 6 Brave (pun intented) hitters.

All three cold players got hits. Dietrich was 2-for-4 with an RBI. Prado was 1-for-4 with a run scored. Rojas was 1-for-2 with a run scored, and the RBI from the triple. He also walked. Brian Johnson might be a hitter in disguise. He hit his 2nd double of the season, scored, and droce in Rojas. He's hitting .385/.467/.538 with 3 RBI's. I checked his hitting ratings, and they aren't bad. 44/40/46/23/28 with potentials of 53/54/56/32/36. He has the same amount of contact as backup catcher Bryan Holaday (hitting .143), and more power then Maybin, Prado, Johnny Giavotella, Rafael Ortega, and Rojas. Can't quite deicde how to take that.

Junichi Tazawa left the game with a bone spur in his elbow. He's headed to the DL and should be there for 3 weeks.

Craig Kimbrel earned his 300th save as the Red Sox beat my real team, the Blue Jays, 4-3 in Rogers Centre. He has a legitimate chance to reach 600. He just has to pitch till 36 or 37. It's not easy, but he has a chance. I went to call up Alex Cobb, but he decided to be injured on rehab. He was 2-2 with a 2.19 ERA. He only struck out 5 in 12.1 innings. I'll wait until tommorow to make a decision.

May 13th, 2018: Personal favorite Chris Taylor is now out for the year with a broken kneecap. Big blow to the Dodgers, but they have the depth to cover anything. His season ends with 12 driven in and a .287/.345/.380 batting line in 34 games.

So Cobb still looks hurt, so I turned to Jarlin Garcia. Nicknamed 'Jarlin the Marlin' it seemed fitting. He tossed 18.2 innings between AA and AAA this year, with a respectable 2.47 ERA.

We looked to salvage a split in front of nearly 15,000 with the roof closed. Don't think the real Marlins would reach that total Opening Day. Anyways, the Braves meant business, pushing up Julio Teheran (1-4, 4.50 ERA, 1.10 WHIP) to face the sought after Odrisamer Despaigne (1-3, 3.13 ERA, 1.09). I really hope I spell his name right every time.

Tyler Flowers and Preston Tucker went back to back in the 2nd, but Despaigne settled in after that. We scored 3 in the 3rd, aided by a 2 run Derek Dietrich single. Despaigne ended up going 6 strong, allowing just 4 hits. He even struck out 5. Enny Romero and Adam Warren, my two trade aquisitions, pitched scorless 7th and 8th earning saves. We added 1 more in the 8th to make it 4-2. Steckenrider was in for the second consecutive days, and definitely gave a scare. Preston Tucker doubled with 1 on and 1 out, but Flowers was thrown out, preserving the lead. Steckenrider ended the game with a strike out, and we earned the split. It was the 3rd time Marlin pitching bested Ryan Schimpf.

Miguel Rojas went 2-for-3 to lead the 6 hit charge. He also scored and doubled. Lane Adams socred as well after a pinch hit double in the 8th. Dietrich drove in 2 and went 1-for-4 while Starlin Castro produced the last run in a 1-for-4 night of his own.

May 14th, 2018: We had a day off at home, so we could check the always fun power rankings! 28th? Not too shaby. 54.5 bested the White Sox (49) and Padres (40.7) only. We were 13-27, good for a 32.5 win percentage.

Looking ahead to hosting the 1st Place Dodgers (25-15) we would see Kenta Maeda (2-1, 4.91 ERA), Hyun-jin Ryu (2-3, 4.91 ERA as well), and Ross Stripling (3-1, 3.02 ERA). The same allignment, but switching Kershaw with Maeda. I'm ready to surprise these Dodgers.

May 15th, 2018: More bad news on the Alex Cobb. The rehabbing righty strained his forearm and will miss 2 months, sending him to the 60-Day DL.

So as expected, we saw Maeda (2-1, 4.91 ERA, 1.32 WHIP) face Jose Urena (1-4, 7.53 ERA). Urena was as awful as ever, allowing a run in the top of the 1st, and then a 2 run homer to Kike Hernandez in the 2nd. Add another in the top of the 3rd. Down 4-0 in the 3rd, the Marlins crumbled up and died. Wait, they didn't? They scored 5 runs? J.T. Realmuto had a clutch 2 run double and the Marlins did actually score 5 runs to take a 5-4 lead. In the 7th, Jarlin Garcia wanted to make a great impression to the club. He let Andrew Toles take him deep to tie the game, and Mattingly instantly yanked him. He really wanted to beat the team that fired him. Enny Romero gave up another run in the 8th, and we were now down 6-5. Didn't last too long, as Lane Adams hit a solo shot against Adam Liberatore. Ironically, I was thinking of Braxton Lee before simming this game, I saw him while making minor league moves. Liberatore got out of the inning and stayed in for the bottom of the 9th (no Kenley?). Derek Dietrich sent the home fans happy with a walk off double, capping a shocking 7-6 win. See, I was ready to surprise.

Now Urena's 3 innings sucked. 7 hits and 4 runs with a pair of strike outs. De La Rosa was fineish in mop up for 2.1 innings. No hits, 3 strikeouts, 4 walks. Don't really know what to make of this. Closer Drew Steckenrider picked up the win, pitching a scorless 9th with a walk and strikeout.

Martin Prado was a perfect 3-for-3 with a run scored and his 6th double of the year, but Rafael Ortega ran for him in the 6th. Don't know what that was about... We only had 9 hits, and no other Marlin had more then 1. Cameron Maybin was 1-for-5, but drove in 2 and scored with a 3rd inning double. J.T Realmuto doubled and drove home 2 as well.

May 16th, 2018: Game 2 saw Adam Conley (0-3, 5.08 ERA, 1.49 WHIP) and the host Marlins duel Hyun-jin Ryu (2-3, 4.91 ERA, 1.55 WHIP) and the visiting Dodgers.

LA jumped to a quick 3 run lead with help from a Joc Pederson 2 run double in the 1st. We matched them in the 3rd, with a 3 run inning of our own. Ryu helped his cause with a run scoring single in the 4th, and that was all the scoring. Despite outhitting the Dodgers 10-6, we lost 4-3.

Conley, now 0-4, was hit hard, allowing 6 hits and 4 runs in 4 innings. He walked 1 and struck out 2. The pen was solid, missing a lot of bats. Nick Wittgren struck out 3 in 2, Garcia 1 in 0.1, Chapman 2 in 1.2, and Warren 2 in 1. None of them allowed a hit, but Wittgren and Chapman walked a batter each.

The top 5 hitters (Maybin, Dietrich, Castro, Prado, Realmuto) all had 2 hits. Maybin, Dietrich, and Castro scored, Maybin, Prado, and Realmuto drove in runs. Other then Garett Cooper walking (who's cooled down a ton), literally the whole offense was in the top 5 hitters of the order. Maybe that's why we lost, but you think they'd score some that way. I guess we had 4 runs.

May 17th, 2018: Stan Meek gave me a call, said we added 18-year-old Juan Trujillo to the International Complex. The Dominican isn't very good, but he can play in the DSL, so there is a plus to a 0.5* hitter. He can play 2B, 3B, SS, and RF, and has a cannon.

On to this much anticipated rubber match. 10,992 were in attendence, much less then the Braves game, which didn't make sense. Ross Stripling (3-1, 3.02 ERA, 1.03 WHIP) took on Dan Straily (2-3, 4.74 ERA, 1.32 WHIP). I caved, I looked it up. And I was right. He was pulled in the 8th inning of a no hitter after 7.1 innings. Pitch count is what skipper Dave Roberts said was the reason. At least he wasn't walked off on like Rich Hill.

The Dodgers had 10 hits, we had 7. Guess who won? US!!! 4-3! OOTP was on dirt though, "Even with the win, the Marlins have a dismal 15-28 record." Well yeah, we have a dismal payroll and budget too so what do you expect...

Straily was fine, going 5.1 innings. He allowed 6 hits and a walk to go with 2 runs, but struck out 5. Adam Warren allowed a run in a 2 inning hold and Jarlin Garcia, yes the AAA scrub Jarlin the Marlin, picked up the save. Steckenrider struggled, allowed 2 hits and a walk, only striking out a hitter before Garcia finished the last two outs. Pretty clutch honestly. A pair of fly outs which surprisingly didn't score runs. Must've been pop ups.

Justin Bour went deep, his 12th of the year, in a 1-for-3 day. He drocve in a pair, walked, and scored (of course). Castro also picked up an RBI in a 2-for-4 performance. Lane Adams hit his 3rd homer of the year as well.

Can you believe it? We won a series against the Dodgers? We were an even 3-3 against them for the season.

Back on the road to Atlanta for 3 and then Queens for a trio against the Mets. A pair of division matchups with teams better then us. Everyone is better then us? Nah, the Paders are 14-31. But that's it...

Expect Luiz Gohara (2-2, 5.45 ERA) who I think I misspelled his name earlier, Julio Teheran (1-5, 4.40 ERA), and Mike Foltynewicz (1-3, 3.59 ERA). A pair of guys we just saw and a new face in Folty. Let's do this!!!

[ayaghmour2]

May 18th, 2018: We arrived in Atlanta and sent out our best pitcher Brian Johnson (5-3, 3.50 ERA, 1.29 WHIP) to face Luiz Gohara (2-2, 5.45 ERA, 1.58 WHIP).

Johnson was bested by Ronald Acuna in the 4th with a 2 run homer. The Braves added 2 more in the 5th to take a 4-0 lead. Johnson struggled, allowing 4 runs, 4 hits, and a walk in 4.1 innings. He did strike out. Gohara tossed 5 scorless, allowed only 1 hit, but walked 6 while striking out 9. In the 8th we got to Rex Brothers for 2 runs, but still were down 4-2. He was back in the 9th and walked Johnny Giovatella with the bases loaded, then Rafael Ortgea hit an RBI single. That was enough for Brothers, and rookie Devan Watts came into the game. Starlin Castro showed him what a veteran can do, and hit a 3 run bomb, capping off a 6 run top of the 9th. Kevin Chapman allowed a homer to Ryan Schimpf, and it became a tight 8-5 game. Drew Steckenrider came back in and pitched a perfect 9th, earning save 9. Nick Wittgren picked up the win with a perfect 8th, now 2-0 on the season with a nice 1.97 ERA.

Castro was amazing, going 4-for-5 with 4 RBI's and a run scored to go with a walk. His homer was 8 for the year. Cameron Maybin was ejected in the 2nd, and that's what lead to Ortega coming into the game. Miguel Rojas went 2-for-4 and scored twice.

I earned the achievement "Hit Machine" for Castro hitting 4 hits.

Remember opening day starter Dillon Peters? He was down in New Orleans and diagnosed with shoulder tendinitis. It would cost him 4 weeks. The 25-year-old was 1-1 with a 4.33 ERA with 23 strike outs compared to 16 walks.

The Astros Carlos Correa was 5-fo-r5 today in a 10-3 win over the Cleveland Indians. He's hitting .295/.371/.489 on the season.

Tigers pitcher Matt Boyd tossed a 2-hit shutout against the Mariners in a 2-0 win. One of the 3 pitchers recieved from Toronto in the David Price Deal, he's 3-2 this season with a 3.08 ERA for the 2nd place Tigers.

May 19th, 2018: The Red Sox will be without Carson Smith for the rest of the year. The righty tore his UCL, and will undergo Tommy John surgery. The former Mariner wasn't the best, working to a 5.33 ERA in 23 appearences.

We looked to turn two wins into three and sent Odrisamer Despaigned (2-3, 3.10 ERA, 1.00 WHIP) against the host Braves and Julio Teheran (1-5, 4.40 ERA, 1.06 WHIP). Both pitchers have faced the other team.
The bats were definitely working at SunTrust park as we topped the Braves 8-6 while outhitting them 13-11. Despaigne hurt himself pitching while finishing off the 2nd. He allowed 3 hits, but no runs in the game. The only Marlin pitcher to keep the Braves from touching home. Jorge De La Rosa, who got the win, allowed 2 in 2.1, Wittgren allowed 1 in 1 (no hits, but a walk and 3 strikeouts), Kevin Chapman allowed 2 in 2, and finally Adam Warren allowed 1 in 1.

We had offensive production from all starters except Justin Bour, who was now hitting .231. He struck out 3 times. Lane Adams was shockingly productive, with no thought of Braton Lee. He went 3-for-4 with a walk and 2 runs scored. He also recorded his 4th double and stole base 9 and 10. He's now hitting above the mendoza line. Miguel Rojas was also great, hitting a homer in a 3-for-5 outing where he scored and drove in 2. Derek Dietrich (4), Stalrin Castro (9) and J.T. Realmuto (3) hit homers.

Ryan Braun hit 3 homers as the Brewers were beat by the Twins 7-6. He now has 12 homers and 31 RBI's on the year.

Checked on Despaigne, just a DTD injury that won't cost him a start. He just has a little neck stiffness, so he should be alright soon.

May 20th, 2018: The Rangers will be without starter Martin Perez for the rest of the year. Injuries have been tough for him, and this time he partially tore his UCL. Recovery time, 11-12 months.

We looked to complete the road sweep, but I lacked confidence. Jose Urena (1-4, 7.88 ERA, 1.78) was on the mound. Brandon McCarthy (1-2, 4.44 ERA, 1.33 WHIP) isn't much better, but he shut us down earlier in the year.

The Braves put up 4 in the bottom of the 1st, Ender Inciarte and Ronald Acuna got on base for Freddie Freeman who drove in 2 with a double. Urena did settle down, but the damage was done and the Braves cruised to a nice 5-1 victory, saving themselves from the sweep.

Urena, now 1-5, allowed 5 hits and 4 runs in 4.1 innings. He did strike out 7 and only walked 2, but the 1st was very rough. Enny Romero also allowed a run in 0.1 innings off 2 hits. He did strike out a batter.

We did manage 6 hits, but we weren't really good. Martin Prado was 2-for-3 with a double. Derek Dietrich doubled as well, but also made an error.

We boarded the flight to New York to face the Mets. We were looking at Jason Vargas (2-1, 4.32 ERA), Jacob deGrom (3-2, 3.21 ERA) who had a no-hitter earlier in the year, and Zack Wheeler (1-2, 4.50 ERA). Over under 3 Mets pitchers on the DL? My bet was on over, but it was just Matt Harvey (Biceps tendinitis, returning in 7 days) and Steven Matz (torn flexor tendon, 13 months).

May 21st, 2018: Today is monday, which means power rankings! We've bounced up to 26 with a 67.5 ranking. The Cubs are back in 1st with 132.2. They've taken a 2.5 game lead over the Cardinals.

First game in Queens saw the 23-22 Mets take on the 17-29 Marlins. The Mets decided Vargas wouldn't start today, and started the series strong with Jacob deGrom (3-2, 3.21 ERA, 0.89 WHIP). Our starter, Adam Conley (0-4, 5.44 ERA, 1.51 WHIP), wasn't as strong.

Mickey Callaway's squad put up the first 4 runs of the game. Domonic Smith hit a 2 run homer in the 2nd, and solo runs were added in the 3rd and 5th courtesy of Todd Frazier. deGrom was brilliant, allowing just 2 in 7.1 innings, leading the Mets to the 4-2 victory. He allowed 5 hits and 2 walks, but sent 8 Marlins hitters to the dugout with strike outs.

Conley wasn't brilliant, allowing 9 hits, a walk, and 4 runs in 5.2 innings. He struck out a pair of Mets hitters, but so did Jarlin Garcia in a perfect 7th inning. 6 hits again, and a third were Martin Prado. He also drove in both runs in a single of Paul Sewald, who I now am familiar with. Justin Bour doubled, and Cameron Maybin and Lane Adams stole their 11th base each, giving them the team lead. We're actually 5th in the NL in steals, although Billy Hamilton (32) has more then we do (31). He's 32-for-35, we're 31-for-44, not nearly as efficient.

May 22nd, 2018: The trade happy White Sox offered me CF Joel Booker for Adam Warren. I guess they were in need for pen arms after moving Soria and Avilan. Booker wasn't bad, but Warren was much better, and I definitely could get more for him. I politely declined Rick Hahn, a GM I am a fan of.

Jason Vargas (2-1, 4.32 ERA, 1.53 WHIP) did end up getting his turn, and he dueled Dan Straily (3-3, 4.57 ERA, 1.32 WHIP) in front of nearly 30,000 spectators. With the lefty Vargas on the mound, I gave Bour a needed day off, as he was ice cold, with the ice cold, but right handed Garrett Cooper. He's down to .245/.333/.347 after hitting everything well earlier in the year. Coop hit 6th behind Realmuto and in front of Lane Adams.

Just noticed a nice new OOTP feature, in the substitutions screen, which now is seperated hitters and pitchers, you can see your bullpen pitchers roles. Very helpful.

The Mets hit Straily hard and early, 4 runs in the 1st. Michael Confronto and Adrian Gonzalez hit solo homers, and my boy Ahmed Rosario knocked one in on a single. He went 2-for-4 and is batting a really nice .348. That's good for 2nd in the NL, behind Buster Posey who was really raking, hitting .387/.435/.633 with 7 homers and 27 RBI's. Almost wasted an early pick on him as a back up catcher/starting first basemen behind Gary Sanchez.

Vargas allowed only 2 in 7, as the Mets picked up game 2 as well, 5-2. Straily did find his groove, finishing 4 more innings after the 1st. His totals ended with 7 hits, 1 walk, and 4 strikeouts. Adam Warren gave up the last run, maybe I should've traded him...

Guess how many hits we had? 6! Guess who got 2 of them? Martin Prado? No, he was 0-for-3, maybe since he hit 3rd today. Starlin Castro, are hopeful All-Star (voting starts tommorow), went 2-for-4 with a run scored, and RBI and his 10th homer on the season. He's only 2 behind Bour now.

Speaking of Castro, he's been awesome, and I love his trade value. He's under control for a realtively reasonable price (10,000,000 this year, 11,000,000 next, and a 16,000,000 team option), but that's a lot of money for us. He's on pace for a 5.7 WAR season (I hate War, but hey, why not) with currently 10 homers, 29 RBI's, and a .295/.338/.495 line. His OPS+ is 123, and his BABIP is .307, so .295 seems like an average he earned.

May 23rd, 2018: As mentioned, All-Star voting began. I never vote, but I love seeing the ballots fly in sometimes.

The Mets had us at the same spot where we had the Braves, and Zach Wheeler (1-2, 4.50 ERA, 1.45 WHIP) wanted to make it happen. I was hoping Brian Johnson (5-3, 3.91 ERA, 1.28 WHIP) wouldn't let it happen, but he hasn't been the sharpest of late. Maybe this is his real form, which is likely. Can't complain too much with a free waiver claim.

He didn't let it happen, going 7 innings and allowing 1 run, preserving a 3-1 lead. He did allow 9 hits, but struck out 6 and walked just 1. Adam Warren, however, was fine with blowing the lead. He allowed 3 runs in 0.2 innings. So my two trade acquisitions had an ERA of 8.22 and 5.56 in Miami. But guess what, even though we were now down 4-3, we put up 2 in the 9th off old fried Paul Sewald with Garrett Cooper's pinch hit solo shot and Derek Dietrich's 5th homer. Forgot to mention this earlier, Johnson, now hitting .353, hit his 1st career homer off Zack Wheeler. Dare I play him at DH in an AL game?

But wait, it doesn't end there. Drew Steckenrider came in for the save, but allowed the way too old Adrian Gonzalez to come off the bench and tie the game with a solo shot. He's hit 4 homers all year, but two this series. Anyways, Steckenrider was able to finish the inning. I need a cool nickname for him since I like and he could be an important 7th or 8th inning guy when we get good. Steck just doesn't flow right. Fast foward to the 11th and the next Marlin reliever to let me down Jarlin Garcia allowed Travis d'Arnaud to walk it off with a single. We were out hit 16-8 in game three of the sweep.

Let's see, Lane Adams was good. He went 3-for-4 with a run scored and one more driven in. He walked, stole a base, and doubled twice. Maybe he's coming around, we'll see.

May 24th, 2018: We had an off day to recover from the beating we took against the Mets. We're 17-32 right now, 13 out of 1st where the Nats and Phillies are tied with 30-19 records.

We'd get to host the Nats for 3 before heading to San Diego for 4 at Petco. We were looking at Gio Gonzalez (4-3, 3.67 ERA), Tanner Roark (4-2, 5.98 ERA), and Jeff Manship (4-2, 4.38 ERA). I thought, why Manship? But then remembered the Strasburg injury. The veteran swignman hasn't been Strasbutg, but he's bee alright, despite averaging a hair under 5 starts per inning. I think A.J. Cole would've been the better choice, but a 17-32 team can't really give advice to a 30-19 team. They were also without Joe Ross still, so maybe I could send them one of my "excellent" starters. Despaigne could actually be of help.

2018 is the year of amazing hitting performances. Kyle Seager went 6-for-6 in Seattle's 15-4 triumph over Oakland. He hit a homer off Yusmerio Petit, singled 4 times, and doubled in a run.

Not going to lie, I got bored with no game and shopped Adam Warren around. There were actually a few interesting offers. Eliezer Alvarez, Nicky Lopez, and Andrew Stevenson were three solid prospects. The first two infielders, Stevenson a centerfeilder.

I went to Alvarez, and asked for SP Tom Eshelman as well. Both were 2.5* potentials, with the latter a 2* overall, the first 1.5. GM Matt Kletnak of the Phillies wanted to think about it, so I sent it in. I gave both a scou to see how accurate their ratings were. I postponned my draft scouting to get the results hopefully before Kletnak responded.

[ayaghmour2]

Today, the man responsible for bringing baseball to Miami, Wayne Huizenga, passed away at 80. He was owner of the Marlins, Florida Panthers, and Miami Dolphins. He founded Blockbuster, Waste Management, AutoNation, and Extended Stay America. My younger brother actually knows his grandson.

It's a sad day in South Florida, as he really did a lot for the area, even if he didn't do the best with his ownership of the Marlins. He did win them a World Series.

R.I.P. Mr. Huizenga

[ayaghmour2]

May 25th: So GM of the Phillies Matt Kletnak did not like my offer, I added Brandon Barker, but my reports weren't back yet, so I added J.D. Hammer, a solid relief pitcher.

Hostin the Nationals in our beautiful park, Ordismer Despaigne (2-3, 2.90 ERA, 1.03 WHIP) would audition against Gio Gonzalez (4-3, 3.67 ERA, 1.28 WHIP). Despaigne struggled, allowing 3 early runs. We answered back in the 3rd for 2 runs, then they added 1 more after. We were now down 4-2. We scored 1 more in the 7th and another in the 8th. Drew Steckenrider came in for the 9th, but gave up the go ahead run. Sean Doolittle earned his 10th save with a nice 9th.

Despaigne went 5 innings, allowing 6 hits and 4 runs. He walked 2 and struck out 3. It wasn't a good audition.

Starlin Castro was a monster, going 3-for-4 with a run scored, 2 runs driven in, and his 11th homer of the year and 9th double. Martin Prado doubled and Miguel Rojas tripled.

May 26th, 2018: The Eliser Alvarez scouting report came back, he's a 1.5/2.5 officially.

Game two saw Tanner Roark (4-2, 5.98 ERA, 1.50 WHIP) and the allways consistent Jose Urena (1-5, 7.93 ERA, 1.76 WHIP).

Urena was actually solid, 2 unearned runs in 5 innings. He walked 1, struck out 5, and allowed 7 hits. We even lead 3-2 after the 4th. Hernan Perez had a clutch 2 run double off Roark in the 3 run 4th. Drew Steckenrider was not as lucky, allowing a Mark Reynolds RBI single and Bryce Harper 3 run shot in the 9th. That was blown save number 3, and he is now a mear 1-5.

Starlin Castro and Derek Dietrich recoded 2 hits a piece, but the marlins only had 7 total. Castro and Perez were the only extra base hits, both doubles. Lane Adams did steal base number 13.

With 'sub-par' stuff, Chih-wei Hu of the Tampa Bay Rays 4 hit the Baltimore Orioles in an 8-0 victory.

The overrated CF Tommy Pham was swinging the bat well at PNC park, going 5-for-6 in St. Louis' 15-6 win over Pittsburgh.

May 27th, 2018: And Tom Eshelman is a 2/2.5, so the trade is definitely worth it. I pulled the trigger on Adam Warren and Brandon Barker to the Phillies for 2B/SS Eliezer Alvarez and SP Tom Eshelman. Both were sent to AAA and Brian Ellington earned a callup to the majors.

The Nationals lost Max Scherzer for four months. Losing him and Strasburg will be rough for the playoff contendor. They trotted out Jeff Manship (4-2, 4.38 ERA, 1.58 WHIP) and we sent Adam Conley (0-5, 5.55 ERA, 1.54). Please don't get swept guys...

We took a 2 run lead in the 4th, and carried it until the 7th, when Matt Weiters brought the game to 2-1 with a single. The 9th was rough, as Ryan Raburn and Wilmer Difo drive in a run in a 3 run 9th. Jorge De La Rosa allowed the 3 runs in just a third of an inning. He got his first loss and blown save.

Conley was good, maybe the Nats would take him? He went 6.2 innings, allowed just 2 walks and 3 hits and a single run. He struck out 4 and lowered his ERA to 5.04. Justin Bour (13) and Starlin Castro (12) both hit a homerun. Bryan Holaday and Martin Prado were both 2-for-4. Holaday and Cameron Maybin both doubled, but we lost and were swept.

Another 5-for-5 game! Charlie Blackman doubled twice and had three singles in a 12-7 victory over the Reds.

After the sweep at home, the Natoinals boosted their record to 34-19 and they are 1.5 games ahead of Philly. We're 17-35 and head to San Diego to take on the Padres. We'll see Tyson Ross (5-4, 4.88 ERA), the unlucky Dinelson Lamet (0-6, 4.76 ERA) and southpaw Clayton Richard (2-6, 5.53).

Lastly, an All-Star vote update. Starlin Castro is in 2nd with 109,482 votes compared to 110,386 of the Cardinals Kolten Wong. We had to get an All Star, so he would be my bet.

May 28th, 2018: The Mets lose closer Jeruys Fmailia for the year with a torn rotator cuff. He had 16 saves and a 2.52 ERA.

The Orioles lost a reliever of their own, Jason Gurka to a torn rotator cuff. The lefty is set to miss 12-13 months.

Power Rankings! Back in 30th at 47.8. Our besties the Cubs are leading the pack at 123.0, slightly above the Nationals.

We arrived in San Diego and the hosts welcomed up with Tyson Ross (5-4, 4.88 ERA, 1.47 WHIP) against Dan Straily (3-4, 4.84 ERA, 1.34 WHIP). The guessed swatted us 7-1, outhitting us by a slight 11 to 7 margin. All three Marlin pitchers, Dan Straily (4), Enny Romero (2), Brian Ellington (1) allowed runs.

Three Marlins hitters; Starlin Castro, Justin Bour, and Miguel Rojas all went 2-for-4. J.T. Realmuto drove in Derek Dietrich on a single in the 5th for the only run.

May 29th, 2018: Cincinatti lost former Marlin farmhand Luis Castillo for the year with a torn labrum. I wish I had him over Dan Straily. But that arm injury is gonna hurt him.

Looking to avoid 9 consecutive losses, Brian Johnson (5-3, 3.59 ERA, 1.30) took the ball against Dinelson Lamet (0-6, 4.76 ERA, 1.43 WHIP). The Marlins were successful, edging the Friars 5-3. We only got 6 hits, but made them count.

Johnson himself scored a run, and was one of 6 Marlins to record hits. Johnson and Cameron Maybin doubled and Realmuto hit a 2 run homer off Lamet in the 4th. He also made his 4th error of the year.

Johnson was alright, going 5.2 innings that saw 3 runs score. He allowed only 4 hits and 2 walks, but struck out only 4. Nick Wittgren pitched 2 strong with 2 strikeouts, and Steckenrider slammed the door shut working his 10th save.

Lamet fell to 0-7 with 4 runs (3 earned) in 4.1 where he struck out 7, walked 2, and surrendered 3 base knocks.

May 30th, 2018: Junichi Tazawa was eligible to come of the DL. I sent 'Taz' to AAA for rehab assignment. I'd probably leave him down there for a while.

Foremr Padre Odrismer Despaigne (2-3, 3.50 ERA, 1.11 WHIP) took on his former team and lefty Clayton Richard (2-6, 5.53 ERA, 1.71 WHIP). Errors hurt as we fell 6-4 and the hometown Padres will come away with at least a series tie.

Despaigned pitched 5.2 innings, allowing 6 runs (3 earned), 9 hits, 2 walks and he struck out only 1. Martin Prado and Starlin Castro errors hurt. Both were the players 2nd on the year. Ironically, Castro was hot, Prado cold. Castro hit homer #13 in a 2-for-4 outing while Prado went 0-for-4. Derek Dietrich was 2-for-4 scoring twice and driving in two. He homered and doubled.

May 31st, 2018: The Twins lost new addition Lance Lynn for the year with a torn UCL. Another major injury for Lynn, he finished the year 3-3 with a 4.83 ERA.

In an effort to please our host, we sacraficed Jose Urena (1-5, 7.09 ERA, 1.74 WHIP. His opponent, former Yankee Bryan Mitchell (5-4, 4.20 ERA, 1.25 WHIP).

We eeked out a split with a 5-3 victory, bringing our record after May to 19-37. The Padres were now 20-38.

Urena surprised, earning win 2 with 7 unspectactular innings that contained 8 hits, 3 runs, 1 walk, and 3 stirke outs. Steckenrider picked up the save with 2 strike outs and a ground out in a 1-2-3 save. He's now up to 11 on the year.

Justin Bout was awesome, going 3-for-4 with a run scored and 2 driven in during an exciting finale. He tripled along with Derek Dietrich. Rafael Ortega stole a bag and doubled and Lane Adams hit his 4th homer of the year. We escaped beautiful San Diego with a series tie and were off to steamy Arizona.

We would be greeted by struggling ace Zack Grienke (3-5, 5.30 ERA), lefty Robbie Ray (3-2, 3.09 ERA) and Zack Godley (3-2, 3.15 ERA). After Arizona we had a day off for the Amateur Draft and then spent 3 in St. Louis with the 33-22 Cardinals (still 4 games out).

I attatched a few helpful statistics in pictures below.

[ayaghmour2]

This one is long, the Draft took place, so I have a lot on that, and there was a super dramatic game that felt like it belonged in the World Series:

June 1st, 2018: Chase Field was the location for today's game as we started the month of June. The always inconsistent (season to season) Zack Grienke (3-5, 5.30 ERA, 1.48 WHIP) faced the always bad Adam Conley (0-5, 5.04 ERA, 1.45 WHIP). That's not totally true, as he was actually pretty good 2015-2016, but awful the past two seasons. Lane Adams was batting 4th, pushing Justin Bour to 3rd with our offensive threat Starlin Castro picking up a rest day.

We made our presence felt with 3 in the 1st and 3rd. Some highlights were Bour's 2 run shot, Derek Dietrich's solo shot, and a Hernan Perez 2 run double. Down 6-0, Arizona rallied bak for 3 more. Both teams added a run a piece, as we came away 7-4 winners.

Conley allowed all 4 runs in 5 innings off 6 hits, 2 walks, and 3 strike outs. Enny Romero and Nick Wittgren picked up holds (Romero went 2 and struck out 4) and Drew Steckenrider earned save 12.

Bour had a great game, 3-for-5 with 2 runs scored and driven in. Dietrich, Cameron Maybin, J.T. Realmuto, and Marin Prado all tallied 2 hits and every position player who started recorded a hit.

The Giants Austin Slater went 5-for-5 in a 8-7 win at home against our divisional foe Philadelphia. He hit a pair of solo homers and singles, and then finished the game with an RBI double in the 9th, a walkoff to finish a perfect day.

The "interesting" according to OOTP Brandon Guyer was on waivers and I submitted a claim. He's hitting .344/.408/.594 on the season with 3 homers and 17 RBI's for Cleveland. They rather keep Nelson Cruz (.224/.333/.379) since coming over and Lonnie Chisenhall (.215/.312/.318). Only the White Sox had a worst record then me, so they could steal him.

June 2nd, 2018: A pair of fringe big leaguers Mike Fiers and Blane Boyer's season's ended today. Fiers out 14 months, Boyer only 10.

Looking to pick up another win Dan Straily (3-5, 5.06 ERA, 1.41 WHIP) took on Robbie Ray (3-2, 3.09 ERA, 1.11 WHIP). We now had two hot hitters, the always hot Starlin Castro and Bour, who was recently cold. He's very streaky. Don't know if I've mentioned it, but I love Castro in real life.

Not in today though, as he went 0-for-4 in a 4-1 loss. Robbie Ray was pretty dominate, allowing only 2 hits and a single run in 6 innings. He did walk 4 with 5 strike outs. We only had 3 hits total, Bour, Cameron Maybin, and J.T. Realmuto. Realmuto stole his 5th base on the year.

The pen was great, only allowing 1 hit, but Straily allowed 5 and 4 runs in 5 innings. He did strike out 7, but allowed 2 homers to Ketel Marte and Paul Goldschmidt.

Another 5 hit performance, Pirates Josh Bell went 5-for-5 in an 8-5 victory over St. Louis. Ok, it's official, there are wayyyyyyyy too many 5 hit games in 19.

No one got 5 hits in this next matchup, as Garrett Richards 3 hit the Rangers in a 7-0 shutout. He's actually stayed healthy this year and has been pretty good.

June 3rd, 2018: Amateur draft eve, and Castro was now number 1 for NL 2B votes, with 335,323 ahead of D.J. LeMahieu (316,963) and former leader Kolten Wong (309,158).

Side note: The Rockies love LeMahieu as much as I do, and extended him to a 4-year, $88,800,000 extension. Don't think I would even give him 22 per year, but he's deserved it.

Two good pitchers squared off in the rubber match as Zach Godley (3-2, 3.15 ERA, 1.25) faced Brian Johnson (6-3, 3.69 ERA, 1.28). Zach Godley has the title of being the only successful pitcher selected by Theo Epstien while in charge of the Cubs. Him AND Jefferson Mejia were traded for the always wonderful, clubhouse beauty, elite defender Miguel Montero! Hindsight 20/20 I guess...

I also found a new player, Ildemaro Vargas. He appeared in 12 games last year for the D'Backs, but I think all were off the bench since he had 13 plate appearences. He got the start in his season debut.

Pitching really didn't happen, as the D'Backs pulled off the series win 10-6. Johnson was hit hard, allowing 5 runs in 3 innings. He only gave up 4 hits, but walked 2, and struck out only 1. Jorge De La Rosa allowed 4 more (3 earned) in the 4th off 6 hits and a walk.

Starlin Castro had a great game, 3-for-5 with an RBI. Bour and Miguel Rojas tallied 2 hits a piece, both scoring twice, with the former driving in two. Bout hit 2 solo shots, giving him 16 on the season. Johnson hit his 4th double and walked, a perfect offensive game, raising his average to .400 on the year.

And guess what, another 5 hit day... Cesar Puello of the D'Backs went 5-for-5 with 2 runs scored and an RBI. All 5 hits were singles.

Tommorow is just the Amateur Draft, so the 74 man GCL roster will definitely balloon. I'd probably draft a bunch of impossible guys and sign maybe 20 of the 40 picks. We'll see how much I like the pool as a whole, I just barley sratched the surface.

June 4th, 2018: Before the draft, I got the good news that Brandon Guyer is now a member of the Marlins. Capable at all 3 outfield spots, he'd be a great guy to have longterm. I didn't have to make a roster move, but I was leaning towards optioning Garrett Cooper to AAA. He was the only guy on the bench with one of those option years, and he'd been ice cold recently.

The Rangers wanted Nick Wittgren and I instantly declined (the guy the offered sucked anyways). Only 27, the 2/2.5 righty had a 1.71 ERA and 0.74 WHIP in 42 innings of work. He's also 2-0 and his ERA+ (a personal favorite stat) is a beautiful 245 (average is 100, just like other normalized stats). On to the draft!

We picked 13th in the 1st round behind my favorite team the Toronto Blue Jays. Our next pick was 53rd then 70th and 95th to rap up the top 100.

Detroit had the first pick, and grabbed 3B Kennan Pulsifier from Canada. I have him as a 3.5 and he can play every position excluding pitcher and catcher. San Fran grabbed the guy I wanted Mike Barrett 2nd, so I just simmed ahead to my pick in despair.

So there was a lot of debate in my pick. Pretty much every good guy was impossible to sign. Ethan Hankins, a 4.5* pitcher said he was unsignable, and I had very little money to work with. He was so, so much better then literally everyone else in the pool, so I just took the risk. Was it worth it? Well, he wanted more then 21 million, and I had 10,336,666 to offer... So I guess two firsts next year! Below is a list of all the picks and whether I think I can/will sign them along with potential and possible commentary:

1st Round, 13th Overall: SP Ethan Hankins (4.5) Crying about not signing him... He was the best pitcher in the draft by a mile
2nd Round, 53rd Overall: CF Max Marusak (3.5) Said he'd sign for slot, and is a speedy CF with a great eye. He can play 2B, SS, LF, CF, and RF and looks like an elite defender all ready.
2nd Round, 70th Overall: SP J.P. Gates (3) Said he'd sign for slot too. With no SP in the minors worth much, he's got a lot of promise. His fall back is 1B, but he's got great stuff and control, and is a real draftee.
3rd Round, 95th Overall: SS Jon Meola (3) Another real draftee who will settle for slot. He's got the glove to stick at SS, but may move to 3B with a nice arm. He's a solid hitter too.
4th Round, 133rd Overall: 3B Jack Filby (3). He's got great power, a real dude, and will sign for slot. He can catch, play 2B, 3B, and SS, but 3B looks like his spot. Should be a good defender there.
5th Round, 159th Overall: SP Liam Henry (2.5). Another real guy for slot. I'm literally saving every dollar for Hankins, maybe he'll be nice... He's 18 and could be a good corner outfielder too. He needs a bit more stamina, but he's set to be a middle of the rotation starter.
6th Round, 189th Overall: CF Tim Ball (3.5) Doubt he signs, but he's an amazing hitter with great speed.
7th Round, 219th Overall: C Justin Koger (3) Pretty good catcher who will join the GCL overflow.
8th Round, 249th Overall: 2B Trey Harris (3) Also in GCL, can play 2B, 3B, and the OF. Great speed and contact.
9th Round, 279 Overall: CL Josh Hiatt (3) He's got 100 stuff and will head to GCL and has dominate closer mentatlity.
10th Round, 309th Overall: SS Cal Conley (3.5) Won't sign but great hitter with no power.
11th Round, 339th Overall: SP Jonathan Gettys (2.5) Could be a steal, no movement, but his stuff rocks. Sent to GCL.

Quick intermission: I was at lunch and a spring training game was on, Red Sox-Yankees. Guess who was on the mound? Brian Johnson! I got to watch him pitch 3 innings (don't know if he threw more, but that's when I left) and he was absolutely nasty. Only 1 hit and faced the minimum with a double play and his curve was nastly. Afew warning track fly balls though as expected. Also, I write these posts ahead of time in case I get busy one day so I still have something to share, so this might get posted after the game he pitched.

Back to the draft!
12th Round, 369th Overall: SP Ernesto Estrella (2.5) Probably won't stay a starter, but has great stuff and is set to join the mess in GCL.
13th Round, 399th Overall: SP Gunnar Hoglund (2.5) He will stay a starter, and has great stuff as well. Sent to GCL.
14th Round, 429th Overall: C Erik Hoyer (2.5) Won't sign, but I've taken a lot of guys who did. Has a nice arm.
15th Round, 459th Overall: SP Sam Knowlton (2.5) I'm stacking up on average SP prospects. He's on to GCL. It's rough having only 1 local rookie league, so a lot of these starters will go to the pen.
16th Round, 489th Overall: CF Jacob Koos (2.5) The Florida native has the range for center, but will probably end up in right. Sent to GCL.
17th Round, 519th Overall: RP Pete McClean (3) Killer stuff for a futre setup man. Him and his 79/94 fastball will head to GCL.
18th Overall, 549th Overall: RF Dexter Jordan Jr. (2.5) The real life spec 'D-Train' probably won't sign, but has amazing power potential.
19th Overall, 579th Overall: 1B Justin Olson (2.5) Mega power and an ability to play the corner outfield spots. He's off to GCL.
20th Round, 609th Overall: SP Jimmy Jones (2.5) Probably not going to sign, but a toss up between #3 starter or late inning reliever. No movement, but great stuff for the lefty.
21st Overall, 639th Overall: 2B Walt Buchanan (2.5) Running out of sloid options, he's pretty average, but he could hit .270. Reported to GCL.
22nd Round, 669th Overall: RP Chris McGrath (2.5) He could be ready for A- Batavia, but will be at GCL for now. Great stuff, has a quick path to the majors.
23rd Round, 699th Overall: SS Tim Hubbell (2.5) Good hitter who can fill in all around the diamond, but wants to go to college.
24th Round, 729th Overall: C Kevin Roberts (2.5) Also looking at college, this catcher's got pop and is a great sacrafice bunter.
25th Round, 759th Overall: SP Blair Calvo (2) Another real guy, he's off to GCL. Future #4 or 5.
26th Overall, 789th Overall: RP Brett Conine (2) Felt like I needed to draft him, he's the son of famous Marlin Jeff Conine. He'll report to the GCL as well.
27th Round, 819th Overall: SP Dominic Pipkin (2) Another real draftee, he's probably off to college. He's got great control, but needs a better 3rd pitch.
28th Round, 849th Overall: 2B Luke Alexander (2) The real guys keep coming. Solid defender, alright hitter.
29th Round, 879th Overall: RP Bradley Spooner (2) Killer stuff, but impossible to sign. Won't break the bank for him.
30th Overall, 909th Overall: CF Dylan Mendoza (2) Blazing speed and should stick in center. No power, but makes contact. Sent to GL.
31st Round, 939th Overall: SP Joe Tafoya (2) He's got no movement, but his curveball is a 79 potential pitch. Will eat innings, sent to GCL.
32nd Round, 969th Overall: 2B J.D. Douglas (1.5) Won't sign, and I've signed too many.
33rd Round, 999th Overall: SS Jimmy Jacobs (2) One before 1,000! He can play 5 positions and hit's well too. Sent to GCL.
34th Round, 1,029th Overall: SP Jon Olson (2) Middle relief to #5 starter. Depends on his change up. Sent to GCL.
35th Overall, 1,059th Overall: 3B Dominic Cuoci (2) Average hitter, average fielder, off to GCL.

The draft ended early for some reason, but it doesn't matter too much. I was looking at 94 guys to fill 40 spots on the Miami (GCL) Marlins. 8 would be called up to A- Batavia. 8th Rounder Trey Harris, 16th rounder Jacob Koos, and 9th rounder Josh Hiatt were the notables.

I released 1 guy so the grand total was 85/40. I'd deal with that later. And for those wondering how I snagged 2* guys that late, it's not because the pool was super deep. With scouts, each team had 30 different views at the pool, so most of these guys are probably actually 1 stars at best (hopefully not the top 5 rounds), but our scout likes them. Most of these guys will flame out, but my scout sees things he likes. I wouldn't be surprised if I saw some 1st rounders as 0.5* potentials.

We were now on to St. Louis, but the team was already there while I was busy drafting a bunch of future Hall of Famers (let's hope).

June 5th, 2018: 2nd Rounder J.P. Gates and Jon Meola both agreed to their bonuses. I had a bunch of guys left to sign, or at least offer, money to. I submmitted an $8,446,666 offer to Ethan Hankins just so he could officially refuse my offer and lose the ace of my dreams. That figure is the rest of my budget. 10 others didn't have offers, waiting to see what Hankins did.

The generally durable Madison Bumgarner will miss 6 weeks with a forearm strain. Before last years ATV accident, he never had a DL trip. He was 4-2 with a 2.11 ERA in 11 starts. He only had 39 strikeouts, but a nice 1.00 WHIP.

I optioned Garrett Cooper to AAA to activate Brandon Guyer. Cooper was only hitting .242/.314/.371 with 1 homer and 8 RBI's. Not bad of course, but I wanted to give him more at bats. Guyer will fill in on the bench.

Odrisamer Despaigne (2-4, 3.67 ERA, 1.22 WHIP) was welcomed by Adam Wainwright (4-1, 3.44 ERA, 1.21 WHIP). Brandon Guyer got the start in LF, and we were down to one lefty (Bour) in the lineup.

Miami started off with a bang, scoring 2 off a Justin Bour 1st inning homer. 3 more were added in the 3rd. With a 5 run lead, Despaigne allowed a run in the 5th, and then left the game. Enny Romero finished 1.2 innings and earned the win in a 6-1 series starting victory!

Despaigne wasn't great, but the run he allowed was because of one of Miguel Rojas' two errors. He allowed 6 hits and a walk, while striking out only 2 in 4.1 innings. He only had 85 pitches so I don't know why he was pulled. Kevin Chapman struck out 4 in 2 innings.

Starlin Castro was a brilliant 2-for-2 with an RBI and run scored, but left the game in the 3rd sliding into second with a double. Bour was 3-for-4 with the other 4 RBI's. He hit 2 homers, so he scored twice as well. Hernan Perez doubled, while Cameron Maybin (13) and Lane Adams (16) picked up steals.

Castro's injury (thankfully) was minor, just blurred vision for two days. I guess he got sand in his eye or was poked on the tag.

June 6th, 2018: The Twins offered me last years #1 overall pick, but I just assumed they'd want my whole team for him. Meek only has him as a 2*, so I really wasn't interested in him anyways. Just barely 19 (yesterday his B-day) he was hitting .292/.365/.449 in class A Cedar Rapids. I was also offered SS Nick Allen by the A's. Another 2* I just ignored it.

Young righty Luke Weaver will miss the rest of the season with a partially torn UCL. He was having a dominate season, 7-2 with a nice 2.10 ERA.

I couldn't tell who had the better pitcher. The Cardinals used the excellent Miles Mikolas (1-6, 8.94 ERA, 1.91 WHIP) and we had the always spectactular Jose Urena (2-5, 6.67 ERA, 1.69 WHIP). I gave Castro a day off to recover, and sent Hernan Perez to 2B. Guyer was in the line up today in RF, so I feel like he's going to rotate with the 3 starters.

This game was a pitchers duel, no seriously. Only a run a piece scored in the first 6 innings. To be fair, Mikolas got hurt in the 2nd so he didn't really have a chance to allow runs. But he still did, 1 in 1.2 innings, but it was only 1 hit, a homer to leadoff the game for Cameron Maybin.

Urena was actually good, I guess? 5.2 innings, with only 3 hits and 1 run. But he did walk 4 and struck out 2. He got a no deiction since Enny Romero threw 3 pitches to finish the 6th. We then scored 3 in the 7th. Hernan Perez had an RBI single and then Starlin Castro came off the bench and delivered a 2 run double off Bud Norris. I guess he saw well enough to hit. We only had 6 hits all game, but we earned a 4-3 victory. The usually strong Nick Wittgren allowed 2 in 2 with 3 hits, but he still got hold number 8. Drew Steckenrider finished off the game and picked up save 13. It wasn't pretty, he walked 2, but got a ground out and pop out to go with a strike out.

J.T. Realmuto earned stolen base 6 and was the only player in the game to record more then 1 hit (2) with both teams recording only 6 in total.

Remember Cesar Puello? Just had a 5 hit game off of us? Well, he was on waivers. So I felt obligated to claim him. But I was carying 6 outfielders and only LA Swiftness had a reason to be designated for assignment. But I loved his 16 steals which was good for third in the NL. Speaking of 3rd, Bour was 3rd for homers (techinically tied for 2nd but Arrenado comes before Bour), but had the longest active hitting streak at 14 games. Maybe I'd shop an outfielder around and then grab Puello who was hitting .353/.389/.353. Someone was bound to claim him.

June 7th, 2018: Matt Barnes of the Red Sox was diagnosed with a torn labrum and will miss 4-5 months. He was a solid 7th inning guy leading up to Joakim Soria and Craig Kimbrel.

Sad news in our nations capital, Ted Lerner passed away after succumbing to a lengthy illness. His sod, Ted Jr. would take over the ownership duties, but he was already a big part of the organization, so there should be a smooth transfer after he mourns the loss of his father. The Nationals announced they would where special "TL" patches on home games to honor the late owner.

In less sad measures, we were looking to complete a sweep of the 34-26 Cardinals. Who would of thought? But wait, we're facing ace Carlos Martinez (6-2, 3.29 ERA, 1.22 WHIP)? And not ace Adam Conley (1-5, 5.22 ERA, 1.46 WHIP) is our pitcher? Well, we won with Urena who knows anyways... Jose Martinez is hitting .153/.236/.248, so maybe the 29-year-olds 2017 was a fluke, like I assumed. Still, he's great defensively.

Remember Justin Bour's hitting streak? Well, you can forget about it, he went 0-for-3. But now time for some over dramatization (spelling?) of the series finale.

The Marlins started hot even if Bour wasn't. Miguel Rojas had a 2-run single in a 3 run 1st. But the generous Conley let the hometown Cardinals score 2 in the bottom half. What a nice guy. It gets better, he gave them 1 more in the 3rd and 4th to give up the lead. That 4-3 lead was shortlived, as Martinez let us tie it up in the top of the 5th. These pitchers are so nice. Conley got one out in the 5th, but then turned the game over to Jorge De La Rosa, who continued the trend of generosity, and let the Cardinals take the 5-4 lead. But fear not Marlin fans! Enter Bud Norris! He still felt bad about our record, and served up a meatball to Martin Prado that might still be going, his 3rd homer of the year.

After the 6th ended, it was 5-5. But then the pitchers realized they weren't supposed to give up runs, and the pens were near perfect, putting up scorless 7th, 8th, and 9th. The Cards did get a hit in each inning, but Brian Ellington, Chapman, and Romero did enough to get out of it. Luke Gregerson pitched the top of the 9th, and then started the 10th. He left with 2 outs, but before out 2 Hernan Perez took him deep to give the Marlins a 6-5 lead! No way, we're half an inning away from a sweep! And we'd be holding the brooms! And the Cardinals are good! Pinch me, I'm dreaming...

10th inning time, enter 27-year-old righty Drew Steckenrider. I guess he has a catchy nickname I didn't know, 'Steckasaurus' which is amazing, but hard to type. I love Steckasarus and it's going to steck (see what I did there). Anyways, the closer entered this game 13-for-16 in save opportunities. Not bad, not great. He had to face the earlier mentioned Martinez, Jedd Gyorko, and Paul DeJong. 1-2-3 in the order.

Steckasaurus had the pitches working, getting Martinez to a 1-2 count. He fouled off a pitch, but eventually the Steckenrider fastball was too much, and he struck out swining. 1 out.

Enter Jedd Gyroko. The power hitter who made his debut with the Padres was 2-for-5 on the day. Actually, all three guys were before the inning started. Steckasaurus thought the best strategy to Gyorko was throwing three straight balls. Great. The 3-0 pitch was called a strike, then Gyorko gouled off the next pitch behind home plate. The 3-2 delivery was popped high in the air, drifting towards the shortstop Rojas who made the catch. 2 outs.

The nerves were flowing as Paul DeJong stepped up to bat. The power hitting shortstop was a homer threat and former Marlin Marcell Ozuna was on deck. Gulp. The first pitch, called strike. Next, a ball, and then a swinging strike. One. More. Strike. The 1-2 was low, a ball, and DeJong evened the count. Steckasaurus looked cool and composed, but the 7 Marlins fans in Busch Stadium were sweating bullets. 2-2. Signature fastball. Boom. Crap. Uh oh. No, please no. The ball was rocked off DeJong's bat to straight away center. It looked like it could travel for 500 feet. Cameron Maybin wasn't in center, it was Rafael Ortega who entered in the 5th after Maybin got hurt making a catch. Ortega had 66 speed, Maybin had 83, so it wasn't too big a deal. But man, this ball was crushed. Ortega raced back like he was playing for his life (which techincally was, because I've definitely considered designating for assingment) and leapead near the wall! There was a quick pause as all 30,742 who stayed the whole way gasped. A second later, a hand was raised, and inside it was the ball! Ortega made the catch and the Marlins won the World Series!!! The players are jumping for joy!!! Bryan Holaday tackles Steckasaurus and the Marlins bench clear celebrating the amazing win!

Wait, it's regular season game number 62? And it's June 7th not November 7th? Well, a sweep felt like a World Series win when the Marlins can't really win.

I was so happy that I think I jumped up and down. I didn't, but I considered it. My roomate would've looked at me weird so it's a good thing I didn't...

This was a crazy game filled with twists and turns, and ended with a miraculous sweep of the playoff bound Cardinals. It's the little things that keep you going in a rebuild.

So Maybin was injured, and I debated claiming Puello. I had one more chance to grab him tommorow, so hopefully Maybin's diagnosis will be revelaed before I am forced to make a decision. I was so happy though, we went to Busch Stadium and swept the Cardinals!

Anyways, can't enjoy it too much, we had more baseball to play! We head home for 7, 3 against San Diego then 4 against the Giants. San Diego projeted to send out Tyson Ross (6-5, 4.57 ERA), Dinelson Lamet (1-7, 4.37 ERA) and Clayton Rihard (3-6, 5.68 ERA). Pretty sure we faced this exact same allingment in San Diego.

Another important day in the future, June 18th. That's when I had to make decisions on the 84 players chilling on the GCL roster. More then half would be gone on Opening Day where we faced the Yankees team.

Quick farm look, all four teams in season had more wins then us. New Orleans was in 1st, 36-25. Jacksnoville was 4 out and in 3rd at 31-29. Jupiter was in the same situation as Jacksonville, but were a bit better at 33-27. Greensboro was also in 3rd, but 6 back with their 32-28 record. All four over .500, as opposed to the 23-39 Marlins. The future looks a lot nicer then the present. Although Starlin Castro and Justin Bour were great.

[GT25Ump]

Great write-up

[ayaghmour2]

Originally Posted by GT25Ump

Great write-up

Thanks! Glad you've enjoyed!

[ayaghmour2]

June 8th, 2018: Good news on the injury front, as Heath Hembree was ready to start rehab in AAA New Orleans, joining Junichi Tazawa. Hembree is having a great season this year. Between Miami and Boston he has a 1.96 ERA and 0.87 WHIP in 18.1 innings. He's recorded 16 strike outs and 4 walks with a 2-1 record.

2nd Rounder Max Marusak signed for a $600,000 signing bonus and was assigned to Miami GCL. That leaves 2 top 5 guys and Ethan Hankins to sign.

We welcomed San Diego to Marlins Park with Dan Straily (3-6, 5.25 ERA, 1.37 WHIP). The Padres sent out oft injured Tyson Ross (6-5, 4.57 ERA, 1.45 WHIP). With Cameron Maybin out, yesterday's hero Rafael Ortega hit leadoff and played center. For those who forgot, we swept the 2nd place St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium. It felt like the World Series.

It was scorless until the top of the 3rd where Manuel Margot drove in a run on a double and Eric Hosmer hit an RBI single. We tied in the bottom of the 6th after Straily left the game, so he recieved a no-decision. Fastfoward to the 9th, the game was still tied 2-2. Kevin Chapman finished the 9th like he did the 8th, with the game still tied. We got Brad Hand (fantasy team pitcher) for the bottom of the 9th. With one on and one out, Miguel Rojas doublued, scoring Martin Prado and we walked off the Padres! Another win for the Marlins!

Ortega, filling in for Maybin, was a perfect 3-for-3 before being pinch hit in the 7th. He scored and hit his 3rd double.

June 9th, 2018: Just a day too late, with Cesar Puello clearing waivers, Maybin was diagnosed with a strained back muscle. He was headed to the DL. Instead of calling up an outfielder, I added an extra arm to the pen. I brought Tazawa back from rehab assignment after he tossed 5.1 innings, allowing 2 runs, a walk, and 5 strike outs. His WHIP was 0.38, his ERA 3.38. Ortega will be the new center fielder.

4th Rounder Jack Filby agreed to his $300,000 signing bonus and is headed to the GCL.

We've won 4 in a row and Brian Johnson (6-4, 4.21 ERA, 1.31 WHIP) was looking to make it 5 in a row against Dinelson Lamet (1-7, 4.37 ERA, 1.34) who is also a fanrasy pitcher of mine (don't judge, he's breaking out).

Lamet went 7 innings, allowing just 4 hits, a walk, and he struck out 5, picking up the win. The Padres edged us 2-1, but we wre able to add another run on Brad Hand, but he still recieved the save. Johnson went 5 innings, allowing 6 hits, 2 walks, 2 runs, but he struck out 3. The rest of the pen combined for 4 innings, striking out 4 and allowing 1 hit.

We only managed 6 hits. Lane Adams doubled in a 2-for-3 night with a walk and Justin Bour scored the lown run after a 9th inning double.

Let's see, another 5-for-5 game, this time courtesy of 24-year-old shortstop Tim Anderson. His White Sox were destroyed by the Red Sox 13-3. Guess who picked up the save? Former White Sox pitcher Joakim Soria. He tossed 3.1 innings, striking out 6, and allowing 1 hit.

June 10th, 2018: Castro is still number one in NL 2B votes with 603,978. He's still ahead of LeMahieu and Wong.

Looking to win the series, former Padre Odrisamer Despaigne (2-4, 3.38 ERA, 1.26 WHIP) took on Clayton Richard (3-6, 5.68 ERA, 1.67 WHIP). We didn't even have a chance this game, getting shut out 7-0 and out hit 10-6.

A five run first was rough, but Despaigne ended up going 5 innings, allowing all 7 runs (6 earned). He gave up 8 hits and struck out 3 Friars. Martin Prado made an error, his 5th on the year and J.T. Realmuto hit double number 10. Rojas was the only Marlin to record more then 1 hit, going 2-for-3 with two singles. Padres leadoff hitter Manuel Margot went 3-for-5, scoring 3 times, driving in a run, and was a double shy of the cycle.

With the series concluded against the Padres, we had 4 more at home against the Bumgarnerless Giants.

Sidenote: Just got a notification that real life Dan Straily is headed to the DL to start the season. Yesterday, Bumgarner was sent to the DL after his injury in my game, hopefully Straily doesn't have anything waiting for him.

June 11th, 2018: Power rankings! We were in 26th with a 66.5 rating. The Cardinals fell all the way to 18th, now at 83.6.

For game one, we saw Johnny Cueto (4-4, 3.35 ERA, 1.27 WHIP) face Jose Urena (2-5, 6.18 ERA, 1.64 WHIP). Maybe he can lower his ERA below 6...

He tried, he really tried. After 5 innings the game was tied 1-1 in a game where we had a lot of hits, but nothing to show for. 3 errors (Dietrich 3, Rojas 7, Castro 3) were fun, but it was a rare game for a generally good fielding team. There were no errors in the 6th, but that's where Urena fell apart, allowing 4 runs (2 were with Tazawa pitching, but charged to Urena). We eventually lost 5-1, as the pens were near perfect.

Backup catcher Bryan Holaday had a great game, going 3-for-4 with a double. Jose Urena went 1-for-2 and stole a base. Yes, my pitcher swiped a bag. Miguel Rojas hit his 12th double of the year and Rafael Ortega stole base #4.

The Phillies waived former top prospect Jorge Alfaro, and I really wanted to claim him, but he's out of options and Holaday is actually hitting better then him. It's a tough pass.

June 12th, 2018: Game two saw former wide out Jeff Samardzija (5-3, 4.63, 1.47 WHIP) faced southpaw Adam Conley (1-5, 5.43 ERA, 1.53 WHIP). Neither starter pitched that well, one gave up 7 runs, the other 3. Adam Conley was the one who gave up 3! In 5.2 innings, he picked up his second win of the season in a nice 7-4 win. Conley allowed 5 hits, scattered the 3 runs, walked 2 and struck out 2. Nick Wittgren gave up 1 in the 8th off 2 hits, but Drew Steckenrider shut the door in the 9th. Steckesaurus picked up save number 15, striking out 2 in a perfect 8 pitch 9th.

The bats were working tonight, with Lane Adams and Derek Dietrich both recording a pair of hits and an RBI (Adams scored twice, Dietrich only once). They also both doubled. Starlin Castro drove in 3 on a 3 run homer of Samardzija, his 14th on the season, and Justin Bour doubled in a run in the 1st.

So there was another 5 hit game, this time a cycle for RF Gregory Polanco. The Pirates beat the D'Backs at Chase Field 11-8. His final total, 2 singles, 1 double, 1 triple, 1 homer, 1 strike out, 1 steal, 1 RBI, 4 runs.

June 13th, 2018: Sidenote: So I said Brett Conine was Jeff Conine's son, I was wrong. I knew it didn't sound right, but his actualy son is Griffin, who was selected in the 4th round by the Angels. Brett is probably his nephew.

Anyways, we had a good matchup today, Chris Stratton (3-2, 5.31 ERA, 1.36 WHIP) taking on Dan Straily (3-6, 5.04 ERA, 1.35 WHIP). 3 quick runs in the 1st gave me the idea the Marlins could win, but we gave up 3 in the 3rd. The pitching was solid until Joe Panik hit a solo shot off Nick Wittgre in the 8th, and the the Rays former face of the franchise Evan Longoria hit an RBI single. We lost 5-3 after Mark Melancon finished his 16th save.

Straily pitched fine, lowering his ERA to 4.99 after 6 solid innings. He allowed only 5 hits and 3 runs with a walk. He struck out 8 Giants as well. Justin Bour (19) and Derek Dietrich (8) launched homers in 2 hit games. Bout was 2-for-3 with a run scored and 2 driven in and a walk. Dietrich was 2-for-5 with a run scored and driven in. Miguel Rojas also added 2 hits in 3 trips with a walk.

June 14th, 2018: I found out how to use two-way players on accident. In game strategy, there is a check box that says "Use as a two-way player" which I might use for my GCL team since some of my guys can do both.

5th Rounder Liam Henry (who's already saw his potential drop) signed for a $210,000. I was just waiting for Hankins' decision before I went to my later round picks.

I shopped minor leaguer Dustin Beggs around, hoping to get something good for him. He's one of my top 30 prospects, but he's not ready for A- Bativa and just doesn't look good for my scout. The Royals offered the speedy Erick Mejia, a SS, who at least had some sory of potential, and I accepted the trade. I sent the 2* potential infielder to AA Jacksonville and released 27 year old Peter Mooney.

Back to the final game of the series, we saw Brian Johnson (6-5, 4.16 ERA, 1.33 WHIP) battle Ty Blach (3-8, 4.99 ERA, 1.41 WHIP). Both teams had 11 hits, but one team had 1 run. Guess who? Us... The Giants, on the other hand, 8. Johnson got the loss, but he only allowed a single run in 5 innings. He hasn't been going far into games recently, with his pitch count getting high quick. He allowed 4 hits and walked 1, but didn't have a strike out. Enny Romero allowed 3 in the 6th, Tazawa allowed 2 without getting an out in his first appearence since coming back from rehab, and Kevin Chapman and Wittgren allowed a run a peice. The pen wasn't too good.

We had lots of hits, 1 for Johnson of course, but only Starlin Castro drove in a run. He was 3-for-4 and drove in Johnny Giovatella, who had a pinch hit double for Jorge De La Rosa. Bryan Holaday and Rafael Ortega both went 2-for-4. Holaday is now hitting .277, so you can see why I'm hesitant to claim Alfaro and dump Holaday. Derek Dietrich left the game with an injury.

It was a dissapointment homestand, but I still remember that we swept the Cardinals. We fell to 25-44 and headed to Baltimore for some interleague play. After 3 in Camden Yards, we'd see the Giants again in Cali for 3 before a much needed off day.

We were looking at Tanner Scott (1-0, 6.07 ERA), Chris Tillman (2-4, 4.82 ERA), and Dylan Bundy (2-6, 6.40 ERA). Baltimore is 26-44, so they suck too. Maybe we can pull off another sweep!

[ayaghmour2]

June 15th, 2018: It was only a matter of time, but 1st round pick Ethan Hankins said he was going to college instead. I turned my attention to 6th Rounder Tim Ball, who was demanding over 3 million to sign. I offered $3,800,000 since I had a decent amount of money left over with Hankins not signing, so maybe I could convince the 3.5* potential power hitting centerfielder to skip college. I offered 3.5* SS and 10th rounder Cal Conley the same amount.

Odrisamer Despaigne (2-5, 4.06 ERA, 1.29 WHIP) was on the mound, but didn't have to bat, since we were facing the AL Baltimore Orioles and Tanner Scott (1-0, 6.07 ERA, 1.80 WHIP). Not going to lie, if Brian Johnson is pitching this series, he's hitting for himself. Brandon Guyer played DH, our first all year, and Hernan Perez was in LF to fill in for the still hurt Derek Dietrich.

Our pitchers were not ready for the AL, and we took a 7-2 loss to the equally pitiful Orioles. It took three guys to finish the game, and all three gave up runs. 4 charged to the starter Despaigne in 4.1 innings, 1 in 1.2 for Jorge De La Rosa, and then 2 in 2 for Enny Romero.

Lane Adams had a good game, going 2-for-2 with an RBI, 2 walks, and 2 steals. Starlin Castro doubled, and Hernan Perez doubled twice. I think this was the first game all year we didn't use a pinch hitter.

Short season Batavia started their season soon, and the GCL Opening Day was creeping up with 88 guys still in camp.

June 16th, 2018: Got the Dietrich injury diagnosis, just a mild shoulder strain, and he should be healthy tommorow.

We were supposed to have a game today, but it was rained out. We'll play a double header tommorow, and luckily we have exactlly 5 games in 4 days before an off day, so I didn't need to mess with the rotation.

June 17th, 2018: Cameron Maybin suffered a setback, and it is now unknown when the centerfielder would return.

Tim Ball, the 6th rounder, said he's off to college too, so 2.5* cather Erik Hoyer, who wanted a bit more then 2 million, was offered $2,100,000 to detur him from continuing his education.

Starlin Castro is still up in front for 2B, almost 100,000 more votes then former teammate D.J. LeMahieu who's in 2nd.

Game 1: Jose Urena (2-6, 6.34 ERA, 1.61 WHIP) versus Dylan Bundy (2-6, 6.40 ERA, 1.62 WHIP). Their numbers were almost identical. Dietrich was back in the lineup, the rain out helped him get 100%.

Let's just forget about game 1. It was a 10-3 loss. I really didn't want to get swept in the double header and the series.

Urena sucked, but we only needed to burn 2 relief pitchers. Urena went 4 innings, allowed 9 hits, 6 runs, 3 walks, and struck out the same amount of hitters as he allowed homers (2). Brian Ellington and Junichi Tazawa both allowed 2 in 2 innings of mop up work. Hernan Perez went 3-for-4 with a run scored and driven in. He was a homer short of the cycle. Starlin Castro and Rafael Ortega both went 2-for-5, and Lane Adams went 2-for-4 with a double. Perez also picked up a steal, while Adams was caught.

Game 2: Who doesn't love a double header? Adam Conley (2-5, 5.37 ERA, 1.51 WHIP) battled Chris Tillman (2-4, 4.82 ERA, 1.52 WHIP) to avoid the sweep. I was extra bold. With a righty on the mound, I gave the origional DH starter Johnny Giovatella (.184/.244/.289) bench duty for lefty Brian Johnson (.409/.500/.727). I was even bolder, batting him 5th.

The bold strategy didn't work, but really, nothing would have. We were shutout 5-0, despite recording 8 hits. Johnson was 0-for-4, but so were Castro and Miguel Rojas. Martin Prado was injured and left the game, and for some reason Brandon Guyer subbed in at 3B. With a little tinkering, Mattingly could have moved either Perez (CF) or Dietrich (LF) and put Guyer in the outfield, but hey, down 5-0 does it really matter? Martin Prado tripled before getting hurt, that's really all that's worth mentioning.

I guess Chris Tillman's 8 hit shut out is notable, but he's the enemy in this matchup.

Prado should be fine, just moderate back spasms, costing him less then a week of time, so I'd moniter the injury closely.

June 18th, 2018: We arrived in San Francisco and were greeted by Chris Stratton (3-2, 5.19 ERA, 1.36 WHIP) and we reciprocated with Dan Straily (3-6, 4.99 ERA, 1.32 WHIP). I gave Prado a day off in favor of the speedy Hernan Perez.

Straily gave up 5 in the 3rd and then 1 in the 4th, so that's when we knew the game was over. We rallied back for 2 in the 5th to make it 6-2, but Stratton finished the 6th without a scratch and both bullpens did not allow a run.

Straily picked up the loss, but only allowed 3 hits in 3.1 innings. 5 of the runs were earned and he struck out 2, but he wlkaed 5. Never walk 5, not a good winning mentality. De La Rosa allowed 4 hits in 1.2 innings, but nothing more. Tazawa (1) and Romero (2) pitched scorless innings to end the game.

Hernan Perez got a hit, so win for my managerial decisions. Starlin Castro and Rafael Ortega both recorded 2 hits, while Ortega drove in Perez and Brandon Guyer with one of this two doubles. Guyer doubled as well.

Wait, Perez made the error? Oops, maybe not so perfect...

And then comes the notification that Miami (GCL) has too many players on the roster. Time to have fun! 44 players were eventually released. The last 3 cuts were soooooooo hard.

But dont forget, Power Rankings! Dead last at 51.5 behind the White Sox (61.5).

June 19th, 2018: Instantly, forced with another cut since I had to activated Dylan Peters from the disabled list.

Erik Hoyer wants college too, Dexter Jordan Jr. (2.5) was next. I sent him $3.5 million.

Brian Johnson was back pitching (6-6, 4.01 ERA, 1.31 WHIP) took on fellow lefty Ty Blach (4-8, 4.64 ERA, 1.38 WHIP). Prado was allowed to start, but we really needed a win. A 4 run 7th sunk out ship as that matched our run total for the game. Too bad the Giants had 2 in the 3rd and one more in the 8th, so we lost again, falling to 25-49.

Johnson couldn't get out of the 5th, leaving with one out. He allowed 8 hits, but only 2 runs. He walked 3 and struck out 2. De La Rosa and Wittgren actually got holds, despite the latter allowing 2 in 0.1 innings, but Jarlin the Marlin took the loss, allowing 2 runs off 2 hits, without getting an out. I had a feeling he'd be demoted once Hembree was ready to come back.

Prado didn't play like he was injured, going 3-for-4 with a run driven in and scoring twice. He was a homer away from the cycle. Lane Adams and Miguel Rojas also doubled, Adams singled and walked as well while Rojas drove in 2, while both recorded 4 at bats.

The Giants Evan Longoria was a hit short from a 5 hit outing.

Arizona made another shocking waiver request, this time 27-year-old Shelby Miller. He has talent, but I have no money to pay him. I offered them Jose Urena if they would cover Miller's contract, and they thought about it. We just had to focus on avoiding the sweep.

June 20th, 2018: No Way! GM Mike Hazan replied. I threw a 24 year old from class A back their way to see if the trade would work.

Next, to avoid the sweep... Our opponent, Jose Antonio Flores (0-2, 11.77 ERA, 2.08 WHIP), a 29-year-old rookie. Never heard of him, but he's never actually pitched in the big leagues. We sent Odrisamer Despaigne (2-6, 4.39 ERA, 1.34 WHIP) and despite yesterdays performance, I gave Prado some rest. Dietrich moved down to 3B, and Perez was sent to LF.

We scored 2 in the 4th and then 1 in the 7th to give us a comftorable 3-0 lead. Despaigne left in the 7th, and then Nick Wittgren, the former good pitcher, allowed 2 runs in the 8th. We were still up 3-2 headed into the 9th, so Drew Steckenrider came into the game to close the door. 'Steckesaurus' wasn't himself, and he allowed a Nick Hundley single and then Gorkys Hernandez walked us off with another single. I almost claimed him earlier in the year... Steck was charged with the loss, now 1-6, and this was his 4th blown save.

Despaigne actually was really good. He allowed no runs in 6.1 innings with 2 walks and 4 strike outs.

Dietrich and Ortega went 2-for-4, Dietrich hit a double and drove in two while Ortega drove in just 1. Hernan Perez tripled in the 7th and scored, so again, managerial win for me. But since the team lost and sucks, I guess that's a general managerial loss.

Martin Prado sent me a message, demanding a trade, so I'd shop him tommorow in the off day.

In MLB news, Charlie Blackmon extended his hit streak to 20 games. Chuck Nazty, which the game didn't have as his nickname, is hitting .311/.358/.538 on the year, another solid campaign. Fun fact about Blackmon, he was drafted three times; First by the Florida Marlins in the 28th round in 2004, then the 20th round by the Red Sox in 2005, and finally in the 2nd round out of Georgia Tech by the Rockies. Man, it'd be nice if he signed here.

June 21st, 2018: Mike Hazan still didn't like my deal, so I offered Martin Prado as well, but he didn't want an overpaid veteran. The final deal, which worked, was Shelby Miller (100% retain) to the Marlins for SP Jose Urena, SP Gabriel Castellanos, and 2B Austin Nola. Urena is the only one worth remembering, and he was awful for us. Not too sad to see him go. Miller instantly became my ace, and would probably start the series opener in Colorado tommorow.

After the trade was completed early in the morning, the team (minus Urena) headed to Colorado. When we got there, I'd shop Prado.

Here's what I was offerd for the still somewhat decent Martin Prado: Nothing. His $13,500,000 salary will be hard to unload. Three teams wanted to win, the really bad Orioles, the Red Sox, and the Cubs. The Cubs have Kris Bryant so they were definitely not going to want Prado.

I offered the Orioles Prado for minor leaguer Edidson Rojas. They didn't want an over paid veteran, so I had to eat some of the contract for sure. 100% was the least they'd accept, and GM Dan Duquette still had to think about it.

The Red Sox probably wouldn't be interested, since they had Devers at the hot corner. I did, officially, place Prado on the trade block.

Quik look at SS Edidson Rojas. He's going to strike out a lot but he does make good contact and has nice pop. He's also a solid defender, but at 19, he's got a long way to go. He also had nice speed, but I can't seem him every becoming a reecognizable big leaguer, but I needed to move Prado.

Quick glance at free agency, and maybe there is a gem in 2B Brayan Rocchio. The Venezuelan infielder wanted a $440,000 bonus with a minor league deal and I was more then willing to give it to the 17-year-old. The former Indian was a 4.5* potential, and he has the ability to turn into a .310 hitter with good defensive skills all around the infield.

One more gem, another infielder from Venezuela who was also 17, Derwin Barreto (3.5). He got the same deal and was with both Texas and Baltimore. He's a gerat defender with just as much contact potential as Rocchio, but he has absolutely no power. Both guys are lottery tickets, but if Stan Meek is right, I'm in luck for sure.

One more thing before the day ended, I shopped Junichi Tazawa around and the only offer was SS J.J. Hardy. It wasn't worth it at all.

Time to look ahead to the 37-37 Colorado Rockies and righties Chad Bettis (5-7, 5.60 ERA), Arnold Leon (3-0, 2.95 ERA), and Jon Gray (6-3, 3.55 ERA).

[ayaghmour2]

June 22nd, 2018: 10th rounder Cal Conley signed a $3,800,000 bonus to forego college. Yes, it's a big bonus, but he's a 4* potential guy! He's a great defender and has a really good eye. Only flaw is his power, but he looks really good.

18th rounder Dexter Jordan Jr. also grabbed a big signing bonus of $3,500,000 to skip college and head to the pros. The RF has massive power and is a solid defender, and players look up to him.

The Orioles responded to my trade proposal, and really weren't fond of it. It seemed a Prado trade wouldn't materilaize right now.

We were ready to face the Rockies for the 2nd time of the year, and sent out new ace Shelby Miller to make his season debut against Chad Bettis (5-7, 5.60 ERA, 1.57 WHIP) at the wonderful Coors Field.

Despite the altitutde, Shelby was great, going 5 innings, allowing just 1 run off 6 hits. He did walk 7, which is a concern, but he struck out 4. A four run third proved to be all we needed, as we edged the Rockies 4-2. Enny Romero, Junichi Tazawa, Jarlin Garcia, and Brian Ellington all recorded holds, while Drew Steckenrider earne his 16th save of the season.

All our runs were scored off homers. The angry Martin Prado hit a solo shot off Wade Davis in the 8th, and in the 4th Derek Dietrich hit a 3 run shot off starter Chad Bettis. Miguel Rojas, J.T. Realmuto, and Justin Bour all had two hits and Rafael Ortega stole base number 6.

Heath Hembree's rehab was doing great, allowing 4 hits and a walk in 4.2 scorless innings. He struck out 5 and earned 2 wins. He was ready for the big leauges, so I sent Jarlin the Marlin down to AAA. Garcia was fine, working 10 innings with a 4.50 ERA and 1.00 WHIP. He struck out 10 and walked only 1, but he was the third lefty in the pen and could be optioned. With a full system, I released Chris O'Grady, who made 6 starts and 7 relief apperaences last year for the big league club, going 2-1 with a 4.36 ERA, but he wasn't really ready for AAA.

June 23rd, 2018: Both Brayan Rocchio and Derwin Barreto koined the minor leauge club. Both young guys showed great potential.

On to game three as the Rockies used the surprisingly effective Arnold Leon (3-0, 2.95 ERA, 1.13 WHIP), who never pitched like that with the Blue Jays. We sent the lefty Adam Conley (2-6, 5.69 ERA, 1.55 WHIP) which seemed like instant trouble in Colorado's high atmosphere.

It wasn't trouble, as Conley allowed 2 unearned rnus in 6 innings. He gave up 6 hits, but walked none, while striking out 4. Too bad Leon was just as effective, allowing 2 earned in 6 innings. The game was tied headed into the 9th, but Steckesaurus was probably being saved for a save situation, so Enny Romero came into the game. Rookie Eric Maria hit a sac fly, scoring Ramiel Tapia, and the Rox walked off 3-2 winners.

We out hit them 11-7, but just didn't get the hits at the right time. Lane Adams went 3-for-5, driving in a run, and tripling. Perhaps Martin Prado was trying to "throw" the game, making a throwing error that cost the Marlins the first two runs. Derek Dietrich went 2-for-4 with a double, Miguel Rojas picked up a triple, and Ragael Ortega went 2-for-4 and scored a run.

And 5 hits isn't enough for Tigers SS Jose Iglesias. He had to go 6-for-6 in a 14-3 win over the Cleveland Indians. Two homers, two singles, and two doubles were his restults. You think he could've strethed the 7th inning double into a triple to get the cycle, but I guess the RBI's were enough for him. 37 speed is hard to turn into a triple.

June 24th, 2018: Starlin Castro is keeping his steady league for most votes for an NL second basemen. The top three hasn't changed since the 2nd week of voting.

The Rays will be without reliever Jose Alvarado for 11 months after he damaged an elbow ligament.

The rubber match was between Dan Straily (3-7, 5.38 ERA, 1.37) and Jonathan Gray (6-3, ,3.55 ERA, 1.25 WHIP). It wasn't really close, as the Rockeis had 21 hits that lead to 12 runs. He had 12 hits, but that meant 5 runs not 12, as the Rockies salvaged the home series win.

Straily wasn't really that bad, but he did allow 11 hits and 4 runs in 5.2 innings. Bright spot: 7 strike outs and 1 walk. And maybe Heath Hembree wasn't ready for the big leagues. He allowed 3 runs off 3 hits, without recording an out. And Junichi Tazawa allowed 4 runs in 0.2 innings off 4 hits. I really want someone to take him off my hands...

No 5 hit games, but Rockies outfielders Ramiel Tapia and Gerarado Parra had 4 hits a piece. Ian Desmond, D.J. LeMahieu, and Trevor Story had 3 a piece. No Marlin had more then 2. Rafael Ortega doubled, Justin Bour hit his 20th homer of the year, and Lane Adams hit his 5th. Adams also stole a base in a 2-for-4 outing.

Before heading home to face the D'Backs, I shopped a few players again. Tazawa was first. Offers? J.J. Hardy and Prince Fielder. The same Fielder that is retired in real life, but out with a 164 month day-to-day injury.

Hardy sucks, but I went with it and asked for Nathan Bannister as well, a decent starting pitching prospect, and they were still fine with it. I was able to free up $3,209,630 of budget space, and Hardy is a great defensive shotstop. Hardy got the call to the majors, for now, and Bannister was sent to AAA. The former 28th rounder is 4-2 with a 2.81 ERA and 1.14 WHIP in Seattle's AAA affiliate Tacoma. He's struck out 42 in 57.2 innings. Hardy is hitting .189/.250/.297, so a realease will probably be in his future, but he's a great defender, so that's a nice boost.

After the Tazawa deal, I decided Prado could join us back home, and headed back to the beautiful sunshine state.

June 25h, 2018: 32-year-old We-Yin Chen was fully healed, and would be sent to the GCL to rehab. He's making 10 million this year, but is a decent player (2*) so maybe his rehab goes well and I can trade him. The GCL roster has a ton of young talent, so hopefully he can help mentor the younger guys.

Seattle offered me CF Braden Bishop. I would've taken him in the Tazawa-Hardy deal as well, but I wasn't going to make a deal for him.

We're still 30th in the power rankings with 50, but the White Sox are only 4.2 points better. Our opponent today, the Diamondbacks, are 13th at 96.8. We had four in store, and they were 41-36 compared to our 26-52.

Brian Johnson (6-6, 4.02 ERA, 1.38 WHIP) got the start against the struggling Taijuan Walker (6-3, 5.32 ERA, 1.50 WHIP). He decided to pitch well, and the Marlins were topped 7 to 3 (accidentally origionally typed "70 to 3" but that is semi-believable).

Johnson allowed 4 in gour, and this it his 6th straight start where he hasn't finished the 6th. He's got stamina, so it's all performance issues. For some reason Steckenrider pitched in this game, and allowed 3 in 0.2 innings. Steceksaurus allowed 3 hits and a walk, as his ERA jumped to 4.61. I still have faith in the 27-year-old, who has a bright future.

We only managed 5 hits, 1 a piece for 5 hitters. Bryan Holaday and Justin Bour accounted for all 3 runs with a homer each (Bour was a 2-run shot). Bour is now just 2 back of Carlos Santana's 23 homers for the NL lead. Remember Scott Schebler when he was crushing everything? He's got only 21 homers now as well. I've mulled picking him up in fantasy baseball, and I probably will if Steven Souza Jr. heads to the DL.

June 26th, 2018: Game 2 saw Ordismer Despaigne (2-6, 3.94 ERA, 1.30 WHIP) take on Zach Godley (5-4, 3.42 ERA, 1.23 WHIP). We hit Godley hard last time we faced him, but he picked up the win. Bour hit 2 homers off him. I guess we did hit him, but we lost 7-2. Bour did hit a homer, number 22 on the year.

Despaigne, now 2-7, allowed 3 runs in 4.2 innings. He allowed just 4 hits, but he walked and struck out 5. Enny Romero, Brian Ellington, and the formerly good Heath Hembree all allowed runs. Hembree gave up 3 hits and didn't get an out. That hamstring injury killed him, I miss the guy who didn't give up runs. Now he's the guys who didn't get outs.

Bour and Rojas picked up 2 hits a piece, and Rafael Ortega hit his 2nd triple of the year. Hernan Perez made his 3rd error of the year, which cost Romero a run. Was another sweep in the works?

June 27th, 2018: Shelby Miller (1-0, 1.80 ERA, 2.60 WHIP) was out for revenge against his former team and teammate Zack Greinke (4-7, 6.28 ERA, 1.58 WHIP). Grienkie hasn't been this bad since he was 21 and pitching for the Royals in 2005 (5-17, 5.80 ERA, 1.56 WHIP), and it's still better then this year.

But hey, when you play the Marlins, everything is different! Greinke allowed just 2 hits in 6.1 innings with a walk and 3 strike outs.

Miller pitched fine in the 4-2 defeat. He went 6, allowed 4 runs, but only half were earned. He struck out 7 and walked 1. The pen was solid, finishing the game without allowing a run. Miguel Rojas was charged with the error that let 2 runs in. I think J.J. Hardy could get the start at SS tommorow in the series finale.

The only hits went to Martin Prado and J.T. Realmuto. Lane Adams did get on base, and stole base #20.

June 28th, 2018: The Dodgers wanted lefty Brian Johnson, and offered me Will D. Smith (the catcher, not actor). Smith doesn't suck, but Johnson has a lot of team control left and he's pretty cheap.

Let's try to avoid the sweep! With Hardy at SS making his Marlins debut, Adam Conley (2-6, 5.27 ERA, 1.51 WHIP) toed the rubber against Patrick Corbin (5-3, 3.69 ERA, 1.27 WHIP). Corbin has the numbers, but Conley won a game against the Snakes earlier in the season.

Hardy showed gold glove defense, turning a slick double play, but Bryan Holaday didn't. The catcher made 2 erros, leading to 5 unearned runs charged to Conley. We lost 6-2, but should've won 2-1 (Jorge De La Rosa allowed a run).

Conley, now 2-7 as well, did allow 7 hits and 3 walks, but who knows how many of those shouldn't have happened in his 3.2 innings of work. He did strike out 4.

Back to Hardy, he wen't 1-for-3 and scored, chalk one more win to my managerial record. We only had 4 hits, and all the runs were courtesy of Hernan Perez's 8th inning 2-run shot off the tired Patrick Corbin. That was his last batter of the game after reaching the centruy mark in pitch count. Nothing beats a 4 game sweep at home right?

Charlie Blackmon's hitting streak is now 25 after a 1-for-4 outing aginst the Giants in a 7-5 Rockie win.

Looking ahead, we had 6 more games at home before hitting the road again. 3 against the division rival Mets and then 3 against the in-state rival Tampa Bay Rays. We'd also have the International FA Signing open on the 2nd of July, and the 4th was the draft pick signing deadline. I had all my players taken care of, leaving 9 guys unsigned. I expected to sign a bunch less, but I did like the pool enough.

We were looking at Marcos Molina (2-3, 6.10 ERA), Matt Harvey (5-6, 3.44 ERA), and Noah Syndergaard (5-7, 3.83 ERA), who should still be a Blue Jay...

Instead of crying myself to sleep after 6 straight losses, I shopped Martin Prado. I'll just blame all the losses on him. But maybe that's why no one wants him... I decided to waive him (but keep him on the roster) and hope for the best.

[ayaghmour2]

June 29th, 2018: Cameron Maybin was ready to start rehab, so I sent him to A Greensboro. He was having a decent year, slashing .245/.310/.418 with 7 HR's, 17 RBI's, and 13 steals. He'd play LF and bat 3rd for the Grasshoppers.

Got the midseason review of goals and expiring personnel info, and he's dissapointed in our record, but is ecstatic with me, so I'll take what I can get.

I had a bunch of minor league coaches to extend. I kept everyone that was willing to stick with their club. A bunch of former players were staffing the rosters.

On to the opener against the Mets, we looked to stop this 6 game skid and sent Dan Straily (3-8, 5.45 ERA, 1.42 WHIP) against rookie Marcos Molina (2-3, 6.10 ERA, 1.41 WHIP). The game went 11 innings, but we were topped 4-3. Drew Steckenrider picked up the loss, allowing a run in his 2nd inning of work.

Straily had a solid game, going 6.1 innings, walking 2, allowing 7 hits and 3 runs, and striking out a pair of Mets. We hit a bunch of doubles, courtesy of Justin Bour (12), Miguel Rojas (15), Heran Perez (9), and two from Rafael Ortega (7 and 8). Starlin Castro hit his first triple and Perez hit his 3rd homer. Brandon Guyer picked up his first steal of the season.

Perez lead the way with 3 hits, Ortega got the silver medal with 2, and 5 others picked up a single hit. Ortega, Bour and Perez were credited with RBI's.

June 30th, 2018: On the last day of June, the Rockies started the day by offering me CF Omar Carrizales for Steceksaurus. Assistant GM Michael Hill thought it was worth accepting, but I didn't see the value in Carrizales. He's like the worse version of Braxton Lee, and I really liked Steceksaurus. I declined politely.

David Price and Tyler Naquin's seasons both ended today. Price has a damage elbow ligament and the now Mariner Naquin ruptured his achilles tendon. Acquired in the Nelson Cruz deal, he was hitting .270 with 2 hoemrs and 19 RBI's in Seattle.

It's been 7 losses in a row and now we had to deal with the Dark Knight Matt Harvey (5-6, 3.44 ERA, 1.30 WHIP). He faced southpaw and hitting superstar Brian Johnson (6-7, 4.25 ERA, 1.41 WHIP, .321 AVG, .978 OPS, 1 HR, 5 RBI's).

Neither starter got the decision, as the game was 5-5 when the 9th ended. Johnson went 6, allowed 7 hits, 3 runs (1 earned), and struck out 4. He finally finished the 6th. Harvey didn't, allowing 3 in 5 off 8 hits and a walk. He struck out 4 Fish hitters. The bottom of the 9th ended with J.T. Realmuto hitting into a double play. It would've been nice to walkoff Paul Swald.

Brian Ellington was out for the 10th after a nice 9th, but he allowed 2 Mets to score before finishing the 10th. Down 7-5, Jerry Blevins came in for the save. He allowed a run, but got pinch hitter Johnny Giovatella to ground into a double play to end the game. Wow. 2 straight innings when we could've won.

The losing streak reached 8. Castro had 3 hits, and Prado, Ortega, and Adams had 2, but it wasn't enough. We had 14 hits split between the starting 8 and Brandon Guyer. Guyer hit a pinch hit homer, and Justin Bour hit a 1 out solo shot, giving him 23 on the year. Adams and Castro doubled, while Miguel Rojas stole his 1st base of the year. Our problem though, was errors. Bour, Adams, and Ortega all errored, and we had 2 unearned runs early. Too bad we couldn't make the plays, or we would've won 5-3. Oh well, we had to look to avoid another sweep.

July 1st, 2018: July began, signaling the beginning of trade season. David Dahl of the rockies tore his posterior cruciate ligament, and will miss the rest of the year. The 24-year-old missed all of last year except a few minor league rehab appearences, and now will finish 2018. He was hitting .287/.351/.488 with 12 homers and 28 RBI's.

Odrisamer Despaigne (2-7, 4.07 ERA, 1.34 WHIP) was hoping to prevent a sweep, but had to face the Greek God Thor (5-7, 3.83 ERA, 1.20 WHIP). Noah Syndergaard is an amazing pitcher that already pitched a gem against us earlier in the year.

A lot of hits were allowed, but Despaigne went 5 strong enough, allowing no runs, but 7 hits. He walked and struck out a pair. He picked up the win in a nice 5-1 victory. But don't think we hit Syndergaard at all. Thor left the game in the 1st with an injury, and the Mets curse took another, former Marlin A.J. Ramos from the game with an injury. Turns out both were just DTD, and will only cost them 1 more game.

Jorge De La Rosa (3) and Nick Wittgren (11) picked up holds, but Heath Hembree finished off the game since it was now 5-0. He allowed a solo shot to Jose Reyes, but that was the lone blemish. Miguel Rojas and Starlin Castro both reorded 3 hits. Rojas scored 3 times and drove in 2 with a walk and a double. Castro doubled as well, driving in just 1. Rafael Ortega was the only other hitter with more then 1, but we had 11 as a team.

The Dodgers ended Charlie Blackmon's hit streak in a 7-2 victory at 27 games. The pitcher to do it? You guessed it, Clayton Kershaw.

Remember J.P. Gates? I drafted him 70th overall in the 2nd round this year, and in start #3 he no-hit the Tigers GCL team in a 9-0 victory. Gates walked 3, struck out 7, got 10 groundball outs, and 10 fly ball outs. Pretty good way to start his minor league career. I'm starting to use him as a two-way player, as he has 2* potential at 1B too. He will start there on off days now too.

Martin Prado cleared waivers, but for some reason the Mariners grabbed Chase Utley instead.

July 2nd, 2018: International pool was published, and there were a few solid guys split $5,000,000 for. 16-year-old Carlos Aguilar (4*) got a $2,200,000 offer, $490,000 went to RF Saverio Viccio (3), who is Venezuelan and Italian. Mexican Juan Valenzuela (3) got $1,000,000, and the rest would be saved for now.

OSA thinks 16-year-old Venezuelan Luis Alvarado (3) was the best of the bench. He had a cannon, could play all 3 outfield spots, and had insane power (93). He even had solid speed. His faults? 45 power potential and 12 avoid K's potential. He'd strike out a ton. He wants an even $3 million.

The White Sox lost young lefty Carlos Rodon for the year with a rotator cuff tear. Another big injury for the fragile Carlos Rodon, he's never been able to show his true potential.

We moved up to 29th, passing the White Sox in the power rankings. We were actually tied with the Rays at 28th, who we are playing today.

The Dodgers sent C Austin Barnes and minor league LF Starling Heredia to the Indians for RHP Danny Salazar. Salazar, the headliner, is a nice 3* pitcher who can fill in with the Rich Hill injury suffered earlier this year. Barnes is a 3* catcher, and Heredia (1.5), a Dominican throw in makes this a seemingly good deal for both teams.

Anyways, our best pitcher Shelby Miller (1-1, 2.45 ERA, 1.82 WHIP) faced the Rays best pitcher Chris Archer (3-6, 3.28 ERA, 1.13 WHIP) to start this interleague Florida rivalry game. Miller didn't have a great game, allowing 8 in 3.2 innings, and the Rays took the opener 9-2. Archer took it the distance, but we managed 9 hits off him. A Justin Bour error gave Enny Romero the final run of the game, although it was unearned.

Our 1-2-3 hitters Ortega-Rojas-Castro went 7-for-15, with 2 runs scored, 2 RBI's, and a triple (Miguel Rojas). The rest of the team was only 2-22 with 2 walks (Realmuto and Guyer). The angry Prado and Hernan Perez recieved the hits.

July 3rd, 2018: The middle of the game feature two struggling lefties, Blake Snell (1-7, 5.29 ERA, 1.51 WHIP) and Adam Conley (2-7, 5.04 ERA, 1.56 WHIP). I tried something different, playing J.J. Hardy at 2B. He only has a 3 rating there, but he's a great SS so I wanted to try to develop him some versatility. He went 0-for-3, so maybe not the best move, but Starlin Castro was tired. He did pinch hit, going 1-for-1.

Both starters were great, allwing only a run a piece. Snell went 6, Conley went 7. Neither got a decision as the game became tied in the 7th on a Brad Miller RBI single. Drew Steckenrider pitched a scorless, yet scary top of the 9th, almost ensuring extra innings. He did strike out the side, but allowed 2 hits. Daniel Hudson had the 9th for the Rays, and he faced some trouble with 2 base hits. With 2 outs, he had Rafael Ortega with a runner in scoring position. Ortega was 2-for-3 with a double in the game, so he wasn't an easy out. Ortega singled home Derek Dietrich, who came off the bench for Prado, and the Marlins walked off 2-1! Only 6,733 people got to see it...

Ortega, now hitting .355 drove in his 16th run of the season. Lane Adams, who was also on base, went 2-for-5 with a solo home run to start the bottom of the 1st. It was a nice, much needed, win.

July 4th, 2018: Today was the draft pick signing deadline. Today would be the last day Ethan Hankins was a part of the Marlins. I had to give Aguilar and Valenzuela wage boosts to keep the from signing elsewhere.

The Yankees offered me Estevan Florial, so I offered Martin Prado back. Maybe they'd want him back? They didn't...

On to the rubber match, we sent Dan Straily to the mound (3-8, 5.36 ERA, 1.42 WHIP) to face off against Jacob Faria (5-6, 4.26 ERA, 1.42 WHIP). Castro is still tired because he keeps coming in as a pinch hitter. I benched him to make sure. After 7 scorless innings, it looked like the game would never end.

Straily left after 6.1, allowing 6 hits, walking 3, and striking out 6. Faria was on for the 8th, but left after putting a runner on to lead off the inning. He left with only 2 hits allowed. The walk to pinch hitter and ex-Ray Brandon Guyer scored on a 2 run single by Hernan Perez off Chaz Roe. Each pitcher got a run charged. Roe left the game, and Colome allowed no more base runners, which took us to the top of the 9th.

Stecekesaurus was tired, so Kevin Chapman would attempt the save in a 2-0 game. He allowed a walk, but didn't allow the runner to score, earning his 2nd save of the season. We won 2-0 with just 3 hits.

It was a nice series win, and we were now off to Washington for 4, then back home for 3 with the Brewers, and then an off day.

I brought Maybin back to the roster and designated Johnny Giovatella for assignment. Maybin went back to CF, moving the red hot Ortega to the bench.

Giavotella only hit .163/.234/.256, and J.J. Hardy was a much better defender. I shopped Giovatella to see if I could get anything for him before possibly losing him, and got a few offers. I wanted RP Brandon Maurer, but I didn't want to take his salary. So I took the Padres offer. They were letting me have LF Alex Dickerson, who was optionable. Dickerson was added to the 40, and sent down to AAA New Orleans. He was hitting .213/.245/.436 in 49 games in the majors. In real life, he got hurt and will start the season on the DL.

Below are a few useful images to show the progress of the rebuild.

[ayaghmour2]

July 5th, 2018: I officially recieved the 13th pick of next years draft in exchange for not signing Ethan Hankins. He rather go to Kennesaw State. KENNESAW STATE!?!? Not Florida, Not Vanderbuilt, but KENNESAW STATE!?!? I guess he really wanted to stay in Gerogia. OOTP finally got draft eligibility right, and he'll be eligible for the 2021 draft, not next year. He will have to spend 3 years in college just like in real life. Here's the rest of the unsigned guys, and where they will attend

6th Round: CF Tim Ball (Bradley)
14th Round: C Erik Hoyer (UCLA)
20th Round: SP Jimmy Jones (Wichita State)
23rd Round: SS Tim Hubbell (Long Beach State)
24th Round: C Kevin Roberts (Clemson)
27th Round: SP Dominic Pipkin (California)
29th Rouund: RP Bradley Spooner (Long Beach State)
32nd Round: 2B J.D. Douglas (Texas)

All these guys will be in the Class of 2021 except Douglas, who will be back in 2019. I'm assuming this Texas is a Junior College, not the University. I'm really glad OOTP got the eligibility rules accurate now.

Other notable non-signees
1st Round, 3rd Overall (PHI): 1B Damani Cephus (Will attend South Alabama, with the the later mention Swaggerty, and will be eligible for the 2021 draft)
1st Round, 14th Overall (SEA): SP Ryan Rolison (Returns to Mississippi for Senior Year)
1st Round, 19th Overall (STL): SP Igone Perfect (Will attend Missouri and then be eligible for draft in 2021)
1st Round, 21st Overall (MIL): 3B Nick Northcut (Will attend Xavier, and be eligible for the 2021 draft)
1st Round, 24th Overall (CHC): SS Danny Schwind (Will attend Pepperdine and be eligible for redraft in 2021)
1st Round, 33rd Overall (KCR): CF Travis Swaggerty (Returns to South Alabama for Senior year)
1st Round, 41st Overall (COL): SP Dallas Woolfolk (Like teammate Ryan Rolison, returns to Mississippi for senior year)
2nd Round, 46th Overall (CIN): RF Nicholas Schnell (Will attend Purdue for a season, then return to the draft next year, so not a perfect system)
2nd Round, 47th Overall (NYM): RP Durbin Feltman (Valued his arm, returned to TCU for his senior year)
2nd Round, 63rd Overall (CHC): RF Steele Walker (Will return to Oklahoma for his Senior season)
3rd Round, 102nd Overall (COL): SP Josiah Gray (Will return to Le Moyne and be eligible for the next draft)
3rd Round, 108th Overall (HOU): SP Andy Hodges (Will attend Dallas Baptist, a JUCO, and be eligible for next years draft)

All of these teams will recieve the pick next year that is 1 behind the draft spot (3rd becomes 4th overall). A lot of guys didn't sign, lots of extra picks will be in next years draft.

Griffin Conine, Jeff's son, will return to Duke for his senior year. Maybe I can grab him next year. He was aa 4th round selection of the Angels.

My first international guy signed, RF Saverio Viccio (3). He agreed to a $490,000 bonus, very affordable.

The Mets offered me RF Jhoander Saez for Drew Steckenrider, but it was an easy decline. Saez wasn't anything special.

We arrived in the Nationals capital, and were ready to start 4 with the Nats. Brian Johnson (6-7, 4.07 ERA, 1.39 WHIP) was greeted by Tanner Roark (6-4, 5.49 ERA, 1.57 WHIP) who we faced earlier in the year. 17 hits and 13 runs later we fell 13-2.

Johnson struggled, allowing 9 runs (8 earned) in 3.1 innings. He gave up 10 hits and struck out just 2. He allowed 3 homers, but no walks. Jorge De La Rosa and Heath Hembree had the mop up duty. De La Rosa allowed 4 in 2, but Hembree thre 2.2 scoreless innings. No 5 hit games, but Ryan Zimmerman reieved 4. Anthony Rendon and Trea Turner had 3 a piece, 3 times as many as any Marlin.

Johnson picked up 1 of the 7 hits, but no Marlin had more then 1. Backup catcher Bryan Holaday tripled in a game where J.T. Realmuto needed rest. Lane Agams hit his 7th home run, and the usually sure handed J.J. Hardy had a rare error.

July 6th, 2018: Carlos Aguilar and Juan Valenzuela wanted pay bumps again. I just snuck it under my 5 million cap.

Game 2 saw Odrisamer Despaigne (3-7, 3.79 ERA, 1.37 WHIP) took on Jesse Chavez (1-2, 4.34 ERA, 1.18 WHIP). J.J. Hardy got his 1st ever start at 1B today.

Game 2 saw a lot of scoring, 15 runs for one team 7 for another. 22 hits for the winner, 11 for the loser. You'll never guess how the runs were scored.

Sean Doolittle wanted to finish off a 3 inning save in the 9th, but instead allowed 6 Marlins to score, giving Miami a 10-7 lead. It didn't end tehre. Matt Wieters, the catcher, had to come into the game since all other relievers were used or exhausted, and allowed 5 more runs in the 15-7 Miami victory.

Our bullpen was much better, allowing no runs in 7 innings and only allowed 1 hit, a single in the 9th off Kevin Chapman. Despaigne, however, allowed 10 hits and 7 runs in just 2 innings. He walked 3 Nats and only struck out 1. Offensively, all 8 starters and pinch hitter Bryan Holaday had base hits.

You'll never guess who had the game of his life? LA Swiftness went a perfect 5-for-5 with a run scored, a walk, and 4 driven in. All 5 of his hits were singles, but he stole 2 bases. Realmuto stole one as well. We only had 2 extra base hits, A bases clearing double in the 9th by J.J. Hardy and a solo homer by Cameron Maybin in the 3rd. We had 20 singles, including 10 in the 9th. Here's the hit totals for the rest of the guys: Maybin (2), Rojas (3), Castro (4), Dietrich (2), Realmuto (2), Prado (1), Hardy (2). It was a crazy game, and Csaatro was the only starter without an RBI, despite his 4 hits (he did score 3 times). Maybin (1), Rojas (1), Dietrich (1), Realmuto (2), Prado (1), Adams (4), Hardy (2), and pinch hitter Holaday (2) all had RBI's.

This was definitely a wild game, and I had 3 new achievements waiting for me! "In the Wheelhouse" for Lane Adams' 5 hit game. "Double Digits" for putting up 11 in the 9th. The last, was "Slugfest" for scoring 15 runsin one game. This was one for the ages, and we now had a 30-60 record. When you put our win total, loss total, and game total into a triangle, we get a perfect 30-60-90 right triangle.

Back to Adams, he's only hitting .233/.314/.363 on the season now. A lot better then the mendoza line he was hovering around, but it shows how much of a fluke this amazing game was.

July 7th, 2018: Who knows what today would bring, other then Shelby Miller (1-2, 6.75 ERA, 2.11 WHIP) and lefty Gio Gonzalez (5-5, 3.98 ERA, 1.43 WHIP). Hopefully, more of yesterday. We had an all righty line up, don't know why Bour sat again. Turns out he's tired and keeps pinch hitting. I'll have to fix that.

Today was a lot different, but we did have 10 hits. Too bad it was only 1 run. Even worse, they had 3 hits, but 3 runs thanks to a Matt Adams 3 run shot in the 4th.

Miller went 6 and allowed just 2 hits and a walk. He allowed 3 runs, but struck out 7. Martin Prado and Brandon Guyer were the only starters who didn't get a hit (even Miller got a hit), but Guyer droce in a run. Maybin, Rojas, and Hardy had 2 a piece. Maybin hit his 12th double and Castro hit his 16th.

To fix the Bour situation, I selected "Never use as Pinch Hitter when tired" to help him rest and get back in the line up. Luckily, Hardy had been a good replacement.

July 8th, 2018: Carlos Aguilar wanted more money that I couldn't offer him. I might lose out on him.

The Padres are also interested in Steckenrider, but I rejected their offer. A.J. Preller was willing to part way with LF Rod Boykin. I don't blame him, he sucks. Just a half star scrub who will never play in the majors.

Castro keeps his lead in the All Star race. Poor Justin Bour gets no love, since the 1B position is so strong.

We looked to come away with a split, and faced Eeric Fedde (2-5, 6.90 ERA, 1.71 WHIP) so it seamed doable. We trotted out Adam Conley (2-7, 4.75 ERA, 1.48 WHIP). This should be Bour's last off day.

Conley went 6 strong allowing just a single run, and hit Fedde enough for him to allow 3 in 7, although 2 were unearned. Nick Wittgren grabbed a 2 inning hold, and Steceksaurus shut the door in the 9th to earn save 17. We picked up a 3-1, and split the 4 game road series against Washington.

GUESS WHO PINCH HIT TODAY... JUSTIN BOUR! Come on OOTP, he needs rest. He did get a hit and drove in a run, but still, he needs his rest so he can start.

Don't know why he keeps pinch hitting, it's said for him not to.

We returned home, and got ready to face the NL Central Brewers. 2018 wasn't kind to them either, as they were 38-52 and 23.5 out in 4th place. We'd get to welcome Christian Yelich home, and he got a nice thank you video waiting for him to make his first at bat.

We were looking at Yovani Gallardo (6-5, 3.70 ERA), Jimmy Nelson (0-0, 2.08 ERA), and Jhoulys Chacin (3-10, 6.59). All were righties, so Bour rested would have been nice.

July 9th, 2018: I signed 3 star second basemen Juan Valenzuela to a $1,850,000 bonus. I went back to re-invest the remaining $2,660,000 that were intended for Aguilar, who wanted too much. Dominican OF Mauro Bonifacio recieved $770,000 and fellow countrymen and OF Ignacio Apodaca recieved $810,000 offers. Neither guys were impact makers, but they had upside, and were able to play in the DSL.

I had to manually bench Justin Bour so he could return to 100% rest.

Everyone wants Drew Steckenrider, and the Pirates offered me the useless 25-year-old Chris Bostick. They must've forgot he's no longer a top prospect.

Power rankins, we were tied at 28th with the Royals with a 61.7 rating.

Dan Straily (3-8, 4.99 ERA, 1.42 WHIP) hosted Yovani Gallardo (6-5, 3.70 ERA, 1.37 WHIP). Hardy, who now has 10 rating at 1B, shockingly hit 4th. We opened off the series with a 7-2 loss.

Straily struggled, allowing 6 runs (5 earned) off 7 hits and 2 walks in 5 innings. He struck out just 3 of the Brew Crew batters. Brian Ellington allowed the final run in the 7th, but struck out the side. We were outhit 11-3.

Pinch hitter Lane Adams, Hernan Perez, and Derek Dietrich had the only hits. Perez hit a solo shot, and Dietrich droce in Starlin Castro with a single. Castro was the culprit of the error.

Christian Yelich went 3-for-5 in his return to Marlins park. He had double number 22 and a pair of RBI's.

July 10th, 2018: For game two, southpaw Brian Johnson (6-8, 4.69 ERA, 1.45 WHIP) looked to bounce back from a rough outing against Jimmy Nelson (0-0, 2.08, 1.85 WHIP) who was making his 2nd start of the year. Bour was rested and back in the lineup.

Johnson went 6.1 innings, allowing 7 hits and 3 runs and recieved a no decision. He walked 1 and struck out 3, and the rest of the pen allowed zero runs. We got 4 off Oliver Drake, 3 in the 7th, 1 in the 8th, and pulled off a 7-3 series evening win, forcing a rubber match tommorow. Steckesaurus, popular in trade proposal, converted save number 18.

J.J. Hardy was at short, but left with an injury. He was 1-for-2 in the game before getting hurt on the base paths. Cameron Maybin doubled in a 3-for-4 game that saw him touch home twice. He also walked in a really solid performance. Castro and Realmuto both had a pair of hits. Castro sscored a run and drove one in, while Realmuto cleared the bases in the 7th with a double and score a run in the 8th. Hernan Perez, who reaplced Hardy at SS, went 2-for-2 with 2 RBI's in the 6th with 2 outs. Nick Wittgren earned the win, now 2-1.

Hardy was diagnosed with a hand contusion, and should be back in 5 days at most. He didn't head to the DL.

Former Marlin slugged his 300th career homer against the Orioles as the Yanks topped the O's 8-6. He's slugged 33 on the year, 2 more then the Red Sox J.D. Martinez for most in the AL and the MLB. He's only hitting .231, but his slugging percentage is an excellent .561.

July 11th, 2018: Carlos Aguilar signed a deal with the Angels, paying a $3,040,000 bonus. I had to increase my offer to Ignacio Apodaca.

We looked to win the home series, sending Odrisamer Despaigne (3-7, 4.48 ERA, 1.49 WHIP) to face Jhoulys Chacin (3-10, 6.59 ERA, 1.65 WHIP). We could do this. Or maybe not. Maybe we'd lose 8-2, despite outhitting the Brewers 13-11. 2 errors hurt, but didn't lead to runs.

In the 8-2 loss, Despaigne only lasted 4 and a third, allowing 8 hits and 6 runs while walking and striking out 3. Heath Hembree allowed 2 runs in the 8th, but by then we knew the game was lost. Lane Adams and Miguel Rojas were the error culprits. J.T. Realmuto hit well, going 3-for-4 and scoring twice while also doubling. Maybin, Rojas, and Adams had 2 hits a piece, with Adams the only one to not double. Adams and Prado drove in Realmuto. Reliever Jorge De La Rosa had a hit as well. The former starter had a few of those in Coors Field earlier in his career.

With the off day tommorow, I'd tried to put together a few deals.

July 12th, 2018: LF Mauro Bonifacio inked a $770,000 bonus to become the 3rd in this years international class for Mimai. He's got solid hitting skills, and can be a decent corner guy. He's a big guy who can develop more pure power, but his future is as the right handed hitting side of the platoon.

Another offer for Steckenrider, the Cardinals offered a 22-year-old elite defender in RF Scott Hurst. He's got blazing speed and a cannon, but isn't much of a hitter. He'll give great defense at all 3 spots, with RF being the most comftorable. Maybe they'd give me him for Prado? Didn't work, as expected...

I started my day by shopping SP Wei-Yin Chen. his rehab was going well, 1-0 in 17.1 innings with a 2.08 ERA, and 1.04 WHIP, but he was expensive. 10 million this year, followed by 20, 22, and then a 16 million dollar option. Yikes. That's going to be annoying to deal with next year. As expected, no offers.

Next guy to be shopped was OF Brandon Guyer. He's been a solid 4th OF since coming from Cleveland in a waiver claim, but I would like to see what's available for him. Best offer came from the Rays, offering 24-year-old Yonny Chirinos. He was a decent SP, but had trouble in Tampa this year. He was 4-8 with a 7.11 ERA and 1.58 WHIP. He's got 3 pitches and amazing control (89/95). His ceiling looks like a solid #4 or #5 guys, but may just become a spot starter. I was able to move Guyer back to Tampa for Chirinos and AA CF Nathan Lukes. The brand new 24 year old isn't the best, but he's a solid defensive outfielder at all 3 spots, and is a niec lottery ticket addition. He was the Indians 7th rounder back in 2015.

Finally, I shopped Odrisamer Despaigne around, since he got a lot of asks earlier in the year. I got a ton of options to choose from for him.

Highlights: Toronto offered CF Anthony Alford (1.5/2.5) or RF Teoscar Hernandez (2/2.5). As a Blue Jay fan, I was familiar and big fans of both guys. Atlanta offered RP Zack Petrick (2.5). San Diego offered SP Luis D. Pedromo (2).

I tried Alford and Hernandez, and Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins said he'd think about it. This could be a big steal. To fix the roster situation, I brought Jarlin the Marlin back. Garcia, 25, had a 1-0 record, a 3.57 ERA with 2 saves and 21 strike outs in 17.2 innings in AAA and was 0-2 with a 4.50 ERA, a save, and 10 strike outs in as minning innings in the majors, along with a 1.00 WHIP.

We were able to stay home, and had just 1 series before the All Star break. We'd host the 1st place Phillies (57-35) for three, who were 26.5 games ahead of us in last (32-63). We would see Mark Leiter Jr. (1-2, 3.10 ERA), Aaron Nola (8-6, 4.03 ERA), and Jake Arrieta (8-4, 4.34 ERA).

On July 15th the All Star Game rosters were announced, and the All Sar Game was July 17th. After that, our next game was in Tampa on the 20th. Alex Cobb could be back after the All Star Break, but would likely start rehab first.